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Posted: 12/26/2005 5:58:36 PM EDT
I figured JimTh would have posted by now, but he's probably in bed snoozing.

JimTh picked me up at 7:00 AM this morning and returned me to my home 10 hours later. We spent the entire day on the Crane base pursuing coyotes with shotguns and his electronic caller. Saw quite a few deer, but no coyotes.

On the next to last stand, we had a bobcat come in to the call at 3:30 PM. It slinked down the hill past me and came to a stop on a log 11 steps from Jim. It eventually started to move again, and when Jim went to reposition himself for another view, it spooked and ran right up the hill to me. It never saw me and just continued on past and out of sight. Needless to say, that was the highlight of our day.

Just thought I'd share.
Link Posted: 12/26/2005 6:00:52 PM EDT
[#1]
That's pretty cool. I've never seen one in Indiana. For a second there I thought your post was going to be about BOBCAT WEAPONS!
Link Posted: 12/26/2005 7:07:33 PM EDT
[#2]
Awesome.  
Link Posted: 12/26/2005 7:31:40 PM EDT
[#3]
Thats awesome.
I haven't seen one since I was about 15. Hopefully I'll see one in the wild again one day.
Link Posted: 12/27/2005 1:20:29 AM EDT
[#4]
Seen a few lately around home , too bad you didnt see the bigger cat that DNR says doesnt exist in this State.
Link Posted: 12/27/2005 3:48:58 AM EDT
[#5]
I almost hit one with my car last week over by Leesville!  It was quite a good sized one too!
Link Posted: 12/27/2005 5:17:23 AM EDT
[#6]

Quoted:
Seen a few lately around home , too bad you didnt see the bigger cat that DNR says doesnt exist in his State.



Could you expand on this please?  Same thing going on here in IL.  I've never seen one but I know of at least 3-4 people who have, all knowledgeable about the outdoors and all guys who hunt.  I've heard they are cougars, panthers, or "brush cats".  The common denominator that I keep hearing about is a very distinct tail.
Link Posted: 12/27/2005 5:56:58 AM EDT
[#7]
Very cool, M4.

My uncle had two bobcats living in the hayloft of a barn that he owned in a very remote area.  We got to see them a couple times.
Link Posted: 12/27/2005 6:45:29 PM EDT
[#8]

Quoted:

We spent the entire day on the Crane base pursuing coyotes with shotguns and his electronic caller.




Dude!  Why shotguns and not ARs?

Link Posted: 12/27/2005 11:04:57 PM EDT
[#9]
For those of you that don't know I work at Police/Sherif/Fire/911 Dispatch in E'ville.   With you guys talkin' about the "big cats" it reminded me of a few calls we've gotten in here.  Residents in Nothern and Western Vanderbugh County probably call in twice a year reporting that they've seen a VERY large cat in their yard, at the edge of their woods, in their field, etc.  I've only been here five years, but I've taken two of the calls.  Usually the home owner reports their pet is outside "going crazy" and when they step outside to look, they see a large dark colored cat.  Everyone always comments about their eyes.....like how they shine yellow in the night light....Then they say it pounces away out of sight.

Both of my calls were at night.....one of them was near the zoo.  Just as a precaution we had a patrol officer check the area....he didn't find anything.  But even after he talked wtih the home owner, he was convinced the home owner really believed that they saw something.  He had us calling the Zoo staff at 3AM to wake them up and have them confirm that no large cats or anything like that had escaped.  

Anyway...kinda weird.  We take these calls in here a couple of times a year and never verify anything.....but everyone keeps saying there's something out there we haven't really seen.  Who knows.....

Oh wait....while talking about this just now, one of the other dispatchers just said they heard that back in the mid/late-90's some guy out in eastern Posey County used to have some large, dark colored cat as a pet.  She wasn't sure if its Puma or what......but said she heard it was kept in a large fenced in cage with a chain leash....but that one night it escaped.  

I wonder.....
Link Posted: 12/27/2005 11:42:53 PM EDT
[#10]
All kinds of new critters gettin round! Abuddy i work with pulled a 40# badger out from under his dad's house last week. Looped a noose around it and couldn't move with a come-along, had to pull it out with the truck. They didn't know what they had, they shot it as it came out of the hole, then had to call the CO because they are endangered I guess. I only saw a picture on his phone but it was good sized!!
Link Posted: 12/28/2005 4:43:44 AM EDT
[#11]

Quoted:
Seen a few lately around home , too bad you didnt see the bigger cat that DNR says doesnt exist in this State.


You mean the one that was attacking horses north of Indy a few years ago?

They never caught that one either.
Link Posted: 12/28/2005 10:19:25 AM EDT
[#12]
Oops, guess I'm a bit late to this party!  
Shotguns because that's all they allow on base.  I have an AR built for predators that I use elsewhere.  Honestly, at close range, a shotgun is 10x worse than an AR.  I shoot 3" 4 buck which equates to 41 .24" pellets going down range.  The two yotes that I've killed with that load were hit with 20+ pellets each.  That's what I call DRT.
It was definitely cool seeing one in the wild.  I'd guess I got to stare at him for a good minute while he was looking at me, looking at the caller, looking at his escape route up the hill.  He finally turned and started slinking up the hill.  I leaned over and rustled my coat a bit and he heard me, stopped, looked at me, then went into a trot.  I leaned over further and snapped a tiny twig and he went off at full speed up the hill.  (I had to lean over to look around the tree and behind me.)

M4M, I just talked to the Nat. Res. guy on base and he said another pair of hunters had struck out on base also.  Hopefully I'll get healthy and we'll get 3-4 inches of snow on a Friday so we can go hit it hard again and track some.  One great thing about snow would be we could tell if they downwinded us and cut our tracks.


Quoted:

Quoted:

We spent the entire day on the Crane base pursuing coyotes with shotguns and his electronic caller.




Dude!  Why shotguns and not ARs?


Link Posted: 12/28/2005 5:26:32 PM EDT
[#13]
 They say there are "big cats" here in NW Ohio too...  I personally have never seen one but, the people around me swear they live right here.  I have heard it all:  Cows missing, "yup I shot at it",  "their stalking little kids", "I watched it run thru your back yard".  
 
 Now, I have a bunch of goobers runnin around trying to hunt them   Now i'm not much of a "big game" hunter but, I know enought not to piss off something that can climb trees, and out run a person.  I personally would rather sit back with the .308 and do it that way.  Until I see one, I call it an urban legand.

 And yes there are Bob cats around here too...

Weazer  
Link Posted: 12/28/2005 5:48:54 PM EDT
[#14]
Saw one dead along I-74 SE of Greensburg a few years back.  I live in SE IN in Milan and have personally seen paw print in a friends woods and they say they have seen a large cat in their woods a few times.  See a coyote every now and then but a man live trapped most of them and released them into a reserve or somthin in Kentucky so some rich people could hunt them.  Very few of them around now.  Have a few local red foxes.  Because of this I am always armed when on foot in my woods.  You never know, plus its a good excuse to do some shootin.
Link Posted: 12/28/2005 7:01:56 PM EDT
[#15]

Quoted:

Quoted:
Seen a few lately around home , too bad you didnt see the bigger cat that DNR says doesnt exist in this State.


You mean the one that was attacking horses north of Indy a few years ago?

They never caught that one either.



I guess that depends on how much territory they roam. Isnt there a guy upstate with a large wild/exotic cat rescue?
Link Posted: 12/29/2005 11:04:49 AM EDT
[#16]

Quoted:

Quoted:

Quoted:
Seen a few lately around home , too bad you didnt see the bigger cat that DNR says doesnt exist in this State.


You mean the one that was attacking horses north of Indy a few years ago?

They never caught that one either.



I guess that depends on how much territory they roam. Isnt there a guy upstate with a large wild/exotic cat rescue?


Never heard of it?

It is surprising how many people have 1 or 2 exotic cats in their barn or on the property etc... I haev no desire to live next to anyone with these cirtters on the property. Can you just imagine dragging the trash cans out one night or coming home late from work and you get the feeling you are being watched.  Oh, no big deal, it is just a 300lb plus Lion in the bushes.
Link Posted: 12/29/2005 1:13:09 PM EDT
[#17]

Quoted:
Isn't there a guy upstate with a large wild/exotic cat rescue?



Great Cats of Indiana in Idaville, IN

Exotic Feline Rescue Center in Center Point, IN
Link Posted: 1/3/2006 12:07:25 PM EDT
[#18]

Quoted:
Exotic Feline Rescue Center in Center Point, IN


I've been past this one.  Never knew it was there until I saw an article in the paper about it.  So I drove down the road past it and except for the heavy-duty fence you'd hardly know it was there.  Can't see anything from the road.
Link Posted: 1/3/2006 3:45:10 PM EDT
[#19]
i hear and see coyotes and red foxes regularly here in nw IN. seen 1 bobcat in schererville last winter. ive lived in this state my whole life and have done alot of hunting never seen the above animals much, but in the past 5 years animal populations seem to be rebounding especially in the kankakee river areas.
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