The Thick Stuff

Last week I found myself down in southern Arizona hunting with my friend Brian. We were hunting in some very thick brush near a riverbed, and we had good success. By the end of the day we had called in two coyotes, killed one, and also called and killed a bobcat and two foxes. As is usually the case, the perceived safety of the thick brush made all the animals feel more comfortable about responding to the call, and also allowed us to hunt area that has probably not been called before.

We had busted through thick brush, crawled on our knees and taken a couple of branch hits to the face when we finally came upon an area with very limites shooting lanes. A small wash ran through the area, and we setup in the bend of it. I stood against a thick river bush facing down one approach and Brian sat behind me, facing the other approach. Our hope was that as an animal came into the stand it would cross an open area, which might only present us with a few seconds to shoot. 8 minutes into the stand our crawling and brush busting was rewarded as a large bobcat crossed about 20 yards in front of me, looking towards Brian and the source of the bird distress noises. I raised my shotgun and the large tom never saw me as 41 pellets of #4 buck slammed home. Here's my shooting lane and what I could see - the bobcat is lying just above my shotgun barrel under the brushline. (click the image to see a larger version)



Hunting the thick stuff will so often give you the opportunity to call to animals that may have never heard a predator call before, and allow those predators to approach from many "safety" areas. Shotguns are a necessity for this type of hunting.



On a warm day, it's really important to get the fur cooled down in an ice chest or to skin the animal before bacteria starts to form, which will make the fur "slip"; meaning that large amounts of hair will fall out and therefore ruin the pelt. Luckily there was a large tree next to the truck that made for a great improvised skinning post.