Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Bobcats vs Turkeys, who wins?

I was sitting here at the computer this morning, occaisionally looking out the window at a group of turkeys feeding along the hedgerow. I was deep in thought while digesting one of the more "intelligent" threads on the fire when my daughter started yelling at me. Seems there was a bobcat stalking the turkeys. I started paying more attention to them and a second bobcat came out of the brush. I was expecting the turkeys to flush and leave the area, but they grouped up and ran toward the bobcats. At one time they nearly surrounded the cats on three sides. It didn't take long for the cats to decide on cottontail for breakfast and they moved back into the brush. Guessing it must of been a young pair of bobcats.
Daughter managed to get a picture on her cellphone. It's not too clear since they were about 150 yards away.

I've watched a group of cow elk go after a couple of coyotes.

Ole,
Thank you for posting this! Very cool photo! I’m with you about the turkeys vacating the premises, but you learn something new everyday. A couple of buds of mine went deer hunting last week and saw a bobcat that was almost black. The dark spots on his back almost ran together. They got a cellphone pic of him but from the quality of it it might as well been a black lab or an angus calf.....

Thanks again!

Whoa, I thought turkeys would look up to see why water was hitting them on the head and drown.

Actually I have the utmost respect for what was almost America's national bird.

I've seen an albino skunk herd cattle.

I hunt them a lot with archery gear. Despite some saying they are smart//wary, I find them quite stupid.

LOL, I saw a doe deer bust out of a creek bottom chasing a coyote across a soybean field, BIG buck deer was chasing the doe, damndest thing I ever saw, that coyote had her pissed off for sure, and there I was sitting in a blowdown with a muzzle loader, they were 300 yards and running 40 MPH.

Turkeys weren’t taking any cshit.

Yesterday morning I watched a yearling heifer chase 6 deer out of my back pasture. No idea why she got the notion to do that.

A couple of years ago I set up in early summer to call coyotes down a power line right of way. Caller was ~100 yards away and I flipped on the screaming rabbit right as it was getting shooting light. 300 yards away I see what I thought was a coyote come busting out of the brush and running straight to the caller....2 more came out of the brush behind it. At first glance through the scope something didn't look right but it was low light, I only had a straight on view, and they were hauling....it turned out all 3 were does. They ran straight to the caller, circling and stamping their feet. They were pissed. I stopped the caller and they went away. The next two times I turned it on at least one doe came back. I guess they had fawns on the ground and were being protective.

I drive by a horse farm on the way to work every day and frequently see turkeys down on the roadside picking gravel. Came through one day, and this stupid turkey got all flustered at my truck coming towards it. It finally flew up and tried to land on the steel fence on the edge of the pasture. There was an old sway backed mare right on the other side of the fence, and when the turkey tried to land on the fence, it overshot it and ended up in the pasture with one very upset old horse right on it's tail. That crazy horse chased that turkey all the way across the pasture, hell bent on running it out of the field, or stomping it into a puddle of goo. The last I saw them, the turkey finally took flight and was headed for anywhere that horse couldn't get at it.

Twice when using fawn bleats I had aggressive does charge to the rescue.

If you liked the bobcat story this next one will impress you. It is old so apologies for poor quality.

WOW, cool stuff JCM, guess the most fun I've had was coyote hunting in a tree behind Wife's hen house with a suppressed 10/22, a pack of five dogs came in, I shot the lead dog, when he started flopping and crying the pack instantly turned on him and were tearing him limb from limb, I got bullets in three more before dog number five figured what was up and hooked, four coyotes dead within 40 yards of your tree is a good day on the farm at dusk thirty.

I occasionally see a big flock of turkeys that seem to inhabit a patch of woods next to an open field about a half mile down the road. I can't understand why the coyotes don't keep them thinned out more than they do. On cold, full moon nights around here it sounds like coyote central in the woods across the road. There's undoubtedly quite a few that hang around here.

Coyotes aren't great turkey hunters. On the other hand, bobcats are excellent turkey hunters.

Silly wabbit thinks its a Mongoose.

I've decided turkeys are highly variable in intelligence

I shot one turkey out of a group of 5 hens, and the uninjured birds took flight. The victim lay flopping on the ground, and so after 10-15 seconds, the other turkeys landed, and ran back to it, apparently forgetting the loud boom that made them take flight, wondering why it was flopping on the ground. If I'd had another tag I could have easily smoked another one

Then again, I've seen a hen leading a brood of chicks along a hillside. It was spring so she was not legal, and safe. But she apparently realized I was in the blind, about 200 yards away, and she stuck just her head out from behind a tree, so I had little or no shot. She froze in that position, watching my blind, for one hour, along with all the chicks then finally decided it was safe to lead them out, and then they all walked down and starting feeding 30 yards in front of me, for the rest of the morning.

As far as bobcats and yotes, I think if they can ambush a lone turkey, or a young one, the bird is toast. A group of birds, or a big tough experienced bird,

Caught this bobcat killing a turkey, in the front yard. Rio7

In the mid 70's hand calls and record & cassette tapes were called ''game calls'' - pretty easy to see why .