Bobcat Attacks Turkey Hunter

By Mike Erb

Dear GON,

Iʼm writing to tell you about an experience I had while turkey hunting this season. My dad, brother and myself hunt a small lease in Columbia County. We usually get one or two good birds a year, however, over the past three to four years, the birds have gotten to where they rarely gobble. Our best strategy is to find an area that the birds frequent, build a blind, set up decoys, and be patient. Iʼve taken several birds this way. However, they usually come in silent. Turkeys are not the only ones that come in quiet. Iʼve had foxes and coyotes attack my decoys.

On Saturday, April 14, about half an hour before daylight, I set up at a blind. At first light, I started calling. It wasnʼt but about 10 minutes before I heard leaves crunching softly behind me. I thought, ʻHere we go, another one coming in silent.ʼ About 15 minutes went by and I hadnʼt seen him yet.

The tree I was sitting against was narrow and my shoulders stuck out, so I didnʼt want to try to turn around for fear of spooking the turkey.

Then, I felt a stinging blow to my left shoulder. Startled, I turned my head and found myself eye-to-eye with an evidently hungry bobcat. The first thing to enter my mind was, ʻBoy, something bad is fixing to happen now!ʼ

From that point on, Iʼm not real sure who scared who the most. While rolling left and standing up, I reached over my shoulder and grabbed the cat by the back of the neck and slung him out across the ground. He was letting out a squall that I have no doubt wasnʼt half as loud as the one I was doing. He hit the ground running and never looked back. The whole thing probably didnʼt last more than 30 seconds, but the adrenalin rush was awesome.

I figure from the direction he was coming, he could see my decoys, and when he got right beside the tree I was sitting against, I moved slightly and he jumped on the movement. It was cool that morning, so I had on a sweatshirt, along with my turkey vest, which is a canvas-type material. His claws went through several layers to get to me.

I love turkey hunting and will continue to do so, but Iʼll bet thereʼs a bobcat out there who will think twice about trying for turkey dinner again.

Mike Erb, Evans

P.S.—When turkey hunting, put your back against a BIG tree.

Editorʼs Note: Mike is not the only Georgia hunter with bobcat tire tracks on his back. Mike Lister of Warner Robins was slapped on the back of his right shoulder while turkey hunting in Wilkinson County in 1999. On Crockford-Pigeon Mountain WMA in 1996, deer hunter Roger Morrison of Chickamauga was sitting against a tree when he looked up just in time to get walloped across the nose by a pouncing bobcat. In all of these cases, it appeared that the cat mistook small movements of the hunter for a turkey, squirrel or other small animal.

This photo shows the claw marks in Mike Erbʼs shoulder. The bobcatʼs claws penetrated a heavy canvas turkey vest and a sweatshirt, and then Mike.