Many hunters ask me, how do you look for a good spot to call a cat, well here you are, this article is dedicated to this very

question, and for this article I will use my farm as an example, as I have a spot that has brought me many many many cats

over the years.

Ok, to start it needs to be in a place that has wildlife activity, and maybe a lot of guinie fowl, pheasant etc, also lambs and the

Steenbuck, duiker type buck species, as all the mentioned are his diet and he will frequent such places, and it needs to be in such a

place taht offers cover, water ( cats like to drink water) and thickets for security and cover, dry river beds, marsh and or

springs taht birds, pheasants and buck go to drink etc. So, all in all we need to think like a cat to kill a cat.

These photos depicted are a proven cat moving area.

As these following photos depict this is a cat killing paradise, I have killed a lot and I mean a lot of cats here, I recently hunted

here 4 times and called and shot 4 cats.

In the top EARTH photo the line that is in BLUE shows the stretch of

territory that I killed my last 4 cats, its along the wash and deep into cat territory as the photos will show next, to call cats you must understand how

to identify a good cat spot, this is vital to achieve success. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The RED on map show cat kills the YELLOW was when I watched a cat cross the road to get to me, that was 5

years ago. The BLUE is when I waited at a dead sheep for the cat to return the next night and shot him when he came back to eat on the sheep that he killed the previous night.

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In the below photo you can see

The YELLOW road that is the

Public road, it goes over a river

that leads past a farmhouse.

My crooked

line in green

shows the

river on both

sides of the

road leading

into the lands

that I hunt. In my drawing below it shows a

simpler version.

In the following pictures it shows the photos from the road and both sides, I have killed called in cats from both sides. On one hunt I watched a cat come across the road to my side to come to the call, so a cat will come to you if you

allow him a lot of time. The road is this road between farm and call spot.

This is the public road and the river and farmhouse on left, below is a photo on the other side of the road and shows the terrain and bend in

the land to right, this place has brought loads of cats.

The bend in dry river bed goes to right for over 2 kilos. Here is a photo from the enterence of the camp looking

towards the photo above.

Farmhouse and river, and the bending above mentioned photo is here, the bend goes in a huge U all around the

grassland in blue.

Below you can see the place I stand at , just around the bending lands in that top photo, it is a mean catty place and all

around the land is higher than we are so we sort of sit in a hole, and its pitch dark, so nothing can see us. This is a typical wash and a very very good spot, in amoungst the

sheep, pitch dark, and in serious cat country. If you have a place like this on your farm, that has such places mentioned in

this article work it, as it is a cat spot.

THE ULTIMATE CAT LOCATION

Open area as seen from space and excellent cats spots.

This spot has dry wash, beds, sheep feeding beds, cribs, water, marsh and lots of places to ambush pheasant and small game, a hot spot de lux, many cats have died here.

Below is the aerial photograph and you can see the photos

are marked in the corner that relate to the photo from the air.

NOTE photo 4, you can see the open pan from aerial photo and next to bakkie in picture 4 you can see the open area.

PHOTOS

PHOTOGRAPH 1

Area over road at farmhouse with river

PHOTOGRAPH 2

Over the road at wash with bend

PHOTOGRAPH 3

Taken from entrance at camp

PHOTOGRAPH 4

Taken at the spot opposite open pan and cattle eating crib

My personal choice of

selecting a cat spot

must be in a sort of

shallow bowl around

you, when I sit here I

am in a sort of a dip;

the area is darker at

night, has no UN

natural lights around

you and is dead quiet.

Take note of the wind, if you call cats on a dark night before or after a

spell of bad weather and you have an easterly wind blowing these are

factors that will help you get success, just sit long, have plenty patience

and wait! Just use a good sound and have geduld! That wind is a proven

factor that when the wind blows cats walk around, and that’s a fact!

PERSONAL FAVOURITE CALL

I have a Lohman INFLECTION caller on my chair, it is a bubble and when squeazed it makes a small lamb / fawn

sound, cats go ballistic for this sound, look on the net and buy one!

Buy one of these gems, they are killers on cats. We all have

our favourite calls and equipment but this is a killer! You squeaze that balloon and as you squeaze it makes amazing noises, cats come easily to its sound, you can blow the caller

also, it makes unbelieveable sounds.

Here is the caller on my shooting chairs;

To end let me just say that you also need to know this following piece of advise to successfully call cats.

ROOIKAT ROEP

I am asked a lot about how to call cats, baie mense dink jy kan nie rooikatte roep nie, that’s very incorrect, the truth is if you know the cat

calling factors you WILL call them easily.

Here is a list of the major things you need to remember, if you go by this small article you will

succeed in calling them. -----------------------------------------------

1) Cover – call near cover like dead trees, koppies, water beds and places cats can hide, stand 100m -300m away. Avoid dead ground that they can hide

behind when coming in.

2) Wind - make use of Eastern winds, like a South Easter, cats travel a lot in wind, 99% of all my cat

kills have been in wind.

3) Approach – Cats cannot smell and wind a human so watch all approach angles for eyes approaching.

4) Moon – Make use of pitch dark nights, no moon at

all.

5) Weather – Before or after a cold front is a good time, sit and be dead quiet! No noise!

6) Camo – Make sure to cover you bakkie totally and don’t use black covers, use the same colours as the

area you are calling, and never shade cloth!

7) Time – Allow at least an hours calling to get a cat to come in to your call.

8) Identify cats – Come in low and mostly slow, blink

very slowly and will vanish and surface in another area.

9) Patience – Have LOTS of patience

10) Use a dimmer - on a light the moment you spot eyes, and dim so only his eye reflection shows, and

when he is close up the dimmer to shoot.

11) Sounds – A hand caller is best, or an electronic such as a Foxpro on Jackrabbit distress or Scrub

Hare distress are good sounds to try, also a squeaky sound from a plastic toy in great.

12) Use a RED light if hunting for cats.

13) Night Vision is by far the best to use when calling

cats, the less light you use the better, they come in faster and come closer with night vision.

These are important aspects to calling a cat, stick by this

13 point factor on how to call cats and you will see you will start to call cats.

Here is an article I wrote that may help you also.

CARACAL CONTROL

I have called many cats in my time as a professional predator controller on farms, and I keep records of all the farms and

details that occur, such as dates, times, moon conditions and all relative aspects, and ONE thing that always stands out is WIND,

it pays to work in the wind!

I get a lot of criticism from my website as I reveal a lot of

information that other professional predator callers

try keep secret, but why should I, we are all fighting the same war, so if I can help farmers all

the better!

Helping other farmers and showing them ways to ethically

remove predators is a great way to get the aspect of poison

and gin traps away as these are barbaric practises and I for

one are totally against such deployments.

This is an example of a small Rooikat that made the mistake of

coming into a distress caller when he heard the distressed animal in pain.

The cat approached from the tree

direction behind the Hilux 350m away, it is of vital importance when cat calling to know how to select good spots, and many aspects are part of a system that

makes it a success and a text book hunt, lucky for us these predators are

not as intelligent as jackals so this makes the job at hand a lot easier, cats

are elusive animals but they can be called with the proper preparation.

TO SUCCESSFULLY REMOVE ROOIKATTE

Many aspects go into calling Rooikatte successfully, the moon for one, must be ZERO, absolutely zero moon, zilch, nothing, cats see very well, so it must

be pitch dark, you must cover the truck you use with the same colours that are around you, and never ever cover the truck in black, as it stands out on a field

even in pitch darkness. Never use shade cloth, it squeaks and is noisy and shines, don’t play sounds to loud as cats ears are very sensitive, and play a

busy sound as cats like busy sounds, the direction of the cat travelling to get to you can be from anyplace, as they DO NOT work wind and cannot smell to

save their lives, unlike the jackal who uses wind all the time.

Another very important thing to remember is time……. Always wait a long time for action, I will say in 25 years calling about 99% of all my cats came in 45 minutes to 50 minutes. This cat was 45 minutes; the previous two I shot the

last month in a good moon condition was over an hour, so patience is vital. Do not make any un natural sound on the truck and keep dead quiet, cats come in low and most of them slow and take note of all happenings around them, the

slightest thing wrong and he is gone!

The lights you use must be on a dimmer system, the moment eyes are spotted in the distance drop your light down so that all you see is his red robot eyes and nothing else around you, so dim that you can hardly see them. Cats are very light shy and if he suddenly blinks a lot that’s a sign your lights far too

bright and he will vanish very soon. Only use red filters, it’s the best, I use red gel filters and they are awesome on cats.

The area you select must be close to cover and areas that cats can travel in or hide away, avoid standing near blind spots and furrows that cats can travel in

and hide, in other words dead ground, avoid dead ground at all costs.

Now for a tip I have learnt over the years and it stands out 99% of the time, and this is WIND, if I look back over the years cats like to work in wind, just

about all the cats I called, the records show it was windy, sometimes so much wind that the nets get blown off the truck! I have these hunts on DVD and old

VHS videos, these last hunts all of them also was in the wind. I don’t know why but it is a proven fact, calling cats you stand more of a chance in the wind.

This above hunt, it was very windy, the wind was pumping and in comes Mr Rooikat to get his dinner. Maybe they feel that the quarry they are intent on targeting won’t hear them as the wind is blowing, I have no idea but it does work better to hunt cats in the wind. This past hunt, I said to my wife, come lets go, the wind is blowing and we stand a good chance, and so we did,

another text book hunt within 45 minutes.

Cats are inquisitive and will investigate this is why to trap a cat in a cage is very easy, same as at night when calling, the sounds you use must be

attractive, remember unlike a dog, a jackal will come into second hand sounds of jackals you play at night he will come in to that, BUT Mr pussy cat will not, he don’t reply to cat meeeuws on a disc etc, unless he is very close and will

pop up his head to see, but calling them on a cd with a cat meeuw wont happen, so we need quality sounds, one of the best sounds you can use is a

squeaker that comes out of a squeaky toy, they love that squeak, but don’t use the one with a plastic reed, buy them at most pet shops, most of those have a steel reed and it is a real killer. A typical rabbit distress works well, and you will have more success calling a cat with a hand caller, electronics don’t have the

same effect. Although I use a Foxpro sound JACKRABBIT DISTRESS to great effect.

Another thing to remember on cats is don’t place that caller far from you at night, they look at the sound and will come in low, and you may not see his eye reflection if it is placed far away, it is better to place the call near you so

you spot him fast.

Lastly is an alternative that’s a little costlier BUT is a better option, night vision, in legal places, predators come in faster and closer to you because

they are not hindered by any lights at all. The cat in this article came behind that tree line, I saw him at 350m and watched him come closer, and at 75m I put down the night vision binoculars and switched to the rifle scope, and shot

him in the head as he looked at the caller at 75m. Night vision is more expensive but you cannot compare results between the use of red lights and

that of Night Vision, they cannot even compare at all.

After a lot of calling in predators and cats especially, when you use night vision and make use of infra red lights, you watch them approach the caller while you

light them up with infra red as seen through the night vision equipment, the infra red lights has absolutely Zero effect on them, they have no idea they are being illuminated with infra red and they come in without a hiccup, when they look around and stare in your direction they have no idea at all they are being watched, I use on some hunts, 3 infra red lights, a massive IR spotlight, the

binoculars has a tactical infra red light I bought overseas, and then the rife has an infra red laser mounted to it, and all this extra light allows me to observe

that cat like day time, the infra red and shooting in total darkness helps you kill more cats because now you are using no lights at all visible to him or humans, all infra red and everything is concluded in the pitch dark. Hunting with night vision is the best way, I always say, you can hunt predators for years, BUT until you hunt with night vision you haven’t hunted at all, its another world

altogether, and also because you can identify your target 100% before pulling a trigger!

ANOTHER METHOD OF REMOVING ROOIKATTE

This is a real patience tester, but it DOES WORK, unless he was shot at or

scared badly, this will work, try this. If a cat kills a sheep, you will now have a 99, 9999999% chance he will be going to come back to the crime scene and have a snack to eat, I have seen that 99% of the killers will come back the

very next evening, and a fewer will come back the next night. My money is on the following night, I sit at a kill site, my night vision rifle is sighted in at 80m, and I sit at 80m from the dead sheep, I get there at least an hour before the

sun hits the horizon, I cover the entire truck, OR use a small table top with legs 30cm high, with a small swivel chair on it, and I wait…. Or sit on the truck on a

chair and wait, full camo, everything in place and I wait. When the sun goes down I scan with a normal binoculars at a distance to see what’s happening

and don’t sit on the chair as that movement he will spot easily.

When it is after dusk I climb into the chair and turn and scan area with night vision, and watch the area all the time, now is a time of high alert, and up to I

will say 10 o clock you must be awake! When you use night vision you can see the incoming cats body language and if he is relaxed or what…… that cat in

the photo here was so relaxed he knew nothing, so you watch him, if he appears relaxed and on alert coming back to his kill site, watch him, when he gets to the sheep, shoot him, I normally wait a minute and let him start eating, and then go to the night vision rifle scope, and kill him. I use a massive infra red spotlight on my chair that assists the infra red night vision binoculars and rifle scope, I can see like daylight then as far as 250m. But using night vision

gives you an edge, it helps a lot.

You need patience and to be awake, as you don’t know from what area he will come back from, so you need to spot him long before he arrives at the sheep,

in case he is heading directly towards you.

REMEMBER

Be wide awake when calling cats, a while back I worked a farm that was

having issues with Groukatte killing poultry and I called over an hour, I never saw him come to the sound, but when I looked on my next scan he was

opposite the caller about 5m from it, staring at the funny looking rabbit that was screaming, I never saw him approach at all, he was just suddenly sitting at the call as if he was a ghost, so be awake. When calling scan with a red

light every 15-20 seconds, never wait longer between scans.

I hope this will help you in controlling the Rooikat population as they are bad news and cost farmers a load of money every day throughout South Africa, once you master how to call, and know the factors that achieve results your

success will increase and you will be able to remove them far easier.

My general loads are as follows;

223 Calibre; S321 powder, 25, 5 grains with magnum primer. Sierra 52 grain soft point head stock No #1330

222 Calibre; S321 powder, 23, 5 grains with magnum primer. Sierra 52 grain

soft point head stock number #1330

Gary Laubscher www.africanpredator.com

Notice trees at the back that allow cats cover, think

like a cat to kill a cat – Hope this article helps.

www.africanpredator.com