Bobcat provides unique, exciting experience for veteran hunter

Shannon Grewe of Colby has always had a keen love of hunting. He says the appeal boils down to the unique challenge of each hunt, the animal he’s seeking, and the places he finds himself in.

Grewe has travelled far and wide, and he’s nabbed some pretty astounding trophies, ranging from huge bucks with great spreads, to coyote, bear and even a mountain lion. But one of his most recent hunts definitely joins the short list of most memorable.

Earlier this year, back in the frigid depths of January, Grewe participated in his first bobcat hunt. As luck would have it, he didn’t have to leave the state of Wisconsin to do it. What he did need was an abundance of patience. Seven years to be exact.

“I guess roll back seven years to the point where you’re buying your hunting license and it says ‘do you want to apply for a bobcat preference point?’ At that point I did a little research and saw that it took seven years to draw enough points to get that tag.”

As the years went by, Grewe patiently accumulated his points until he finally qualified for his first ever bobcat tag. There was just one problem –– Grewe had never hunted bobcats before, and he discovered he wasn’t alone in that category.

Luckily, Grewe has made his fair share of friends in the hunting community, and he was able to reach out to friends who had experience in hunting bobcats.

“There’s just not a lot of people that try and get a bobcat,” Grewe explained. “I was approached by some friends that are avid cat hunters, and they said if I ever got a tag, come with them. So, I took them up on it, and I had a blast.”

Grewe and his friends travelled along the Mead Forest, and while he’s certainly no novice for hunting, Grewe brought with him a great deal of healthy respect for bobcats and their physical capabilities.

“I’m a physical guy myself, but a cat can outrun a lot of things. I mean, they’re a lot faster than Shannon, so I couldn’t catch them in those big woods.”

To effectively hunt bobcats, you need the proper conditions in order to find their trails. This includes good snow, the fresher the better. And if you’re hunting bobcats, be prepared to do a lot of walking and getting up before the crack of dawn.

“We’d get up at 3 a.m., and go out looking for tracks in the snow. Everybody had a couple hunting hounds, so once you’d find some tracks you put the hound on the track,” Grewe said. “You just start following them. If it’s a good track, you can tell by how the dog reacts. You watch their body language and if they start barking and howling, and then you just follow your dogs.”

Grewe got a good track, and the hounds set to work locating the bobcat. What made this hunt especially challenging, and a bit harrowing, is there was no stand to take cover in. Grewe explained that bobcats like to climb up trees or run in circles, and described it as being close to rabbit hunting.

“Rabbits run in circles when they get chased, and the cat was running in a big circle, and I’m not a very experienced bobcat hunter by any means. I know just enough to make myself dangerous. One of the guys that was with me, he flushed the cat out, and there it goes!”

I was following the dogs and they said we should just stay right there and let the cat come to us. They’re fast, not like cheetah fast, but faster than you or me.” As the cat sprinted out from the woods, Grewe was going to follow the dogs and follow the bobcat, but Grewe’s friends suggested he just stay put and let the cat come back to him, something Grewe was skeptical about at first.

“When they told me that I’m thinking, ‘C’mon, really? That cat’s gone, and we have to chase them.’ But low and behold, I stood there, and I could hear the dogs off in the distance, and they’re making a big circle and coming back, and all of a sudden I’m saying ‘hey, here comes a bobcat!’” Flushed by the dogs, the bobcat ran its big circle and eventually came back to Grewe, and with surprising speed. Grewe estimates the shot that felled the bobcat was so close just 15 feet separated the two.

“I reacted quickly, aimed, and made a good, clean and ethical kill,” Grewe said. “It’s probably a once in a lifetime trophy for me. It was a great experience. You’re not going to see it just anywhere.”

Patience is a virtue Grewe has in spades, even so, he admits he can’t wait to see the trophy take its place with the rest of his collection. More than that, the time spent with friends, in the outdoors, and making memories was well worth the seven-year wait.

“It was a great time. I think that when you have the great outdoors and the natural forests that we have and the state lands that we have, it’s such a wonderful opportunity for people to use those properly for hunting and recreation,” Grewe said. “It’s so beautiful, and I don’t think people take advantage of it enough.”