Buckshot, I am sure tobey will give you better answers but I have seen one big difference between your cats and ours. That is where they live. The cats out here,especially where Tobey lives, are in real real thick cover. I mean where you literally cant see 5 or 10 feet in front of you. It may be different where you are but I have seen several videos of bobcat hunting in Idaho and other western areas. I couldnt get over how open the country ,generally.was.
I have friends that go out lion hunting every year for 2 weeks in Montana.They sometimes run bobcats out there after they kill lions or when they dont find a lion track that day. They said the same thing you did.They tree every one that they kill. Out here it is about one tree to every 5 they kill. Now I am just going on what they say but they tell me it is way easier to tree one out there than it is here. They claim it is because of the more open country.
It is very easy to have the dogs push a cat by you here within 20 yds and you will not see cat or dog.Tobey can tell you about a couple we ran that were like that this winter.Gun to our shoulders ready to pull the trigger and never saw a thing go by !!!
What do you western guys think ????