Second cat of the year

[nateNAU]

Happy trapper with a big cat.

[Presmyk]

Omg#!!!! That is a monster!!! congrats on that bad boy

[olmos1010]

Now that's one bad a$$ cat, congrats.

[Couestracker]

Bad to the bone short tail! Congrats!

[Presmyk]

Bad to the bone short tail! Congrats!

Lol ya like a bobbed tail

[BeardownAZ]

Wow, that's a big tom!!!

[Hyperwrx]

Nice bobcat but 31 pounds it is not. To be 31 pounds it would need to have eaten 3-4 river rocks. A large bobcat in Arizona would tip the scales at 20-23 lbs. Regardless, congrats on the big bobcat. Make sure to put it up well so you get the most money possible on it.

[nateNAU]

Hyper. I have respect for you but that may fade quickly if you are calling me a liar. I guarantee that the scale read 31.4 lbs. I am 6' 3" and 300 lbs. The picture doesnt do the cat justice being stretched out.. This cat was actually obese. I have never seen a wild animal that was fat like this. It looked like a pampered house cat. About wore out a fleshing knife getting all the fat off.

[Hyperwrx]

The choice I have is to either sit back and let these posts happen or wade in and provide some grounding factual points. I generally wade in. While catching a 30whatever pound bobcat is not impossible, the chances of it happening would be so unlikely that I could almost guarantee you either misread the scale, your scale is not zeroed, or you are exaggerating the weight of the bobcat.

 

You realize a 31.4 pound bobcat would probably be close to a state record, right? You also realize an adult from the genetic strain of bobcats we have in Arizona on average ranges between 15 and 18 pounds? The further North you go in the United States, the larger the bobcats are. That's how nature works.

 

What you are claiming is you caught a bobcat that would be a drastic outlier compared to all the other data the state of Arizona has gathered and studies that have been done for the past 50 years on bobcat size in the SW United States.

 

The pictures you posted in no way are convincing that your bobcat is double the average size of a typical Arizona bobcat. I could post a picture of me holding a 20 lb bobcat out to the camera like you are and it would look larger than it really was. When I look at the bobcat in the Mercer cage it gives anyone who knows cage trapping sizes a better gauge of a realistic weight of the bobcat. Mercer's small to large cages run 18 to 22 inches tall. The one in your picture is 20 inches tall. Anyone can count the 1" wire vertically and see it's 20 inches. Not his biggest cage in the cluster you purchased. Base on this I'd estimate the bobcat is 20-23 pounds. Anything over 20 pounds in Arizona is considered an very large bobcat. I caught a lot of cats in the last several seasons and have had only 3-4 tip the scales at 20-22 pounds.

 

I don't suppose since you weighed it, and it is the largest bobcat caught in decades, you took a picture of the bobcat on the scale?

 

Any other pictures of this bobcat exist?

 

How long did it stretch from the tip of it's nose to the base of its tail?

 

As I stated initially, congrats on the large bobcat. Proper fur handling will get you a nice chunk of change.

[Presmyk]

[qu ote name=yoyerwr xmoo s timestamp="1416833822]

 

Nice bobcat but 31 pounds it is not. To be 31 pounds it would need to have eaten 3-4 river rocks. A large bobcat in Arizona would tip the scales at 20-23 lbs. Regardless, congrats on the big bobcat. Make sure to put it up well so you get the most money possible on it.

 

Did you wake up t his morning and think to your self I'm going to go troll in all the trapping posts? Lol your one of the most . knowledgeable guys on the forum when comes to calling and trapping but getting on just to tell some one they are lying about or don't know what they are talking about seems a little trolley and disrespectful.

[Hyperwrx]

Thinking I come on here to give trappers I hard time shows you are ignoring 99% of all the posts I have submitted.

 

That the OP took offence after what appeared to be a flagrant and gross exaggeration of a bobcat's weight is unfortunate, but a logical consequence to his post.

 

If he would have or in the future can produce more facts pertaining to the harvest of that specific bobcat to substantiate the weigh claimed I would modify my initial assessment.

 

In a nutshell- If you are going to exaggerate, do it subtly so it doesn't set of alarms.

[nateNAU]

So I was correct. I am either a liar or to inept to read a scale. You trap the desert. Is it possible that your warm weather cats have less fat that a cat trapped up here? Can you really generalize your catches to everyone else? I didnt take pictures that f it on the scale because i didnt think i would have to defend myself and why would I post any other pictures? Im sure you'll say I rigged the scale or the tape measurer because now your saying I held that cat out. I think your ego is directly related to trapping and it pisses you off that you consider yourself and expert and someone caught a cat bigger than one you have caught. Your post explains your ego in how you choose to let posts happen or not.

[Str8Shot]

I know one tom inside of city limits in the east valley that is easily over 25 lbs. maybe even pushing the 30 range ... been eating healthy on small pets in the neighborhoods and watched him go toe to toe with a 38 lb pit bull a few weeks back .... never seen the Op's pic but does seem a bit unfair to be making comments just because you think it not possible .. The average top weight for a chihuahua is 8 lbs but I have a friends who's little rat is 22 lbs.

[olmos1010]

Well you can PM me your success stories and pics of your catches. Its because of you and other members like Presmyk posts that keep me fired up to get back out in the field. That s*** gets me fired up and I truly enjoy seeing others hunter/trappers success. It motivates me to hunt and trap harder. I've looked at your post and pics of that monster Tom at least a dozen times for no other reason then it being bad a$$. Congrats again and I hope you catch many more.

[Hyperwrx]

So I was correct. I am either a liar or to inept to read a scale. You trap the desert. Is it possible that your warm weather cats have less fat that a cat trapped up here? Can you really generalize your catches to everyone else? I didnt take pictures that f it on the scale because i didnt think i would have to defend myself and why would I post any other pictures? Im sure you'll say I rigged the scale or the tape measurer because now your saying I held that cat out. I think your ego is directly related to trapping and it pisses you off that you consider yourself and expert and someone caught a cat bigger than one you have caught. Your post explains your ego in how you choose to let posts happen or not.

 

I am sorry you don't agree with me. I don't want to go round and round with you about this. When you post that you harvested a bobcat 1/3rd heavier than anyone else in AZ for the past several decades you can expect people to be a little skeptical, especially someone who sees and handles a good number of bobcats each year.

 

Let's cut the insults and belittling statements and just discuss the facts.

 

 

 

because now your saying I held that cat out.

 

You did hold the bobcat out in front of you with almost a straight arm. Placing the animal in front of the person gives the illusion of an animal being larger in appearance then it really is. People do it with fish, deer, and other game animals. It's common practice.

 

 

 

You trap the desert. Is it possible that your warm weather cats have less fat that a cat trapped up here?

 

I do think based on the availability of consistent food sources some animals in higher elevations store more fatty tissue. Do I think a bobcat in 7k will weigh 1/4 to 1/3 more than one in the desert on account of this fat- No. I know many trappers all over the state of Arizona. Some of them trap the Navajo reservation at higher elevations than Flagstaff. Their very large bobcats are in the lower to mid 20's at best. That fat equals a few pounds at the most.

 

 

I didnt take pictures that f it on the scale because i didnt think i would have to defend myself and why would I post any other pictures?

 

You've just claimed to have trapped the largest bobcat in the state in many years and you didn't think to take many pictures of it? If this were a non-typical 325+ mule deer I bet you'd have taken a lot of pictures. You mentioned you skinned it. Do you have any pictures of the skinned pelt stretched? There is a reason why Boone & Crockett has requirements on record setting game animals. If you do have the pelt stretched, just show a full body shot of it with a tape measure put next to it so we can see how long a 30-something pound bobcat stretches to.

There are trappers all over AZ that trap larger cats than I ever have. It doesn't hurt my ego 1 bit to see this. I welcome it. My goal is to make trapping commonplace, and that is why I have posted about trapping so much on this forum. I want guys to get out and trap. It's to be expected that people will trap some big cats each year, just not bobcats that size of Canadian Lynxes 300 miles North of the boarder of Mexico.

 

 

 

I know one tom inside of city limits in the east valley that is easily over 25 lbs. maybe even pushing the 30 range

 

These type of claims are unsubstantiated. Judging a bobcat's weigh based on fleeting glimpses isn't a reliable source. It's always a friend of a friend shot one or trapped one. Show me a picture of a 30 pound bobcat on a scale here in AZ and I'll eat crow.

 

 

 

The average top weight for a chihuahua is 8 lbs but I have a friends who's little rat is 22 lbs.

 

A typical bobcat in the wild will live shorter, be skinnier, and suffer more adverse health condition than one pen raised or living in a home as this dog of yours is.

 

The average Arizona bobcat is 15-18 pounds. That is a fact with research data to back it up. A few years ago an AZ G&F officer was quoted telling people AZ bobcats got 30 pounds in weight. The biologist for AZ G&F, Ron Day, said that was inaccurate.