International Bobcat Contest

[mike martell]

I know; Since there are trout and steelhead and salmon streams all throughout the northwest, and you guys are concerned about this, maybe you guys in the northwest all could automatically deduct the ten pounds of sinkers from your entry weight, just in case.

David

You better send in your entry fee! This one treed close to a world famous trout stream and consumed 10 pounds of lead. That would take about 1/3 the weight of this nice Tom I caught and make the one from this morning about 12 pounds....Looks like you could easily win this competition! It's the luck of the draw....I treed this tom last year and never cuts it's tracks again until Sunday.

[dwalton]

Mike I like the idea of this hunt i will send a check. I think the people up north do have bigger bobcats but they do have harder conditions to hunt at times. I think most people will be honest in weigh in, if not usually it will catch up with them. Out here the heaviest bobcat I have every weighed was 35 pounds with most years catching a cat over 30 pounds. This should be fun and create funds for Fernridge tree hound club. Lets see some of those big bobcats weighed in on a certified scale. Good luck and have fun


I would like to see pictures the cat and dogs with a story of the hunt and back ground of the dogs. Dewey

[pegleg]

Well I'll tell on myself since cats and lead are being discussed. I once had a good dog but the younger dogs just hadn't got the whole system worked out. Anyway I started hunting the hair off them in the hopes it would do the trick. Months into this endeavor they finally did the job. I had given up on it at this point but stubbornness kept getting me out. However it was while I was marveling at spots in a tree I realized I only had a .44 mag pistol. This cat was waay up a cottonwood the only real tree in the area. So I really screwed down and aimed real good. Well I overkilled it and it stayed right in the fork of the tree. After five more slugs and some shell shocked hounds and a horse that decided to rest elsewhere the cat kinda liquefied and dripped out of the tree all 9 1/2 pounds of great grandma bobcat. Even with over 1000 grains of copper and lead sent its way it wouldn't have won any records. It was however the most important cat those dogs ever treed. The first.

[mike martell]

Mike I like the idea of this hunt i will send a check. I think the people up north do have bigger bobcats but they do have harder conditions to hunt at times. I think most people will be honest in weigh in, if not usually it will catch up with them. Out here the heaviest bobcat I have every weighed was 35 pounds with most years catching a cat over 30 pounds. This should be fun and create funds for Fernridge tree hound club. Lets see some of those big bobcats weighed in on a certified scale. Good luck and have fun


I would like to see pictures the cat and dogs with a story of the hunt and back ground of the dogs. Dewey

I agree Dewey

When you hit 30 pounds, those single pounds increments are slow to add up. It is rare to see a 35 pound bobcat! It will be a fun competition, hopefully we have lots of entries! We can just keep this thread going and post our bobcats right here.

I have been really enjoying the lack of snow so far over the mountain hunting bare ground in a t-shirt and a wool shirt after dark! Makes me wish for more global warming in my old age.

Good hunting to you!

Mike

[Nolte]

Umm, you fellas better hope not many midwest guys get in this. We might not get as many cats but it won't take too many entrants before someone pops a legit one over 35. We just tend to have pretty heavy cats. Cool contest though.

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[mike martell]

Nathan
Your story reminds me of last year. I and another club member tied with the biggest bobcat for the month, we were both embarrassed and refused to claim first and split the top winnings and donated the money back to our club. Probably how my year will play out again. Enter if you like, it's for the cause and should be fun. We might not have much snow this winter over east where I hunt a lot...

Nolte

I'm very aware of that....It's all in fun and will be nice to see some of those huge toms posted here! I have yet to see an entry from the Midwest as of last Friday.

Mike

[mark]

I was just out of high school and running traps in the winter while laid off to help pay the bills. I caught a huge tom on a lion kill and took it to a friend of my families grocery store and weighed it on a certified scale at 43 pounds. Mike shot one while deer hunting one fall that weighed 48 pounds if my memory serves me right. Both these cats came from down close to the farm lands where it is tough to run dogs without getting into trouble these days. Just saying there are some big cats anywhere they inhabit and nothing would surprise me of where the winner will come from. I hear of at least one 40 pounder every winter from eastern oregon,not weighed on certified scales but from honest guys with digital scales.

[dhostetler]

Mark was that 43 pounder a larger frame bobcat or just obese? A friend of mine a trapper said his biggest bobcat weighed 42 lb but wasn't really that big just had 4" of fat. I still wonder if he was stretching the 4"

[mike martell]

I was just out of high school and running traps in the winter while laid off to help pay the bills. I caught a huge tom on a lion kill and took it to a friend of my families grocery store and weighed it on a certified scale at 43 pounds. Mike shot one while deer hunting one fall that weighed 48 pounds if my memory serves me right. Both these cats came from down close to the farm lands where it is tough to run dogs without getting into trouble these days. Just saying there are some big cats anywhere they inhabit and nothing would surprise me of where the winner will come from. I hear of at least one 40 pounder every winter from eastern oregon,not weighed on certified scales but from honest guys with digital scales.

Mark

It was 48 pounds and laid up on a spike blacktail buck, stuffed full of deer meat, it was raking moss/ grass over the kill when I walked up on it. Like you stated, down low in the farm lands where you hardly can run hounds these days for locked gates.

Mark was that 43 pounder a larger frame bobcat or just obese? A friend of mine a trapper said his biggest bobcat weighed 42 lb but wasn't really that big just had 4" of fat. I still wonder if he was stretching the 4"

Duane

Bobcat and lions are predators and hunt to eat and harvesting one with 4" of fat doesn't seem like the man was telling the truth? I think about the athleticism of all cat species required for survival? I have never skinned a bobcat or lion with rolls of fat, ever....Even my fall crop bear that lay on the groceries from the 4Th. of July eating tons of easy picking wine grapes until October never have that much fat. I harvested one that had around 100 + pounds of fat that went close to 350 pounds, it had 2-2 1/2" of fat but more unusual, it had fat rolls on the chest cavity and places like the arm pits? Under normal conditions eating acorns and berries, it would be a 200-250 pound bear. I deal with lots of bears every year and in a location that produces some real pigs! I killed one that weighed 459 pounds, it had 70 pounds of wine grapes in it's stomach,I weighed separately. All my bears weigh 500 pounds until they hit the scales, this fall I documented 16 different bears confirmed on trail cameras and the largest on scale was 316 pounds.....I guess that bobcat could be a freak of nature? I would like to hear from others and experiences around the country?

Now we have a reason for everyone to enter, this way we can post our pictures here and see just how big these bobcats are from one region to the next!
Mike

[ridgerunners]

I was walking around in the woods yesterday. And found this little snowshoe hare. He stuck out like a sore thumb . This global warming thing is a Little rough on him too I bet!

[dwalton]

I have seen big tons that were killing deer that had a lot of fat on them,a couple of inches. In some of the high desert country with a lot of food I have seen bobcats with a couple of inches of fat and large amounts of stomach fat in the early part of winter but by February it will be all gone. I think a fat cat full of venison can weigh 10 lbs over his normal body weight. Out here the two biggest bobcats that I have ever taken were old toms that had teeth worn down to the gums. Both huge body cats that were skinny they weigh 28 and 29 pounds. There seems to be two body type of bobcats out here a long gray hound looking cat and a bulldog stocky cat, the bulldog cat will always out weigh the long cat.
Years ago a friend of mine told me he had caught a 35 pound bobcat. I explained to him that bobcats are hard to guess their weight. The next day he showed up with the skin carcass that had been laying 4 days in the woods where he had skinned it. It weighed 37 pounds the biggest bobcat I have seen weighed here in Oregon but they done come bigger. I just have not found him yet. Dewey

[mark]

Mark was that 43 pounder a larger frame bobcat or just obese? A friend of mine a trapper said his biggest bobcat weighed 42 lb but wasn't really that big just had 4" of fat. I still wonder if he was stretching the 4"

Duane the cat was long and and pretty thick. A freak by any measure (for around here). I got 285 dollars for that cat in 1974 and remember my inner struggles on wether to sell it or have it tanned as it was heavy spotted and light in color for this area. He had buck meat in him but was not gorged full like i have seen others since. I dont remember him having a eccesive fat layer but he did have fat.
A few winters back the dogs caught a big one on the ground that i think was well over 30lbs but by the time i got in there they had ate quite a bit of it and he had chewed on the dogs pretty good too so i didnt spend the time to get my scales out of my pack to see what was left weighed.

[Nolte]

Nolte

I'm very aware of that....It's all in fun and will be nice to see some of those huge toms posted here! I have yet to see an entry from the Midwest as of last Friday.

Mike

Mike,
You might not get any WI guys. Our first season started a few weeks ago but that is mostly trappers who go for that one and it takes 10 years for a tag. Top that off with 60 degrees Temps and most guys don't have cat hunting on the radar yet. Our second season starts the end of Dec. MI doesn't go until Jan so they are out for awhile. MN will start here the end of the month but again, nada for snow. So it's not surprising there haven't been any midwest entries.


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[dwalton]

Mike you might thing about having a 4th place for the combined weight for the three months. It is fairly easy to bump into a big tom over three months but to catch a big one every month means you are just hunting toms. Just a thought Dewey

[justahunter]

When I was guiding bobcat hunts in Minnesota we seen some monster cats . one I know that was weighed was 48 pounds and heard of another that weighed 53 pounds . they had the length and the bulldog like mass . there front shoulders and forearms were massive .
I have never seen it but have heard that in a store somewhere in Wisconsin there is a bobcat in a display case that had an official weight of 62 pounds . could these cats possibly be this big because possibly crossed with lynx?
I have a full mount bobcat that I Treed here in Idaho that I would guess him being 30 to 35 pounds and it doesn't even compare to the big cats I seen in Minnesota .