Hyperwrx

A well placed foot hold trap is tough to find by someone not experienced in setting foot holds. Did someone watch you from afar stop your truck and haul stuff in a bucket off the road? Are you walking up soft dirt, snow, or sand where no other traffic has been? The biggest factor that leads to a stolen foothold is a animal caught in a trap thrashing around for someone else to see. Putting your footholds on a drag stops a lot of that as the animal can run, get fouled up. and hunker down. I place all my traps within binocular distance from the road so I don't even need to exit the vehicle to see them. This includes foot holds. There are a few tricks you can do if your trap is hidden from view from the road to let you know from a distance it's been tripped. If you want to know them, just express interest in this thread. I've lost a good number of footholds but when a cage gets stolen I want to pound someone. A trapper running a lot of traps ought to expect a few to get stolen each year. It's just the devils due for playing the game. We live in a society of thieves. You can't fault a veteran trapper (mmtx10) for making a presumption based on the facts presented to him. It would be a trapper who doesn't care about the future of trapping that would sit and say nothing when he feels good solid advice can be offered.

I never called the individual a liar. I told him I didn't think his bobcat was 30+ pounds. Big difference but people on the internet can take it any way they want. It makes no difference to me. I stand behind my comment and know there are very few, if any, bobcats topping 30 pounds in Arizona. I congratulated him on his catch numerous times regardless of it's size. Scour this forum and you'll find scads of people questioning deer and elk claims. If the OP had posted his 30+ lb. bobcat claim on a dedicated trapping forum, my opinion, as initially stated, would seem mild on comparison to the comments that would have flooded in. Bonecollector is entitled to his opinion as well, even though it's based on minimal truth and little credibility. Wolves don't worry about the opinions of sheep. Last year we had a spirited debate on here where he was called out on a much similar topic. He was told the same- nothing wrong with a simple exaggeration but don't stand shocked and dumbfounded when others call you out on a story that qualifies, in my opinion, as a tall tale. Some fella stroll in here and claim he shot an AZ coues deer that scored 150 points with a photo that just doesn't cut the cake and argue his point and we'd see the bus come to a screeching halt for many veteran coues enthusiasts in here. People would ask for some type of proof for such a steep claim. A claim that far surpasses what one would even consider reasonable. OP could say, screw you all if you don't believe me. My brother said it was at least 150 too. You'd laugh him off the forum. I don't stick my head out ANYWHERE on this forum aside from predator hunting and trapping because I don't feel qualified to. I do feel I know enough about predators, how to catch them, how to process their fur for sale, and the details surrounding those specialized activities give advice others help to lessen the learning curve we all had as a new predator caller and trapper. I have taken out a dozen new trappers out over the last 3-4 years and got them started on their own line. These type of threads, where people tell half-truths, or grossly embellish what was actually a great story in its virgin forum to a self-serving tale worthy to hold a permanent section in the fiction adventure in your local library. Carry on chaps. I've given you few enough fodder to make several more inflammatory posts with me as the target. I need to get into bed. I have to head down South early to work on a coyote problem for the big milk producing industry. Gotta make that dollar bill. Good night.

I want to preface this with I am not a proficient deer hunter nor an accomplished bow shooter. I predator hunt exclusively but wanted to try archery hunting for a change of pace. I decided to purchase a bow in June and try shooting a deer this season. Practiced all summer and got good to about 40 yards. Grabbed turkey, deer, and bear tags just to cover all the bases. Friday I was in a tree stand and at 6:30 had a group of turkey come by. I picked one out and shot it at probably 20 yards. I shot at a downward angle right in the middle of his back. Turkey jumps around and dies in 10 yards. Saw no deer Friday. Start to worry about not filling tag. Change game plans. Saturday was winding down and I went to a saddle between 2 mountains. I was to leave Sunday mid-day so I was starting to worry I'd not even get a chance at a buck. I settle down on the ground and a while later a doe and small barely 2-by buck pass by. I stand and get a wide tree between me and the pair and close to about 30 yards. I lean around the tree and draw and let out a few higher pitch MAA MAAs with my mouth and the doe turns and starts back toward me with the buck in tow. Doe comes to within 12 yards of me as I stood with the bow drawn. Buck was behind her 15 yards. Both stop and are facing me dead on. I wait for about 20 second and they are frozen and wont turn and give me a broadside so I just center the Slick Trick Griztrick2 on his chest and release. Arrow enters the chest, travels through the entire body, and comes out his rump and falls to the ground. Buck runs about 30 yards and drops. I gut him, put him on the quad, and have him boned out and in the ice chest in an hour or so. I go back out Saturday evening and this morning looking for a bear but can't find any. See no more bucks either. Recent rain up on the rim made sitting on a water hole a giant waste. The 2 1/2 months of trail cam pictures on the tank of 3 different bear, nice deer (several 3 x 3s), and turkey all amounted to 1 turkey. Buck was taken in an area I had never scouted but just had a hunch.

6 coyotes in a day is great calling. You're kidding yourself. If you don't want to spend the $250 for the World's entry, you should join a local predator hunting club for $25 for a year's membership and compete in the State Multi-club hunt. Arizona Predator Callers is based out of Mesa. Your skills could help win a state title. Or you could hunt for fun and not compete. Something for everyone.

In trapping, its not uncommon to catch multiple bobcats in one day. It has a lot to do with how many sets you have out. On the day above, I had caught 3 bobcats in the first 6 sets and had 3 dozen sets to go and didn't catch anything else. I know a fella is California who caught 7-8 in one day. High bobcat populations + good trapper + all the planets in alignment = $2000-2500 paycheck for a single day's collection. I never get that type of luck.

By all means everyone post their 30 pound bobcats. I myself was shocked last year when I caught 3 30 pound bobcats all on the same day on the trap line. I didn't have a scale at the time but eyeballing them, they were 30 easily.

The fur market has dipped 40% in the last 2 years. 2-3 years ago many 40+ inch bobcats with above average markings were $800-1000. Last year Arizona's top bobcat, a XL cat was $1350 I believe. Arizona's average bobcat last year was $275ish? Can't remember exactly. Poor fur handling can make an $500 turn into a $200 easily.

Minimal pelt damage from what looks like Remington Model 7, What caliber?

Man, that coon looks rough. Typically we never even see AZ racoon hides at any of the AZ fur sales. Think it's worth much? I caught one once and skinned it and kept it just to check it off my bucket list. I know places in the desert where there are a ton of coons. We call and shoot them at night with lights.

I come across pretty rough on the internet. In person I'm a nice guy. I have ate lunch with Airon (Desertghost) many times. I told him I didn't think he could even catch a bobcat in the 20 pound range and he did. I bought him lunch. The only place you're gonna catch a 30 pound bobcat is right aournd Palo Verde Nucleau Power Plant. He'd be drinking the run off from the nucleaur reactors. Good luck!

That is a big bobcat. Looks much bigger than the one the OP posted. 30 pounds? Just because someone said on an internet forum that their bobcat weighed 30+ pounds in no way makes it a fact. The first picture in the predatormasters link is Mark. I know Mark well and he knows me. We live by each other and have eaten dinner at Serranos in Queen Creek together. His bobcat is not 32 pounds just because he says so. If ANYONE this season in ARIZONA harvests a bobcat 25 pounds or heavier and can PROVE IT with a quality picture showing the scales weight I'll admit defeat and send you a COYOTE RAGE DVD free of charge. I have a stack of them here shrink wrapped ready to be sent. I'll even lower it to 25 pounds because there are really so few of those around. Word of mouth doesn't count. A quality picture where we can see the scale results and the bobcat in question in 1 shot. I have put up this challenge on a couple of forums and only 1 guy followed the instructions and posted a picture. At the time I said anything over 20. 1 guy. Take me up on the challenge and win a free DVD.

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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

3 cats in 3 days on the same cage are fantastic numbers. You're going to get spoiled with numbers like that. Great pictures. Adult females on average have a minimal amount of overlap with regards to territory. I'd suspect you are catching the same 1 or 2 kittens over and over. I suspect you have an adult female in the area who has had missing kittens a few nights in a row. LOL. Too bad you can't set up 2 cages a few feet apart and see if you can trap 2 at once.

2nd post in the thread The bobcat in the pictures is a kitten by typical sizing standards. Beautiful looking pelt but if you skinned it and showed up with it to a fur sale, they'd give you a hard time. Ethics and morals are subjective and everyone has to make their own call but the idea that just because it is legal, it's right is an excuse to justify questionable actions. When money is part of the ethics equation one needs to stand back from the line. People will do anything for money- including harvesting kittens. A confinement trap is the PERFECT to questionable fur practices. You are given the opportunity to make a good judgement call at no risk to the target animal. I was once trapping down the same road as an AZ G&F agent. He was trapping it for his own profit, not part of his job. I caught him as he was walking back to his truck with a kitten he had killed. Unfortunately money makes people as honest as their option are. Trapping is an activity that is under intense scrutiny. If we as trappers do not help fellow trappers to make smart choices, none of will be trapping in the future.

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.

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.

21.4 is pretty heavy.

Good judgement on releasing the bobcat. Don't listen to trappers who take everything that they are able to trap. A small bobcat, especially if it is a female hurts you more then it will benefit you. A small female could produce several litters of kittens in her lifetime, which could be income for you. Harvesting everything in an area, regardless of fur quality or size, is a foolish mistake new trappers make.

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.

Lots of factors come into play. Terrain you hunt in, whether you keep the fur or not, and the money you have to spend on the rifle itself and the ammunition in the future. If money was not an object. I'd get a .22-250 in an AR-15 platform.

Great 1 day take. World Coyote Calling Contest in less than a month! $250 entry could get you $12k.

I have caught a few coyotes in cage traps here in AZ. Briarpatch Cages makes a large cage that will easily house a coyote. A coyote that goes into a cage has thrown caution to the wind and is really acting out of character for a typical skittish coyote. You'd have much better luck trapping a coyote on private property with a foothold trap. If this coyote could speak, "Yes, I have the lowest intelligence in my gene pool. I went in a cage trap."

I have collected trail cam footage since June in Unit 22. I have not seen 1 turkey in the 5000+ imagines I have collected from my 5 cameras until 2 weeks ago. Over the last 2 weeks I have 2 groups of turkeys showing up on multiple cameras. 1 group has 2 hens and between 6-9 poults. The other group is 6 adult tom turkeys This morning I sat in my treestand from 7AM until 10:30 hoping to see some deer or one of the 3 bear that visit regularly. Wind was swirling around and these chameleon tree blinds need some fine tuning to make the material quieter and quit flapping in the breeze and making non-natural sounds. At about 7:30 I hear something coming down the hill behind me to my left. It's making a racket walking through the dry leaves. It circles behind my tree and turning around I see its a small group of toms coming around the right hand side of my tree. Nice long beards but quite slim in body mass. They proceed toward the other side of the pond where a friend was up in my brothers tree stand not more than 15 yards away. They turkeys futzd around a while then walked off. I believe I can get an over the counter archery turkey tag as well for the Aug 22 hunt. Please excuse the crummy filming. http://youtu.be/BQAbmZZ2hlo

I can't believe you sit in one spot for that long. 10-12 minutes and I'm out of there unless I am targetting a lion or bobcat.

Great footage. Father/son memories that last a lifetime are made of events like this. Good job dad!