What is a big bobcat?

For those with a lot of Bobcat trapping experience what is considered a large bobcat? I caught one Friday that measured from tip on the nose to the base of the tail 42"

One on the far right went 46"
The other two are at 43"


A 50" + cat is a horse of a cat as Eric would classify it!

This one was 49" nose to base of tail and about 15" across the base. Biggest I have ever taken. I am 5'11

42" is on the small side real big or the top end of big. 26lbs ish. Respectable size either way!

Caught my biggest this year. 46" stretched and 32 lbs.

WhackMaster that is a bomber. 49" is big. 15" seems wide at the base but looks proportionate.

Great Basin trappers take one of the largest cats and best colored cats in the country. 40 inch plus are common there but are not common in other places, in fact almost unheard of.

A 40 incher or larger is considered a jumbo and commands a top price if other things are there. Large is 36 - 40 inches. Medium is 32 to 36. And small is 32 or less.

In S. NV. the Mohave Desert toms go about 38 or 39 inches tops and females are smaller.

Size DOES matter but color (white) and clear spots and heft are probably more important. A 35 inch female will bring twice as much as a 42 inch off color tom if the color and heft is right.

Lance and Whack: your cats are premo. Top dollar. Very few trappers in all the USA have ever seen a cat like those.

That white matters. Last year I had a 46 inch tom sell for 200 and a 34 inch female go for 650.

This year, I think I have the perfect intersection of size and color a 42 and a 44 incher with wide white bellies with lots of well defined spots. We shall see...

I also got one that I swear was trapped in Georgia and transplanted to Nevada. Essentially no white on its very narrow belly. Blah...

I totally agree with you guys. Not only the wide white belly but the dark spots that show thru well and the heft or thickness of the coat is important! One of my better days. 2 Toms weighing 36 and 39lbs. Both heavy coats but the bottom one with the better belly and the top one with darker spots showing thru.

I was told that last week NDOW caught a Bobcat out in the Stead area thats weight was 65 lbs.................fact or fiction

My best was 44 inches weighing 30lbs,

not@home I would have to call BS on a 65lb Bobcat. Coyotes don't even get that heavy. Maybe a young lion?

I'm new here mostly here too learn and observe, I live in the east Kentucky actually.
Yall sure got some nice cats out there my best was caught about a mile from my house "as a crow flys" in the bottom of a rimrock canyon on a crossing log. He was 26lbs and would probably stretched maybe 40" but I mount most of my cats that I sell I'm a taxidermist, it's the best money I can get from are cats.
Beautiful cats guys
Colt

A friend of mine in Alaska sent me a coyote hide from a coyote he shot. It weighed 52 lbs. Biggest one I ever caught while working for govt. as a trapper, I brought in a weighed, and it was 42 lbs.