Today is last day of our season and I lucked out and finally caught a cat, no make that two, my first ever double, it was a male and female. My question is, hows the market? I'm trying to decide if I should try to save the big male for a mount or take chances with a fur buyer... the female was pretty big too but her belly was a little stained.

sweeeet

No help on what to do with em. Nice double though!

Good quandary to be in.

Ride over to Montana to sell them. Average was $300+

WTG, no snow? I'd definitely get one of them tanned.

Both look like great cats, but if I was going to keep one I would keep the female. She probably will not bring much on the fur market with a stained belly, but will make a great mount. Congrats on the double.

Last year

Look into the taxi market get them tagged then bag and freeze them until you make up your mind the fur market is poor you might do better selling it for a mount. I sold a #29lb male one for $200 I was happy with that.

I agree if you are going to mount one mount the female. You see very little of the belly on most mounts, I would go by how nicely spotted the sides and back are, because that is what you are going to be looking at mostly after it is mounted. The tom with a clear white belly will do a lot better on the fur market than a casty bellied female. Particularly when the market is as soft as it this year.

Congrats on the double!

Well, I rushed myself and am regretting it now, haha. I have to go in to work this week, and with a fur buyer coming at the end of the week I made the swift decision to put up the female and freeze the tom. It would've made more sense to put up the Tom and freeze the female... but oh well, just the way it goes sometimes 🤷🏾
Got 44 inches on her, didn't realize she was that big, would've made a good mount 🤦🏽‍♂️

Not a bad looking cat.

Looks like a coyote stretcher to me.
I recommend modifying those old wooden stretchers, with the top end being wire.
It makes a cleaner look, IMO.
The cat market is off, like everything else.
That said, good quality prime cats, with clear wide, white bellies having dark spots with no 'bleeding' still remain at the top of the demand, just the dollar is not as strong as years past. Still a salable item , though.
Tremendous difference in an old 'spruce back' and a costal cat.
All bobcats are NOT created equal as far as the fur market and even the taxidermy market are concerned !

Sold a beautiful male for $250 and that was the high price the buyer had paid to date, last year the same cat would have brought $750.
I would sure freeze that male and keep it til next year.
Our bobcats bring big money and this year is a bust so far. Still have one form last year waiting for April auction, be interesting to see what if anything it brings. Our smaller cat sold but the larger, better on is still awaiting auction.

We use Top Lot wooden stretchers and the buyers love our put up. Way better than wire stretchers. I modify the nose area though and round it off some.

I'm always into modifying, I made this board but am open to experience, I didn't really know what I was doing when I made it and still don't to some degree, I'll look it up though. One of the fur buyers said he probably wouldn't pay much for the tom and is encouraging me to taxi it, I didn't show the female yet, maybe ill do that one in person, if it's too low I think a tan and making her a wall hanging won't be a bad choice either

Way to go.Congrats.I would have one mounted.

That's not a coyote stretcher with that round/triangle nose on it LT Grey. I've got a couple of cat stretchers that look like the head is cut off the same pattern. All the rest of mine have pointier noses, I prefer the look of a more coyote like head on a cat, and you get a couple inches more length on them. But their neck is shorter than a coyote and the stretcher needs to widen out to the shoulders faster than a coyote stretcher, to make that white belly wide and stand out. I have about fifteen solid cat stretchers, in I either 6 or 7 different sizes and always try and fit the cat to the stretcher, if I have the stretchers full or a cat that just doesn't fit one of my sizes right I've got over 20 split stretchers I can put them on, but I prefer solid stretchers. Try and fit them on a stretcher that will make their belly as wide as possible while still getting extra large length out of them comfortably.

Nothing wrong with the way you stretched that cat there jl, I've stretched lots of them like that when I was younger and didn't have the selection of stretchers and got good money for them. That is a big nice cat for a female, but if you have a wider stretcher I would have tried to put it on one where you got her to 39-40" and had a little wider belly than stretching to 44".

When she's dry enough I'll take her off and add a picture of the stretcher see what you guys think,
Here's a pic of the male sorry for the sideways pics, im using a phone and don't see how to rotate

Well here's a picture of the cat stretcher I made years back, fur buyer looked at my Tom and said he could be worth anywhere from 250 to 600 for him, he looked at the cat froze like in the picture. So now I'm on the verge of putting this cat up also. I don't know if I should start another thread in the fur handling but I do have a few questions about how others put up their cats