What was it?

Ice storm the other day so I get down in my draw and this is what I find. I have no clue yet what it was yet did not look at the card or if it even took a video at all so what’s your guess based on the pic provided and my descriptions.

The tree is a dead oak no teeth marks I could see like a porky would do, no tracks because of the melting snow and the drag messing up the leaves.

So what’s your guess I’ll down load the SD card later and see if it tells the tale of the mess. The cubby is just off to the bottom left with the branches I could not get it in the photo. You can see it in the 2nd pic lower right there.

lion and it pulled out

I’ll go with Cat.

Coon. Never seen anything else make that kind of mess.

I’d say we are not in lion country but they just got a 7 footer across the river from Chamberlain, they did get 3 in that area a few years ago.

Coon

Gray fox

Coon

Coon

It was definitely an education for whatever was in there. Haha

I seen the mess then no drag marks looked all over the ridges then I looked up what a surprise. LOL

Keep us posted, that is crazy! Perhaps ET!

Nothing on the chip! cameras been messing up its getting old.

You could probably just smell the trap and identify it as a coon. Funny how those smells stick in your brain. Then again, you might have to find another trapper who doesn't extract skunk essence to get a good read..

If you zoom in it looks like it might be the thing that came out of Sigourney Weaver in one of those Alien movies! Lol

My guess you hooked up the cat that you were after. How common are coon in that area? I had a cat a few years ago take a drag up a tree, up the the first limb. Like you I was looking for sign of the drag, heard a growl and looked up. Was a little surprised to see him up there.

made me jump when i finally saw it

If it was your bobcat you can still catch it. I dont believe they get trap shy. At least not very often.

The thing that sticks in my brain is the lack of chewing nothing on the trap zero blood to be found lots of damage to the tree from the chain it looked like. The tree was falling apart rotten scrub oak easy to break branches off of it what was left of it after t died.

Cat

Im going with cat too but I hesitate to guess how big it was and if it had a long or short tail.

Cat's don't chew like a coon or coyote. Coons would have made a bigger mess and a coyote would not have been up in the air leaving us with cat. If you have fisher or martin understand I know nothing about them so one of the guys with frost bite on the brain (Canadian ) would have to help you include or exclude them.

The fact that the catch defeated a Sterling or 650 to me would say it was NOT a small cat with a short tail.

Ask Beav about whether it could be a fischer or martin- Muskrat says he knows everything

Thats what i was thinking. Unless something slowed it down a bit and a good catch behind a pad or three didnt happen. The sterling and mb both flex enough a big cat can often self release.

Ice storm may of left a layer of ice dirt over the pan causing it to fire early making it a toe catch those MJ 600 traps don’t lose much.

Bobcat, got its claws in wood and powered out.

No way a bobcat "powers out" of a sterling unless something happened to slow it down so it didnt get high enough on the foot to get behind pads. That could have happened as law dog described. Those spring levers allow some jaw flex though. A lion can take advantage of that and "power out". Even with a good behind a couple pads catch. Yes they will hold many but not all.

If you put a big flat blade screw driver between the jaws and give it a little twist you will see what I am talking about. Not a coyote or bobcat alive that can "power out" with a good behind the pads catch, but a 140pound lion is a different story.

I’ve held yotes from the bottom by 2 pads in a MJ that was hitting the end of the chain pretty hard and it held.

I'd say Bigfoot...
Index finger, tried to throw it off and it hunt up in the tree.
When it didn't let go, he just jerked "real" hard.
Yep, that what I think...

Pig castrator.

Mike