Originally Posted by Salmonella
Originally Posted by T_Inman
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]


In 1996 when I was in South Central Alaska hunting Grizz, I got to know one of Alaska's greatest trappers.
A Mountain Man in every sense of the word.
We stayed friends and shared photos for many years after.
His annual catches of Alaskan fur bearers was nothing short of astonishing.

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He went on be the aerial wolf control shooter in that region.
He sent me a photo of 97 wolf hides tacked to his barn, but asked to not share it publicly for fear to his family from the treehugging lunatics.

One year I called him in the spring and asked him how his season went.
He told me of an absolute beast of a Tom Lynx that he caught.
He said it was the biggest one he had caught in 25 years of hard trapping.
I asked him what he was going to do with it and he said probably sell it on the fur market or maybe to a taxidermist as it was such an exceptional animal.
I offered to buy it and he happily agreed.
I spoke with my Taxidermist in Libby Montana if he would be interested in mounting it for me and as it was something special, agreed to go the extra mile on it.
He is a world class Taxidermist and entered the piece in the World Taxidermy Championship in Reno that year.
It took 2nd in the world.

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The career guys need to get good or they go back to a normal life, but that is absolutely outstanding.

I just dabble in it for something to do, but started to enjoy it a bit too much. That particular lynx was "better than average" according to two fur buyers in Fairbanks but prices were down and they had both bought several lynx already, so they weren't interested in it. I decided to have it rugged along with a mid sized wolverine that they didn't want either. I now wish I wad weighed him, as the more I research lynx, the bigger he seems to be. His stretched and dried hide was about 4 feet long but he was only the 2nd lynx I have ever caught so I really didn't know what I had.

I see this guy only has 1 wolverine hanging, though more could be out of the frame. I believe south central AK doesn't have many of them, where the interior has a fair number more. I caught 3 this winter, which made me HAPPY.