How big can males get?

So I picked a normal ball python from someone finding it a home. They say its a female, but I know that they can be mistaken about that. I have a friend coming over in a couple of days to probe it and make sure of it gender, but until than I was wondering about the size difference in males and females. This one I picked up is 10 yrs old, was fed every 2 weeks a med to large rat, and is 2800 grams. And the head on it is huge. Can males get this big? The ball isn't fat, and is well over 4 foot, maybe closer to 5. I can wait for my friend to come by and probe it for me and be sure of its gender.

This is "her" in a 41 quart tub

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n...ps97493002.png

They can get that big, but that's certainly not the norm. You can't really be certain on the gender until you probe it.

I rescued a normal male named "Amber" (oops!). "She" was ~2500g.

I had a male just shy of 2,900 grams at one point...

Ok. I am curious what it will probe when my friend gets here. lol. It would be awesome if it is in fact a female.

04 male clown, 2600 grams
http://i968.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/PICT7894.jpg

07 male clown, 2700 grams ^^ His son
http://i968.photobucket.com/albums/a...k/PICT1016.jpg

The first ball python I ever had was a normal male who got to be about 3300g before I gave him to my friend as a pet. He is still about the same size and goes on a yearly 4-5 month fast. IMO males that breed a lot of females dont grow as much for that same reason but males that are pets and are strong feeders can get very big.

Females probe up to 4-5 scales usually (most of mine probe to 2-3 scales) and males over 6 scales. This is he norm, not the rule.