Florida Christmas gators

[Mad Dog]

Thanks for the help boys on getting the pics to post.  My son was in FL. over Christmas with his girl friend and her parents.  Dan and her Dad went on a 1 day gator hunt over near Lake Okeechobee.  they weren't after monster gators[cost] but were after a good experience.  Don't have details of the trip, but here are 2-3 pics.




Dan's gator, taken with a 44 mage handi rifle and Hornady LE ammo.




girl friends Dad and his very nice gator.


Mad Dog

[Dinny]

That's interesting! I never even thought about hunting alligator. There's another game animal to add to my list. Were they both using 44 Mags?

Thanks, Dinny

[Mad Dog]

Not sure what her dad was using, but I know it wasn't a 44 mag.  My son could have taken a 30-06 handi, but he hadn't shot it for a while, and the 44 mag was already sighted in from deer season.  Except for the trip to Zim, last year, where he used a Ruger No. 1, all his deer and big game kills have bee made with handi rifles/shotguns.


Mad Dog

[petemi]

It's amazing how times change.  When I was a young man in Florida we shot them to prevent predation on dogs, chickens, ducks and hogs.  Florida's Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission would usually trap and relocate them.  If they were unable to do so, we shot them.  Now they're farmed, ranched and legally hunted.  I never lost a dog to gators, but I had some close calls that could have turned out differently if I didn't have a gun in my hands..  I had a lab in those days and she loved the water.

If you read old stories about Florida such as M.K. Rawlings "The Yearling".  Gators were smoked for dog food.  Now you pay a small fortune for gator tail in a better restaurant.  The dogs didn't know they had it so good

Pete

[Mad Dog]

Pete,  I'm waiting to try some of that gator tail, as soon as the boy gets home!


Mad Dog

[jeepmann1948]

Congrats on the gators! The tails are really good to eat. The best i ever had was made in boudin . Had some hunters come up here from Louisiana that brought it > Talk about good!
 Pete walking around them swamps with them Gators just proves the alligators do not like the taste of Yankees either! (He really is a nice guy)
Happy Trails
George
 

[petemi]

George, that's gotta be true.  An old Cracker neighbor and friend used to call me "Yankee Boy".  I waded lakes and ponds bass fishing all over Florida in nothing but blue jeans and sneakers when I was young and stupid.  I had some interesting encounters with cotton mouths and gators but somehow lived through it.  It's really fun wading in a relatively flat and firm area and suddenly drop into a gator hole.  I ran into a lady gator defending her nest one time.  She was P.O.ed, and I was in waist deep water with a spinning rod in my hand.  I'd back up slow, and she'd advance that much.  Kind of a Mexican Standoff until I got far enough away and she went back to housekeeping.

Pete