In preparing for my second SC gator hunt I came across the debate on Salty crocs in Aus. Potentially being open to hunting at some point. It dawned on me, I use a harpoon and floats to take my gator and will do so again lord willing. Once we wear him out I grab him, pull him in the boat ( at least his head ) and use a 3" knife to immediately sever the spine. It would be awesome to hunt every available Liviathan that way. Is it possible under African law to hunt Crocs with a harpoon? It could be a crossbow with harpoon if that changes things. I imagine I would need a BIG float and wire line but I think it's doable. Any feedback? I will post the story after I get back from round 2 in two weeks. Hunting Santee Cooper and Marion so BIG gators. The last was a little under 11 and tried to jump off a 6 foot bank into my lap. We blocked him on shore we thought except you really don't tell an 11 ft gator what he's going to do.

I think if Africa is doable the Aus. might be if it opens. If Africa isn't even doable Aus would be out. I am not sure the size difference but it seems quite a bit. Stepping up one at a time might be wise

gremcat,

I'm thinking you'd have to hunt at night as you would in the States in order to get close enough to harpoon the croc. Where you find concentrations of crocs you find hippo. I'd hate to be out on the Luangwa for instance at night, disturb a hippo and have him flip the boat over in water full of crocs. Legal I don't know but you might have to hunt around a bit for a PH's willing to do it. Additionally the blood in the water from the harpoon strike will lure crocs from everywhere. Yikes!

Mark

Hadn't thought of hippos in the dark. Guess I will have to find an adventurous, slightly insane PH if I want to try this. Imagine a Leviathan slam by harpoon/knife. That would be something indeed. Wonder if the croc would run or would he try and flip the boat if he was that close. I suspect submerge just due to not knowing what was up. I bet it would be a heck of a fight though.

Nantucket sleigh ride, perhaps!

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
gremcat,

I'm thinking you'd have to hunt at night as you would in the States in order to get close enough to harpoon the croc. Where you find concentrations of crocs you find hippo. I'd hate to be out on the Luangwa for instance at night, disturb a hippo and have him flip the boat over in water full of crocs. Legal I don't know but you might have to hunt around a bit for a PH's willing to do it. Additionally the blood in the water from the harpoon strike will lure crocs from everywhere. Yikes!

Mark

I used to have friends that hunted crocs at night for a living in Tanzania. They would spot light them, pole up and shoot. Pull them in and repeat. Hippo's can be present but most are out feeding at night. From what they said, hippos aren't really a problem at night. One of the hunters did use outriggers just incase. The other's didn't as I recall.

quote:

Originally posted by gremcat:
Hadn't thought of hippos in the dark. Guess I will have to find an adventurous, slightly insane PH if I want to try this. Imagine a Leviathan slam by harpoon/knife. That would be something indeed. Wonder if the croc would run or would he try and flip the boat if he was that close. I suspect submerge just due to not knowing what was up. I bet it would be a heck of a fight though.

You might pm Mike Burke. He may not have experience with crocs, but he has a lot of experience with gators.

I wouldn't try this in a mokoro. Something like a 12-16' aluminum boat with a 54"+ beam is probably sufficient.

Just an idea but it is intriguing. If Croc by bow is legal it seems this should be.

Can you judge a croc at night like you do gators? It seems the videos I have seen the hunter waits for it to get on the bank to judge size / suitability.

I think the problem would be getting close enough to a big croc to harpoon him.

The big ones tend to get rather shy, and make it difficult even when hunting with a rifle at 200 yards.

You do this, gremcat, and drinks are on me, wherever we may meet, and for the whole house, anywhere, anytime!

Locate an area with a reputation for man-eating crocs, play at being the bait and sort the reptile out with a knife, Tarzan style.

My father was brought up in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and in the late 1950's spent a lot of time on the Kafue in a house boat built from Sunderland Flying boat floats.

He tells stories of croc hunting at night with torches and fishing for crocs. A large metal meat hook was tied to a steel cable and baited with haunch of goat or anything else nice and smelly and thrown into the river. Other end made fast to a tree. Following morning the cable would be bar taught with croc on the end. No amount of pulling would disturb the croc. The only way to move it was to bang the cable hard with a stick several times. This would clearly irritate the croc which would come charging out of the water. Trick was to shoot the croc before it went back in and for the whole exercise to be repeated again.

Much easier and much more humane to simply shoot the croc in the first place!

Whatever you do, please don't video it and post it publicly. Hunters have enough bad press without a video like this would be, hitting the WWW.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
I think the problem would be getting close enough to a big croc to harpoon him.

The big ones tend to get rather shy, and make it difficult even when hunting with a rifle at 200 yards.

Thigh deep in water at night with half a warthog strapped to your belt.

The way I have done it is pretty humane. A dart/harpoon goes under a scute and turns, then you fight the line and get a few more lines in, then just a knife to severe a vertebrae. Not really inhumane but not something I would video for YouTube.

Would it be possible to get harpoon/darts into Africa? If so which country would be best to look at? It's building momentum and kind of went from an idea to logistical planning phase.

My gator hunt I almost got knocked into the water a few times in the dark. It was an exciting hunt that's for sure. We had 30-40 big gators in the creek. I have suspicions why there were so many in a small river/creek but it was still pretty awesome.

I would not liken an alligator to a Saltie or a Nile crocodile.

Meant more on the humane killing side not struggle side. I don't pretend this is a normal hunt or even doable but maybe...

I've hunted Gators quite a bit and Crocs too...
Wouldn't do it honestly. Entirely different animals or perhaps better said dispositions.
Instead of the harpoon I used to use my bow. I bet on lake Kariba you could get a monster at night

"....have to find an adventurous and slightly insane PH....

That's certainly not a problem. I can PM you a long list.

Somebody thinks he's Croc Dundee.

Grizz

https://youtu.be/z16K3pVHfCg

Crock with a bow..
PH. Jeff Rann

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
I think the problem would be getting close enough to a big croc to harpoon him.

The big ones tend to get rather shy, and make it difficult even when hunting with a rifle at 200 yards.

I agree, the old crocs are too smart.

Back in 2004, Stephen Edwards, Marc Harper, and I tried our had at spearing crocs at night on the Zambezi/Cahorra Bassa from a 13 foot fiberglass boat. Edwards had a contract for croc control. We managed to spear a couple of 6-8 footers, but they both spun/pulled off the homemade harpoon head. I would not want to be in that boat if a big fresh croc was attached to it in any fashion. Here is a picture of the boat and a croc I shot that we pinned to the bank as the boat was closing in quickly on the shot croc. First shot was at about 15-20 yds from the moving boat. Last shot was straight down as the croc came back to life.


Removing a croc from the launch, and natives traveling in a dug-out:

There was a show on TV a few years called "Outback Hunters"'as I recall . It was fascinating . These Aussies took large crocs using a variety of methods.

See if you can find the show. One of the guys is a close personal friend of mine . I would be happy to introduce you at either DSC or SCI.

Personally, I would not do it. It's your life.

You do that and some anti but will go postal
Cecil The croc
Anyway, Aussies should have opened croc hunting long time ago
There is shit load of them down there