For some crazy reason I am interested in hunting alligator.
Does anyone know anything about a gator hunt? Do you have any good recommendations on a gator hunt? I have looked into it some and seen cost of $500 to $9000. I am more of a $500 to $1000 kind of a gator hunter. Is there a good reasonably priced gator hunt out there?

The latest issue of the SCI newspaper, Safari Times, has an ad for a gator hunt for $1050. The website is www.centralfloridatrophyhunts.com. Don't know anything about them, but I'll pass on the info.

Mac

Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. has several alligators hunts at 2 or 3 of their Wildlife Management Areas for which you can enter a drawing. Your odds are pretty good in the drawing and the hunter success is usually at least 50%. Costs are out of $2 draw fee, state license, alligator tag, and $50 hunt fee, probably less than $400. You do have to have your own boat, but there are usually places you can rent them - Go-Devil motors are the cat's meow. The biologists run the hunts and sort of serve sort of as guides. I used to work at one of the lakes where some of the hunts take place - think either cypress swamp or coastal marsh.

You might try hunting in Louisiana, they have lots of gators and Wildlife & Fisheries issues tags to landowners in areas where there is a huntable population.

How the landowner fills his tag is generally up to him. He can sell his tags to trappers and/or hunters or use them himself.

One way hunting is to suspend a dead bird on a fishhook above the water. The line is tied to a small branch and then to a tree on shore. The aligator lunges out of the water, and pulls down the bird, breaking the branch.

Now is when things get interesting.

You handline the beast up to the boat, trying to stay away from the teeth and not swamping the boat. Then you pop him between the eyes with a .22 magnum or a .38. Shooting him anywhere else but his pea brain just makes him mad.

The usual deal is that the sport gets to keep the head (special permit required) and the tail is good eating. The trapper gets to keep the valuable skin.
Good Luck!

You are kiddin' right? One does not hunt gators, one simply kills them! Gators are stupid and easy to kill.

The easiest way is to spotlight them and then crack their skull open, with a blow directly between the ears and eyes, with a lead weighted ball bat. This is all done from the comfort of your boat, by the way. Course I do not know if they allow night hunting, legally. (that was the way it was done back when I was a boy, though)

Another way is to to get them to bite ahold of a deer leg, or similarly heavy bones object with which you can get some good leverage, once they bite down roll them over on their back (not too easy if you've gotten ahold of a big 10 footer) and then you can gut the SOB right there while he is upside down floating in the swamp (makes it easier to haul 'em onboard too)!

Of course you can simply bait them and shoot 'em in the head as an earlier posted suggested. Still think clubbing is the best way though. In my opinion, you either need to be real dumb (not knowing you dance steps) or real slow to get bitten by a gator, so why waste good money on bullets when weighted ball bats work so damned well!

Of course you can get licensed as a gator "PH", and them you can take them out of moron yankees swimming pools.

Scott

PS - Course you need to be able to tell the difference between a croc and gator. There are several reasons for this, but the biggest are:
1.) It is beau coupe illegal to kill a croc!
2.) Croc are more aggressive and their attack strategy is 90 degrees out of phase to that of a gator. In other words, one dances a different step with a croc than one dances with a gator, mix the dance steps up and your are reptile poop. If you don't know your aquatic lizards, you may be better off paying all that money to a local who can point it out for you.

The weapon of choice that I've seen is a short barreled .410 shotgun at about 2 inches - after you've hooked him and drug him up close to the boat. And don't tell me getting that close to 9 to 12 ft wild alligator is anything but adrenaline raising. I've had my hands on a dead 12.5-footer (685 lbs.) and it was pretty impressive.

On the hunts in Texas, the hunter gets the whole thing, you just can't sell the hide. You can have stuff made into whatever you wish out of it though and some of the tanned hides I've seen were very nice looking.

The meat is tough, I can not for the life of me figure out how restaurants get the meat tender. There is also some fat you have to take out.

ScottS,
Your Joking right?
1) There are no crocs in the US so you don't have to tell tehm apart.
2) Bait on a hook is what is used in most "trapping" cases and a spear or bow with a float, in the sporting end of things.

3) Rolling them over and "gutting" them ruins the belly skin and that is the skin that is primarily used to make the belts, shoes and briefcases.

As for not being sporting.... I have fished in Flordia and it is almost impossible to get bow close to a large gator without them seeing you and taking off. From what I know it is a tough hunt to do in a sporting manner. Market or hide hunting is a totally different matter.

You might want to check that out--I am pretty certain that there are crocs in FL, and they are protected. Not too much in the same area that you'ld hunt gators, though. I am looking at a gator hunt someday myself. I think it would be a grin.

The Florida hunts I have read about with bow usually take place at night with a spot light to shine their eyes. I looked into it once but I thought Lousianna offered better opportunities for gators.

The American Crocodile:

*lives in the southern tip of Florida, which is a tropical climate
*is even more sensitive than the American alligator to the cold
*is listed as an endangered species under the Federal Endangered Species Act

The Edmund Tom Ranch is Texas does alligator hunts:
Link to Edmund Tom Ranch
Alligator
HUNT FEE - includes lodging, meals - $500 per day
Kill Fee - per foot - $50

Thanks guys this is some good info to get started. I did want to bow hunt a gator. and yes Bob is right, we do have crocs in the USA, I have watched many a National Geographic special on them, the American Crocodile located in Florida to Venezuela. I will try some of those links. Thanks again.

Take it from me there most certainly are American Crocodiles in the Great State of Florida! If you aren't in Florida you don't have to worry about them though. If you are you better worry, cause if you kill one you will be spending sometime in the Boss man's jail!

By the way, you know how to tell the difference between the two? Think you can do it in the field (swamp)?

If you spotlight them you can literally 'paddle' right up to pet'em if you like, them bash their pea brain out with that lead weighted ball bat!

Of course some people think hunting deer in an over-populated state park is challenging to, I suppose.

Still think the best approach, and the cheapest too I suppose, is to kill one in 'self-defense' in some moron yankee's swimming pool. Make sure you feed that yankee's dog to it first, though, as it should help with your 'self-defense' arugment.

Scott

I stand corrected on the crocs. Sorry
I like the idea of self-defense

Here is a picture of a gator on my ranch. If you look closely you can see a hook by his right eye. Somebody caught him at one time but he got loose.