I may have a chance at a nuisance alligator tag this year and was planning on using archery gear. Anyone on this board ever taken a gator with a bow? What gear did you use?

Never done it, but being from Southeast LA and having water skied with them I feel somewhat qualified.

I would use a fixed blade broadhead on bowfishing arrow so it can't be pulled out.
Once you hit him he will dive and that is why you use a line on your arrow.

Your best luck would be at night in a boat. Look for the red eyes and let it fly.

Good luck!

I'm like Monty here, I read theheading and the first thing I visualized was a moby dick sized fishing arrow with some 200# test line on it.

Florida Sportsman magazine had an article about hunting gators. In Florida no firearms are allowed on public lands. The preferred method is hunting in shallow water, at night, and using a harpoon or spear with detachable head, line and floats. I think a bow with a line and floats would work well. After the gator tires of pulling the boat (be careful), it is dispatched with a bang stick. Good luck.

Never done it but I read a article last month by Brenda Valentine. I guess they taged it with a regular carbon fish arrow with line hooked to a float. When the gator got exhausted they were able to to get close enough for her to shoot it with a heavy carbon fish arrow with a broad head on it. Hope this helps.

Big-un

I just got back from a visit to Ft Lauderdale courtesy of the US Navy and did a gator hunt for problem gators in Ft Myers FL.

I had a blast!!!! I took 3 gators in 1 day with a crossbow and heavy duty fish arrows with a MUZZY Fish Head. 2 of the gators were in the 6-7 ft range and one was just a whisker under 9 ft. All 3 had been raising hell on lakes in the area. I hunted with a fellow named John French and he takes somewhere around 600 problem gators a year.

If you are looking to do something different and interesting, give this a try. I'm having the skull of the biggest gator bleached out and also brought about 20 lbs of boned meat home. I've got some pics and as soon as I can get them developed, will post them.

Mac