Byron South
New member
Thanks again fellows,
Todd,
She did get a bigger gator but thats the risk I take every time I take her hunting. She can shoot,
Totch,
I found the sounds I used on the internet. They were pretty poor quality. I'm already working on getting some better sounds for next years hunt. Thing is I've had them respond to puppy whines and even kittens too. What got the bigger gator really going was the coyote pup distress.
As someone else already mentioned, I believe a decoy would help too. We shot these in the water but next year I hope to lure them up on the bank for the shot. This will make recovery MUCH easier. When you shoot and they just go down under water your not sure if your gafting a live, wounded, or dead gator. There are definately better more efficient ways to kill gators but this was the way I wanted to do it. We learned a lot, but have a only began trying to figure this out.
AP,
As always, your on the ball.
Okanagon,
I agree that most animals can be effectively called. I enjoy hunting just about anything, and very rarely hunt anything without intentions of calling it to me first. There is nothing more gratifying to me than calling an animal to me. Whether it be a coyote, bobcat, elk, deer, turkey, duck, the tactics are prety much the same with only a few modifications for each species habits and tendacies.
Lana's gator weighed 440 pounds. I would have guessed him to weigh more. We didn't weigh mine but I would guess him to be around 300 or so.
WyoSongDog,
I'm sure others have called in alligators but not sure if it was filmed or not.
Taking them on land would have been better and if I could have got them up on the bank we surely would have. With this pond and these gators it would have been difficult. The land owner has never seen the big gators out of the water. They were both very spooky and reclusive. I was also unaware that their eyesight is as good as it is. If your not very careful in your aproach they will see you and disapear. Some gators are curious and will approach you to get a better look. These two would not. We hunted this place last year and never saw a gator over 6 foot. This year once I realized how well they can see, and how spooky/sneaky the big ones were we changed our tactics. By doing this we also saw other gators we and the land owner never knew were even there.
Alligator numbers are on the rise in all the gulf coast states. As these numbers rise so will hunter opportunity. Being that their was a moratorium on hunting gators for lots of years I'm sure some of the tactics for hunting them have faded to the back of the mind for lots of old timers.
Because of conservation efforts and hunters dollars the alligator has now been de-listed and hunting seasons opened. Big success story, and a great feather in the hat for us as hunters.
Thanks again guys,
Good Hunting and God Bless,
Byron
Todd,
She did get a bigger gator but thats the risk I take every time I take her hunting. She can shoot,
Totch,
I found the sounds I used on the internet. They were pretty poor quality. I'm already working on getting some better sounds for next years hunt. Thing is I've had them respond to puppy whines and even kittens too. What got the bigger gator really going was the coyote pup distress.
As someone else already mentioned, I believe a decoy would help too. We shot these in the water but next year I hope to lure them up on the bank for the shot. This will make recovery MUCH easier. When you shoot and they just go down under water your not sure if your gafting a live, wounded, or dead gator. There are definately better more efficient ways to kill gators but this was the way I wanted to do it. We learned a lot, but have a only began trying to figure this out.
AP,
As always, your on the ball.
Okanagon,
I agree that most animals can be effectively called. I enjoy hunting just about anything, and very rarely hunt anything without intentions of calling it to me first. There is nothing more gratifying to me than calling an animal to me. Whether it be a coyote, bobcat, elk, deer, turkey, duck, the tactics are prety much the same with only a few modifications for each species habits and tendacies.
Lana's gator weighed 440 pounds. I would have guessed him to weigh more. We didn't weigh mine but I would guess him to be around 300 or so.
WyoSongDog,
I'm sure others have called in alligators but not sure if it was filmed or not.
Taking them on land would have been better and if I could have got them up on the bank we surely would have. With this pond and these gators it would have been difficult. The land owner has never seen the big gators out of the water. They were both very spooky and reclusive. I was also unaware that their eyesight is as good as it is. If your not very careful in your aproach they will see you and disapear. Some gators are curious and will approach you to get a better look. These two would not. We hunted this place last year and never saw a gator over 6 foot. This year once I realized how well they can see, and how spooky/sneaky the big ones were we changed our tactics. By doing this we also saw other gators we and the land owner never knew were even there.
Alligator numbers are on the rise in all the gulf coast states. As these numbers rise so will hunter opportunity. Being that their was a moratorium on hunting gators for lots of years I'm sure some of the tactics for hunting them have faded to the back of the mind for lots of old timers.
Because of conservation efforts and hunters dollars the alligator has now been de-listed and hunting seasons opened. Big success story, and a great feather in the hat for us as hunters.
Thanks again guys,
Good Hunting and God Bless,
Byron
