Day'um lizards are on the move, down here.....

[Big Muddy]

7322

[HideHunter]

Cool.. I think hunting them is something I could get real interested in. I discussed it with Gator. He shot me a heck of price on a hunt. When I told him a really didn't care about the hide he said, "Hell, if you just want to shoot a gator, get your ass down here; I'll put you to work." ;) I'm learning at our age, you shouldn't put things off.

[Thumper]

Hidey-Ho ... if you weren't coming down for a legal (state hunting season) hunt, you'd have had even more fun. During a Game Commission sponsored State hunt, the gators must be killed (shot) once you get them close enough to the boat. But on Tony's "nuisance gator" hunts, you bring 'em home alive (in the boat with you)! Now THAT'S where the REAL excitement kicked in! Trust me, a 13' gator is a BIG gator! :D

I had the "fun" of working with him when we caught a couple the size of the one above. He usually didn't kill those big monsters and would try to find a buyer for the live gator ... usually a zoo/"tourist trap" type facility.

[BarryBobPosthole]

I seem to remember some story he told about stacking them in the walk-in where they'd kind of go into hibernation until he needed one. Then they be alive when he delivered them.

BKB

[Thumper]

Yep, you gotta remember, we'd hunt all night and many times brought home a boat load. It took HOURS to butcher each gator, so we'd bring them home alive to butcher them when convenient, then go to bed. When it came time to butcher, we'd go in and shoot 'em in the head. Trust me, by time they'd been in that cooler, they were all rested up and PISSED off! Of course they were "hog-tied" and their mouths were taped closed. Where the real excitement came in was when you walked into the cooler and found out the hard way, one of 'em had slipped out of the ropes and while thrashing around, had severed the tape around their mouth! THAT'S when you found out how fast you can REALLY move! :D

I remember one of the fun tricks to pull was when someone went into the cooler with 6-8 pissed off gators, we'd shut the lights off and slam the door shut! I know Booger still checks in here and can tell a few of those stories. In fact, I believe he was a victim a time or two. I "think" it was him that got locked in one time when a gator had busted loose. When we finally opened the door, he was hanging from the ceiling with his arms and legs wrapped around a pipe that Tony would hang deer from while they aged before processing during deer season. That's pretty f'ing hairy considering with that cooler door shut, you're in TOTAL darkness. :D

[airbud7]

Hey Thump..I heard yall got some big ass snakes down your way to...

[Thumper]

If there's a body of water ... even a retention pond, ya' just figure there's a gator in it. I live next to a lake and have pulled one out of my swimming pool. I could leave the house driving and I'd say within 5-10 minutes, I could spot a few gators. Most people go right by them and never see them. Here's a monster that prowls one of the local golf courses down here. (our water hazards are REAL water hazards!) ;)


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[Captain]

I hunted with Gator and Thumper quit a few times and most of the times we would have a boat with 3 or 4 of us in there and as many as 10 or more big gators in the boat at the same time. And they would all be alive. It was pretty cool! We would hunt all night and put the gators alive in the cooler and "day shift" would come in and start the processing while we all slept and got ready for another nights hunt.
During the state hunting season we would have to shoot them with a .38 caliber bang stick before we could bring them in the boat. That meant someone would have to proceed them right away...
I did get to gig a few of those over size lizards and have the head mounted of the biggest one I gigged. It was 12'6" but I don't recall the weight. Seems like it was just north of 600 pounds. I've still got the video of the whole event on DVD that Thumper made. The gator about pulled me in two or 3 times during the fight. If Thumper remembers (he is getting old) there was a metal deal on the front of the boat that you could lean on to help keep your balance while you were fighting the gators. It was basically a pipe with a "T" threaded on top of it and just gave you something to lean against or to hold on to during the fight. After that night of fighting gators as we were loading the boat that brace fell off. It had rusted through where it connected to the boat. How it did not break earlier during the night was just dumb luck! That could have been really bad.
I accused Thumper of sawing it almost into in a attempt to get rid of me so he could make a play for Mrs. Captain....

[Thumper]

I accused Thumper of sawing it almost into in a attempt to get rid of me so he could make a play for Mrs. Captain....

Well, it ALMOST worked! :pissed

(You'd make a good detective.) :D