Still lurking from Florida

[ross1147]

Still lurking on the site after moving from San Diego to Florida. Love keeping up with the 16ers. Deer season in FL opens next weekend here as well, so I’ve been keeping busy hunting gators. Tagged out today with my second one. They’re not huge ones, but in my experience if you stick with the 6-7 footers you’re better off. Much easier to clean and tan. And, taste much better than the big ones. Sure killing a big one is fun (largest to date is 10’7”) but the after processing is back breaking!

Good luck to y’all next weekend!

Ryan

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[TrapLine]

What’s duck hunting like with those things in the water?

 

[ross1147]

You know it’s never really crossed my mind? When I lived in South Carolina the gators were pretty bold and they’d come right up to you when fishing. I’ve never had one do that here. Most of them you see, especially the big ones, are trying to get away from you as fast as they can.
The area I killed these 2 in is an area I’ve started going in 2014. I’d take the dogs swimming, friends swimming, fishing, and duck hunting. Never did see a gator then…but the river is really low now so you can actually see the banks instead of just trees. There’s at least one gator on every bend. Probably won’t take the dogs there anymore.

 

[180ls1]

Looks fun! What does breaking one of those down entail?

 

[ross1147]

It all depends on what you want to do with the gator. Just meat? Skin for leather to make things? Skin for a wall mount? Just meat it’s easy, cut skin off and cut meat off. Where the work comes in is skinning to use for leather. The skin doesn’t come off like a deer or bear, there’s a lot of tendon cutting and it’s real easy to poke holes in the skin. You make 2 slits down the back along the outside row of ridges. Pull the ridges off and then work your way around to the bottom. The ribs are attached to the bottom chest skin so those are a pain to remove as well without poking holes. Then you have to flesh, remove the scales by soaking in hydrated lime, and then tan.
If you’re going for a wall mount you just slice up the center if the belly and work around top. Poking holes in the skin isn’t as big of a deal here, but keep them small. After the skin is off you flesh and then tan.
Easiest way I’ve found to flesh is with a pressure washer. Makes the job so much easier. But…and this is a biggg but, use a leather glove on your holding hand if you’re going to hold the skin while using your other hand on the gun. I’m dumb and get to spend the rest of the night in the ER tonight because I just gave my left hand a water embolism. There’s internal water from my wrist down to the middle knuckle on my middle finger. Fun times..

 

[180ls1]

Wowza!

 

[TRICER]

Pretty cool. I have been invited to go do this in Louisiana I need to go do it at some point. How are you hunting them are you catching them on trot lines or just going out and finding them. What are you shooting them with?

 

[ross1147]

in Florida on public land you can’t bait (well you can but it has to be attached to your boat and no hook involved. ) and no guns allowed. I usually take a bow set up for bow fishing and a fishing pole with a big weighted treble hook. This year I snagged both gators with the pole. I could have taken both with the bow but I was by myself on the jetski and keeping that thing straight while shooting a bow just seemed too challenging.

If they’re too large to handle with a pole you have a grappling hook attached to 550 cord. Get that in them and pull them in. This is the first year I’ve used a bang stick to dispatch them, and it’s well worth the money. If I could use a gun the season would be over in seconds. It’s not hard seeing them, just hard getting close enough to use legal means.lol

 

[NBK]

Keep us all in the loop @ross1147 . Wr want to hear about your season as it progresses. Always nice to see what is going on back East.

Good luck and thanks for sharing.

 

[SurfNHuntSD]

Talk about regional/local knowledge.. this is wild stuff. Gators are crazy animals.

 

[TRICER]

in Florida on public land you can’t bait (well you can but it has to be attached to your boat and no hook involved. ) and no guns allowed. I usually take a bow set up for bow fishing and a fishing pole with a big weighted treble hook. This year I snagged both gators with the pole. I could have taken both with the bow but I was by myself on the jetski and keeping that thing straight while shooting a bow just seemed too challenging.

If they’re too large to handle with a pole you have a grappling hook attached to 550 cord. Get that in them and pull them in. This is the first year I’ve used a bang stick to dispatch them, and it’s well worth the money. If I could use a gun the season would be over in seconds. It’s not hard seeing them, just hard getting close enough to use legal means.lol

I dont fully understand. Once you snag them with the treble hook how do you kill them? Is the bang stick like one of those things from "No Country For Old Men"? This all sounds pretty awesome by the way. Do you have pictures of all this stuff?

 

[ross1147]

Kind of like that but instead of air you put a bullet in it. It’s not considered a firearm, no trigger or firing mechanism. From left to right there’s the giant treble hook with 550 cord, bang stick with 45LC round where you load it and screw the “barrel” on, then on the right is the weighted treble hook I use to snag them. Because there’s no barrel to channel the pressure and speed up the bullet you only get 3-4” of penetration. So both gators still had the 255 grn SWC lodged in their skulls. Some of the best leather skin is on the bottom of their heads (chin/throat area) so not getting full penetration is important.

Ryan

 

[ross1147]

Adding to the list. Bow season opened last weekend and I missed a doe at 40 on public opening day. I guessed 40 and shot right over her back. Ranged it after and it was 41.6 yds, so I just whiffed I guess?? Hunted Sunday, Tuesday, and again on Saturday. Saw deer everyday but no shots. Decided to pull my easy card early and set up at my food plot at my house today. Maybe 15 minutes in the stand and smoked her. Pretty cool doing this just 100 yds behind my house! I’m done hunting my house until the rut …late Jan early Feb. Don’t want to run all the does off before then!

If you look at the picture she has a piebald face, didn’t realize that before I shot her but pretty cool!

 

[NBK]

Very cool Ryan. Were stoked your keeping us in the loop. Are you still hunting the West? You have some nice long range stuff that might not get as much use where you are now.

 

[ross1147]

I hunted region H this year in Wyoming. My father and I were camped 4 miles in and at 9K ft. Most miserable hunt I’ve ever been on. Rained every day we were in the back country (6 days). My crispi boots I only used for one season in the “16” and cleaned as directed leaked like a sieve. Wet feet for 6 days in the back country killed my moral.

On day 3 I watched someone kill the buck I’d been hunting in my spotter (first pic below, the big one in the back. 2 hunters killed one of the other bucks, around a 24” 3x3. While they were cleaning it the big 4x4 walked out right next to them. I had to watch them shoot the buck I had been after for 3 days. Probably killed it with a 6.5CM to boot ). I marched back to camp, threw my gear down and told my dad I quit hunting and I’m going to sell all my guns and gear.lol.

After talking me off the ledge I was back in the game the next day. Put a sneak on a buck the next morning, climbed to 10K ft, just to have the buck slip over the ridge line outside my view and get shot the second he went onto the other side.

On the last day I ended up shooting a smaller 4x3 with my 25SST at 90 yds. The story sounds better if I don’t post pictures and just say I killed a 4x3.

I still have deer points in MT, elk points in WY/MT, and antelope points in WY/MT. When I draw for elk I’ll be using the 338SS you built me!

Ryan

 

[NBK]

Glad you still at it Ryan. Sometimes hunting can be so humbling. We have ll been there. You can take the man out of the hunt but you can't take the hunt out of the man.