# Zone 9 Gators



## Michael (Sep 16, 2009)

Got this 8'3" gator on Sat the 12th. We saw 48 gators that night, several of which were over 10'. Word to the wise, even if you are using a Gator-aider which makes shooting a bow accurately at night very easy, if you are not used to shooting a bow, take a few practice shots. Jim missed the first gator, maybe a 10'r, but he then connected on the 8'r. Larry put a second arrow in it, then used his 44 to put it down for the count. Then it was Larry's turn to try and fill his tag. While Larry had no trouble pulling the bow back with adrenaline pumping for the first "back-up" shot, after we found him a 10+'r, he couldn't pull the bow back. I gave him a different bow, then found a monster swimming down river. We got so close you could have literally stabbed it. Larry drew the bow, aimed, but since it was now maybe 4 AM, in his sleep deprived state and not being a bowhunter, he tried to simply "release" the release instead of pulling the trigger. Since it was attached to his wrist, that didn't work. Now he was too spent to draw the bow again and the gator finally dropped before he could pass the bow to Jim. We ended the night with just the one Gator, but it was still a great night.


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## Michael (Sep 16, 2009)

Last night we went back to the Savannah River in search of that Monster that got away from Larry. Once again we saw about 45 gators, but didn't find as many "shooters" as before. We had a 10'r get away about midnight, which turned out to be good because about 2:30 we found this 11' 5 1/8"r. Rick made a great shot on it and the fight was on. It quickly stripped the line off the Gator-aider and drug the float all the way across the river. After we got reloaded and caught up to the float, it took off again and pulled us back across the river. Then it got hung up under a log. We held on for over 45 minutes, then I elected to simply release the line and easy off instead of trying to horse it in with only one arrow. After about 5 minutes, sure enough the float started moving again just like in the movie Jaws. It pulled the float down and under the log. Once it popped back up we caught up to the the line and was then able to pull the gator up and put a second arrow in it. Unfortunately it was a marginal hit in the arm. Even worse, when we started trying to horse the gator in for a pistol shot, it bite the line to the first arrow and broke it. Now we really had to baby the gator as I wasn't sure how those new Steel Force Gator Heads would hold on a marginal shot. 45 minutes passed before we were able to get a third arrow in the gator, but it was also a glancing shot and since I only had 2 Gator heads, this fishing point didn't hold and soon we were back to only having the 2nd arrow attached to the gator. Luckily the Gator point performed just as promised and stayed put. Another 45 mintes went by before we finally got it up and this time we put a well place shot completely through the chest. It didn't take long then to get it up and put several 9 mm's to it's head. Then it was all the 3 of us could do to pull it in the boat. In all it took well over 2 hrs from the time Rich shot the gator until we got it in the boat. 

Just to show you how tough these dinasours are, we later learned someone had shot it weeks before, hitting it just behind the right eye with an exit wound around the lower left arm pit, which should have been fatal, but instead was now almost healed. Then we'd shot it 4 times with arrows, 6 times to the head with a pistol and later stabbed it once in the left lung and twice in the right lung and yet it was still alive when we got home  Good thing we played it safe and left it hog tied and taped.


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## wack em (Sep 16, 2009)

Looks like a fine time Michael!

I cant wait to draw a tag.


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## frydaddy40 (Sep 16, 2009)

*wow*

  Now that's a Gator


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## Michael (Sep 17, 2009)

frydaddy40 said:


> Now that's a Gator



After taking so long to get this 11'r in the boat, I'm kind of glad we didn't find the Monster that got away Sat


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## Cottontail (Sep 17, 2009)

Thats a big ol gator right now !!!  Congrats.


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## rob keck (Sep 17, 2009)

great job michael


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## arrow2 (Sep 17, 2009)

Sounds like you guys had some great hunts. Congrats to the shooters and yourself.


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## larpyn (Sep 18, 2009)

heck of a lizard, congrats


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## hogman2 (Sep 18, 2009)

Thats me holding the bow!  It sure was a great hunt and an awesome gator.  Thanks to Micheal for putting me on him and Richard for spotting him!!!


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## Trizey (Sep 18, 2009)

Looks like you're going to need a bigger boat!


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## capt stan (Sep 18, 2009)

Very nice congrats to all!


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## Michael (Sep 18, 2009)

hogman2 said:


> Thats me holding the bow!  It sure was a great hunt and an awesome gator.  Thanks to Micheal for putting me on him and Richard for spotting him!!!



Richard is definately the best "spotter" I've ever seen. Not only was he able to tell the difference between actual eyes glowing and those reflectors used to mark trotlines, he was able to tell from a great distance the difference between a small gator's eyes and those of a huge bull frog.


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## Augustabowhunter (Sep 18, 2009)

It's just my young eyes. I had a great time and Michael told the story perfect. Let me know when we you want to do it agian. Thanks agian Mr. Rick and Michael for letting me tag along.


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## HOGDOG76 (Sep 19, 2009)

Great gators guys and good story


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## frog1 (Sep 20, 2009)

People who have'nt tried this don't know what there missing.Congrats to  ya'll.


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## t8ter (Sep 20, 2009)

Congrats.The boys said what was uncle Ricky thinking getting in the same boat as that thing.


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## caveman168 (Sep 20, 2009)

Michael;403188 even if you are using a Gator-aider which makes shooting a bow accurately at night very easy said:
			
		

> How do you like the gator aider compared to the gator getter? I am using the gator getters by muzzy and have hit a couple of gators at about 10 to 15 yds and hunted with a friend last weekend who hit two gators and none of the arrows stuck. I know for a fact that they hit because we had it on video and reviewed it several times. I really wanted to use the gator aider but I just didnt have the $400 to spend on it. Also i thought $400 was just too much money for that. Sounds like it works good though.


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## Michael (Sep 20, 2009)

caveman168 said:


> How do you like the gator aider compared to the gator getter? I am using the gator getters by muzzy and have hit a couple of gators at about 10 to 15 yds and hunted with a friend last weekend who hit two gators and none of the arrows stuck. I know for a fact that they hit because we had it on video and reviewed it several times. I really wanted to use the gator aider but I just didnt have the $400 to spend on it. Also i thought $400 was just too much money for that. Sounds like it works good though.



I like the Gator-aider! Most everyone I've know who has used one shoots high the first time they us it, but that could be because their mouth is still wide open from the shock of seeing how big these gators get. After that they can usually go back to driving tacks with them.

They are $300  which is a lot of money, but if you think about it, that's only about the price of a cheap shotgun.

As for not sticking the gators, that may be from not using a strong enough bow. Don't hunt gators with your bowfishing bow. That's an advantage of the Gator-aider, you can simply screw it onto the bow you hunted deer with by day and you are ready to hunt gators that night. Remove it and your bow is ready for deer again.


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## Augustabowhunter (Sep 20, 2009)

How often to get a tag to hunt  Gator? I have not got one yet. When l do get one I am going to have the best stuff to give me the best chance of bagging the Gator.


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## SheldonMOAC (Sep 20, 2009)

Congratulations!!!


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## caveman168 (Sep 21, 2009)

Michael said:


> I like the Gator-aider! Most everyone I've know who has used one shoots high the first time they us it, but that could be because their mouth is still wide open from the shock of seeing how big these gators get. After that they can usually go back to driving tacks with them.
> 
> They are $300  which is a lot of money, but if you think about it, that's only about the price of a cheap shotgun.
> 
> As for not sticking the gators, that may be from not using a strong enough bow. Don't hunt gators with your bowfishing bow. That's an advantage of the Gator-aider, you can simply screw it onto the bow you hunted deer with by day and you are ready to hunt gators that night. Remove it and your bow is ready for deer again.




Im using my deer hunting bow with 68lbs of pull. I saw that they were $300 online and called Tracker Jack, he quoted me a price of over $400 for the whole kit. Anyways congratulations on two monster gators, I know yall were pumped!!


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## BornToHuntAndFish (Sep 21, 2009)

Congrats on some fine gators.  Thx for the good post & pics.


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## Michael (Sep 26, 2009)

Here's the gator we got last night. I'll post details after I've had a little sleep.


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## Michael (Sep 26, 2009)

Friday the 25th Robbie called and said he was ready for the rematch. I’d carried mail that day and had to carry mail the next, but I too wanted a rematch. We got on the river about 10 PM and this time went wide open up river for a little over 1 hour until we got to the spot the MONSTER got away last weekend. We saw 18 gators on the way, one of which was huge, but we didn’t even slow down as “we wanted to get our arrow back”. When we got to the spot on the GPS where the MONSTER had gotten away, there were no gators  We continued up river to look for that “pet” 10’ gator we’d seen twice out from a boat dock. He too was no where to be found. It was now midnight and we were not going to spend a whole night hunting, so we turned the boat with plans to hunt our way back to the ramp. As we got back to the spot where the MONSTER had been, we now saw the eyes of a gator! The excitement level was off the chart as we went into stalk mode. Unfortunately this gator was well protected back in a severe log jam. Fortunately we did get close enough to see this was not the MONSTER we were after. We continued on down river and stalked a few more gators, but all were smaller and most went down before we got too close. Then it started raining. The rain was heading down river at about the same speed we were. So, when we’d stop and go into stalk mode, the rain would catch up to us. Then when we’d drop the big motor and go back into hunt mode, we’d get ahead of the rain again. About half way back we got close enough to a gator to see it was a “good one”, but it went down about 30 yards out. There was another gator about 50 yards down stream we’d seen and since the rain had caught up to us again, instead of waiting for the “good one” to come back up, we continued the stalk on down river to the next gator. This one stayed up and Robbie used his Gator-aider to put a Steel Force Gator Broadhead through it’s neck. The fight was on! The gator pulled the float half way across the river, then turned and went back to the SC side. Luckily there weren’t any log jams for it to try and hide in, but there was a willow tree it went under that we crashed through  It only took about 30 minutes before Vince was able to put a second arrow in the gator. Then Robbie used his 38 to finish the job. I taped the mouth shut and we pulled it on board for the ride back to the ramp. There was a large group of people camping there and several were still up smoking a pig. By the time we were able to get the boat out almost all of them had gotten up and were now more than willing to help transfer the gator from the boat to the ground for pictures, then from the ground to the truck. Robbie’s gator stretched the tape to 9’6”, not quite as big as the MONSTER that got away last weekend, but a true trophy none the less!


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