Hi Folks, Checked out my cell phone google. Article about GA bow-hunter was in his stand for deer when very large alligator plops down on the hunter's corn pile and stays a while!! Anybody see that and can link to the WALL? There have been reports of a 13 foot gator in the area where the guy was trying to hunt. BE SAFE out there!!

As someone who spent years fishing in the bay with alligators swimming around, I can tell you that there are a lot more things you should be concerned about. Like just driving to your hunting spot or getting in your stand, both of which are infinitely more dangerous than an alligator.

While alligators do occasionally attack and even kill humans, it is very very rare. But a croc on the other hand, different story, they see everything and people as food. Alligators do travel to better places and it can mean going across land. Two of my uncles were fishing in Millwood Lake and kept hearing a lot of hard splashing so they moved their boat to see what it was. a large gator had caught a doe and was tearing her apart. But I can see it making someone very nervous.

Two 12 footers found in two Houston areas in the last two weeks.

A bowhunter from Macon County, Georgia who was bowhunting deer filmed the above video. You will never see this in Pennsylvania. "LOL"

is 40lbs enough for hunting alligator?

Limbwalker is correct in that other dangers are far more likely but after hunting Lumpkin, GA and Eufala, AL extensively for 17 years?…the danger of Gators is real and what blew my mind was observing just how small of a branch of water some very large gators would make their way into and it stood to reason because that’s where the best hunting was for them.

I saw enough to know that I needed to be on my toes when approaching bodies of water that extend deep into the woods.

That gator was on a hunting spree. :-D

Side note:

If I had to face a gator, I'd much rather do it on solid ground, and a good distance from water, instead of in the water.

Rick

They are are not fangerous...until they are

I've seen several over the years just moving between bodies of water.Had a few brought to my office HBC

I've seen alligators in the woods twice and caught one on a trail cam once. The ones I've seen in the woods were small. They move from one body of water to another when they are pushed out by a bigger gator or the body of water they are in starts drying up.

I keep an eye out for them but am more concerned with yetis.

Joe

The number of hurricanes that enabled gators and crocs into temperate wild areas has to be considered. Some zoos were minus a few they found. BTW...Deal Lake in NJ was found to be home to a sizable gator. Deal empties into the Atlantic Ocean over a waterfall/conduit. Wildlife figured had been flushed and/or released there. Apparently it hibernated in the mud over the winters. Heck, Bull Sharks, one of THE most dangerous, have been found near Chicago in the Mississippi Drainage.

Nothing to worry about Frisky - Yeti's don't mess with Legends!

Cool.

I'm more concerned with homo sapiens than any other animal, but I have to admit I would be a bit startled to find a gator near my hunting area. So far, none have been sighted here in Pennsylvania's mountains, but hey....you never know.

Just be careful and check that log you are stepping over.

As a person who grew up in the everglades in the fifties and lived in rural Florida until I was sixty I have seen a alligator or two in my life. They will like said migrate between bodies of water so can for a short time be out in the open woods. They can be dangerous if you get stupid with them but if not guarding a nest or mating are not very aggressive. I worried about snakes a lot more. Alligators favorite food is dogs and they will go after them far quicker than a person. Do not swim where they are active, especially at night and don't mess with their nest and the odds of a problem with them is very low. When I worked for a police department in Florida I had the job of removing them from peoples pools when fish and game people were not available which was often. Never had a problem with it. I can tell you that removing one from the trunk of a car when you did not bother to tape the mouth closed and it has got down in the back of the trunk can be a problem. They are also very good eating (the tail and legs) They will not attack you when traveling between water sources on land so I would not be concerned to find one out in the woods hunting.

Is there a bow season? Gator tastes just like chicken especially deep fried. Wonder how a gator skin backquiver would work?

I would have shot it before it killed a dog or Lil kid

Im more worried about running face first into a banana spider web in the dark

Every areas has its own challenges and issues. In Idaho, "Mississippi Tony," a wild land firefighter from the South, kept asking my son if he was sure there weren't any gators in those beaver dam ponds. He wasn't scared of anything else in and around fighting fires or any place else, but kept a weary on the pond water!

George.......they are just known as sapiens now a days.

They'd have to move quick across land between water in Texas, or be dried up and crispy.

Darryl/Deni, quit making so much sense. LOL

4nolz - no kidding!

Darryl/Deni, quit making so much sense. LOL

4nolz - no kidding!

Had a guy had that happen to him on my land last year. He sent me a picture of one that was 8 or 9 feet long. It was getting dark and he was scared to get out of the stand. There is a big lake across the road from my property. Guess he was just out for a Walk About.

That's just plain creepy.

That's just plain creepy.

I have heard that when gators are removed from suburbs that the pest control will tape a large MAGNET to their heads to keep the gators from playing LASSIE COME HOME! Don't know if it really works? Personally? I would think of the 3 S method? Shoot, Shovel and Shut-up! As long as the critter doesn't threaten me or mine, then live and let live. Anything else and the gloves come off and the brass knuckles come on.

I have not had any dealings with Gators while hunting deer here. When I lived in South Louisiana for a few years they were common, and never really cared much until they started picking ducks off the ranch ponds...

-Bones

Thus, one reason why I live up north...:) All the dinosaurs are fossils.

So, very rare for a gator to kill someone, you sound like one of those fuzzy animal shows on TV!!! Would the rarity drop to likely if you were not aware of their presence and swam around with them? I would think so. Anyway, in WI, pretty rare, lol. There was one on the news recently though. Now, bigfoots!!! boy, people say they are all over up here and the stories of deer hunters in treestands getting used as a pinata by them is likely true. Picturing Frisky being banged around by a couple crazy bigfoots could happen. Ohhhh, the horror. Scary place to hunt up here!!!

We have mtn lions in WV

There are more MT lions in the east than many are aware of, have been for years.

KODIAK TD sent me the link so I could go to FIRE-FOX. WHOA NELLY! Da was a nasty gator! No wonder that guy got jittery! If something larger send Ole AL packing, then I doan wanna see big brother! BE SAFE OUT THERE

I ain't skeered. My club has a gator target we shoot all the time.

On another note, I saw an Orca in Indian River Inlet, DE this summer. Gives cause to not go swimming in the ocean.

Batman it was Nemophilist who sent you the link. My handle hasn't been KodiakTD for quite a few years. "LOL"

I came in from bow hunting one evening and the landowner called me into the house. On the table was a dead 38" gator. A friend of the landowner shot it while duck hunting the river. He said it came after him. This was in Wisconsin.

It probably did come after him, because it was conditioned to having people tossing it a chicken leg and the poor thing was hungry!

I think for most predators it’s a pretty fine line between “food source“ and “food item“, and I don’t really expect that an alligator has the intellectual wattage to put a great deal of analysis into the situation….

And I’m fairly certain that no Wisconsin game laws were violated in the shooting of that gator!

I've seen thousands of em in the Everglades and other areas of south Florida. I was Ok as long as I didn't go in the water and kept a distance from them if on land. However, they can hide underwater at the edge of even small bodies of water and if you get too close you, a pet or a child can be gator food. We tend to forget that humans, early humans and our ancestors have been food for all kinds of carnivores for millions of years. We're still considered as a possible meal by gators and crocs, pythons, bears, cougars, wolves, sharks, and any other carnivore large enough to get us. I live in Oregon. No gators here but there are cougars and bears. I always carry bear spray on walks as well as some kind of weapon. Usually it's a cold steel spear I use as a walking stick. In my hand all the time if needed. Zero time to try to get something out of somewhere else.

Your spear is a good weapon! I made a 7 footer. You're in Bigfoot country, so you have to be ready.

Joe

There's something very primal about carrying a spear. I like it.

In PA you just need to worry about tweakers and the occasional snake in the early season.

I’ve never seen one from my hunting spot. I have to wonder though the fun it would be to take one with bow fishing gear. I like the spear too as a Walkingstick idea pretty cool.

I saw that. Macon county is just up the river from me.

I saw that. Macon county is just up the river from me.

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