Gator Time - Florida
Vicki & her gator.
Hunter: Vicki Cianciarulo
Cameraman: Joe Rush
On our latest trip down to Osceola Outfitters in Florida we took the whole arsenal! We had Hoyt Bows, TenPoint Crossbows, and a TC Contender 223! We were ready for anything!!
Ralph, Hoppy, Joe and I went out looking for some gators one day. We were using Hoppy’s awesome gator call!! The call is amazing! Even in mid-day, you can call gators up to you for a shot!! There had been so much rain this year down in Florida that there were water holes everywhere!! We drove around the Kempfer Ranch a bit looking for good looking water holes to try to do some gator calling! We found one that a gator had been spotted in earlier, so we thought we would give the call a try.
We stopped before the water pit and got all of our gear out of the truck, as quietly as possible. We set Ralph up with the call down a bit from where we were setting up. We did this so that when the call would play, the gators would head up on to the bank, out of the water, for the shot.
Well, we got ready and Ralph started the call. We had one start moving towards us almost immediately, but where he was swimming to, the bank was very steep for him to climb up. So the gator stayed in that spot for a while, and we had Ralph move the call back and more behind us so that the gator would move to the shallower part of bank.
I guess the alligator had his own plans, as he just continued to move down the bank towards us, but never leaving the security of the water and reeds. Joe, Hoppy and I were trying to get ourselves rearranged for a shot at this gator, seeing as how he was not going along with our plan! We had to be careful when we were trying to move, so that the gator would not see us. We waited for when he would get behind some of the tall thick reeds, before we would make our move.
The gator showed up out of the reeds at about 6 yards from where I was setup! I held the red dot right above his eye and squeezed the trigger!! Let me tell you, a 223 to the head of a gator makes a huge mess out of the skull!! He was down instantly, no scrambling having to be done on this gator!
He was about 6 foot 9 inches long!! It was getting pretty intense there for awhile, but once my shot hit the mark, it was over!
Thanks again Hoppy & everyone down at Osceola Outfitters for all you do for us!! Gators, Hogs, Turkeys, oh my!!