It's Not Easy - Florida
Dusty and her Florida gator.
Hunter: Dusty Perillo
Cameraman: Lonnie Turnbeaugh
I would have never thought I would go on a gator hunt, but Ralph and Vicki make things happen!! I was so excited when Ralph and Vicki asked me to go on a gator hunt in Florida at Osceola Outfitters with them. It took place over the 2009 Fourth of July weekend and boy was it fun!
It all started on July 2nd, there were a bunch of us out hog hunting and it was getting way to hot in the middle of the day for the hogs to come out so Hoppy said, “Let’s try out this pond.” I am thinking to myself, maybe it’s a good watering hole for the hogs. Little did I know! We pull up and Hoppy says “I see one”, well here’s me looking all over for a hog and locating nothing. Hoppy and Ralph looked at me and said, “You’re up its time to shoot a gator.” “A gator!” I said. “Yep, grab the gun,” said Hoppy. I couldn’t believe it; I was going to shoot a gator.
So the stalk began. We are walking up to the edge of the pond and trying to be as quiet as possible. We get up to the edge of the pond and we are on this little hill that overlooks the pond, but I still can’t see anything. “There he is,” Hoppy said. But I still can’t see anything; I am behind these huge cattails and can’t see over them or through them for that matter. This would be a major disadvantage for me, because I am so short. I guess I know what Ralph feels like! Finally the gator is swimming very slowly and he is right in front of me, but I am having a very difficult time locating him through the cattails, and then I catch of glimpse of him. “Got’m!” I told Hoppy. He said, “Take your time and aim for the opposite eye,” I waited for the right moment and squeezed the trigger. Boom! “Too high, reload”, Hoppy said. I reloaded and aimed again. Got’m! Boom! Too low”! The gator disappeared; he had had enough for one day! I was disappointed and couldn’t believe I missed. Hoppy and Ralph both said, “Don’t worry, there will be more and it’s not as easy as you think!”
Gator hunting is not easy! That’s for sure. You are shooting at a moving object that is the size of a golf ball in the water! Yikes!
Well the end of my trip was here and I was all packed up ready to go to the airport, and Ralph looked at me and said, “We have a couple of hours before you have to leave let’s go out and see if we can locate one more gator!” I couldn’t believe it; I was going to get another shot at a gator right before I was getting on the airplane! So this is where the story gets good. We drove up to this canal and located a gator! Ralph said, “It’s a good one, get ready!” I get all set up behind some tall grass and I am kneeling down. I put the gun on the bipod and everyone is in place. The gator is 25-yards in front of me! I am so excited, I can’t believe it! Ralph puts his hand on my shoulder and says, “Take your time.” I look at Ralph and said, “I am going home with this one!” He said, “That’s the spirit!” Ready, Aim, Click! Nothing, the gun jammed! I couldn’t believe it—all this and now the gun jams! I had to carefully pass the gun to Lonnie, who passed it to Chet across the backside of the canal to un-jam it, all while Ralph made sure the gator didn’t move. Chet cleared the barrel and reloaded it, passed it back to Lonnie and back to me. I then put it back on the bipod and steadied my aim. I took 2 deep breaths and squeezed the trigger. Boom! I saw a splash and a tail flip. I knew I had him this time. Then all I heard was Ralph saying, “You got him!” I was ecstatic, I had just shot an alligator, and now it was time to retrieve him.
Well little did I know that this was going to be the hard part. After about 40 minutes of Ralph, Vicki, and Lonnie trying to snag him, and Lonnie and I reviewing the footage a couple of times, we knew we were running out of time. Chet walked down the bank to try and unsnag the fishing line that had tangled with a bunch of water weeds, but couldn’t reach it very well so he had to step into the water and before we knew it he was up to his knees in water. He untangled the line and then looked at everyone and said, “Keep your eyes open, I’m going in.” I couldn’t believe it he was under the water trying to locate my gator, and then in went Meegan! Holy cow! I had two people swimming in the canal looking for my dead gator.
On their third dive down up popped a gator leg!!! I couldn’t believe it, there was my gator! What a trip, I shot a gator right before getting on my plane and I had great friends to share the experience and recovery with. If it had not been for Ralph’s persistence and Chet and Meegan diving in to look for him, I would have never retrieved my 6½ foot gator!
Thank you to Hoppy for allowing me to come to Osceola Outfitters and experience a hunt of a lifetime. Thank you Ralph and Vicki for making this trip possible, and thank you Chet and Meegan for diving into the water and retrieving my gator! I couldn’t have done it without any of you guys! True friends leave lasting memories! These are memories that will not be forgotten!