Quote:
Originally Posted by Jesus H Christ
He has not a clue on what he's talking about. It takes great skill to dispatch an animal instantly and painless....
WTS. I can understand part of his opinion after I read the article, 2 hours to land that gator. Not wild about that part, but there is NO other means to quickly dispatch that animal because if you shoot a gator in open water it sinks instantly..  |
Yes it took two hours, but you need to understand a little more about the style of hunting. I didn't know a whole lot about it myself until I looked some more information up to confirm my suspicions regarding the 2 hours it took. Here'sd a good run down on the steps...
http://gatorguides.com/TIPS.htm
Now, as I understand it, she first baited the gator by line, at which point you need to bring the gator into harpoon range, at which point you need to bring it into point blank range to deliver the kill shot.
As anyone who fishes for BIG fish will tell you, it can take a good amount of time to reel in the big boy. This gator was obviously a big boy in his own rights. It could have easily taken them an hour and a half to fight him into range. They specifically state that jerking the hook is bad practice as it will not set and will agitate the gator into a frenzy. Reeling that fucker in could take forever.
I'm sure once it was in harpoon range, the fight took much less time. Once he is harpooned and the hooks are set, they just need to get him up close enough to give him a shot to the head. At which point, I'm sure a well delivered shot from a .22 is more than enough killing power. you've got to tae your time so you don't get him all riled up.
On top of that you hunt gators at night, in the dark, which requires extra time. You're in a boat, on gator filled water, and you don't want to be jerking around. Even once you get the gator close for the kill shot, you need to take time to be sure not to spook him, and make sure you get a good clean shot. remember you're in a boat, on water, with other people in it. Speaking of which, the "bangsticks" they talk about, well they come in a variety of sizes. starting at a .22 mag, which is just one of the cheaper models. Blasting a gator with a .45 is not necessary...
It's not like they sat there stabbing it repeatedly for 2 hours. They took that time cautiously slow-reeling that big bastard in. Even a large portion of the hooking takes place AFTER the kill shot has been delivered. The 2 hours is more a statement to the patience and time taken to successfully hunt a big bastard like that than any prolonged torture in my opinion. Just the hunting opposition blowing shit out of proportion again...