All About Pocket Knives

Have you ever had a problem with Lizards!!!? Do they kinda creep you out at times....Here is what we removed from our property Monday...

This bad boy Bull Gator measured up at 12' 2" and somewhere around 500 lbs. We had been trapping wild hogs that meander on our property making a menace of themselves by rooting up the ground that leaves the terrain something to be desired once they dig it up looking for whatever they can find...

And about two weeks ago I caught 2 boar hogs that weighed an estimated 125 to 140 lbs each. I was on the way to a meeting and I told my foreman to get the hog trailer and load up the wild hogs and haul them off to an area that is more secluded with no farms in the area where they can't be a nuisance...When I got back from the meeting later that day I asked him how the hog excursion went and he said you are not going to believe what happened...

When he got to the hog trap the two wild hogs had knocked the trap around where the corner of oneside was overhanging a canal and one of the hogs escaped down to the shallow canal below. He meanwhile was pulling the hog trap away from the canal so the other hog would not get away. He said that he heard splashing in the area where the hog escaped so he ran back over to the canal and looked down to see this Bull Gator holding onto this 140 lb hog by the neck and the hog trying to escape. He then said that when the Gator sighted my foreman he rolled two times and disapeared with the hog into the culvert pipe that the canal runs into.

You have to understand we have caught a 100 or so hogs in the same place over the years and we usually wash our hands down in the ditch where this Gator caught this hog at...So I contacted a certified licensed gator trapper who traps on our property and told him the situation and two weeks later here is the big Lizard who likes wild pork...We have lots of gators on our property but we don't see many this size too often....I told my foreman that it's too bad he could not have video taped the event because he could have retired for a year or so if he could have caught that on tape.

Just another slow day at the farm....

That's me on the right hand side and with boots on & hat I am about 6' 2", compare that to the length of the gators head...


Sunburst

WOW

That is something...

You should have a pair of boots made...

Actually, you could probably have a whole set of luggage made ...or something like that HA

Is aligator good to eat? I've heard it was, but I've never had it.

Hey Bryan,

Actually alligator is pretty good to eat, it is a nice white meat that tends to be slightly chewy the older the gator. I have only had it cubed up in bite size bits then rolled in flower and deep fried. Some folks soak it in milk or buttermilk overnight.

The tail, legs and jaw muscle are great cuts and some people even enjoy the ribs (Not me, if you ever saw what a gator eats...I do not want to get meat anywhere near his stomach, even if it is the ribs). I personally like the tail for the meat source.

A Bull gator this big is more canibal than anything else usually eating smaller gators and the smaller females after breeding...

I wonder if anyone has ever attempted to incorporate alligator skin into knife scales???? I will have to talk to Jeff about that...I don't see how because of the softness but all things are possible...

Take care,

Sunburst

Hey;
Nice chameleon. One would think the jaw bones would suffice for pretty good scale material.
My guess, he's gone to hawg heaven.
W.B.

Well here's what's left of ole Wally Gator

thats a heck of a lizard there! I'll bet if you stretch and dried the hide without tanning it would dry very hard, much like turtle or snake (speaking from experience) If the conditions were right and gods willing I bet you could make a dandy knife handle from some gator skin-it'd be unique if nothing else. Here is a handle made from genuine turtle shell I did on a western 442.

That...was one big, bad dude sunburst. Did you get some of the meat?

Bill

Party Time at Sunburst's house ? alligator is pretty good to eat?
I will have the smoke pig Please.

do those big lizards get near your peach or citrus orchards?

Hey Johnnie,

Matter of fact that's where they all are..On the last estimate about 4 years ago the trapper estimated between 5-10,000 gators on the 2,600 acres I manage.

When I asked him how they estimate he says they do a hard count of what they see and then they have a pretty good idea of what is out there. He counted 2,500 and says that on average they miss 75% of what's out there..?? I'm not convinced of this method personally but it doesn't really matter.

There were several Big Bulls harvested last year over 10 feet and a couple taken over 12 feet.

i'll help harvest if i can hunt gators and hogs. what about your domestic animals, pets, etc. is it kind of a revolving door policy on them? and i thought we had problems with coyotes and occasional mountain lions.

sunburst wrote:Hey Johnnie,

Matter of fact that's where they all are..On the last estimate about 4 years ago the trapper estimated between 5-10,000 gators on the 2,600 acres I manage.

When I asked him how they estimate he says they do a hard count of what they see and then they have a pretty good idea of what is out there. He counted 2,500 and says that on average they miss 75% of what's out there..?? I'm not convinced of this method personally but it doesn't really matter.

There were several Big Bulls harvested last year over 10 feet and a couple taken over 12 feet.

sounds alot like bull frogs, for every one you see during the day you'll see 5 after dark.

I'm with Johnnie- I'll help pick if ya let me dust a hog every now and then

muskrat man wrote:
I'm with Johnnie- I'll help pick if ya let me dust a hog every now and then

I tell you what MM you and Johnnie just make plans to come down in my area one day and I will do my best to arrange a little hog hunt or two..

Here is one I have on the wall in my office..I am sad to say that he fell off the wall a while back and it split his bottom lip I will have to send it off to get it fixed...

Sunburst

here in tejas, hogs are open season. is there legal trouble for shooting a gator? on your property?

In Florida hogs are open season as long as you are on private property because they are considered exotic game..

Trivia note: Hernando Desoto introduced the first hogs to the New World off the west coast of Florida in what is now Charlotte county..The property I manage is in Charlotte county..

You must have a gator tag to legally hunt gators in Florida Johnnie. But there is legislation in the state capital that may make it legal for anyone to shoot a nuisance alligator. The population of Gators has exploded and so has the population of humans so changes are in the works..

Sunburst

sunburst wrote:

muskrat man wrote:
I'm with Johnnie- I'll help pick if ya let me dust a hog every now and then

I tell you what MM you and Johnnie just make plans to come down in my area one day and I will do my best to arrange a little hog hunt or two..

Here is one I have on the wall in my office..I am sad to say that he fell off the wall a while back and it split his bottom lip I will have to send it off to get it fixed...

Sunburst

will do thats a mean lookin tusker you've got there!

Hey Sunburst,

I received these over the week-end.
The guy in the first photo is 6' 5" for scale and that is a grown deer in its mouth in the second.
This thing was found in one of those freshwater lakes there.

9ball

BTW:Do gator's have Right's there yet?

Howdy 9ball

I hope all is well with you...I heard about that gator and have that one picture of him swimming with the deer in it's mouth, really cool pics..Have you heard any size specifications of how large, long etc..??

He looks like a dinosaur doesn't he...!! Thanks for sharing..

Sunburst

Good morning Sunburst ,

Dinosaur was the exact word I was looking for.
It was found in Lake Istapoka near Sebring. Did not send a weight, but it was 23 feet 1 inch long, killed back in August 06.

Guess they will be coming out more now that it is getting near Spring. Here is another image, is there a 'Record' size for gator?

9ball

This seemed to be appropriate.
And YOU think YOU'RE having a bad day???

s...!!!!... SCOTTY BEEM ME UP QUICK!!!!!!

What would 007 do????

Good one CCBill

What would 007 do????

CRAP his pants!!!!

Hey Mister,

My motor is making a strange noise, would ya check under my hood!

I bet that made a mess... And talk about a rude surprise when you opened the hood. Where did that happen at buzzard????

Sunburst