I'm sure most of you have seen Swamp People snaging gators and poppen them off and yanken them in the boat. Strange way to make a good liven but they love it. My simple question is what kind of rope is tied to that hook? Gators have super sharp teeth but yet that rope never gets cut and the gator swims off. Is there a steel cable in the center of that rope or what?

Next question. Are the gators just sold for the hide or do they get money for the meat? How much do they get per pound? I don't see gator meat for sale at any of my local markets.

Joe

Not much goes to waste from a 'Gator. From teeth to toe nails, it pretty much gets used. The meat is sold and you can find it in some restarauns through out the Southern States, epecially around the Gulf Coast.
Fried Gator Tail is a delicacy around here, and it makes a good stew.
'Sorry I can't answer the question about the line, but I have seen some tough line that is braided with steel, and I know there is some made with kevlar.

On a grown alligator the teeth are big and strong but not very sharp. They bite on a piece of meat if they can't swallow it whole they shake it till it rips off, not a clean bite as you would see from a shark.
The folks around here use something like nylon parachute cord.

The meat is sold also and is very good eating. It must be well cleaned and the fat removed or it ill get rancid fast.
One of my friends use to catch them his biggest was 700 lbs he killed it and had to come back in round up a couple of guys to help load it ito the boat
Steve W.

Dunno how much the Swamp People get but at the Smokey River Festival they were getting $10 for three little pieces on a stick.

Love that show. Subtitles!

Hate to tell ya, but gator season only runs for 30 days in September. The rest of the year tese boys are wither working regular jobs in the oil patch or other areas. Very few commercially fish year round.
Tags are given to land owners who in turn sell them to the various trappers. I know lots of guys who schedule their vacations during September to make a little extra on the gators. Me personally, I don't really care for fried gator, it's chewy when fried. I'd rather eat it in a sauce picante.

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Forum consigliere

'Gator is also a great substitue for turtle meat in a a "New Orleans Style" Turtle Soup, don't forget the sherry.
Steve W

I saw one guy grab a roll of regular nylon parachute cord to make up his lines. Gator teeth are not sharp, plus I don't think they are smart enough to know they have to gnaw on the line to get free.
What amazes me is they can pop those gators with one shot from a .22 rifle and apparently get instant kills.

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Dick

Looks like ol clothes line to me...But, then again I can't see the tv like I used too could.

As ol Troy wood sey, "Choot 'em Liz...Choot 'em!"



Su Amigo,
Dave

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"IN GOD WE TRUST"

Just wondering why they don't wear gloves when hauling in a line with hundreds of pounds of thrashing gator on the other end. Probably a good reason but it beats me.

In the 70's, I had a friend that had the tags for an area a few miles from where I live. I went with him to run the traps and helped him load them in the truck. The area that we trapped was all canals so no power boat was needed. The canals were dug in the 1800's to harvest cypress and the oil companies later used roads next to them to put wells in the marsh. Some times a pirogue was used when the gator was on the side of the canal opposite from the road. My friend had a camp on one of the canals and we would go there at night to drink adult beverages and harvest small gators to eat. We would take an air boat into the marshes and I would drive it slowly in the marsh while he would grab a small gator from the water with one hand and kill it with a knife. We would take the gator back to the camp, skin it and fry the tail. The meat will quiver in the oil when it is that fresh. My friend is now the alligator control officer for the parish.

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Corripe Cervisiam

anyone remember when as a kid you could go the florida...on the side of the road the seminole indians had orange juice stands where for ten cents (i think) all the OJ you could drink...they also sold baby gators for a dollar

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SWCA#2208
KK4EMO

On one of the shows it was said they used 1000 lb test line. That was all that was said about it.

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Regards,
Windjammer

I love the show and the people in it. i like the way they are living.
But one thing. Did you see the guns they use? They look really dreathfull.

Looks to me like ordinary nylon cord. I concur with a couple who posted saying gators have very tough teeth, but not very sharp. Gator teeth are designed to grip, not slice. Although I'm sure that with enough thrashing and rolling they can work their way through a line.

Marlin can make a mint with a model 60 swamp person model. No blue pre rusted cracked stock beat to h*** LOL .

Gator is VERY good eating though I wouldn't want to try to bag one with a .22

I tried some gator meat from "Cajun grocery" over the internet. It really does "taste just like chicken" although its chewier. And costs 5 times as much. (7 or 8 after S&H)

I can assure you no cajun I ever heard of is using some fancy steel twine to catch gators.....my cajun friend tells me that those Swamp People are wastin' bullets, when he was a kid in the bayou they caught 'em on hooks and hit 'em with an axe to kill 'em....

So do they just haul the critters to some butcher shop and they do the skinning or do the trappers/fisherman/hunters what ever they are called, do the skinning and slaughtering then take to who ever? I still would like to know how much they get per pound. Some of them are 700 lbs. Someone replied stating that they don't use gloves, I wondered the same. Rope burns yarding in a 700 lb critter fighting for his life would seem a for sure thing. Guess those cajun boys/men are tough dudes. I used to trap and the best part is setting the traps and checking them. the not so good part is skinning the critters out, fleshing and stretching. A sharp knife is a must. Don't think I would like skinning a gator. A few nights ago they showed that guy with a missing tooth or two, I know, there are several, but this is the guy that has a "very" strong cajun talk. Anyway, he came home and his wife said he stunk like a gator! He then showed him filling the bath tub and he poured in a bunch of bleach! Said it cured cuts and smell. Wow.

When the boat boss cusses the helping hand "shoot! shoot!". as the gator is rolling like a bowling ball. Seems like the gator dies with any kind of bullet hit. And a 22 at that!

It's right up there with all of the rest of the so called reality shows.
But I watch and pay my Sat. bill like the good American that I am.
BTW You don't choot wun and THEN try to snag 'em.

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Dum vivo cano

Doesn't a brain shot to certain animals risk the contmination of the meat with disease or parasites?

Apparently not with alligators.

Your friend is correct. When we catch gars the weapon of choice is a 24oz ball peen hammer-pull them up on the bank and get to whackin'

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Forum consigliere

According to Jerry Reed, Amos Moses just "knock 'em in the head with a stump".

Andy

The trappers sell the gators by the foot or inch....the shot is a spine shot as opposed to a brain shot...the skull is quite porus like a bird's skull, their brain is about the size of the ball used to play "jacks" and deep in the skull...the spine is close to the skin in that area, that's why you occasionally hear 'em complaining about ricochets and getting hit with bone fragments

Thanks, that's good info. Just like shooten a cow, never shoot between the eyes, no brains there. Always offset to one side or the other, slightly higher then the eye level. Seen a few cows go running off then during butchering we would open up the skull and sure enough......brain undamaged. could see where the bullet traveled through.

They are absolutely pristine compared to the guns used by Eskimo seal hunters. I looked at a rifle in a Mountain View (near Anchorage) pawn shop which had to be the worst I have seen. It was red with rust and the stock was bleached white from the salt water, with numerous knife cuts signifying the number of seals killed by the hunter. The poor thing had been used as a pry pole, club, boat paddle, and walking stick. Worst of all, it was a pre-64 Model 70!

Oh, Sawfish, say it isn't so!

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Oh well, what the hell.

Standard para cord is rated at 550,
Cargo chute paracord is rated at 1,000.
That's probably what he was using.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

I'm another who loves that show. I watch it all the time.

My wife woke up one evening when I was watching the show late. She used to be married to a gen-U-wine Cajoun, and lived in Plaquemine (the town not the parrish she always adds). She staggered in and fussed at me. She said she heard all those Cajun accents and thought she was back in Louisiana for just a few seconds.

Someone asked about skinning them. I remember on one show and I think it was "Swamp People", but it might have been "Dirty Jobs" them showing how they use compressed air to loosen the hide for skinning. They cut a small slit in the skin, stuck in an air hose, and inflated the skin like a balloon. It was "funny" and strange at the same time. I have no idea how the kept the air from just leaking back out the slit, but they must have had a way.

Now I have no idea if that's common or even real, or not. After all, it was TV.

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John 3:16 .

i think very little is wasted on a gator i know the feet make great back scrachers

The father and son, with the air boat, the kid will shoot one that is swimming, he said the rifle he uses is a .17.

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Don

Some of the rifles are getting better looking since Savage has an ad campaign with some of them.

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Wayne
Torn & Frayed

just like anything else shot placement is king, there have been more african elephants killed with a 7mm mauser than some big bore dangerous critter gun

Salty, I've heard him say the same thing on the show before.

I may very well be wrong but aren't they using 22 magnums mainly on the show? I thought I'd heard that too and seems to me the cartridges are also a bit long for 22lr when I've seen them loading their guns.

I've noticed too the guns and also the boats have gotten better as the show has been on awhile and maybe they're making some decent money from it too.

Sometimes too they'll bring out a centerfire rifle for some longer shots.

I'm sure they do pretty good from the show, a few years ago that show about crab fishing in Alaska, the two brother's with the black boat, wanted out of their contract until they were told they would have to pay back 3 million.

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Don

A few years ago on Swamp People there was a show where a Italian gentleman came over for a hunt with one of the teams. The man worked for the leather company that bought a lot of the 'gator skins to be made into women's purses. It was excellent, he explained how different parts of the skins were used for the parts of the purse, mainly the belly skins.
As far as the rope that is used, I believe it is Setline or SecureLine made by Lehigh - Secureline | Home

That website don't show the Setline products, sorry.
I have some #60 X 300' that has a tensile strength of 330 lbs.
I have bought heavier setline that was rated over 900 lbs. I believe it is sold in 100' lengths.

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"Life is short, hunt hard"

As far as the looks of there rifles its one of there tools while there not purdy under those conditions there still doing the job they were meant to do. Some of us admire our guns like they were gods. Guns are built to bring home the bacon. We have become civilized along with our guns.

Even like some Italian dishes like tripe(cows stomach) in tomato sauce you have to grow eating it and have a taste for it just like gator and squirrels.
If you ever had to live off the land could you make it?

During the depression my great uncle would shoot the birds that we're lined up on the peak of the chicken coop roof. My great aunt would clean them and cook them in tomato sauce. Survival?

My uncle's(moms brothers) were hunters and fisherman. I had fried saltwater eels but the best thing they ever cooked was rabbit catchatorie.

Ever go to a game dinner? All the wild game is great eaten when it's cooked right.

The Hilstrands with the Time Bandit boat. Now there's a wild bunch. These brothers are awesome.

I miss Phil Harris on the Cornellia Marie.

How do you folks feel about possum? I know how I feel about it, but don't want to unduly influence the poll.
Back in the depression, my Grandpa had a bunch of kids, little work and little money.
He sees a covey of quail running down a frozen field. They are running in the furrow, single file.
He is carrying a 12 gauge double, probably full/modified chokes. So be waits until they are aways down the row, kneels down and shoots level.
He gets 8 quail.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

Gator is great but like about everything I ever ate in New Orleans its always better with a sauce. I ate a fish that most would consider a trash fish, they called it "drum"...it was filleted in half and baked in an amazing buttery sauce and was one of the most delicous fish I ever ate. I've eaten gator cut into bite sized pieces and deep fried and it can be a little on the chewey side but still very tasty, with a nice sauce to dip and its all the better. In a stew or chowder its excellent but then I never ran across anything down there that wasn't outstanding eating. The hide is quite valuable, probably worth more than the meat, its used for everything from boots to hat bands.

I have ALWAYS wondered, why they don't shoot the d@# things, a second time. I'll be danged, if I am going to grab one of those things, by the muzzle, if I am not SURE it's dead.

Another thing, ALL of the swamp people seem to be using Henry lever action rifles now. I expect a good bit of advertising will come out of that.

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NRA Instructor