Getting Our Bearings

I strongly urged Mike that we should attend a training and orientation program that was being offered on August 7 (Sunday) before we went hunting.
It took us a little over an hour to drive out to Okeechobee where it was being held.  We arrived a little early and when we walked in, there were all sorts of vendors lining the perimeter of the room waiting for us! Places like "Southern Life", "Gator Pro", and "Bad to the Bone Taxidermy" had all sorts of equipment, tools and products displayed for sale.
The outfitters were eager to help us out with all of our gator hunting needs! They encouraged us to purchase their equipment TODAY to take advantage of deals they were offering especially because their equipment is "the best available" and "found nowhere else". We had to let them down gently and say we didn't need anything this year because we were going with a guide who had everything. BUT if we had a really great time and wanted to get into hunting, THEN we would start looking at getting equipment NEXT YEAR.
The guides "had the most experience" and claimed to be the only ones to "get you the most involved in the hunt". They offered to help us fill our two tags but I had to tell them that we were already taken. PLUS the guide I chose a few weeks ago offered a better deal!
The leather tanners & taxidermists were truly enticing! I couldn't help starting a mental wish list of all the things I wanted to do with our gators! We perused the information and talked with people who were there before the training & orientation seminar began.

We learned how to use harpoons, snatch hooks, baited wooden pegs and snares...

 

...how to effectively use a bang stick.  

It's important to mention that a bang stick should be discharged below the waterline when killing an alligator to reduce the potential for aerial dispersal of bullet and bone fragments!  Yikes!

We were shown how to humanely kill our catch...

(which is when I started to wonder if I could keep two adult gators as pets?!?)

(If you are also wondering, the answer is no.)

 

...then haul it into the boat and where to tag it!

 The program ended with a video on how to process our alligators. While it was playing, Mike was figuring out if and how it would be possible to process our gators ourselves back at the apartment. Although I would like to also, I told him I didn't think it would be a very good idea with the wall to wall carpeting and that it might hurt Jeeb's (Mike's Bearded Dragon) feelings. Maybe next year :)