Three Wonderful Days
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We called Danny on the phone and told him that we wanted to hunt, but that our time was very limited and therefore we needed to cram as much as we could into a few days. He was very friendly and knowledgeable and told us to come on down to Florida and leave all the leg work up to him. |
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** DAY ONE ** We arrived mid morning and Danny was waiting for us at the airport. He asked us if we were hungry, we said no, so we tossed our bags in the back of his truck, and headed straight for the first hunt, alligators! Danny had arranged a hunt with a Florida licensed alligator guide. We drove down a dusty Florida sandy dirt road till we came upon a beautiful canal that was built as part of the Florida non coastal irrigation system. Our mode of travel on these large and long canals would be by airboat. |
| Immediately we saw three or four alligators lurking around, and were warned not to get too close that alligators occasionally eat humans if given the chance. Our guide gave us a great tour of the area. We saw fish, birds, snakes, turtles, all sorts of plant life, and lots of gators. I usually have a good sense of direction, however with all the canals, lakes, islands, swamps, and dirt roads (yes, dirt roads!) we took the air boats on I was completely lost. We stopped at several places and drifted the boat in order to look for a nice gator. At one point we parked on the side of a canal and walked a few hundred yards to look into another canal. |
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We spotted a nice gator and decided for a shot. We
crept down to water's edge, carefully. This was one of my most nervous
hunts because of the possibility of disturbing another gator, and these
creature are very fast. In the water all that is visible are the nose
and eyes of the gator, but that is enough for an experienced guide to
determine size. Our gator was good size, estimated 9 feet, and with
a tree to steady aim I took the shot at 90 yards. Aim point is a spot
about 3 inches wide and one inch high, you shoot for the brain.
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| My first shot went high, hitting far side water making a big splash, but the gator didn't move. Danny told me to shoot again, so I did, quickly. I lowered my aim point slightly and this time the gator slapped and splashed very violently and dove down out of sight. For the next thirty minutes from the banks of the canal, our guide cast a very large hook and drug the bottom of the canal. He finally hooked what he thought was the gator, and sure enough, it was! We boarded the airboat and drifted out to the center of the canal to reel him in. The gator, even though I had made a good shot and he was probably dead, was still thrashing his tail. My wife spent most of this time yelling and screaming from the highest point of the airboat. |
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Danny, myself, and the guide finally hauled the gator
into the boat. Using a .357 bang stick the guide had me put another
slug in his head. This gator was big, heavy, and even after the bang
stick he kept moving. We had a nice airboat ride back to the landing.
We followed the guide back to his shop where he would skin and process
the gator. We kept the tail meat and it was delicious. Later that afternoon
we drove around the exotic ranch Danny has exclusive rights for and
saw large numbers of a variety of wild game. This was a great relaxing
end to a very exciting day of hunting.
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** DAY TWO **
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The next day Danny had several activities planned for us. We awoke very early and drove to a boat landing on the Okeechobee Lake. We met a fishing guide who would take us large mouth bass fishing. My wife, even though she loves to go hunting and fishing with me, has several rules that she insists upon. She doesn't want to bait a hook, or smell a fish, or see any blood, or get wet, or anything else that might mess up her fingernails and hair. She is of course, very willing to reel in the largest fish, and once again this is what happened. We had a great morning on the Okeechobee and caught 18 largemouth bass, the largest being just over 7 pounds, and yes, my wife reeled him in. |
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We were back at the ranch by lunch time and after grabbing
a bite to eat Danny took us hog hunting. He had this hunt planned with
dogs, and it was very exciting. We put the dogs in the pen in the back
of Danny's truck and drove to a very remote location. The area was typical
of what you would expect in an undeveloped area of Florida, lots of
palmetto bushes, palm trees, creeks, grass, and wide open pastures.
When the dogs were released they took off running at full pace, and
yelling. My wife had decided that she would follow us with the video
camera, even after Danny had warned her that if a hog gets cornered
and charges, that his experience has been that whoever was holding the
camera seems to be the one the hog runs over. I wasn't sure where this
bravery was coming from, since her biggest concern is keeping her fingernails
shiny. Nevertheless, I was happy to have her video tape.
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| We would stand motionless and quiet, listening for the dogs. Danny knows the type of yelps his dogs make, and knows the difference between being on the trail of a hog, or just running. When he heard they were on the trail of a hog we would run or walk very fast to a new location and then stop and listen again. This lasted about an hour, moving and listening. I felt clueless as to which way we were going, but soon enough the yelps got very loud, and Danny had positioned us in the path of very fast moving hog. We began to hear not only the dogs, but the squealing and grunting of a large, angry, mean wild boar. Danny was in front with me following. He stopped and motioned for me to position myself beside him. Fifty feet in front of us was a tree line thick with palmetto bushes that prevented any view into the woods. Quickly one of his dogs appeared from the woods and ran to Danny and sat beside him with his tail wagging. About this time my wife caught up with us, and she was getting very close to that yelling screaming phase because the hog was getting very close and loud. Not being able to see the hog made the situation more tense because we knew he was close and getting closer, but we couldn't see him. On a full run the wild boar broke into the clear directly in front of us, and coming straight at us. Danny hollers to shoot, and as quickly as I could get a bead on him, I shot, hitting him in the back of the top of his neck knocking him down. This hog wasn't going anywhere, but he wasn't dead yet, so I put a .40 caliber slug into him to finish him off. |
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My wife, bless her heart, didn't really get any of
this on video. Mostly the video we got was a lot of screaming and hollering
as she was trying to keep up, and she filmed a lot of her shoes as she
was jogging through the Florida jungle. By the time the hog was skinned
and butchered it was late afternoon. Danny offered me and my wife a
motorized golf cart to take a lazy relaxing drive across the ranch again
enjoying the variety of wild game, and beautiful sunset.
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** DAY THREE **
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| The next morning Danny had arranged a quail hunt for us with a guide with some of the finest hunting dogs available. We drove to a field where an hour or two before raised quail had been released. Over the next three hours I hunted over six fantastic bird dogs and shot 14 birds. It was fantastic, and both my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed it. |
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After a very tasty lunch Danny took us hunting for
axis deer on what is the largest herd of axis deer in the United States,
approximately 10,000 deer on over 6,000 acres. We spotted and stalked
several deer before finding one of trophy caliber. Finally after getting
in position I took a 250 yard neck shot and my deer went down. We hauled
the deer back to the ranch house where Danny expertly skinned and caped
my trophy. That evening we had some of the best meat I've ever tasted.
Axis deer, if cooked hot and quick, is very tasty.
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We slept in the next morning because our flight back was not until early afternoon. In three days Danny organized and executed for us alligator hunting, largemouth bass fishing, quail shooting, hog hunting, axis deer hunting, and exotic game viewing. We had three wonderful days. ***************************** Return to Guided-Hunting.com and have this adventure for yourself! Call 863-655-2454 and get
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