python hunting in florida?

You can also have fun with the monitor lizards, down around Fort Myers.
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Yes you can.

Just spent some time around that area and the monitor lizards are all over from Ft. Myers clear to the Keys. They've been giving residents(and their little lap dogs) fits.

Too, IMO, Fla. wildlife division should put a bounty on these snakes as well as the lizards.
 
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Dam snakes are as bad as the wild piggies runnin around. Useless snakes and at least you can see the pigs to shoot at them.
 
lmao a pellet gun for a snake?? those aren't garters you're talking about...
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No they ain't but a little thin skull they have as well as a kill zone of spine their entire length...

If my pellet gun drops 250 pound hogs with instant results, Iwould choose it for any snake on the planet...

Brent
 
lmao a pellet gun for a snake?? those aren't garters you're talking about...

No they ain't but a little thin skull they have as well as a kill zone of spine their entire length...
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Always respectfully Brent, do NOT underestimate these snakes. In years gone by, I was a serious student of herpetology, especially of large constrictors. I've owned and handled the "big 5": Retics, African Rocks, Green Anacondas, Burms, and Scrubs, and they are incredibly powerful and resilient. I've seen them survive injuries that should have killed them 5 times over. Even though they may be "technically dead", they can still react reflexively.... and constrict.

In the past, it was thought that these snakes simply stopped prey from breathing. Not so. We now know that they squeeze so hard that they stop the heart from pumping blood. One study found that the big ones can squeeze with a force of over 90 pounds per square inch.

While there is no hard and fast rule, the rule-of-thumb is, never attempt to tackle a constrictor 9 feet long or over by yourself. They are far stronger than you might think.

The problem in the Everglades is far more complex than first thought, and I fear that ecosystem as we know it, is gone forever. The media has focused on Burmese Pythons, but there are also African Rock Pythons, which are far more aggressive.

Throw in hybrid vigor and indeterminate growth when these two interbreed and have few natural predators, and you have the makings of a nightmare straight out of a science fiction movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVRhRzE_AkQ&feature=related

The accidental introduction of Brown Tree Snakes to Guam that resulted in the eradication of most of the island's birds, should serve as a mild example, and I fear that, in the long run, this will be far worse.
 
I have personally supplied the 40 pound pigs to feed a near 20 footer...
Herpetology is one of my pass-times...

You can walk up much closer than you realize...

Brent
 
Never hunted pythons before,but Ive killed a ton of rattlers over the year usually with 38spl snake lolads. I think that I would carry a 410 shotgun
 
Never hunted pythons before,but Ive killed a ton of rattlers over the year usually with 38spl snake lolads. I think that I would carry a 410 shotgun
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You kind of missed the whole point of the thread - on one of those special hunts you wouldn't be carrying any firearm. Those special hunts are live-catch only.
 
:o Thanks Doyle.... When it comes to snakes I'm hard-wired to go to guns lol

No way no how would I ever go on a live snake catch hunt
 
With the size that these snakes can grow to be I'm not sure I'd want to grab a live snake, stuff it into a bag and haul it back to the ranger station for disposal.
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I'm right there with you. A buddy of mine had an 11 foot long pet Burmese years ago, and it took four grown men to pull it off of his 120 lb rottweiler when it got out of its terrarium (one of those men was me, and, as some of you may know, I am a pretty big guy). The dog had some broken ribs, but he made it, and it took everything we had to get that snake put back away. I would not want to tackle one of those bad boys alone.

He got rid of the snake the next day.
 
The special "no gun" season may be only a month long, but other areas sounds like year round and guns are fine. I wouldn't hesitate to use a "pellet gun", of course mine would be lauching a whole bunch of pellets at once!!:)
 
Panfisher, even though the pythons are making appearances in other areas of S. Fl the bulk of the population is still in the 'glades. Since most of that is either National Park land or state-owned preserves there isn't a whole lot of opportunity for shooting one.

I predict that that will change as the population begins to migrate northward. Most of the snake problem started when Hurricane Andrew blew through back in '91. There were a few reptile distributors that abandoned their property during the hurricane and the storm opened up a bunch of cages releasing a whole bunch of invasive species. Couple that with the deliberate releasings of individuals whos snakes had grown too big to handle and we had a breeding population. In 20 years, they have bred enough to become a real problem. 20 years from now, I'm sure they will have begun to spread out.
 
why can't you dispatch them with machetes or clubs? I can see how yahoos and firearms are a no-go around tourist areas, but that shouldn't mean said yahoos should be forced to live-catch. seems like it would be more effective to kill them in the field than back at a station.
 
Swopjan, good question. I don't know why they don't allow killing in the field with non-firearms. Seems like a bow (set up like for bow fishing) would be another good choice.
 
While there is no hard and fast rule, the rule-of-thumb is, never attempt to tackle a constrictor 9 feet long or over by yourself. They are far stronger than you might think.
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I once grabbed an 8' redtail boa. My friend jumped on me (and it) to help. Best description looked like something out of the movie "Men In Black" :eek: or something similar, with two grown people being whipped around and beat on the ground by a large, long muscle as thick as a man's thigh. We got it in the bag..... but it beat the hell out of us. :cool: ('Wouldn't do it again.)
 
Actual tourism in the Everglades is limited by Mama Nature to a few areas, of the gazillion acres there. It's a swampy/jungly equivalent to the BLM or USFS lands in the western states. Beaucoup acres, few people wandering around. Snake hunters using shotguns would be no danger to tourists.
 
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