By Wayne Nichols
It’s July and ear it’s hot, humid, time of year down here in Florida. We have mosquitoes big enough to carry off a small child, clouds of no- see-ums that laugh at all kinds of bug repellents, and snakes moving all over the place. With the high humidity, unbearable heat, unpredictable weather, and rain storms out of nowhere, planning a hunting trip is a 50/50 chance at best, during daytime hours. That leads us to doing a lot of hunts after dark with thermal vision scopes and AR’s off swamp buggies and side by sides, and also out of the trucks. We cover a lot of ground on these types of hunts. Most of these hunts are not done in heavily wooded areas, like the normal hunts are, but more in wide open areas like private ranches or farmer’s fields. It’s simply amazing how much game you can spot after dark in a thermal scope. With the amount of destruction, a group of hogs and varmint can do in a single night, the farmers welcome you to come help out!
Normally, evening and night hunts are a bit more stable on weather patterns. Also after dark the temperature drops considerably compared to daytime and most animals are up and moving well throughout the night. We mainly target hogs and coyotes on these hunts, but do varmint hunts as well (rabbits, raccoons, etc…) for a fun change of pace. Hunters take turns using the thermal geared rifles and we are also capable of filming the hunts directly through the scope thanks to some new technology and the guys over at Live It Upp Inc! These hunts are new this year and so far, all of them have been very successful. It only takes about a 5-minute tutorial on how to use the equipment and any level of hunter can use it with ease.
As always, we’re still doing alligator hunts year-round, as well. Due to nesting season, we mainly target large alligators through the end of summer to ensure a good hatch rate and primarily harvest males. The goal here is maximum protection by the mother to her nest, if you kill the nesting female you have sealed the fate of every egg in the nest. We also take a break from gator hunting towards the end of the month and well into August, as baby gators begin hatching out, but that’s next month’s article topic!
If you have alligators on your property and would like them captured alive, numbers managed, and/or relocated give me a call 863- 990-7650 or shoot me an email at waynenichols75@gmail.com, in some cases we actually PAY YOU to utilize our services!!
Until next month, take care this Florida heat.