With T-ball Season ending, and a short break before Football season starts, I decided to book a short trip to Florida. KC had been watching alligator hunting videos on YouTube and was hyper focused on a new target to hunt. It was the Fourth of July weekend and last minute, but I was able to make it happen. In less than 48 hours, we were on a plane to Florida.
My parents have always been close to KC and all his activities, so I made arrangements for them to also fly to Florida, and surprise KC. We arrived at our destination and got settled in to our hotel. My parents would arrive late that evening, so we took KC to get his favorite food.. Lobster. After a great dinner, he noticed the outdoor pool area at the hotel had an abundance of lizards, so he spent the rest of the evening catching lizards and enjoying the nice Florida weather. My parents flight was late so we decided to do the surprise in the morning at the hotel.
We made arrangements for them to be sitting in the lobby when we brought him down the next morning to go to breakfast. They were seated in the lower level, out of sight from KC's view. We told him to go to the windows and see if any lizards were out this morning. He walked down the steps.. to a successful surprise..
After the successful surprise, we spent the day at the beach and getting ready for the next days hunt. I've never personally hunted alligators, so taking my 6-year-old out to try and shoot one was a first for both of us. The next morning we met up with our guides and put a plan together that would include checking known waterways and private ponds for a mature gator. It didn't take long before one of the guides radioed that they had a large one located. We moved locations and were soon setup near the water waiting for the gator to come out to sun itself or pass by in range for a shot. We had the crossbow setup on the BOG deathgrip tripod which made things for KC much easier. We had practiced and prepared for a body shot but after being setup for a while and watching the gator make several passes by us realized he might not present us with a shot out of the water. This meant the room for error and size of the vital just went from a football to a golf ball. I reminded KC where the spot he needed to aim if the gator passed by for a brain shot. It wasn't long and we saw him making another pass by us, KC got ready and as he passed took the shot which entered the back of the brain cannel killing him instantly. It took 5 adults to get the gator on shore for photos and quickly loaded up to drive him to the processor / taxidermist. KC's Florida gator measured 10.5 ft long.
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