Copyright postandcourier
One can estimate the relative size of a gator by measuring between the animal’s nostrils and center of its skull between the eyes. For example, if this snout area measures 8 inches, one can roughly assume that the alligator is about 8 feet long. But rough estimates don’t fly during the hunt. The only way to be sure that a gator fits the accepted range permitted by a DNR-provided tag is to humanely capture the creature using snares, ropes or other regulated devices. If the gator fits the length requirements, then a hunter is permitted to “dispatch” the creature. Hunters are only allowed to use a handgun or a bangstick to get the job done. A bangstick is a pole-mounted device that can be used to humanely kill alligators. It delivers a firearm cartridge through the target on contact. Local spectacle and economy stimulator Employees at Cordray's Processing and Taxidermy, located in the heart of rural Ravenel, had a very busy hunting season, said part-owner and taxidermist Kenneth Cordray. “It was a long 30 days, but a good 30 days,” he told The Post and Courier. The folks at Cordray’s processed 170 gators during the monthlong hunt and harvest season. The biggest gator the team processed this year was 702 pounds, Cordray said. The majority of takes brought into the shop are cleaned and stripped for meat. While employees have found some interesting items inside alligators in the past, this year was so busy that crewmembers focused only on the meat and did not investigate the contents of internal organs, Cordray said. Business boomed online as well, he added. A number of the team’s videos posted to Instagram garnered mass attention. An Oct. 6 video of a 13-foot, 580-plus pound gator suspended from a crane had amassed nearly 39 million views by the time of publication.
