Mississippi’s alligator-hunting season opened Friday and it didn’t take long for a well-known processing company to display its first large gator.
"They rollin’ in, yall,” Red Antler Processing, in Yazoo City, boasted via Facebook.
The size of the gator pictured was not disclosed, but it stretched from floor to roof.
The public waters hunting season ends Sept. 7, while the private lands season ends Sept. 21. The bag limit is two gators per permit, with a 4-foot minimum length. But only one gator per permit can exceed 7 feet.
Some particulars via Mississippi Wildlife, Fisheries, & Parks:
–Alligators must be captured and controlled before they can be "dispatched." That means they must be restrained via noose or snare before they can be killed with
a shotgun or bang stick.
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–Legal methods of capture include snatch hooks (hand thrown or rod-and-reel); harpoons with attached line and/or buoy; hand or pole snares; bow-fishing equipment with attached lines and/or buoys.
–All shotguns or bang sticks must remain cased and unloaded until the alligator is restrained with "a noose or snare around the neck or leg so that the alligator is controlled."
–Hunters can obtain a reasonably accurate size estimate of the gator they're targeting by estimating the snout length, or distance between the nostrils and front of the eyes, and using a time-tested formula. For example, an 8-inch snout length "would translate to 8 feet total body length."
Last year in Mississippi, hunters on public waters harvested 807 alligators, while catching and releasing 1,482 alligators. The largest gators were males measuring just over 13 feet.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: It's open season on Mississippi alligators and they’re 'rollin’ in'
