First Iguana Hunt in PR

A few weeks ago I went on my first iguana hunt would like to share my experience and observations with you. This past February I was suffering from a healthy dose of cabin fever when I got a call from a buddy (Jim) inviting me to hunt iguanas with him in Puerto Rico. Jim is a pro at pesting so I figured if iguana hunting wasn’t that exciting I could learn a lot from him and enjoy the warm weather. Well I learned a lot and had a fantastic time hunting iguanas. First of all, there were many more iguanas than I was expecting. The island is overrun. They are everywhere there are trees, water and sand. I spotted them driving down the highway and sitting having a lunch at Burger King. The best hunting is typically in the dominant trees on a property in the afternoon. The tend to congregate on the highest branches in the midday and afternoon to warm up in the sun. I was not unusual to find 25-30 iguanas in the 4-20 lb range in one tree. When they see you coming many will try to hide so you have to look real hard to spot them. I have hunted all my life and have gotten quite good at spotting game. However, switching to iguanas was like starting all over again. One of the buddies Jim and I were hunting with was from the area and has hunted them all his life. He was easily spotting 20 to my 1 that first day. By day 3 it was more like 4 – 1. It really takes some time to know where to look and what to look for. What amazed me most was how hard they were to kill. I was shooting a Matador .25 at 47fp and a medium sized iguana could take 5-6 or more solid hits to the chest and still keep climbing. Shots to the area between the eye and ear and the base of the neck would usually stop them with one shot and even a .177 cal shooting at 12fp would stop them dead if you hit them in the right spot. If their head was hidden, we often took chest shots to get them moving with a follow up head shot. Most shots were off hand between 25 – 50 yards and frequently required knowing the exact trajectory of you pellet to slide the shot over one limb, under another limb and on to the target. It made for some real challenging shooting and lots of satisfaction when you pulled a good shot off. Jim is a long range shooter and he was popping them regularly over 90 yds. We would hunt all morning and have lunch at a local road side lunch establishment. Then hunt until late afternoon. Everyone we met on the trip was amazingly friendly and helpful. I had a great time and hope to go back soon. Here are some helpful suggestions and links for anyone considering giving iguana hunting a try for the first time.

1. Air travel with an airgun has legal requirements. It must be degassed and checked in as a firearm. Jim recently posted a short video on this and it tells you all you need to know. You can check his video out at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxNMJCrzOTE&t=32s . Also I had some pellets in my carryon luggage. The TSA agents I ran into did not know what to make of pellets. I almost had to leave them behind but finally a manager came over that owned a Crossman 760 when he was a kid. He gave me the OK but from now on I will keep them in the case with the gun. PS Jim has a bunch of great pesting videos worth checking out. They can be found by subscribing to his youtube videos.
2. I believe you do not need a hunting license if you hunt on private land but you do need a license to hunt up public land. The license costs $25 and has shooting and safety tests and is good for 1 year. It may take a day or so to get one on your own.
3. Make sure you have solid permission to hunt on any given property. Jim took me to properties he had well established hunting permissions on and even then at some point on every hunt someone checked in on us. It was either a phone call to Jim and in other cases someone pulled up in a vehicle. Just make sure you are clear to hunt on any property you access. Someone will be checking in on you.
4. I would not attempt to set up a hunt on your own on your first hunt. It takes a while to figure out all the logistics and keep it fun. Video of our hunt can be found at https://youtu.be/zbcqmoiC_HY . After you have done some hunting there you will know if and how to do it on your own if you wish to go that route. If you are interested in contacting Jim about a hunt he can be reached at [email protected]. 
5. Bring plenty of pellets, long pants and shirts for walking through the brush, sunglasses, baseball cap, camouflage is not necessary, a cooler with ice and plenty of bottled water on every outing, mid height boots, gun repair and degassing tools. Also, I strongly recommend that you bring a laser pointer strong enough that it can be seen in day light. It will incredibly helpful in helping everyone share the location of spotted iguanas.
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   Well that is a quick summary. It was truly a unique and enjoyable experience hunting iguanas and I highly recommend it. Let me know if you have questions. Happy hunting….