Would you like to start hunting invasive iguanas for meat? Wonderful. Lets discuss the tools.The desired effect is to place a small hole directly through the brain or the upper spine of the lizard. Accuracy in this respect is very important. The bodies of reptiles can be very resilient and strange compared with those of mammals. They can run a long way with injuries that would stop a mammal in its tracks. I have personally watched the disembodied heart of a snake beat for over half an hour. The only way to absolutely guarantee that the iguana won't leave the area after the shot is to totally disengage the central nervous system. This also happens to be the method that will result in the least amount of suffering to the animal.
The ideal weapon for this would be a .22 LR rifle. If you intend to hunt iguanas in an area where you can legally shoot a .22 rifle then this is the tool that I would suggest. However, in many areas where iguanas are invasive there are local laws against the discharge of a firearm.
A big exception to laws against shooting a firearm is often (though not always) using an air rifle. This is usually a legally viable option in Florida.
A broad spectrum of air rifles are available for sale, which range from glorified toys to serious competition-ready weapons. A classic Red Ryder BB gun can still be bought for around $30 or less -- and you can have a whole lot of fun with those. But the air rifles in that class do not produce the velocities necessary to punch their projectiles reliably through an iguana's skull at useful distances.
Look for something that produces velocity of at least 700 feet per second, and preferably more. I had good results hunting with the Ruger Air Hawk. (which is on sale at Amazon at the time of this writing for about $110 and is a pretty good deal in my opinion).
The Air Hawk is Ruger-branded, but is actually manufactured by a totally unrelated company. I found that it was tough and well-constructed, producing very tight groups of shots at 25 yards. Testing with five different brands of pellets using a chronograph produced velocities ranging between 875 fps and just a touch under 1,100. That is verging on the power of a .22 LR, though admittedly with a much lighter bullet. I found that with proper shot placement the .17 caliber lead pellets fired from the Air Hawk would reliably pass completely through the skulls and brains of both green and black spiny-tailed iguanas.
Effective range in terms of accuracy and penetration is limited to roughly 25 yards. It can be tricky to stalk in that close to iguanas that are not habituated to the presence of human beings. This is where a .22 LR offers a big advantage.
My friend George Cera, a professional wildlife specialist and invasive lizard hunter, took most of his first 16,000 iguanas in Florida with a .17 Gamo that produces very similar velocities to the Ruger I carried. But the last time I visited and hunted with him he had switched to using a .22 lever action Henry rifle wherever he was allowed to use it.
For the type of work that George does, the lever action Henry has a big advantage over other repeating .22 rifles. The tubular magazine and hand-operated action (as opposed to a semi-auto) allows unusual types and lengths of .22 LR cartridges to be used. George uses CCI's handy .22 shotshells. These things turn a .22 rifle or pistol into a tiny little shotgun. They only work at very close range, so he doesn't have the reach that a conventional .22 bullet would allow. But because George often deals with invasive iguanas in populated areas he wanted to be able to take shots where a porch or other structure was directly behind the iguana. A .17 pellet from an air rifle can punch an ugly hole through a porch railing after passing through an iguana, but the .22 birdshot won't do any harm.
I have shot rats with these same cartridges out of a .22 pistol from less than twelve inches away and not left a single mark on the floor or wall behind the rat, so I can vouch for this quality.
With a scoped bolt action .22 using conventional ammunition I would feel comfortable reaching out to around 60 yards on iguanas. That would have a big advantage over a pellet rifle, if you can legally use it. Bear in mind that we are aiming for a target that is about the diameter of an acorn at most. Also consider that being accurate off of a shooting bench at a range is not the same thing as accuracy in the field. I don't know about you, but regardless of the rifle or cartridge I can't hit an acorn at 100 yards off-hand under field conditions. If I could then I wouldn't be writing this blog entry -- I'd be out winning trophies in shooting contests.
One of the first things I did on my first day hunting iguanas was to slice an iguana's head in half to see exactly where the brain lies (why yes, I did get the idea from Karamojo Bell). I suggest that you do the same to help with your shot placement.
To summarize, use a .22 if you can, but if you have to settle for a .17 air rifle then you can still bag dinner with a little more work. Don't buy a really cheap air rifle and don't settle for something that produces less than 700 feet per second in velocity.
[Photo copyright 2011, 2012 by Jackson Landers. That's George Cera holding his Henry and a couple of boxes of those CCI shot shells.]
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