Sometimes people have to defend themselves against gators although you'd prefer to both leave each other alone.

The main challenge in stopping a gator or crocodile seems to be they have extremely thick skin/armor, and if you do defend yourself their armor may be at a slanted angle if they are facing you. The chances of a bullet bouncing off their skull seems very high.

Obviously you would want a deep penetrating, hard bullet such as when in wild hog or bear country, but I was wondering if due to the armor and slanted angle of crocodiles if you would want a pointier bullet or a solid copper bullet.

Just interested, I love wildlife and would not panick if a gator swam towards me, but I'd want something that could do the job. I'm planning on doing some fishing in south texas, so will be packing probably a 10mm or .357 sig.

TLDR: If you had a big gator trying to eat you would you want a hard heavy flat-nosed bullet, or a pointy bullet of some kind?

Well for gators a .22lr to the head stops it. For gators it is all shot placement got to hit that peanut sized brain to stop it. If not it just pisses it off. I know guys that trap and kill them and they carry .22lr and head shot. Anything else just pisses the beast off.

I imagine in a trap you can plink they behind the ear at just the right angle. If they are trying to eat you and you somehow manage shot placement, it seems that there would be a good chance the bullet would ricochet off. :(

I'm sure 700gr hardcast in 500 S&W magnum would do the job but I would not want to fish with one of those lol.

I've not heard of any self defense Gator shootings, but I'd like to read about all of them.

Post them up please.

Seems they do come up occasionally, although usually when I hear about self-defense against them a shotgun or rifle is used (which I definitely would have if possible).

http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2015/12/robert-farago/question-of-the-day-what-handgun-for-defense-against-alligators/ (see comments)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMGZr1pT3JA

I'm more concerned about human criminals overall but I would want an adequate gun around gators. It seems they will generally leave you alone but I would want a gun just in case.

I don't live in gator country but I would have some deer slugs handy and my old 629 44 magnum close too.

Waiting for this as well.

Edit: Respectfully,  A gator popping up beside a Kayak that messing around shoreline vegetation is not
an attack.

Reptiles are not easy to kill instantly without  a CNS shot.  They will twitch for hours after "dying".  

If I was worried about gators I'm taking a 12GA and full power OO.

Into the back of the head shooting down and forward on the center-line.

It is a tiny tiny target.

Way back in college biology we dissected gator heads to learn about reptiles.

Even on a decent size head the brain was TINY.

I'm not saying I'd want to hurt the gator in the video, but it pops its head over the kayak at 0:21 and tips his head inside. Is he just looking? It's not clear to me. If he had fell out of the kayak would he have been eaten? I don't know.

I did some more research. Seems humans are not natural prey of gators but you should give them space ... the risk is low they will attack. Also it seems anything practical you would carry would not be very good if they were attacking you in a way you could not shoot their peanut-sized brain at an angle. It seems if you feed a gator though they will become deadly just as bears do.

I carry 180 grain 10mm hollow point rounds in a Glock 20. I'm sure it could kill an alligator.

That sounds like a robust solution for many threats. I think the angle would matter though.

Really though after my research I'd like a gun in the swamps of Florida but it seems like you'd probably be okay.

In Florida, I'd be 7 times more leery of 2 legged predators. But for a great dual purpose all around load against cut off jean short wearing losers and leathery gators... I'd most certainly go with a Hard Cast 220 grain Truncated Cone pill. The heavier the better against thick skinned animals. BB and Underwood have what you seek. I've seen what truncated cone hard cast bullets do to thick hide and skull.

With all the pot growing in Florida swamps I would be a lot more worried about the 'owners' of that little cluster over there than gators.
Years ago we had a problem in the National Forest in Virginia.

You can make a nasty little booby trap with a rat trap and a 12 gauge shell.

Just enough to put a real crimp in your day when it hits your knee.

I found a very few of them over years of turkey hunting.

Some had fired from either corrosion or being tripped.

Most hung there with the trip wires long ago corroded but otherwise ready to go.

A cocked rat trap with a 12 gauge shell ready to be hit on the primer by the bail.

I have no idea but are they like snapping turtles? They'll still bite after multiple body shots.

Cns seems the way to go.

I haven't heard many gator shootings but are there even many gator attacks? More or less than bears or mountain lions?