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"Extreme Outdoorsman" Introduces Invasive Lionfish to a Glock 17

By V. Saxena January 24, 2018 at 10:40am

Two years ago, a Manatee County, Florida, man who works as a mortgage broker during the day became famous after he uploaded a video to YouTube that showed him hunting for lionfish with a Glock. Yes, a Glock.

Ironically, Courtland Hunt had never meant to be a lionfish hunter. He explained to local station WFTS in in Tampa that his original goal had simply been to see if he could modify his Glock to shoot underwater.

It reportedly took “many tries,” but Hunt eventually managed to fashion a tricked-out Glock that could fire bullets “six feet in distance” in waters as deep as 100 feet. This happened in 2016, so it’s possible his Glock has been improved even further since then.

But when Hunt, who calls himself an “extreme outdoorsman,” jumped into the waters off Florida to test his gun, he noticed something odd: “I saw tons of lionfish. No fish, no bay fish, no grouper. They eat everything,” he said to WFTS.

It was this observation that inspired him into becoming a part-time lionfish hunter.

Play the video below to watch Hunt hunting for lionfish with his modified Glock 17:

Now, before any radical environmentalists scream foul, let me clarify something: Killing lionfish isn’t fun and games; it’s a necessary task, as lionfish are a menace to the natural environment.

According to Mashable, in recent years lionfish have “spread throughout the entire Caribbean and western Atlantic — voraciously feeding on other species which have no natural defenses against the foreign fish.”

Do you want to be a lionfish hunter too?

Even the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration admits that lionfish are “a growing problem in the Atlantic Ocean.”

“Since lionfish are not native to Atlantic waters, they have very few predators. They are carnivores that feed on small crustaceans and fish, including the young of important commercial fish species such as snapper and grouper,” NOAA notes.

“Unfortunately, NOAA researchers have concluded that invasive lionfish populations will continue to grow and cannot be eliminated using conventional methods. Marine invaders are nearly impossible to eradicate once established.”

Enter Hunt, who, after discovering how easy it was to kill lionfish with his modified Glock, decided to become a steward of the environment.

And that’s why when he wasn’t busy working at his day job, Hunt could often be found along the Florida coast hunting for lionfish. By late September of 2016, he had already killed more than 100.

But again, these predators are such a threat that, according to WFTS, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commissions rewards fisherman who kill the most.

I’m assuming therefore that Hunt has received an award since 2016, because 100 is no small number. Well done, dude.

Please share this story on Facebook and Twitter and let us know what you think about how this man transformed a simple glock into a lionfish-killing machine.

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