Group of hunters goes viral with picture of 12-foot, 700-pound alligator
A group of friends captured a 12 foot, 6-inch, 726 lb. alligator over the weekend in Santee, South Carolina.
See the above video for how it all happened. Video, photos shared by George Mourounas
They captured the 2nd heaviest alligator of all time in the Midlands area. But the gator didn't give in without a fight.
“It was an adrenaline rush for sure… we knew he was a good size, but we didn’t know he was that big until he came up,” George Mourounas said.
The four hunters were in Santee for the day, looking to nab a trophy gator.
Mourounas says they passed several other ones that were 8 to 10 feet long.
But when they put the first hooks this big boy, they were in for a wait.
“He stayed down for about an hour or so. There’s not much you can do when something is that heavy.”
And then -- a fight.
“Kind of got him moving around enough that he needed more oxygen, and he came up again, and he gave us a better look. And we shot him with an arrow, that has a buoy attached to it," Mourounas said.
This alligator was so big that it weighed more than the boats the hunters were on. They had to abandon the trailer they were using and load it onto a truck instead.
It took all four of them to move the massive beast.
“It took a solid 20 minutes to load him in there. And we were all out of breath for the next hour or so after that," Mourounas said.
The alligator weighed 726 pounds and was 12 and a half feet.
But one of the hunters says they’re confident they can hook an even larger reptile.
“He says we’re going to get one bigger than this eventually.”
Mourounas says this was his first gator hunting experience.
The group plans on processing the meat, and mounting the head of the gator.
News of their hunt has gone viral on Facebook since it was shared Sunday, leading to 9,000 shares, 2,000 comments and 1,600 reactions.