Giant 900-pound alligator had been snacking on livestock.
Florida is home to an estimated 1.3 million alligators, but very few will ever capture the imagination quite like the one shot by Mississippi's Doug Borries. That's because the beast was 13 feet, four inches long and weighed a staggering 905 pounds!
As if that wasn't enough to grab everyone's attention, the big gator had started to snack on young calves recently, meaning it was time for the animal to go.
This alligator had a lot of history in the private pond near Vancleave where it was shot. One of Borries' friends was the one who clued him in to the animal's existence.
"This guy said he'd seen the gator since he was a child," Borries told WXXV 25 News. "It was time for the gator to go because some of the calves were disappearing. So, he was down deer hunting with me, and he asked me if I wanted to come and hunt the gator. I said, 'Absolutely.' To me, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity."
Facebook: Doug Borries Outdoors
It's true, while there are lots of big alligators wandering the swamps of Florida, it's not often one of this size emerges. Borries decided to take a slightly different approach to hunting this alligator than most hunters would use. Instead of the usual boat and bangsticks, he elected to stalk the gator instead. He first spotted the animal from 500 yards out.
From there, he waited until it closed the gap slightly before downing the beast for good with a single shot to the head with a rifle chambered in 7mm STW.
Facebook: Doug Borries Outdoors
"It pays to have a great gun. My toughest shot I have ever taken," Borries wrote on his Facebook page Dynamic Outdoors TV. "Baseball size kill zone on an absolute beast at 320 yards. The gator was estimated to be over 80 years old. One for the books."
Indeed, this alligator is the largest ever killed by an out of state hunter in Florida. It's not quite the state record for weight and length. But it's close. The record is 13 feet, 10.5 inches, and 1,043 pounds.
Borries regularly films his hunting and fishing adventures and has multiple records in both to his name, including most recently an IGFA world record for red snapper. Although the gator was shot back in October, it's only now making the viral rounds of the internet. In one post on Facebook, Borries jokes: "he's 6 feet longer than my rental car!"
For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
NEXT: ALLIGATOR EATS DOWNED DUCK, STALKS THE HUNTER WHO SHOT IT
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