**UPDATE** The good folks of Cordray’s mentioned this post and were kind enough to point out an incorrect weight which we have corrected below.
Gator season ended its second season in South Carolina in October and there were some impressive animals taken. Maybe you read about the cheerleader who got a 10-footer with a crossbow in USA Today. But did you hear about this monster taken in Lake Marion?
Weighing in a whopping 1,000 850 pounds and measuring 14 12 feet, 2 inches from tip to tail, it has turned quite a few heads of those accustomed to the great fishing and boating on this popular lake. Cordray’s of Charleston handled the processing and taxidermy. Check out more photos after the jump.
Over 3,700 people applied for 1,000 permits to take an alligator in South Carolina. Last year marked the first such permitted hunt since 1964 and resulted in 362 gators being taken. The non-refundable application fee is $10 and if your name is pulled out of the hat, the hunting permit is $100.
According to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, the way to go about bagging an alligator sounds simple, but consider that no bait is allowed, nor baited hooks, set hooks or pole hunting. Oh, and there’s no drive-by shooting either. That leaves securing a line by bow or other non-lethal means until it can be brought to shore or alongside the boat where dang sure lethal means are allowed.
Interested in getting in on the action? Applications are due June 15 and if you don’t make the cut, don’t worry. Preference points are earned with each year you don’t draw.
In their 11/16/09 post, Cordray’s referred to the challenges of weighing such a large dinosaur: ”We weigh them by taking the weights of the pieces and parts as we process it. So 250 lbs of skin, 300 lbs of meat, etc. If I remember correctly, this one’s head weighed over 100 lbs”. It should be noted that Cordray’s states a sizeable “hunk of tail” was missing, and that the gator may well have been a full fourteen feet in length with it attached.
