A Sgt. In The US Marines Just Bagged A 13.5ft, 792lb Gator—Set New Mississippi State Record

Sgt. Jesse Phillips, 3rd Battalion, 23rd US Marines, stationed in ‘Bama, just bagged a 792lb alligator in Mississippi measuring 13.5 feet long and a girth of 69.25in.

Let me start by saying that even though I’m from Florida I’ve never been Gator hunting, but I do know the ins and outs of it. So when I first read this headline I was shocked. A first time gator hunter just bagged a state record.

MilitaryTimes has the details:

The mortarman with Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 23rd Marines, an Alabama-based Reserve unit, made history on Sept. 2 when he and his friends caught a 792-pound alligator in Mississippi. The gator measured in at nearly 13 ½ feet from nose to tail, had a belly that was 69 ¼ inches in girth, and a tail that spanned 51 inches around.

It was the first time the sergeant went alligator hunting, and it paid off. According to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, their alligator was the largest male ever caught in the state.

“During my swamp training I’m going to think about it a lot different now that I’ve snagged a 13-foot, five-inch gator,” Phillips told Marine Corps Times. “I don’t like snakes and I don’t like gators. But it ended up good — I faced my fears.”

The hunt went down at about midnight on the Mississippi River. Phillips was in a 16-foot aluminum boat with two friends, Brian Montgomery and Scott Berry.

They used deep sea fishing rods and reels with giant hooks to snag the alligator — but that’s when the similarities to fishing ended. While anglers try and hook a fish through its mouth, alligator hunters try and snag an alligator’s body and pull it in.

The three fought to wrangle the giant reptile toward their boat, breaking a pole and six hooks in the process, Phillips said. The gator even did a bit of damage to their watercraft’s hull, he said. The fight was so intense that Phillips, a photographer, had to put down his camera and help out.

For full details of the story you can head on over to MilitaryTimes.com by clicking HERE.

Now that we know Stg. Phillips’ story we need to acknowledge just how fucking crazy it is that there are dinosaurs this big out there swimming around as apex predators. I’ve never feared for my life when swimming in rivers and swamps, gators typically keep to themselves and know that humans are too big of a meal to take down. If a dog or something of that size walks by they’ll take a shot at it, but at the size of a human they’ll typically leave you alone. That said, this fucking thing is EASILY big enough to eat a normal sized human and that’s NOT COOL. Not cool at all.

So do you stay out of the water and live your life in fear? Hell no, don’t be a pansy. But at the same time don’t be stupid. If you see alligators swimming around that are massive there’s no reason to jump in the water with them, just be smart about it.

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