Barry McKinney, his son, Kodi, and Robert Harrison of Granite Quarry recently bagged a 12-foot, 1-inch alligator during a hunt in South Carolina on the Santee Cooper.
Alligator season started Sept. 12 at noon, and the group of bowhunters located the approximately 800-pound alligator around 2 p.m.
They pursued it throughout the evening but couldn’t get close enough to take a shot. They were finally able to get an arrow in the gator at 1:25 a.m. The hunters followed a float that was attached to the arrow with a 200-pound test line. The alligator surfaced about 1 1/2 hours later
The hunters got another successful shot in and several hours later the gator moved into four feet of water, where they were able to harpoon him.
The homemade harpoon had 10 feet of cable attached to a 25-foot rope, which was attached to a 20-foot boat. The gator pulled the boat back into deep water.
He later surfaced again, anad while he tried to break free, became airborne, exposing half his body while making vertical leaps out of the water.
At 6 a.m. on Sunday, the alligator was brought to the side of the boat, where a .357 and a .45 caliber pistol completed the hunt.
The hunters got back to the boat ramp by 9:30 a.m., where a crowd was waiting.
They all noticed the numerous bullets that didn’t pierce the gator’s skin.
Kodi McKinney had prior experience hunting alligators, including last year when he bagged an 11-foot, 3-inch gator.