Mississippi's record for heaviest alligator has been broken twice after hunters found a 727-pound alligator during the state's hunting season, according to Fox News.
MSNewsNow reported that a group of hunters from Madison held the weight record for about an hour after taking a 723.5-pound alligator, beating the state's record for heaviest male by 26 pounds.
The Hattiesburg American reported that Beth Trammell, a first-time hunter and her six-person crew spent hours trying to battle the 13-foot 5.5-inch gator into their boat after receiving help from two other hunters.
The record Trammell and his team was able to set was broken an hour later when Dustin Bockman of Vicksburg took in a 727-pound alligator. Ricky Flynt, Mississippi's alligator program coordinator confirmed the report.
Bockman and his two partners were able to carry the 13-foot 4.5-inch alligator after getting close enough to shoot the animal using a crossbow at the Mississippi River, according to Hattiesburg American.
"He broke all the lines we could put in him. Finally, put a snare on him and got him up high enough and put a shot on him. All in all took us four and a half hours to catch him from the first time we saw him," said Bockman to MSNewsNow.
Bockman and his brother, Ryan Bockman and friend, Cole Landers gave up and decided to mount the alligator's head on a sandbar after four hours of trying to get it into a boat. "We pulled his head up on the bank far enough he wouldn't float away," Bockman told Hattiesburg American. "He was so heavy he wasn't going anywhere," he added.
Flynt confirmed that the alligator Bockman and his team caught is now the current weight record for an alligator taken during the alligator hunting season.
