Massive Alligator Captured, Killed After 30-Minute Battle With Hunters

Two Florida alligator hunters got lucky after they ended up capturing a 12-foot-long alligator weighing 750-pound in Gulf County. The hunters had been in the area to look for an 8-foot gator but instead, they stumbled upon the massive catch

“We've been wanting to catch one for his hide and eat him and we didn't realize that we were going to get one home so big,” Brandon Barfield told ABC News on Tuesday.

Barfield and his partner Brandon Cutchins caught the gator on Sunday morning after spotting it at 3:30 a.m. EDT.

"It took over 30 minutes and then we were able to harpoon the alligator and then we were able to get some big grapple hooks onto the alligator,” Barfield, 24, said. “And then we were able to kill the alligator with our bang sticks.”

"The first thing we saw was his tail. But his tail, that didn't do him any justice. Once we got the other hook in him and saw his head, we were more or less scared than we were happy at this moment," said Barfield to My Panhandle.

The two hunters said after killing the reptile, they had to figure out how to get it to the shore. They initially strapped life jackets to float the huge gator back to shore, before strapping it to the side of the boat. Both the attempts proved fruitless, and later, Barfield and Cutchins got a tow assist for them and their trophy.

"We're going to eat the meat and probably get some things made out of the hide and mount the head," Cutchins to My Panhandle.

This is not the first incident when such a massive alligator was caught during hunting.

Last month, a 12-foot long alligator, weighing over 1,000-pound, was captured on Florida's Lake Okeechobee by an airline pilot and two friends, who took more than one hour and a half to lure and capture the gator with a bait.

Pilot Jim Howards' daughter wrote at the time about the meat of the alligator and what her father does with the skin and the skull of the reptile.

"The skinner keeps the meat, then my dad takes the skin, but the skin won't be ready for a whole year! For the skin to turn into purses and wallets and belts and boots, the skin has to go through a pretty lengthy process which I know nothing about. But I do know you get to choose the color of your leather! (I'll take a purse this year, dad! FYI to get a purse made from gator skin that you caught costs about $1,200, so I won't be getting a purse)," she wrote.

Alligator sightings are common in Florida and there are several instances when these reptiles are seen lurking in the neighborhood. However, it is rare a human comes in such close contact with a gator. About one-quarter of the estimated 5 million American gators living in the southeastern United States are found in Florida.