In late January, hunter and guide Doug Borries of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, shot a colossal alligator that measured more than 13 feet long and weighed 905 pounds. The gator was taken on a private ranch bordering Lake Okeechobee in South Florida, according to a report from FOX WXXV 25. Okeechobee is the largest lake in Florida and is famed for bass and crappie fishing. It’s also loaded with big alligators.
The landowner who gave Borries permission to hunt was fearful for his family’s safety after calves on his ranch started to go missing. He believed the giant alligator was killing and eating them.
“I was staked out on top of the lake levee before daylight and shot him on an island in the middle of the lake, shortly after daylight,” Borries wrote in a Facebook post. “It was a once in a lifetime opportunity for me and I was lucky enough to put a perfect shot on him at such a long range. It pays to have a good gun.”
Borries says he shot the gator at 321 yards, sending the bullet from a 7mm STW rifle through the top of the skull. The age of the gator is unknown, but Borries estimated it to be 80 years old.
“I had no idea the magnitude of how big his body was until we pulled him completely out of the lake,” Borries says. “An absolute beast. It had been suspected of eating some of the local livestock around the lake and was considered a threat.”
Borries will have a full-size mount of the gator made, he says, and have the meat from the animal processed.
While Borries’ gator is one of the biggest recently taken in Florida, it’s not a state record. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, the longest gator captured was 14 feet, 3.5 inches long, from Lake Washington in Brevard County. The biggest alligator ever killed in Florida was 13 feet, 10.5 inches, and weighed 1,043 pounds. It was taken on Orange Lake, near Gainesville.
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