September 28, 2012
By Eric Conn
With the spotlight shining on gator hunting thanks to Troy Landry and the cast of the hit TV show Swamp People, which airs on the History Channel, it's become a strand of hunting that's more popular than ever.
And as the popularity of gator hunting increases -- with states expanding the number of permits and hunting opportunities afforded -- more and more massive gators keep showing up in the news, like Mike Cottingham's Arkansas state record gator killed in September 2012.
The gator measured 13-feet, 3-inches in length and weighed 1,380 pounds.
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In the same week Tom Grant killed the new state record gator in Mississippi, weighing in at 697.5 pounds and measuring 13 feet, 1.5 inches in length. He beat the previous record, set in 2011, by seven pounds.
For Landry and the real life swamp people of the south, gator hunting is a tradition that dates back hundreds of years.
To celebrate the revival of that famous Cajun tradition, we've assembled ten of the biggest gators killed that you've never heard about.
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Enjoy, and in the words of Troy Landry, "Choot Em!"
Tom Grant Tom Grant killed his Mississippi state record gator in September of 2012, weighing in at 697.5 pounds and stretching out to 13 feet, 1.5 inches. Grant and three other men killed the gator in Issaquena County, which is where the previous state record (690.5 pounds) came from.
Mike Cottingham This Arkansas behemoth weighed in at 1,380 pounds and was 13 feet, 3 inches long. It is the current state record holder. Mike Cottingham had to have several other men help him hoist the state record gator on shore.
Brian Jackson Jackson killed his 2011 Ole Miss gator in the same county that produced the current record holder (
Tom Grant , 2012). The gator weighed in at 690.5 pounds — seven pounds shy of the new record holder.
Tres Ammerman It took Tres Ammerman of Orlando, Fla., nearly two hours to reel in this mammoth gator, which weighed 654 pounds and broke the state record in length at 14 feet, 3.5 inches. The Florida record for weight belongs to the 1989 hunter who killed a 1,043 pound gator at Orange Lake.
Chad Jones Chad Jones killed this 680 pound gator in Mississippi, just 17 pounds shy of
Tom Grant 's 2012 state record.
Keith Fancher Keith Fancher killed this 838-pound, 14-foot-2 inch gator on the Alabama River in 2011. The massive gator literally broke the scale when state officials tried to weigh it.
Tim Stroh Tim Stroh, 19, from Florida, killed this 12-foot, 3-inch, 800 pound gator in 2011. He reported that he hauled it up near his boat with a standard bass fishing rod and then shot it. He showed off his gator with his girlfriend.
John Baxter John Baxter killed this gator in Arkansas, which made him the state record holder at 13-feet, 1-inch and 680 pounds in 2010.
Mike Cottingham beat his record in 2012 by two inches.
Maryellen Mara-Christian Maryellen Mara-Christian killed a 1,025 pound gator in South Carolina in 2010. The gator was 13-feet, 5 inches long, which may be a record but game officials in South Carolina do not keep records of killed gators.
