A massive alligator that reportedly eluded hunters for years has finally been pulled from a South Carolina lake — and the enormous reptile tipped the scales at a staggering 844 pounds.
The alligator, nicknamed “Snaggletooth,” was harvested from Lake Moultrie late Sept. 28 during South Carolina’s public alligator hunting season.
The animal was initially measured at an even 14 feet long, according to the hunting group involved. A later measurement reportedly put it at approximately 13 feet, 8 inches.
Either way, Snaggletooth was enormous.
The 844-pound weight places the alligator among the heaviest publicly documented harvests in South Carolina history and has prompted comparisons with a legendary 1,025-pound alligator taken from the same lake more than a decade ago.
A Years-Long Search Finally Ends
Cole Poplin of Renegade Bowfishing had reportedly been looking for the giant alligator for several hunting seasons.
Poplin was on Lake Moultrie with William Ard and clients Chris Webb and Webb’s father, Craig, when the group finally crossed paths with the massive reptile.
The hunt began with plenty of activity.
Chris Webb said the group encountered an alligator measuring more than 11 feet only about 20 minutes after they started. For many hunters, that would have been an extraordinary animal.
They decided to keep looking.
Over the course of the night, the group reportedly pursued or encountered roughly 20 alligators before Poplin and Webb spotted the animal they believed was Snaggletooth moving through the grass.
That’s when the night changed.
Several Harpoons Needed to Secure Giant Gator
The hunters worked to secure the enormous alligator with multiple harpoons as the animal fought in the water.
Bringing it under control was only part of the challenge.
Once the alligator had been secured, the group still had to move hundreds of pounds of reptile onto their boat.
According to accounts from the hunters, the weight of the animal pushed their equipment to its limits. A heavy-duty winch was used during the process and reportedly came close to giving out while the group struggled with Snaggletooth.
By the time they returned to the boat ramp, the hunters knew they had an unusually large animal.
Then they put it on a scale.
The number was 844 pounds.
“We hit the lake with Renegade Bowfishing LLC for a big gator and the trip did not disappoint,” Webb wrote while describing what he called a hunt of a lifetime.
The hunters initially reported a measurement of exactly 14 feet.
A second measurement taken later reportedly came in shorter, at approximately 13 feet, 8 inches. Differences in measurements can occur depending on how an animal is positioned and measured.
Neither length measurement has been independently certified by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.
How Big Is 844 Pounds for a South Carolina Alligator?
Extremely big.
South Carolina has a substantial wild alligator population, particularly across its Coastal Plain, but animals approaching Snaggletooth’s size are uncommon.
SCDNR says exceptionally large alligators take decades to reach trophy size, with the agency noting that it can take more than 30 years for an alligator to reach that category.
The agency does not maintain a comprehensive official record book ranking every alligator ever harvested in the state. That makes claims about the “largest” or “second largest” difficult to establish with absolute certainty.
However, Snaggletooth’s reported 844-pound weight puts the animal in rare territory based on publicly documented South Carolina catches.
The benchmark most often cited is a 1,025-pound alligator harvested from Lake Moultrie in September 2010 by Massachusetts hunter Maryellen Mara-Christian.
Published reports from the time put that animal at roughly 13½ feet long.
It took Mara-Christian and her hunting party about two hours to secure the enormous reptile.
Remarkably, that means the heavier 2010 alligator was reportedly shorter than Snaggletooth’s initial 14-foot measurement.
Another Monster Had Already Been Taken This Season
Snaggletooth was not the first enormous alligator Poplin and Ard encountered during the 2026 season.
Earlier in September, Poplin reportedly harvested another giant from the Santee Cooper lakes.
That animal measured approximately 12 feet, 9 inches and weighed 769 pounds.
Poplin described the earlier catch as a giant in its own right, but it still was not the particular alligator he had been pursuing.
That hunt apparently ended when Snaggletooth finally surfaced.
Why Lake Moultrie Produces Giant Alligators
Lake Moultrie is no stranger to enormous reptiles.
The roughly 60,000-acre reservoir is part of South Carolina’s sprawling Santee Cooper lake system and provides the type of warm, freshwater habitat alligators thrive in.
South Carolina wildlife officials say virtually any body of water in the state’s Coastal Plain can potentially contain alligators.
Most never approach the dimensions reported for Snaggletooth.
Animals that survive long enough to reach extreme sizes have generally spent decades feeding and growing while avoiding disease, accidents, conflicts with people and previous hunting seasons.
South Carolina Carefully Regulates Alligator Hunting
South Carolina does not allow unrestricted recreational alligator hunting.
Hunters participating in the public season are selected through a state lottery system and receive permits and harvest tags for designated management areas.
For 2026, the public hunting season runs from noon on Sept. 12 through noon on Oct. 10.
State regulations also govern how the animals may be captured.
Hunters generally must secure an alligator before it is killed, using approved equipment such as hooks, snares or other legal capture devices. Those rules are intended to allow hunters to maintain control of the animal and recover it rather than leaving a wounded alligator in the water.
The state has also taken steps in recent years to manage hunting pressure on particularly large animals.
Beginning in 2025, SCDNR introduced additional restricted-size tags allowing hunters to take alligators between four and eight feet. Traditional tags allowing larger animals remain available.
Wildlife officials said at the time that protecting a healthy distribution of older and larger alligators was one reason behind the change, pointing out how long it takes for the reptiles to reach trophy size.
For Poplin and the hunters who finally brought Snaggletooth out of Lake Moultrie, the years-long search ended with an animal few people will ever see in the wild — an alligator weighing more than four average American adults combined.
And somewhere beneath the waters of Lake Moultrie, there could always be another giant waiting.
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