‘Absolute freak of a dinosaur’: 844-pound alligator captured in South Carolina
By Graham Cawthon
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BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C. (WJCL) — A South Carolina hunting guide spent years searching for a massive alligator nicknamed “Snaggletooth.” On the night of Sept. 28, the elusive reptile finally surfaced at the wrong time.
Cole Poplin and William Ard of Renegade Bowfishing were hunting on Lake Moultrie with tag holder Chris Webb and Webb’s father, Craig, when the group captured the alligator at about 11 p.m., according to The Post and Courier.
The animal weighed 844 pounds. Renegade said it was so large that it stalled a 1,000-pound winch and later required a tractor to move.
“Absolute freak of a dinosaur,” the company wrote on Facebook.
Renegade said Webb had earlier passed on an 11-foot alligator, despite the guides’ recommendation that he take it. His patience paid off when the group encountered Snaggletooth.
Two measurements, one enormous alligator Although the animal’s reported weight is not in dispute, its exact length is less certain.
Renegade said four members of the hunting party measured the alligator three times shortly after it was killed. Each time, according to the company, it measured 14 feet.
The alligator was then curled inside the boat, packed in ice and transported to a processor. About 11 hours later, after it was straightened again, the animal measured 13 feet, 8 inches.
Renegade attributed the 4-inch difference to icing, rigor mortis and the alligator’s curled position during transportation.
“Me personally, I’m going with the fresh kill 14 feet,” the company wrote. “In my mind, that’s how he swam around the lake.”
Neither measurement was independently verified by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.
Among the state’s heaviest reported harvests The Post and Courier described Snaggletooth as the second-largest alligator caught in South Carolina. Because the state does not maintain a formal all-time record book for harvested alligators, that ranking is best understood as a comparison of documented and publicly reported catches.
The heaviest widely documented South Carolina harvest was a 1,025-pound alligator taken in 2010 near the Lake Moultrie-Diversion Canal area. Published accounts differ on that animal’s exact length.
At 844 pounds, Snaggletooth did not challenge the earlier animal’s weight. Its reported length, however, places it among the longest alligators documented during South Carolina’s public hunting season.
SCDNR says alligators can take more than 30 years to reach trophy size.
Hunt followed state season rules South Carolina’s 2026 public alligator season runs from noon Sept. 12 through noon Oct. 10. Hunters are selected through a state lottery and receive a tag valid for a designated management unit.
State rules require hunters to restrain an alligator and bring it alongside a boat or to shore before killing it. Shooting a free-swimming or basking alligator is prohibited.
Lake Moultrie is in Unit 2, South Carolina’s Middle Coast alligator management unit.
End of a yearslong search Poplin said he first spotted the alligator about four years earlier and had pursued it repeatedly during hunting seasons.
Poplin is a U.S. Coast Guard-certified captain who operates Renegade Bowfishing, an alligator-hunting and bowfishing guide service offering trips in South Carolina and North Florida.
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