Hunters finally harpooned a 14-foot, 844-pound alligator known as “Snaggletooth” at a South Carolina lake after a four-year chase.
Cole Poplin and William Ard of Renegade Bowfishing, along with clients Chris and Craig Webb, landed the colossal reptile at Lake Moultrie around 11 p.m. Monday, according to The Post and Courier. The beast was confirmed as the second-biggest alligator ever caught in the state.
Poplin, who had been pursuing the gator since 2022, said the capture ended a long obsession.
“I spotted this gator four years ago, roughly,” Poplin told the paper. “I’ve hunted this gator a lot over the last three or four years. Four years later, we have a magical night, and he just happened to slip up and make a mistake, and we made it count.”
The hunt nearly came apart in the final moments. Chris Webb described the chaos in a Facebook post, explaining how the group spotted the animal with little ground left to cover.
“On the last bit of ground to cover Cole and I put eyes on a monster and all hell broke loose,” Webb wrote. “We scrambled to get him harpooned. One was good, one bounced off. We ended up with 3 stuck in him and a treble by his front leg.”
The hunters struggled to subdue and hoist the massive animal onto their boat, they said. Once secured, they measured it at “14 feet on the nose” and later recorded the 844-pound weight that placed it among South Carolina’s all-time catches.
Webb celebrated the achievement online with triumphant punctuation.
“STATE RECORD BABY!” he posted.
The catch fell short of the absolute state record set in 2010, when Maryellen Mara-Christian bagged a 1,025-pound, 13-foot alligator at the same lake. That mark still stands as the largest gator ever taken in South Carolina, despite Snaggletooth’s greater length.
Lake Moultrie, one of the state’s largest reservoirs, has now produced both of the two biggest documented alligator captures in South Carolina history.
The nickname “Snaggletooth” had attached to the animal during Poplin’s years of tracking it, a local moniker that spread among hunters familiar with the lake’s population of massive reptiles.
The Monday night hunt capped what Poplin described as repeated attempts to close in on the elusive target. He had spotted the gator in 2022 and spent subsequent seasons trying to position for a successful strike.
The group used harpoons and a treble hook to secure the animal after the initial attempts failed to hold. Three harpoons ultimately stuck, allowing them to bring the thrashing reptile under control.
Renegade Bowfishing operates guided hunts in the region, and the Webb clients joined Poplin and Ard for the expedition that finally ended Snaggletooth’s run.
The 844-pound weight puts the catch firmly in record territory, though the state maintains separate categories that allow for different rankings by length and weight. The official confirmation of the second-place standing came after the weigh-in, according to the paper.
Alligator hunting is permitted in South Carolina under regulated seasons, with hunters typically using harpoons, bang sticks, and hooks to take animals from boats. The sport draws both locals and out-of-state clients to lakes like Moultrie, where mature alligators can grow to exceptional size in the warm, food-rich waters.
Poplin’s four-year pursuit of a single animal reflects the patience often required in hunting large, wary reptiles that can disappear beneath the surface for extended periods and recognize repeated threats.