{"id":857343,"date":"2026-09-23T03:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T03:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/857343\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T03:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T03:48:13","slug":"3-hunters-battle-nearly-13-foot-600-pound-alligator-for-2-hours-on-waccamaw-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/857343\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Hunters battle nearly 13-foot, 600-pound alligator for 2 hours on Waccamaw River"},"content":{"rendered":"

HORRRY COUNTY, S.C. (WPDE) \u2014 Three hunters spent about two hours Monday battling a nearly 13-foot, 600-pound alligator before finally bringing in the massive reptile along the Waccamaw River.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A nearly 13-foot alligator weighing about 600 pounds was the massive catch being recounted Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, by hunters who battled the reptile for about two hours along the Waccamaw River. (Credit: John Wayne Caulder)<\/p>\n

John Wayne Caulder of Marion County said he was hunting with his son, Kelly Wayne Caulder of Florence County, and their friend, Josh Bumgarner of Hickory, North Carolina, when they caught the alligator on the Waccamaw River between Georgetown and Myrtle Beach.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

John Wayne Caulder, Kelly Wayne Caulder and Josh Bumgarner were sharing the story Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, of their nearly 13-foot alligator catch on the Waccamaw River. (Credit: John Wayne Caulder)<\/p>\n

Bumgarner was the tag holder for the hunt, Caulder said.<\/p>\n

The men have caught alligators before, but Caulder said this one stood out because of its size and the struggle it took to bring it in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve caught several gators, but this one was one of the biggest fights and the biggest we’ve ever caught,\u201d Caulder said.<\/p>\n

Caulder estimated the alligator measured nearly 13 feet long and weighed about 600 pounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis one right here was a pretty massive gator,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Caulder said the men fought the alligator for about two hours before they were finally able to bring it under control.<\/p>\n

He said the group was hunting in the Pee Dee alligator management unit, also known as Unit 4. The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources divides the state’s public alligator hunt into four management units, including the Pee Dee unit. Hunters selected through the state’s lottery system are issued a permit and harvest tag and may hunt only within the unit for which they were selected.<\/p>\n

South Carolina’s public alligator hunt is tightly regulated. The Department of Natural Resources says each selected hunter may harvest one alligator under the permit issued to that hunter. The agency estimates at least 100,000 alligators live in South Carolina, primarily from the Midlands to the coast.<\/p>\n

Caulder said the catch will provide more than just a story about their two-hour fight on the river.<\/p>\n

Caulder said they plan to have a European-style mount made from the alligator’s skull. The men also kept meat from its tail.<\/p>\n

Some of that meat, however, went to a stranger.<\/p>\n

Caulder said that after the hunt, the men met a man at a gas station and decided to share some of the alligator meat with him because he expressed interest in it.<\/p>\n

He added that the massive catch is one he and the others won’t soon forget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HORRRY COUNTY, S.C. (WPDE) \u2014 Three hunters spent about two hours Monday battling a nearly 13-foot, 600-pound alligator…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":857344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-857343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}