'Missed it by a foot.' Three-legged alligator almost breaks MS weight record. See how close

When a Mississippi man ventured out on the Mississippi River on the final day of August, he had no intention of catching an alligator, but after a chance sighting and last-minute decision to harvest one, he put a tag on a gator that would have been a state weight record — had it not been missing a foot.

"Evidently, it got bitten off," said Teddy Coats, who, coincidentally, is from the town of Alligator, Mississippi in Bolivar County. "That leg cost me a state record.

"The game warden that weighed it said it was the oldest he'd seen and if it had its leg it would have added 12 more pounds. I guess you could say I lost it by a foot. Everybody comes up with these foot jokes when you lose it by a foot."

Coats, who was with his brother-in-law, Joel Jumper of Helena, Arkansas, was near Friar's Point looking for alligators. The two were trying to locate some alligators to harvest the following night when they planned to hunt with a business client who also had alligator tags to fill.

The two spotted some alligators and decided to leave, but as they were about to load their boat onto a trailer, they saw a pair of eyes in a chute. Coats said since the alligator was so close to the boat launch, he decided to go ahead and quickly fill one of his tags.

The quick fight with an alligator wasn't quick

"We thought it was going to be a little 30-minute deal, but it didn't work out that way," Coats said.

Coats quickly hooked the alligator.

"He didn't fight that bad and I didn't think he was that big," Coats said. "I was in the middle of the boat when I got that second line on him and he came alive. He almost pulled the boat under."

The two were in for a battle like they never experienced before.

"It was like fighting a great white shark," Jumper said. "It was intense, it was hairy and it was scary.

"When he turned the boat sideways I thought it was over. It was the wildest thing we've ever experienced."

'It was surreal': Mississippi alligator hunters bag state-record monster. Details will amaze

The men were in a 12-foot jon boat and as they later discovered, were fighting an alligator that was longer than the boat. It was a battle that went through the night and well into the next morning.

Finally, it appeared the alligator had tired and the hunters got it to the boat and secured with a noose. They hit the alligator in the head with a .44 Magnum bang stick, which is basically a spear that fires a bullet when jammed against something.

A .44 Magnum didn't stop this alligator

"Usually, in years previous, when we pop them with the bang stick it's over," Jumper said. "This one, when we popped him with the bang stick, he went crazy again and got loose. He did it twice. It was crazy."

Coats said it was a first for him.

"I've never had to hit one more than one time," Coats said.

The rest of the story: Massive 14-foot, 800 pound alligator caught in Mississippi was known to biologists

The hunters had been fighting the alligator for six hours when it lodged itself under some logs. There was no way to pull him out and the two were tired.

"We were about dead," Jumper said. "It was rough. We just didn't know how big it was."

The hunters had harpooned the alligator during the fight and it had a rope and buoy attached to it. That made locating the alligator easy. So, Coats and Jumper decided to leave at 4 a.m., get some sleep and return in a few hours.

Missing foot cost alligator hunter state record

Coats said when they returned, the alligator was expired. They tied him to the side of the boat and took him to a bank where they could pull him out with a pickup. There, they were able to see what they had.

"It was a monster," Coats said. "He looked like an old T-rex dinosaur. He had been through a lot of battles."

The alligator measured 13 feet, 7 inches long. It officially weighed 819.5 pounds — 2.5 pounds short of the state weight record for public waters.

The missing foot had cost Coats a record. However, Coats thinks there's a bigger alligator out there and plans to hunt it in the future. He also plans to be better equipped.

"I'm hoping to get the alligator that bit him if I ever get another permit," Coats said. "And, I'm going to get a bigger boat. It had to be another monster gator that bit him."

Do you have a story idea? Contact Brian Broom at 601-961-7225 or bbroom@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: MS alligator hunter nearly claims state record with 3-legged alligator