Woman kills 12-foot gator in S.C.

MANNING, S.C., Sept. 24 (UPI) -- A 23-year-old woman hunting alligators in South Carolina said she was shocked to quickly take down a 12-footer weighing about 800 pounds.

Kayla McGuire, who was hunting gators with her fiance Sunday morning near Randolph's Landing in Manning, said guides Eugene Finkbeiner and Randy Donley of D4 Outfitters in Sumter led them to the alligator and threw a hook line over its back, allowing McGuire to kill it with a .44-caliber magnum pistol, The (Sumter, Fla.) Item reported Monday.

"'Oh my God. Oh my God.' Those were my first thoughts," McGuire said. "I really wasn't ready, but I had to get ready really quick."

Finkbeiner and Donley said the gator was the ninth they have helped to kill since alligator season of 2009.

"This was our second largest," Donley said. "Our largest measured 13.3 feet long."