Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe ORANGEBURG, S.C., Sept. 25 (UPI) -- Three men who caught a nearly 13-foot-long alligator in South Carolina's Lake Marion say research on the Internet helped them achieve hunting success. Matthew Samuels said after finding tips to hunting alligators online, he and his brother, Chris, and his friend, David McConnell, went out and caught a 12-foot, 7-inch alligator, The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer said Thursday. Advertisement Samuels said the trio went out last Friday night and eventually spotted one of the reptiles in the lake. He said after shooting the animal with a crossbow, he and his partners tracked the wounded creature for 90 minutes. "We didn't know how big the alligator was," he said. "He would go down to the bottom and you could feel him (through the line) taking steps like he was walking across the bottom." Eventually, the animal began surfacing and the men shot it with another arrow and 18 bullets from a .45-caliber pistol. After the trio's estimated 800-pound kill, Samuels told the newspaper all three hunters intend to catch more alligators before the end of the state's first alligator hunting season in 44 years.
