Pee Dee hunters tag giant gator

Gator was 12.8-feet long

John Wayne Caulder, his son Kelly Caulder and friend Josh Bumgarner killed a giant alligator in South Carolina’s Pee Dee Region on Sept. 21, 2026.

Caulder shared his story with us here:

“WHAT A BATTLE. WHAT A GATOR. WHAT A MEMORY. 
Yesterday in the Pee Dee Region — Zone 4 of South Carolina, we got it done! After an unbelievable 2½-hour fight, we finally got this monster in the boat. 12.8 feet long and 493 pounds — and that weight was with his tail still hanging in the boat! 😂 We actually bent TWO stainless-steel hooks trying to get an accurate weight on him. This old boy was built different. He pulled our 17.5-foot boat over a quarter mile up and around the river before the battle was finally over.
And he had clearly been through a battle before we ever found him. There was a huge scar across his snout from another gator fight. When BM Venison Processing & Taxidermy got him opened up, they found a tooth from another gator embedded in the that old scar. That tells you something about the life this old warrior had lived.

As far as we know, he’s the biggest gator taken in Zone 4 so far this year — and what a privilege it was to be the one holding the line when it all came together.
But the best part wasn’t the number on the tape or the scale.
It was the memories made with my son Kelly Caulder and my good friend Josh Bumgarner.
Josh has applied for a South Carolina gator tag 7 years in a row, and this was finally his first gator. I couldn’t have asked for a better crew to share this experience with.
A hunt like this is about more than the harvest. It’s about the long hours, the river, the patience, the teamwork, the laughs, the adrenaline, and the memories you’ll talk about for the rest of your life.

Huge shoutout to the people and gear that helped make it happen:
MADKATZ RODS
GATOR TAKER HOOKS
BM Venison Processing & Taxidermy
Thank you for being part of the story!
One for the books. One we never forget. 
#SouthCarolinaGatorHunt #AlligatorHunting”