10-Year-Old Girl, 13-Foot Gator
For anyone out there with the idea that they are a “bad dude,” a little girl in Texas should help bring those opinions into perspective.
With a crossbow, Ella Hawk, 10, arrowed a 13-foot, 800-pound gator on the Guadalupe River near Victoria, Texas on Sept. 27. The hunt has garnered the girl a lot of attention in recent weeks, and judging from her past accomplishments this was not a fluke. Hawk is downright deadly with a crossbow.
Hawk, who is a past recipient of the World Huntress of the Year Award from Trophy Game Records in Kerrville, Texas, has also hunted axis deer, rams and chital, according to The Daily Mail. Her alligator was a triumph of nerves and marksmanship.
According to a report in the Victoria Advocate, the big gator was baited in near the bank, in accordance with Texas regulations by guide Ryan Longer. From a boat, 15 yards from the alligator, Hawk took her first shot and 10-ringed the animal just above the eyes. As recounted by her father and Longer, the gator was paralyzed if not dead following the first shot. But Hawk was asked to follow-up and “Robin Hooded” her first shot, according to the report.
Gators don’t die quickly or easily, so for safety and assurance, she took another shot, this time with a .243. Again, she hit her crossbow bolt.
The official Texas state record alligator is a 14-foot, 3-inch, 800-pound animal killed during a public hunt by then 18-year-old Braxton Bielski in 2013.