Dustin Bockman and his two partners captured the male alligator Sunday after chasing it for two hours on the Mississippi River. Once they got close enough to the gator, the team shot it with a crossbow.
Then it took another 10 hours to get the nearly 14-foot reptile inside their boat.
The gator ended up weighing 727 pounds, beating the state record by just 4 pounds.
The gator also happened to be Bockman's very first catch.
"My goal was to get a 10-footer," he said. "I couldn't believe it when it was that big."
ABC News contributed to this report.
