It may not have been a record, but that is one giant critter. Should be enough to make several pairs of boots.

[Note: Embedded Instagram photos of the croc found at linked website article.]

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American Hunter Bags “Man-eating Dinosaur of a Croc” in Africa


Garrett Wales shot the Nile crocodile from land with a .33 Nosler. The giant was 15 feet long and likely weighed more than 1,000 pounds

BY SAGE MARSHALL | PUBLISHED SEP 12, 2022 12:39 PM

Garrett Wales of Brock, Texas, recently shot an absolute monster. Wales was on a 10-day hunting trip at Humani Ranch in the Savé Valley of Zimbabwe. He’d hunted for several days and made a few kills before turning his sights on a crocodile. His trackers heard something that piqued his interest. “As we were getting ready to head out, they had been talking to some other locals in the village,” Wales tells F&S. “They came back and said ‘hey, these guys are saying there’s this crocodile out in an irrigation pond.’ Now, when we say irrigation pond, it’s full of vegetation. There was this legend of this croc that lived there, but no one we knew had actually seen it.”

The irrigation pond was a place the locals used often to get water, wash clothes, and sometimes even bathe in during the summer. Wales said the giant crocodile posed a threat to local safety—and wanted to try to help while enjoying his hunt. His guides put out some bait and returned the next day to check on it. It was untouched. “As we were walking out, all of a sudden, my PH stops,” Wales says. “This thing was sunning in the reeds. He lays eyes on it right before it slides back into the water. I didn’t see it but he confirmed the crocodile was a monster.”

Wales and his guides decided to hunt the crocodile hard for the next 5 days, walking along several paths next to the pond several times each day. Two days later, they saw the croc, but it slid into the water and escaped before Wales could get a shot opportunity. On the 5th day, luck was on his side. “We were about to go in for lunch, and we decided to make one more lap around the irrigation pond. Lo and behold, we come around the corner and were expecting to maybe see him in the reeds, but he was on our side of the bank just 5 to 7 yards from us.”

Wales held his fear in check and shot the crocodile at 7 yards from land with a .33 Nosler rifle. The Nile crocodile is one of five species of crocodiles in Africa. They live throughout sub-Saharan Africa, the Nile Basin, and in Madagascar. According to National Geographic, they can grow up to 20 feet and 1,650 pounds. Some 200 people are estimated to die from fatal crocodile attacks in Africa each year. Most crocodile hunting takes place in central and southern Africa, where hunting fees play an important role in wildlife conservation.

As for Wales’s crocodile, it took 9 people to heave it onto the back of a truck. It measured 15 feet, with several feet on the tail having broken off from an old wound. Wales estimates it was 1,000 to 1,200 pounds. “[It’s] a proper, man-eating dinosaur of a croc,” Wales wrote in a Facebook post. “It was an experience I’ll never forget.”

Wales says the five-day hunt was special for special reasons—from overcoming his fear in close quarters with such dangerous game to seeing the local villagers celebrate his kill. “I’ve hunted all my life and I’ve never experienced anything like it,” he says. “It was as insane as it gets in the hunting world.”


Sage Marshall joined Field & Stream as an editorial intern in 2018, when he worked at the publication’s former office in Manhattan. His desk-mate was a mounted warthog. After graduating from college, he worked as a freelance journalist for two years before returning to the F&S team full-time in 2021 as the brand’s News Editor.

OMG! Yeah, that IS man eater. That could eat a child in a gulp without chewing.

That is a monster for sure.
Aligators and crocs scare the shit out of me as a side note. Glad I'm in Ohio.

That is one truly primordial beast.

Not even Tarzan could kick that monster's ass.

Wow. That’s a monster

quote:

Originally posted by Wasabi:

Not even Tarzan could kick that monster's ass.

Looks like a job for Chuck Norris.

Crikey!

Re: “they can grow up to 20 feet”
But most have only four.

That's a monster croc

quote:

.33 Nosler

I had never heard of this round, and my Googlefu came up with it having more energy and being flatter shooting than a .338 Lapua.

I hear crocs brains are little bitty and hard to hit. But he shot it from 7 yards so maybe not so difficult.

While on a golf course in Florida I turned toward strange movement at the corner of my eye. It was one of those honkers waddling across the green from a water hazard. I was the only alarmed one on the course.

He did the local folks a huge favor, if it was in their local (and perhaps only) water source. Pass him a few more cartridges, and scout around other villages for the croc's relatives.

quote:

Originally posted by pbslinger:
I hear crocs brains are little bitty and hard to hit. But he shot it from 7 yards so maybe not so difficult.

Aiming point is the almond shaped spot behind the eye.

I do NOT want to be 7 yards from that beast while it is still alive!!

A fifteen footer is not to be trifled with I'm sure, but looks like the old "place the critter closer to the camera than the hunter" trick.

If you want some good reading on crocodiles try some of the stuff by Peter Capstick.

Would love to know where he hit him.
Seven yards is way too close…

Larry eet da Zeebas no more

“Wales held his fear in check and shot the crocodile at 7 yards from land with a .33 Nosler rifle.”

Held his fear in check? Why? Was the croc bugging’ him or something?
7 yards, damn near point blank, with a Nosler no less. Yeah, hellava guy, not a Rittenhouse, but a hellava guy nonetheless, eh?