A group of Mississippi hunters were hoping for a 12-foot alligator and they had one in sight. It was about 15 minutes or so before the season opened at noon on Friday, so they kept their distance, watched the gator and waited.

But before noon came, they heard a sound and it was like something out of a nightmare .

"It was just a guttural growl," said Jimmy Appleton of Pope, the tag-holder. "It still echoes in my mind hearing that.

"It'll make the hair on your neck stand up just hearing it. It was just unreal at that sound echoing in the fog and the rain. It would make most people go the other way, but we had to check it out."

His hunting partner, Blake Daugherty, also of Pope, had a similar description.

"It was a roaring growl," Daugherty said. "I was like, 'Wow.' It was freaking r

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