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Florida python hunter may have caught the biggest one yet

Everglades, Fla. — The man known as the Python Cowboy thinks he may have caught the largest Burmese Python yet in the Florida Everglades.

Martin County Trapping & Wildlife Rescue owner Mike Kimmel is waiting for confirmation, but in the meantime is sharing his effort to bag the 17-foot, 150-pound snake.

On his Instagram page, the Cowboy shows a photo of the giant reptile wrapped around his neck and writes that his solo hunt Monday “was another one for the books!”

View this post on Instagram

Yesterday’s solo #Everglades islands python hunt was another one for the books! At 8am I headed out into the swamp on my 14’ jon boat in search of an invasive #ManEater and at 11am I found her.... she wasn’t coming without a fight lol. I noticed her almost immediately as soon as we crossed paths, I could barely contain my excitement. She definitely was not afraid of me and started to slowly cruise through the vegetation as I carefully walked next to her trying to gauge exactly how large she was... because of all the grass and weeds it was hard to tell but I could tell she was an absolute monster. Her being tangled in vegetation makes the capture that much more difficult, a snake this size will use the vegetation as leverage and can literally pull you into the swamp, no stopping 150lbs of SOLID muscle. I knew going for her head first would be the easiest and safest capture method but I couldn’t turn down the chance to grab her by the tail and dance with the devil herself! As soon as I grabbed ahold of her I sealed my fate lol... no turning back now, she was coming for me! She immediately started to battle it out, taking strikes and pulling me into some tall grass with her, making it difficult to dodge her strikes... she was able to successfully get a bite on me. Only got me once but that’s all it took... I was punctured quite deep on my bicep and forearm, piercing an artery and hitting some nerves, I was lucky she didn’t latch on and that I was able to pull out of it. After loosing about a gallon of blood, lol, I was able to tire her out and get her under control. I then used a snake bag I had on my waist to tourniquet my arm because I was getting worried about how much blood I was loosing, better safe then sorry. I then had to drag all 150lbs of her alive, working to control my breathing so I didn’t pass out from blood loss and the extreme heat that day, I would have been screwed. After getting her to my boat, where my suppressed .22 pistol was, I was able to euthanize her before leaving (I didn’t have the proper bags for live transport because she was too large lol). Unofficial measurement: 17’ WITH kinks #RECORDBREAKER? Videos and more info to come!!

A post shared by Trapper Mike (@pythoncowboy) on

Kimmel said he could barely contain his excitement when he saw the snake which was tangled in vegetation.

He grabbed her by the tail and did a “dance with the devil herself!”

The snake put up quite a fight, coming after the hunter pulling him into the tall grass, and yes, she did bite him in the arm!

“This ain’t good,” he said, “I think she got an artery. I’m leaking everywhere.”

Thinking quickly he used the snake bag as a tourniquet to try to slow the bleeding.

Kimmel said he had to drag the snake out to his boat while it was still alive where he was finally able to ‘suppress’ it with a .22 pistol.

He measured it unofficially at 17-feet with kinks, the largest python on record is recorded at 17-feet long but weighed in at 140 lbs.

So the Python Cowboy may have a winner.

We will let you know while he nurses his wounds.

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