Texas-born Simon Hughes, 5, doesn’t look intimidating. But put a gun in his hands and pit him against an 800-pound alligator and it’s a different story.
Simon's been training to handle a gun since he was just 4, his dad told MyFOXHouston — and it's a good thing, too, or else he could've gotten hurt by the mega-gator that wound up on the Hughes family ranch.
The huge alligator bit into a baited hook in a marsh on the property, coming face-to-face with Simon. The boy reacted with lightning speed, grabbing his gun and shooting the reptile in the head.
"It come out, the biggest alligator I've ever seen," Simon told MyFOXHouston. "He did his death roll."
The reptile was nearly 20 times the 3-foot, 44-pound boy’s size. It didn't survive the shooting.
His dad Scott Hughes said there's a reason he started training his son, who is in kindergarten, to shoot guns at such an early age.
"Everything on the ranch will either bite you or stick you," he told MyFOXHouston.
The little boy has now earned the nickname "Gator Bait."
"Simon was a champ, couldn't ask for any better. He was just fearless," said Chuck Cotton, a family friend who witnessed the shooting.
The family plans to cook up the meat to celebrate.
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