Rattlesnake on the front porch

Jeff in TX

Well heck, opened the front door to let the four critters out to play only to find a nearly 4' rattler coiled up on the front porch playing shake rattle and role with his tail.  Thank goodness I got the four critters in the house unharmed.  Grabbed my .45 dropped the carry mag and inserted the snake load mag.  I squatted down and got within 4' or so, aimed and bang.  No more snake and his music stopped.  I stretched him out and he was just under four feet.

We don't see many of them by the house but this is the second one in a week!



 

sakodude

that will wake you up in the morning!!!!

Gila

I love king snakes and road runners!

JerryBobCo

Wow!  That was close.  Glad you saw it when you did.

NN

Wow-----that kind is a particularly nasty one----glad it went well. 

CHIRO1989

I don't know why people complain about white fluffy snow..........yikes.

Linefinder

Glad that went well for you.

I used to shoot pdogs for a lady rancher out on the eastern plains. She told me that when she first bought the place rattlers around the house were common as dirt. She bought 2 dozen hens and turned them loose. End of snake problem.

Mike

Zee

I caught one about 4.5-5 foot long tonight. 

bullsi1911

Zee said:

I caught one about 4.5-5 foot long tonight. 

How did it taste?

Six-Gun

Helluva alarm clock ya got there!

JerryBobCo

bullsi1911 said:

Zee said:

I caught one about 4.5-5 foot long tonight. 

How did it taste?

Has Zee been playing with his food again?

earlyagain

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5TUPOi2JtPI

Zee

bullsi1911 said:

Zee said:

I caught one about 4.5-5 foot long tonight. 

How did it taste?

Didn’t eat that one. 

Linefinder

I was just thinking about the chicken thing the rancher told me....it might not work in Texas or the South. Average rattler size in those parts is a lot bigger than those in Colorado. The biggest one I've seen in Colorado was small compared to the average down south. A handful of chickens would likely fair okay against a 2 foot rattler, but not so well against a 5 foot 15 pounder.

Mike

JerryBobCo

Linefinder said:

I was just thinking about the chicken thing the rancher told me....it might not work in Texas or the South. Average rattler size in those parts is a lot bigger than those in Colorado. The biggest one I've seen in Colorado was small compared to the average down south. A handful of chickens would likely fair okay against a 2 foot rattler, but not so well against a 5 foot 15 pounder.

Mike

When I was a kid, we had a bunch of white leg horn chickens.  One day one of them killed a small rattler, maybe 12 inches long.  What ensued was a game of keepaway, or takeaway, whichever way you want to think of it.

One would grab the snake and the others would chase after it trying to take it away.

We lived in country that was prime rattlesnake country, but never saw very many of them.  Not sure why.

Linefinder

Jerry,

It was Wilma who told me that. (She's doing well, BTW. I work with one of her grand daughters-in-law). 

She said when she bought the place in '72 rattlers in the yard around the house were common. She knew pigs relished rattlesnakes, but she she didn't want hog wallows in her yard. A neighbor told her that chickens served the purpose with much less mess.

Wilma said after a few months of the chicken treatment she hadn't seen a rattler in her yard in 30 years.

OTOH, when I was 9-10 YO, my step-grandfather killed 2 at the same time that combined almost half-filled a 55 gallon oil drum. I think even Chicken Man would be hard pressed dealing with one of them.

Mike

Johnny reb

Zee said:

I caught one about 4.5-5 foot long tonight. 

I can appreciate Mr no shoulders, he can be tasty on a grill or fried. Catching him like that nope no way in ****. 

bullsi1911

Zee said:

bullsi1911 said:

Zee said:

I caught one about 4.5-5 foot long tonight. 

How did it taste?

Didn’t eat that one. 

Varmintmist

CHIRO1989 said:

I don't know why people complain about white fluffy snow..........yikes.

We have snow and rattlers. Grew up with Diamondbacks, now live in Mississauga land.

GunNut

Around the Ranch there were about a dozen mixed laying hens and Guinea hens roaming free at ny given point.

Never had a single tick on the dogs and apparently chickenshit tastes like fried chicken because my dogs loved to eat it and we could never break them out if it.  

Oh well win-win...

10canyon53

The safest way to catch a snake is with a stick.  This is my stick.

CHIRO1989

Varmintmist said:

CHIRO1989 said:

I don't know why people complain about white fluffy snow..........yikes.

We have snow and rattlers. Grew up with Diamondbacks, now live in Mississauga land.

And Mosquitoes too? I like the lack of venomous bitey things in Northern MN

bellcat

Yuck!  Nice shot!

I'm with Chiro, we have our cold weather but not many creepy poisonous things.

Varmintmist

CHIRO1989 said:

Varmintmist said:

CHIRO1989 said:

I don't know why people complain about white fluffy snow..........yikes.

We have snow and rattlers. Grew up with Diamondbacks, now live in Mississauga land.

And Mosquitoes too? I like the lack of venomous bitey things in Northern MN

Skeeters also. Not gnats so much on the western side, but they were bad in the east. I haven't seen a Mississauga close up yet and I have been out here for 20+ years, but they are around. No copperheads though.

snake284

10canyon53 said:

The safest way to catch a snake is with a stick.  This is my stick.

You my friend are more intelligent than some others on here. I don't play with them. If I see one in a place far from where I freguent I give him a reprieve but if he's in my territory, around close to the house he will be deceased soon.

snake284

There's a lot of  Diamond Backs in the hill country around rock outcroppings and such like out around Junction Texas. That's where they hold those rattlesnake round ups. There's Timber Rattlers in the woods. They get big as Diamond Backs. But around here in the coastal plains where there's lots of salt grass and rats and rabbits you  don't think rattlesnake. But let me tell you, where you have such rodents you have rattlesnakes, lots of rattlesnakes. We don't have roundups because it's hard to concentrate them like they do around those rock outcroppings where they can squirt gasoline and they'll come out in the open. Here they just go n a hole and wait til it's safe. Mostly what we have are Western Diamond Backs and they get rather large. 6 footers aren't all that uncommon. I've killed a couple that big. Actually there are few 7 footers. I've seen a couple that big.

They say they're getting where they don't rattle before biting because of all the hogs. The hogs will eat them if they get the drop on them so the snakes are getting where they bite first then worry about rattling. So you have to be careful. There's no shortage of them so I don't feel bad about killing one when I see it in my territory. I'm not a shoot first then check what kind it is person. I don't kill anything just for the sake of killing. But I'm not the rattlesnake relocation manager either. I don't pick them up or play with them. And if they're close to where I will be and I see them, they're dead.

Anyway, Jeff you did well. I like snake shot.

10canyon53

When I lived in Africa most of the snakes we would run across were poisonous, some of which were some of the most deadly (and aggressive) in the world.  So....the policy there was shoot, then identify.....and I don't remember ever shooting one that wasn't poisonous.

Here in Florida I can usually identify before killing.  If I identify it as non-poisonous I leave it alone.  There was one exception to that....a blacksnake that crossed the line.  As in, he was in the house.  I knew if he got away from me my wife would move out. 

CHIRO1989

10canyon53 said:

When I lived in Africa most of the snakes we would run across were poisonous, some of which were some of the most deadly (and aggressive) in the world.  So....the policy there was shoot, then identify.....and I don't remember ever shooting one that wasn't poisonous.

Here in Florida I can usually identify before killing.  If I identify it as non-poisonous I leave it alone.  There was one exception to that....a blacksnake that crossed the line.  As in, he was in the house.  I knew if he got away from me my wife would move out. 

You touched one off in the house?

snake284

10canyon53 said:

When I lived in Africa most of the snakes we would run across were poisonous, some of which were some of the most deadly (and aggressive) in the world.  So....the policy there was shoot, then identify.....and I don't remember ever shooting one that wasn't poisonous.

Here in Florida I can usually identify before killing.  If I identify it as non-poisonous I leave it alone.  There was one exception to that....a blacksnake that crossed the line.  As in, he was in the house.  I knew if he got away from me my wife would move out. 

From what I understand, the Black Mamba is the fastest snake. And, while there are some that are more venomous, it is venomous enough to where if you don't get anti venom fairly fast you probably won't survive. I read one part in a Capsticks book where a landrover was speeding along a road and I guy in the front seat passenger side got bit in the head. Nobody knew about it in time and the guy died. They figured the snake was in the trees over the road and in low hanging branches and bit him as they drove under it.

Also there was one excerpt in a book where this one PH was visiting a friend, another PH, and he noticed a big chunk out of the guys couch in their living room. He asked what happened. The other guy told him one night he and his wife and baby were in the living room watching TV. His wife and baby were on the couch and he was in his easy chair when he looked up and a large Black Mamba was crawling along the back of the couch toward his wife. He kept his shotgun close by his easy chair so he picked it up and dispatched the snake, hence the chunk out of the back of the couch.

You can have that crap. I don't want to live around that. Rattlesnakes give me the heebeejeebees but you won't see a rattlesnake actually stalking people. A Rattler or about any venomous snake here in the US will try to leave your area unless you threaten his territory. The late Steve Irwin referred to the Black Mamba as the "Great White of Snakes."

10canyon53

CHIRO1989 said:

You touched one off in the house?

No I didn't.     I dispatched it with the closest thing handy......a spatula of all things.

10canyon53

snake284 said:

From what I understand, the Black Mamba is the fastest snake. And, while there are some that are more venomous, it is venomous enough to where if you don't get anti venom fairly fast you probably won't survive. I read one part in a Capsticks book where a landrover was speeding along a road and I guy in the front seat passenger side got bit in the head. Nobody knew about it in time and the guy died. They figured the snake was in the trees over the road and in low hanging branches and bit him as they drove under it.

Also there was one excerpt in a book where this one PH was visiting a friend, another PH, and he noticed a big chunk out of the guys couch in their living room. He asked what happened. The other guy told him one night he and his wife and baby were in the living room watching TV. His wife and baby were on the couch and he was in his easy chair when he looked up and a large Black Mamba was crawling along the back of the couch toward his wife. He kept his shotgun close by his easy chair so he picked it up and dispatched the snake, hence the chunk out of the back of the couch.

You can have that crap. I don't want to live around that. Rattlesnakes give me the heebeejeebees but you won't see a rattlesnake actually stalking people. A Rattler or about any venomous snake here in the US will try to leave your area unless you threaten his territory. The late Steve Irwin referred to the Black Mamba as the "Great White of Snakes."

Yes, I had a few up close and personal run-ins with black mambas.  It is basically a hoodless cobra and very territorial.  Also had many run-ins with green mambas.  Same snake, different color.  Same attitude as well.  Most snakes will run from you.  Mambas usually won't.