May 22, 2026, 12:00 AM
jljonesSnake experts
When I was an early teen, we were still farming. We had an old corn crib with a concrete floor and walls with a wooden roof and man door. It was getting cold I remember and I went in the crib to shovel out the remaining corn. I carried a Ruger Single six everywhere I went.
As I opened the door and stepped in, a six or seven foot long rat snake fell (jumped lol) from over the door and landed on my head/shoulders. To this day the floor still remains with the marks where the bullets hit the concrete. The snake went on to die of old age because apparently teenage me couldn’t scream like a little girl, do some kind of interpretive dance and shoot with any level of accuracy.
May 22, 2026, 01:51 AM
sigmonkeyStayed in a Holiday Inn Express.
For every snake you see there are 3 to eleventybrazillion of them you ain't saw.
May 22, 2026, 08:05 AM
lymanquote:
Originally posted by jljones:
When I was an early teen, we were still farming. We had an old corn crib with a concrete floor and walls with a wooden roof and man door. It was getting cold I remember and I went in the crib to shovel out the remaining corn. I carried a Ruger Single six everywhere I went.
As I opened the door and stepped in, a six or seven foot long rat snake fell (jumped lol) from over the door and landed on my head/shoulders. To this day the floor still remains with the marks where the bullets hit the concrete. The snake went on to die of old age because apparently teenage me couldn’t scream like a little girl, do some kind of interpretive dance and shoot with any level of accuracy.
here at the shop, (we grew up in the house on the other side of the yard) my brother was laying out in a hammock,
he was maybe just out of high school,
got up, went in the house to fix a bite to eat, looked out the kitchen window to see a big black snake trying to get up in the hammock,
grabs a carbine, 15 rounds later snake not hit, grabbed his 20 ga, 5 round later, snake not hit,
next door neighbor lady came over and asked if all was ok, she saw the snake, got a hoe and kilt it,
dad comes home later that afternoon and sees the carnage , as in damage to the yard, and asked WTF,,,
brother reluctantly told the story, which we still kid him about today 40 yrs later,
May 24, 2026, 10:25 AM
1s1kI saw another snake this morning. I believe this one is a common garter snake.
We have lived here for 11 years and this is the first time I’ve ever seen anything other than a black/rat snake. Beautiful coloring on this one.
May 24, 2026, 12:10 PM
architectquote:
Originally posted by 229DAK:
quote:
but never with all these symetrical ridges all over the body
Maybe he ate a bunch of peanuts?
Not peanuts, some kind of critters or a nestfull of eggs in various stages of digestion. Length and body profile suggests a black racer, but certainly not out of range for a rat snake. They are fairly common around here, but shy enough so they are rarely seen (except for two juveniles in my house in 2025 {on separate occasions}).
Both species have much more to fear from humans than the other way around, and they actually make pretty good pets when adopted young enough. Mrs. A. quickly nixed the idea of adopting one of the ones I caught, even though she hates the crickets the snakes were keeping well under control.