Had to go out to a job site in Lakeland yesterday. I pulled up, unlocked the gate, and drove in to the yard. I located the piece of equipment that the guys were coming to take and pulled off to the side of it. I step out of the truck is this big sum bitch is just casually making his way across the grass. From a distance I thought it was a big rattler as we've killed a couple in the past. I got closer and saw that it was the biggest cottonmouth I'd ever seen. Let lead fly!

Put him in the freezer yesterday and I'm going to swing by a local taxidermy guy to see about a hide wall hanger.

If I lived in Florida or other snakey places I would carry a snake gun everywhere I could. As a matter of fact I would flat out refuse to live in a high snake density environment. One could say that I have a serious snake phobia....Good thing I live in Michigan where the one type of small rattler that we have is almost never seen.

Out of curiosity, what did you shoot him with?

124gr Gold Dot from my Shield. In the first pic you can kidn of see that I hit him about 3" from his head.

after five years in Arizona we saw our first rattlesnake.

he was in Fort Huachuca ( way south).
but it was dead, we stretched it across the road and it was a foot short , from the center line to the edge of the asphalt.

When I first moved to South Florida there was a canal near me where I used to screw around and catch catfish, an occasional gar and anything else that was in there.

One fine day I found a little ledge that looked like it would make a nice casting spot and jumped down onto it...I looked down and learned immediately why they are called cotton mouths as there was one a few feet away with its yap wide open...Somehow I jumped up and back and hauled ass but I was never dumb enough to do that again

quote:

Originally posted by steelcityfishanddive
Put him in the freezer yesterday and I'm going to swing by a local taxidermy guy to see about a hide wall hanger.

That’s a good idea. I’ve also seen some really cool rifle slings and guitar straps made from snake skins. The best rifle sling had a strip of coral snake hide in it...very beautiful.

quote:

Originally posted by Kevmo:
When I first moved to South Florida there was a canal near me where I used to screw around and catch catfish, an occasional gar and anything else that was in there.

One fine day I found a little ledge that looked like it would make a nice casting spot and jumped down onto it...I looked down and learned immediately why they are called cotton mouths as there was one a few feet away with its yap wide open...Somehow I jumped up and back and hauled ass but I was never dumb enough to do that again

Yeah, that’s my problem. If I was a city person and never ventured much beyond the blacktop I wouldn’t worry so much about living an area known for a lot of snakes. However, as a hunter/fisherman/outdoorsman I know I would run into them. It may sound pathetic, but I think I would really struggle to enjoy the outdoors with snakes constantly on my mind. Had I been born and raised in the south it might be different, but this northern guy doesn’t even like to be around non poisonous snakes. The very way they move creeps me out. I can deal with just about anything else.

Man, I hate those big fat ones!!!!

You had a special shovel for him?

Nice work! That'll make a nice belt. Maybe some nice boots, even.

Not a snake fan. I grew up in El Paso and spent a lot of my youth out in rural parts outside of town, so I've seen a fair share of cottonmouths, copperheads and a few rattlers. Killed a cottonmouth with a shovel in my grandparent's back yard when I was about seven. It wasn't as big as the one you dispatched, but it sure seemed like it at the time!

I stepped on a 6 foot DiamondBack when I was 14. We were near Floral City hunting squirrels.

Fourtunatly I has standing in her head and it was cold out. And I managed to shoot it after a choice word.

It was the first time I cussed in front of my dad.

I said, " Shit dad, snake!!"

He said, "Shoot it!"

I did,

He did.

He never brought up my language.

I killed one just a hair bigger because it decided it wanted to make the playground it's home. I typically leave em alone. They don't want anything to do with people.

I can not tell you growing up in coastal Ga how many times I've nearly stepped on a rattler or any of our other numerous snakes. All the fear of them comes from when they start moving away from you. I jumped each time, cuz my ass was not expecting to step on said snake. The snakes lived

Long ago, like when I maybe was 14, we went hiking to an old abandoned talc mine. Dad hired a guy with a jeep to get us as near as he could, then we hiked. Along the trail the guide stopped dead and said "nobody move,there's a snake ahead". Then he cut a sapling and proceeded to beat the tar out of it. It got dead. He cut and kept the 14 rattles and a button.

He then explained that where there's one snake, there may be another. My paranoid mother afterward kept saying "I don't know why he had to kill it". The best answer was from my dad, who offered "so I didn't have to". Back to kill them all and let God sort them out.

And I like the guys who shoot them with handguns. Back when I used to go hunting all fall, my only weapon was my trusty shotgun. So Its what I used. I heard all the stories about dead snakes still striking. Not with the one's I'd shot. The shotgun removed about 3 or 4" of snake, head included. I don't know if anyone could even find remains of the head. Well, unless you were good at reassembling the pink mist.

quote:

Originally posted by rburg:
And I like the guys who shoot them with handguns. Back when I used to go hunting all fall, my only weapon was my trusty shotgun. So Its what I used. I heard all the stories about dead snakes still striking. Not with the one's I'd shot. The shotgun removed about 3 or 4" of snake, head included. I don't know if anyone could even find remains of the head. Well, unless you were good at reassembling the pink mist.

You know, I keep hearing this, "gotta have a 10 gauge to kill the snake." In 15 years in AZ, and in more than a few encounters with Western Diamondbacks and Mohaves, I have never failed to stop one dead with a singe shot of CCI .22 snakeshot to the head (from a S&W 417 revolver).
 

I had no need for a 12 gauge when my hunting party and I saw this average sized black mamba near an anti-poaching camp in Tanzania. My 28 gauge O/U Beretta, worked just fine as can be seen on the face of our tracker! (He was more than willing to jump out of the "bakke" and pose, while the PH and I stayed inside and took this pic from a discrete distance. )

quote:

Originally posted by rmc85:
I killed one just a hair bigger because it decided it wanted to make the playground it's home. I typically leave em alone. They don't want anything to do with people.

killed one years ago near my old house
he was crossing the street, raised up at my truck, so I ran him over,

he was headed right towards an area of my neighbors yard her kids played in often,

otherwise I tend to leave them all alone