A while back I crawled in the bird cage at my friend's place. The chair is an old office type chair with no seat cushion left. I put a tie on patio chair cushion on it. For some reason I picked up the cushion and under it was a dead mouse covered in ants! Why would a mouse climb 10 foot in the air for no water or food? So now every time I get in the tower I look under the cushion. With their short fine hair and over sized skin, they are really hard to catch and squish their heads! One of these time I am going to lift the cushion and wish there was newspaper on the bottom of the bird cage cause there will be 5 foot rat snake under there!! Went last night and yes mouse was there, I missed again! They can fall ten to the ground and not be hurt at all. I move the feed time to 8:00 cause its plenty dark. Wife was out of town and I had a pocket full of life savers candy, wind out of the northwest for a change. Ready for a long night with the feeder early. A little buck was keeping every other deer out of the pen. I flashed my flash light at him, whistled then coughed. Did not even look up! A little before nine he stared to my right, turned and ran off. Always a good sign! The grass to the right of the feeder appeared a bit darker then earlier. Binos revealed black pig! He messed around in the grass for sometime. When he finally went into the pen he went straight behind a feeder leg! I wonder if they some how know what might happen? He seemed to be going clear the leg to the left but turned and cleared to the right. I was ready and touched one off. He went straight down but before I could chamber another round he got his wits about him and ran! At least my friend had been grazing the pasture where my feeder is so most of of the really high grass is gone. Got down there to look, where he dropped was a small spot of dark gray/red blood, gut shot. Shined to my right and there he was, made it maybe 10 foot but no other blood! Entrance centered the right shoulder and exited behind the left ribs. 132# 375 Ruger.

That's a nice one -- and some good shot placement, too! Hasn't been any hog activity here for a while. Most of the neighbors have deer feeders going, so they have more meal choices right now. The snakes, though, have been very active, so you guys be careful out there. Our oldest killed 2 more copperheads here at the house yesterday.

Good one---and as Bobby said, hasn't been too much hog activity around here lately. Bow season is open and feeders are flinging corn everywhere. However, they like my spot and I'm thinking I may go for a sit with the 12-ga.

Live Oak: a hit like that and still run off.
You need a bigger gun!

Bobby: any of those Texas size rattlers down there?

Dusty: give 'em a week to get used to the great
feed first. HA!
That many would need a belt fired shotgun to
work crowd control.

Good there's action again. Go get 'em guys.

George

George-We've never seen a rattler on our place. There have been some seen/killed just 4-5 miles away. We have PLENTY of copperheads, though.

Bobby, they are all around even though we don't see them on a regular basis. One needs to stay AWARE as they are so well camouflaged + are ALMOST as fast as a cat.

Those ten years I drove OTR. Much of it
was in Texas. Many trips from here to
Odessa down 385 from Texline south. All
around the oil fields in TX, NM, OK, KS
and what little there is up here and WY too.
Walked a few hundred miles hunting in snake
county. Saw one in our pasture loping horses
across it. Amazing. Saw one now and then on
the roads. Many more at the range cleaning things up a few summers.

At least six of us plus a gin truck operator
and tally keeper went to a drill site to load
up excess pipe. Seems like it was 6 5/8" just
laid out on timbers. We walked all over and
around it. Once the stack was down enough some
of us, and I even stepped thru the pipe onto the
ground under it. Never heard a rattle one.

The last partial load we were told to head back
to the yard and they'd finish up. Sure as hell
the last driver got snake bit under the rack.

I heard it was over ten feet long. Just never
know about snakes. Be careful and watch for 'em.

George

Venomous snakes scare me. But like the above pig a good one is a dead one. D E D Dead! Be Well, Packy.