Good story for you guys! I was doing some shooting This weekend with the .600 OK-1. Put up a target at 35 yrds( a filled water bottle), and while taking aim, saw some movement. A Big Rattlesnake 4.5 ft, 15 rattles crawled up on the stump and was checking out my target bottle( I must have disturbed his sleep when I put the water bottle up). I took carefull aim and cut loose. The 900 gr woodleigh at 2250fps hit the snake right in the head and went through thge water bottle. Snake and bottle went flying(satisfactorily flying). A very rewarding first kill story! By the way this is the forth Big Rattler we have killed in the last two months. I'm afraid I have a Den to deal with. Thank God for the trusty 600 Ok in dealing with these things. Who says it's too much gun??? I'd rather stand a Buffalo charge than deal with a Snake!!! YuK-Rob

[ 08-21-2003, 08:00: Message edited by: Robgunbuilder ]

HahHa--Do you load it down for rattlers.
Killed one with a shovel years ago.Don't
like them around where kids are.How is the
turned brass holding up?Ed.

While in Highschool, I was caught on the side of the garage with a poised rattler that I'd disturbed from his sunning. I was standing there with one foot in the air, afraid to move and called for my Mom to come help. She came out with her Weatherby 12ga trap gun and shot under my foot to take out a 1" piece of the snakes neck just below the head. She said she wanted to leave the head intact for me to look at.
Mom is a H*ll of a shot with a shotgun. While dove hunting she normally takes the head off in flight, so as to not damage the breast.

Wow, Lar45, your Mom's a helluva shot alright! Heads clean off! ...and in flight as well! Does she prefer Brennekes, Foster-type slugs, or one of the new sabot loads?

Rob,
I knew the 600ok was a dinosauer gun...

If you go hunting the den, get some old CO2 fire extingishers.... spary those cold bastards into every nook and cranny you can find, expecially the little mini caves on the uphill side of a boulder.

jeffe

Don't know about anyone else but I'm impressed with the marksmanship. We have some real snake issues with all the rain down here in Florida. Most folks start shooting and miss cleanly. A big bore hit to the head at 35 yards on a snake is pretty impressive. You sound like a good guy to have around in hairy situations, ha.
Take care and be careful in those nooks and crannies. I have to watch my dog kennels because they crawl on the concrete at night to get warm.
Regards,
Jeff

I know it may sound like a sea story, but this one is a real no sh%ter.
No trolling here.

I have to post a few of the pics of these things. They are HUGE! they are Pacific Rattlers and extremely aggressive. Mess with one and it will attack you! The problem is that they DON'T RATTLE up here anymore and you somehow don't see them till either they move or your in striking range. I also have a dog and I'm really afraid for her.-Rob

Well, get rid of the rodents and get some king snakes? Kill and starve out the big ones and eat the small ones (king snake)? Get one feral hog to eat all the snakes?

You haven't been there too long. Pretty soon you should start to see a reduction in their numbers as you reduce the population. They are territorial (?), though the open habitat will be colonized again.

Anybody as smart as you should have no trouble with finding or inventing a resetting, processing, and ejecting rattrap. Rat goes in, rat gets killed, trap flings rat away and rebaits and resets. Need a rabbit trap too, of course. The snakes will start starving and slither away after 1/2 year or so.

Build a snake trap?

(Shudder)

I might have grizzlies in my back yard, but I thank the Lord that there are no rattler's up here.

Canuck

We have a bumper crop of Meadow grizzlies ( ground squirrels) this year and I've not seen a single King Snake ( used to have lots of them). I make it a practice to shoot as many squirrels as possible each year, but they have figured out that their buddies "go missing" whenever they see me and my BooM Stick ( a homebrew .17 rem .2 MOA gun). They stay in their holes. One Rattler we skinned ( 16 rattles) had a half digested Ground squirrel in it. I think I'm gonna get a Chlorine cylinder and gas every hole I can find. Anything that slithers out ( gasping and Choking) meets MR. Benelli!-Rob

Kerosene and a funnel on a piece of garden hose is the tonic in LA ( Lower Alabama ). Some prefer High test White gas for the faster snakes.

The length of hose is directly proportional to the fear of snakebite.
Flush'em, Catch'em, Clean'em, Deep fry'em. Rattler's - The other White meat. Better'n frog legs any day. Still not as good as catfish.

[ 08-22-2003, 01:49: Message edited by: Old & Slow ]

How much you guys willing to pay per pound? May taste a lil like a swimming pool though!-Rob

Kinda big snake gun.

Johan

For a RATTLER there is no such thing as too big of a gun!

HEll! Rattlers are wimps come on down here and try that on our Cotton Mouths

On the farm in SW AZ where I grew up and live, we always got real nervous when the cottontails disappeared from around the house and shop.

It used to be that only the snakes scared me silly. Now the BLM is issuing bee keeper head nets to their employees and I carry one when I am out in the desert because the biologists say more than half of the bees caught now are africanized. Think about running into an African Hive the next time you chase down a quail covey...

Every now and then (particularly after a short, cool summer) I need to be reminded why I like living in the north. You guys have now done that for me....Thank you!

Canuck

[ 08-24-2003, 00:24: Message edited by: Canuck ]

Rob:
Do you have a used 458 Win mag, CZ 550 barrel laying around you might want to sell?

By the way, saw the first ever redfox last night driving home. Big guy, running accross the road.

We have deer around here, and one cat that looks big enough to be a tiger, but, in 25 years, that's the first fox, ever.

gs

DJ I forgot about the Cotton Mouths and the Copperheads some of them bad boys get to be more than 6' long and they don't give off a warning either.

I have to agree with Canuck, and I thank all you brave souls who live in "snake country" for reminding me again why I will go South to visit, but never to live. Although I must admit I have become a sucker for Southern Cooking and that "the other Clinton" is working hard to bump CA off as the highest taxed/most restricted state in the US. Hopefully we can get rid of her soon.

Later,

Rick

Rick,
Don't relax entirely. You've still got massasuga and timber rattlers in your neck of the woods.

Funny, I thought the Eastern Rattler was one of the top ten most posionous snakes...

gs

For some real fun just mix styrofoam with the gasoline till it gets thick & gooey.....thats as far as i want to go with this one.