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Living in snake-country


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Merlin, if I am not mistaken, that snake was caught around Stephenville and weighed over 60 lbs.....

Have to respectfully disagree about the agressiveness of mocassins...as a kid, my brother and I played all over my grandads farm in East Tx...especially in the creeks and tanks on it...used to kill them with a stick we carried just for that purpose...and we were barefooted all the time...grassburrs were worse than snakes...

Coperheads are very timid and have stepped on a lot of them while in the woods, never a close call.....

And would have to say that the area dictates the aggressiveness of rattlers...had a deer lease close to Hebronville, in S Tx, where they were pretty bad.....mostly small Prairie rattlers and some Mohave rattlers, but they would bite you...had a friend who lost a good bird dog to one...

In the Spring the snakes are bad in the "dog houses" on the gas and oil pipelines around Odessa and Midland....I always let the local guy go in first when looking at the instruments.... ;)

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I grew up in Florida on a swampy lake, and saw them all, HUGE indigos, rattlers, Mox (the worst), pigmy rattlers and the occaisional King or Coral. Them sneaky lil' water snakes would scare you but head the other way, after you had yelled they might be a Mock.

I don't like snakes, they sneak up on me just to watch me scream like a little girl :unsure: !!!

My latest "almost" run in with one was a couple of years back. I was practicing at "Sancho's" house way out in the woods, he had this little berm set up. He hadn't mowed in a while and we were in knee high grass. :wacko:

Well it gets dark and we retire inside to tell lies. The kids from next door knock on the door and they are holding this dead rattler up, looped over a stick and can hardly keep it's bloody, mashed head off the ground. The thing was 6' if it was an inch!!! :o

They had seen it outside "whalago" and dispatched it by mashing it's head off.

It was as big around as my fore arm!!! "He needed killin'" seemed like an appropriate reason to me. Now I don't practice at Sancho's any more. :unsure:

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Would have been more inspiring to see you picking up that copperhead and holding him... :D

Anyone can put their foot on one accidentially....how did you manage to take the picture just before you jumped over the berm....

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Moving stuff away from my gun range this morning - getting it out of the BULLDOZERs way..... I pick up a popper and then...

Are you just holding him still for the picture? :D

Copperheads are beautiful looking snakes.

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TL & BerKim - Actually he was somewhat "scuffed" at the time I took the picture. He had already had a meeting with the bottom of my shoe before I shot it (the pic). He soon afterwards lost his head to a handy shovel. It was a little chilly and he moved to safety toooo sloooowwww....

Nik - I took these with my little Cannon S1 IS - I don't lug around the 20D while "working" as I fear dinging it....

I did see the pic you are refering to Dirtypool40. If I ran into something like was shown in that picture...OMG! You would read about Merlin dying of heart failure...

Nolan - surely you jest... :D If I want something that taste like chicken - I'll by a damn chicken! :P

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Nik - I took these with my little Cannon S1 IS - I don't lug around the 20D while "working" as I fear dinging it....

That 20D's tougher than you give it credit for :) My 10D's been lugged all over the place, through a couple of heavy metal death pits, all around crazy horse stuff, through the dirt, etc. Still goin' strong. I've got more frames on it than I've shot rounds of ammo, at this point..... Time to get that 1D Mk II :)

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Y'all are nutter than fruit cakes. If you would move to good 'ol Cincinnati, Ohio yo wouldn't have all those problems with snakes. Here the rats that live in the sewers take care of them....... and all the cats.... and small dogs.

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Nolan - surely you jest...  :D  If I want something that taste like chicken - I'll by a damn chicken!  :P

Nope, Me and Shirley don't jest! Maybe it's just better in my memory, but my mouth waters at the thought of a big Diamondback fillet grilled with garlic butter, a big pinch of salt and some green onions!

Nolan (2 hours 'til dinner!)

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  • 6 months later...

Jerry just left with the baby king snake he caught this morning. He brought it in the shop in a large coffee can.

Jim was on the phone with Al Greco and Jerry needed to speak with Al momentarily ... Coffee can left on my typewriter with the lid off. :o I was very careful not to disturb it.

Before he left, he was aggravating the poor little thing causing it to strike. I inquired as to what intentions he had and to which he stated (jokingly of course) that he was taking it home for Lena to play with. :lol:

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I love snakes. But some of those poisoned ones scare the dickens out of me.

At a match a few years ago back east, my wife and I showed up early for setup. I was talkin with a couple of guys and looked for her and she was hunkered down in the parking area poking at something with her finger. It was a small (about 12 inches) copperhead. Good thing it was cold! That snake wasn't moving a lick or my wife would have been bit. She didn't know what kind of snake it was.

Joel

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Jerry just left with the baby king snake he caught this morning.  He brought it in the shop in a large coffee can. 

Jim was on the phone with Al Greco and Jerry needed to speak with Al momentarily ... Coffee can left on my typewriter with the lid off. :o  I was very careful not to disturb it. 

Before he left, he was aggravating the poor little thing causing it to strike.  I inquired as to what intentions he had and to which he stated (jokingly of course) that he was taking it home for Lena to play with. :lol:

Geez Louise! Do you get hazard pay for that?!?!

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In high school a couple of us use to go rattle snake hunting at night out on a road that cuts off between Ft. Irwin Rd and Calico Ghost Town rd in CA. Two flat nose shovels, a garbage can and a flashlight. Hold the snake with one shovel, lop of his head with the other and toss the body into the trash can for skinning later.

Alan

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Being from Minnesota I don't have to worry about these types of snakes, so the closest I ever came to a rattler is out in South Dakota prarie doggin. All this IPSC shooting came in handy that day. I wish I would have had a shot timer with to see what my first shot was. :D

Then I volunteer to RO the Rocky Mt 3-gun this year. Well, I'll tell you what, from the e-mails I received from M. Fields telling about all the snakes they had been seeing and the strong suggestion that the ROs wear hot sidearms loaded with snakeshot, I didn't know what to expect. I was ROing stage 6, which was a shotgun stage where you started with the supplied Springfield XD. Since we didn't have any snakeshot for our handguns, we kept my 870 handy with the tube fully loaded. Never did see any snakes, though.

Matt, you had a smokin run on our stage, by the way.

Edited by Keith
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