This is a Biggie

Not sure if the information given is in jest to support the stick-it-close-to-the-camera-to-make-it-look-bigger thing, but the Wikipedia entry for Crotalus atrox states that the "maximum reported length considered to be reliable is 213 cm (6.99 ft)."

Rattlesnake Myth Explained

That is a big snake, but it is part of a huge collection of "hoax" photos that have been circulating the internet.
Count the rattles...I get 13, nowhere near 22!

The above link has this very picture with an explanation.

Probably on Snopes as well.

Still wouldn't want to mess with that bugger. It's something you might have a nightmare about!

Seen this for years floating around.

Hey, if its on the internet it must be true.

Randy

If that is moss hanging in the trees behind the dude, that ain't Midway, Texas.

I was setting up the gun in the Sulphur river bottom between the river and the first RR in Bowie County and a rattle snake rose up next to me. It was sunny and below 45°F and a snake was the last thing I expected that day.

I drew my blade and by the time I stopped slashing it was in 5 pieces that when put together was over six feet long and had a combined weight of 27 lbs. It had 7 rattles.

When I first saw it I would have sworn it was as big as Godzilla.

:-O

Pay attention when a snake first appears..

..on the trail almost directly under your right foot. You will experience a truly miraculous transcension of your brain and your motor response. The brain gets cut out of the circuit and your optic nerves and your "getthehelloutahere" nerves instantly connect. A few milliseconds later you will find yourself 5 or 6 feet to the side of the trail, slightly winded.

I've never experienced it, but I've watched a full-growed hoomin-bein' "tread air". A slight cross between treading water and levitation. The subject can usually remain in the air just long enough for the opponent to slither away. We nicknamed it the "snake hover".

I believe the length of time that one can defy gravity is exponentially proportional to their fear of the snake. I watched one young rodman not only hover for a few seconds, he also was able to rotate 180 degrees, disappear and molecularly reassemble himself a few feet on the other side of me without ever touching the ground.

Poor kid couldn't catch his breath all afternoon.

Pay attention when a snake first appears..

I have personally experienced "snake levitation/teleportation" and the accompanying relativity of time. Based on this experience, I can say that it's not the fright or the adrenaline, it's the screaming like a little girl that causes you to be slightly out of breath afterwards.:-$

Pay attention when a snake first appears..

One time when I was a young kid, I was helping a local survey company mark a few lot lines in an un-developed subdivision. I was talking with the party chief while we were standing next to a power pole. He was literally telling me how much he hates rattle snakes, when I looked down and saw a very large one not 2' from where he was standing.

I calmly told him to not panic, but that there was a rattlesnake by his feet.
I thought he was going to climb that power pole. I was laughing my a$$ off.

Perhaps he had already caught a glimpse of it at the edge of his peripheral vision, but his mind had not processed it fully yet.

I have had that happen several times, where I think I should watch for snakes, then a split second later I SEE a snake.

"Your peripheral vision goes into your brain 25 percent faster than your central vision [what you use to read the eye chart]." The central vision only accounts for 3° of your field of view. Maybe that explains it.

Dang, Paden

I plum fergot I worked for you as a rodman. Nobody, absolutely nobody, could stay in the air longer, rotate, disassemble and reassemble further away than me. You must have been talking about me. I just don't remember working with you.:-P

I'm a believer there just might be a 9 plus foot southern diamondback out there. As a little kid my Dad was driving us down a dirt road in the mountains of northern Alabama when one of these guys came out of the thickets and crossed the road in front of us. We stopped to watch him cross only a few feet in front of the car. I'll never forget the size of his head and his huge girth. His head disappeared into thickets on the opposite side of the road before his rattles emerged from the opposite side. Funny how things like that you don't forget.

believer here, too

I was driving a crew back from the Oklahoma Panhandle late one day. We were eastbound on US412 between Moreland and Bouse Jct with a low, 7:30 PM summer sun to our backs casting long shadows on the two-lane asphalt.

About 100 yards ahead all three of us saw a diamondback crossing the road. The solid yellow stripe to the center skip stripe measures 12.5'. This fella wasn't quite that long, but by the time his nose hit the solid stripe on the left, his tail was only a foot or two from the center skip stripe. Could've heard a pin drop in the van.

We slowed and stopped about where we had seen the snake, but he apparently had vanished into the tumbleweeds. HTG this fella was every bit of 8 or 9 feet, conservatively. He looked like an ornate 6 or 8 inch diameter fire hose stretched across the road. No brag, just fact.

Scary just to think about.