#@%% snakes

@tom-bushelman All my surveying has been in Alaska, so no snakes thank Providence.?ÿ My father said he used to carry a .22 revolver loaded with birdshot while surveying in rattlesnake country (PA) and water moc country (LA).?ÿ Do you load solid projectiles or shot?

A .22 with birdshot doesn't do enough reliable damage unless you are too close to the snake for my comfort.

Posted by: @bill93

A .22 with birdshot doesn't do enough reliable damage unless you are too close to the snake for my comfort.

That's what I always reckoned...

Good snake karma. They eat rats and I dislike rats far more than snakes.

@frozennorth?ÿ

I carry a 1911 .45 because I'm old school that way.?ÿ I have shot snakes with .22 birdshot but it isn't a guaranteed kill.?ÿ If you can hit with a 45, the creepy crawlies will go to that great terrarium in the sky every time.?ÿ I have a sent a lot of bullets through a 1911.?ÿ Probably the best anti-snake pistol would be a large caliber revolver with snake shot but I am very fond of the .45.

Black snakes eat rattlesnakes.?ÿ Probably eat copperheads, as well.

@holy-cow?ÿ

Indeed

Posted by: @bill93

A .22 with birdshot doesn't do enough reliable damage unless you are too close to the snake for my comfort.

Best protection I've found for snakes that get "too close" is either a shovel or a machete.?ÿ I won't walk alongside anyone with "snake jitters" that has a firearm...for obvious reasons.

Posted by: @paden-cash

Posted by: @bill93

A .22 with birdshot doesn't do enough reliable damage unless you are too close to the snake for my comfort.

Best protection I've found for snakes that get "too close" is either a shovel or a machete.?ÿ I won't walk alongside anyone with "snake jitters" that has a firearm...for obvious reasons.

Pretty sure I am a better aim with a shovel than a handgun...

Posted by: @tom-bushelman

@frozennorth?ÿ

I carry a 1911 .45 because I'm old school that way.?ÿ I have shot snakes with .22 birdshot but it isn't a guaranteed kill.?ÿ If you can hit with a 45, the creepy crawlies will go to that great terrarium in the sky every time.?ÿ I have a sent a lot of bullets through a 1911.?ÿ Probably the best anti-snake pistol would be a large caliber revolver with snake shot but I am very fond of the .45.

Have you shot many snakes with the 1911?

In Colombia we had a 22, but it did us no good, as the boy in the front of the canoe froze when he realized that the red eyes glowing on the creek bank (near midnight) were in fact not a caiman, but rather an anaconda....

?ÿ

Nope. Nope. Nope. Not me. Never.

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Have you ever witnessed a cow in a boat?

Not the holy variety.?ÿ

My father in law, who was a pilot in New Guinea, tried to transport a pig in the luggage pod that was below the fuselage.

They bound and trusted the pig and locked him in the fiberglass pod, but when he arrived in the village the pig was gone.

I would have liked to have seen the look on the face of any Indian who may have been out hunting that day along the route.?ÿ

Posted by: @tom-bushelman

?ÿ ?ÿ ?ÿ I have been carrying a pistol for a few weeks on a 4,000 acre survey in old mine country where every single local person I have spoken to has warned me about the rattlesnakes and copperheads.?ÿ No sightings yet but I expect to before the project is over.

You won't see snakes much until it gets above 90?ø.?ÿ

This is not directly at anyone... but come on.?ÿ We go into their habitat and then shot them??ÿ That's pathetic imo.?ÿ It would be different if it was at a urban home or something.?ÿ?ÿ

I taught Snake Training for all of LA County in the High Desert area in So Cal.?ÿ We have snakes and a very good amount of venomous including the Mojave Rattler, Southern Pacific, Sidewider, Speckled.?ÿ Everywhere.?ÿ More people get injured trying to bother a snake that just let it go off on it's own.?ÿ I have across several snakes in my field work.?ÿ I just let them slither away or use a tool to move them off 50 feet or so.?ÿ?ÿ

Posted by: @gordon-svedberg

...I would have liked to have seen the look on the face of any Indian who may have been out hunting that day along the route.?ÿ

Reminds me of the WKRP Thanksgiving turkey giveaway from a helicopter..

"Ohhh, the humanity..."

Posted by: @lunarfaze

I just let them slither away or use a tool to move them off 50 feet or so.?ÿ?ÿ

Mmmmm...no...you dont know where they are...

Texas just had a snake wrangler from the Rattlesnake Roundup die from being bit, may he rest in peace. The harvest of rattlesnakes has its benefits to the public safety and medical advances as well. Not a hobby I'd look to start. If I see, hear, or smell on of those animals that doesn't have shoulders, I'm either going to kill it, or evacuate the area immediately.

Posted by: @tom-bushelman

Those snakes cost me a half day of work and I don't even like them.

Posted by: @williwaw

Good snake karma

?ÿ