45 Rattlesnakes Found Under Texas House

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My buddy took his family down south for a wedding last summer and pulled into the driveway and began putting his suit cases atop the retaining wall in the driveway while his 2 toddlers and 8yo ran around the yard. He went to reach for a bag and noticed a snake laying close to it and figured it was his BIL playing a prank on him until he realized it was a copperhead. For fear of the kids being bitten and not really being able to retrieve his bags the snake met its demise. We have a lot of coyotes and now bobcats in Ohio and they freak me out walking in and out of the woods at dark to the point I'm a nervous wreck! I think id take those two any day then a snake!
 
How did that snake get into the door seal?
My question exactly. Looks like a cover panel has been removed??

My dad tells the story when he was a teen, working in a filling station in the TX panhandle, a customer came in complaining of a buzzing sound under his model T every time he depressed the clutch pedal. Dad put it on the lift and asked customer to press the clutch. That's when he noticed the rattler positioned on frame so that the clutch mechanism squeezed it every time it was depressed.

Regards,
hps
 
875E5064-6E1C-4571-A991-A60184320FB0.jpeg I live in the woods of east Texas. No rattlers here, but plenty of copperheads and water moccasins. They are both fairly docile, but give no warning like a rattler, and will give you a bad day if you get bitten. Texans have a reputation of being tough. Live in rural parts of Texas for a while and you’ll understand why.

Pic is of a well fed water moccasin on our road, a young water moccasin that I encountered while pulling weeds - stuck my hand within a couple of inches of him a few times before I uncovered him, and a rat snake I pulled out of the chicken coop. Pulled 5 of them out in a 2 week span, all in the 5-6 foot range. They got relocated. 4384B6AC-F906-40FC-924E-1988A305F195.jpeg 67D4EAB0-9000-448B-B935-95B7C9453A99.jpeg
 
Like here in Florida, copperheads, water moccasins, rattlesnakes, gators, crocodiles, lion fish and a host of other nasties. When you go into the woods here in Florida, everything will either bite you, sting you or stick you. I live in a nice small town and one morning there was a 4' dead cottonmouth in the street in front of my driveway, and I don't have any water near me.
 
If you can eat a pickled bait fish you can eat a snake. Herring is a bait fish here. Scandahovians eat them and smelt also......for breakfast. I'll take mine smoked....for lunch.:D

These ain't half bad.
View attachment 832218
Pickled pike is what I said in my case. Not a bait fish, rather a fish that eats bait and bait fish. Though I'd devour herring with no problem. Its the scandavian in me maybe?Mora brand makes some real firm pickled herring. Best commercial brand I've had. I pickle my own (pike) like I said. I'd try anything though. Someone send my up a rattlesnake. See what that sucker tastes like :D

Edit: Maybe I could do pickled rattlesnake this year if I get enough donors. Seems like a good candidate being boney and all.
 
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I like frog legs and have gigged several. Gator is ok, but nothing to write home about. I think I'll pass on the rattlesnake.

Have a blessed day,

Leon
 
C623AF8C-286A-40B4-9DA1-A096BA000C76.jpeg Indiana Jones also had this to say about them: "I hate snakes, Doc, I hate 'em." I guess flying with them in the cockpit of your plane will evoke that.

Personally, I have no problem with them, although the only venomous snakes I've dealt with have been copperheads, and only one at a time.

We had this bad boy in our backyard last summer, a 5’ black snake. Did a nice job curing the excess chipmunk population, went right down their holes after them.
 
A lease member on our lease spotted this snake in the process of eating a cottontail before climbing out of his blind and took this picture. Sorry for the poor quality of pic as it is a picture of his framed picture hanging in the dining room @ camp. I asked him if he killed the snake and his reply was, "No but I can't help but wish I had every time I get in the blind in the dark."
38458149584_32ca669843_c.jpg

Another photo on the wall shows a blacksnake consuming a rattlesnake; not sure who took the photo:
27388548769_e273620f9f_c.jpg

Regards,
hps
 
There is one snake that I will go out of my way to kill ... a cottonmouth. Mean, nasty, smelly boogers that wish nothing but evil upon you. They will hide in ambush to bite you if they have warning.
My son and I killed 14 one morning with machetes.
 
View attachment 832464 Indiana Jones also had this to say about them: "I hate snakes, Doc, I hate 'em." I guess flying with them in the cockpit of your plane will evoke that.

Personally, I have no problem with them, although the only venomous snakes I've dealt with have been copperheads, and only one at a time.

We had this bad boy in our backyard last summer, a 5’ black snake. Did a nice job curing the excess chipmunk population, went right down their holes after them.

Can I borrow this guy? I have an excessive chipmunk population also.

Have a blessed day,

Leon
 
Really? I've never had the pleasure of being around them. Are cottonmouths really "smelly?"

Don't know about the "smelly" part...

Had'em track me in my bateaux, from logs as I motored by, and then come after me.

(gators, too)

They must have some kind of serious ocular acuity dysfunction.




GR
 
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Pickled pike is what I said in my case. Not a bait fish, rather a fish that eats bait and bait fish. Though I'd devour herring with no problem. Its the scandavian in me maybe?Mora brand makes some real firm pickled herring. Best commercial brand I've had. I pickle my own (pike) like I said. I'd try anything though. Someone send my up a rattlesnake. See what that sucker tastes like :D

Edit: Maybe I could do pickled rattlesnake this year if I get enough donors. Seems like a good candidate being boney and all.

Never eaten pike but I wouldn't turn it down.

I even eat anchovies, another bait fish like herring. I'm not particular when it comes to fish. I generally smoke salmon every year.

You can make a lot of friends with smoked salmon.:D

I hear pike is pretty bony but you don't eat the bones anyway.
 
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this is what i see every year down by the river when trout fishing.
 
Really? I've never had the pleasure of being around them. Are cottonmouths really "smelly?"

If you've ever smelled what we in the South call a "brim bed", that's what they smell like. If I smell a brim bed where one shouldn't be, I walk very carefully.
(A "brim bed" is where bluegills or other panfish breed. Bass do it too but don't smell like brim. Riding slowly across one in your boat will help you pinpoint an excellent fishing spot.)
 
That’ll certainly do. I was given a “ducktown double disaster” by a friends father for snake control. We were doing a lot of woodduck hunting and the area was absolutely covered up with cottonmouths. He reloaded .410s and among his favorite projectiles was crushed beer bottles. He said that they would splinter and be nearly harmless if it hit the aluminum boat, but would stay together for snake charming. I never shot those reloads but I carried and used a lot of lead 410s, and I eventually gave the gun away to another hunter who had a copperhead problem. Your options are much more appropriate, although a 45/410 3inch barrel does make a mess of a snake at 6 ft. I can’t recommend taking the shot when a cottonmouth is chewing on your buddies snake boots, pattern spread too quickly, and a 38 would have been a far better choice for an aimed shot.

Years ago I swapped for a single shot breakopen 12 ga. brass framed flare gun. Never found any flares for it so played w/ cutting off 12 ga paper shells and handloading with the flare pellets (if that's a term) from disassembled roman candles. Got bored with that and let it go in another swap. Wish I had kept it and reloaded some short 12 ga. shot shells for a snake gun. It would have been a dandy. Don't know if it had a full 2 3/4 12 ga chamber or not but I'd have been a bit leary of shooting regular shot shells in it, what with the brass frame.

ETA: Guess it's a good thing I never tried the shotshell.
"It should be noted that use of any non-flare ammunition with a bore diameter greater than 1/2 inch in a flare gun is illegal in the United States unless the flare gun has been registered with the BATFE in compliance with the National Firearms Act of 1934. The only legal way to fire live ammunition from a flare gun is to make use of a rifled adapter with a bore diameter 1/2 inch or less. Rifling the barrel of the adapter is important, doing so legally makes the flare gun a pistol (a regular Title I firearm) while the adapter and flare gun are assembled. A smooth bore adapter would instead create an "Any Other Weapon" which would again have to be registered under the 1934 NFA.
https://www.quora.com/What-will-happen-if-you-fire-a-shotgun-shell-with-a-flare-gun"

One of those 12ga to 4.10 adapters would have worked but not sure if they were available 69 years ago.:)

Regards,
hps
 
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Again, northerner here :D never ate a frog's leg. Lutefisk, Lefse and pickled herring (pike in my case) but never snake or frog. I guess they just don't grow them big enough up here.
It's nothing like pickled herring (which I can't find down South). Think very tender chicken texture to the meat. Seasoned like you would crappie.
 
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