Cottonmouth Vs Kel Tec

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cheeze

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This is maybe the most appropriate forum for these pics even though I wasn't really hunting.

I've been carrying my Kel Tec PF9 with me regularly and today it came in handy. I was out working and ran into a cottonmouth/water moccasin. If you've ever dealt with snakes much, you know that you can chop them up and smash them but they can still bite you unless you take out their head. He was moving a LOT and it was hard to hit him... I missed the first four shots. He crawled into a ditch and I was able to move a little closer and he held still for a second and that's when I popped him. I let snakes live, but the poisonous ones don't get a free pass. This one got a melted down wheel weight square in the top of his head. This gives a little bit of an idea about how accurate the little kel-tec is, even if I was kinda close.
 

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I have used the "rat shot" in my PF9 to dispatch a couple of snakes. I dont know how well it cycles since they have all been one shot kills and it is too expensive to pracice with.
 
Great shooting! Here is how my Glock 19 handled a little water moccasin; not quite as nice of a size as yours, but still, even the little ones can pack quite a bite...

051-1.gif
 
I kill a few rattlers a year. I usually use whatever's handy. That's usually my single six. I even shot one in the head as I rolled by on the 4 wheeler one day. The 4 wheeler was still moving and so was the snake. Lucky shot! I have a witness on this one too. My mom was there and said that she feels for the snake because it crossed the path of me and my single six.
 
allaroundhunter, yours looks like a regular brown water snake.
 
Good shooting 'allaround'.

The snake you dispatched was not a moccasin however.... (no big deal).

If you look closely...you will note the round pupil of the eye. All of the (indigenous) pit vipers in the U.S. (Copperhead, Rattlesnake, Cottonmouth) regardless the species...have an elliptical pupil (like a cats eye).

Of course, most folks are not willing to get close enough to identify a snake using that method. ;)

Pit Vipers also have a distinctive 'pit' under the eye and their heads tend to be triangular in shape with a rather narrow neck directly behind it.

There are any number of non-venomous snakes that are easy to mistake for all three mentioned...if you don't know what to look for.

In any case, you certainly made a good shot, no one can dispute that!

Flint
 
I live in heavy snake country and probably see more than most people. Not a tree-hugger or reptophile but don't see much point in killing every one I see. The rattlers around the house gotta go but the ones out in the boonies, just eatin’ rats and being a snake, are my friends. Prefer a hoe to a gun; cheaper and less noise. Popping a harmless water snake is just ridiculous. You boys, and I mean boys, need to get over your terror of the great outdoors.

Sheesh.
 
LOL, I remember cutting grass in Kentucky on riding mowers and noticing a timber rattler headed toward the crawl space underneath the "farm house" on the property.

The only weapon we had then (age 16 or 17, down for the summer to cut said grass and other chores on unoccupied family retreat) was a sloppy worn No. 4 Mk II Enfield.

I will guarantee you that from about 15 feet those spitzers don't expand. I cut a perfect semi-circle in it's neck just under the head and thoroughly pissed it off. After coming to ground again from the "bounce" I had provided it was fully capapble and motivated to coil and assume striking mode, buzzing like crazy.

Well I decided that I didn't need an intact skin that bad and second round went into the fattest part of the coil. At that range I do believe it "caught air" again, and was done.

I put it onto the concrete porch with a stick and remember it did continue to squirm for a while. We "cautiously" exposed fangs for pictures and I kept the rattle regretting I didn't have an intact hide for a hatband, timber rattler black and grey chevrons would be a handsome addition to a straw Panama.

For what it's worth I tend to agree with burrhead, I don't kill them just 'cause they are snakes. But if I want a hatband....
 
I kill them at work or at home, the rest, for the most part get a pass. I do a little volunteer work for the BLM, and sometimes kill one if it is near where children might run into it.
 
I usually have to rescue snakes from being killed at neighbor's homes. Folks around here kill pretty much all snakes. My inlaws are the type to kill all of them except for grey rat snakes which they can identify easily. I'll kill the ones with fangs (coral snakes get a pass, rarely see them anyway). There are plenty of hawks, owls, and non-venomous snakes around to kill the mice.
 
Here is what a 215 grain .41 magnum will do to a rattlesnake. Notice that it hit right behind the head. He was 4' 9" with 12 rattles. The skin and rattles are now mounted and hanging on my wall. The shovel was laid beside him for comparison. I don't think I would have wanted to get close enough to kill it with that thing.
 

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Cheeze that is a nice looking cottonmouth. The ones in my area are almost solid grey in color. You have to get right on them, (like dead in your hands), to see the pattern, but it looks like the pattern on the one you shot.
 
That is a nice rattlesnake, slick!

How far can rattlesnakes reach for a strike? Up to 1/2 of their body length? If I am remembering that correctly (which being 2AM I could be very wrong), that would mean that that rattlesnake had a striking distance of almost 2.5 feet....Seeing as that is about as long as that shovel, I would have felt much better with the .41 mag as well ;)

Sent from my HTC One X
 
I haven't ever been in a situation where I could use a gun on a snake, but. . .

We had a small rattlesnake in my grandmother's empty block planter that was attached to her house. It crawled down in a hole in one of the blocks and we couldn't reach it. We put a hose in the hole and turned on the water, and it still wouldn't come out. Then I told my father to fetch me a grill lighter and a can of WD-40.

He came back out, having no idea what I was about to do. I took it, and turned that can into a blowtorch. I just rolled that ball of fire down into the hole. The snake pretty quickly decided he didn't like that, and came out. Then we killed it with a mattock. My father thought it was one of the funniest things he'd ever seen. Apparently he had never seen anyone pull that trick with WD-40 or hairspray before.

FYI: I am not promoting animal abuse. The heat was not enough to actually harm the snake, just enough to make it very uncomfortable and want to be somewhere else, and it was dispatched immediately afterwards.
 
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Here is what a 215 grain .41 magnum will do to a rattlesnake. Notice that it hit right behind the head. He was 4' 9" with 12 rattles.
Click to expand...

That's about the same size as the diamondback I popped in Texas this spring. There wasn't much for me to keep, though, since the gun I had was an 11/87 loaded with 3" mag turkey shells. He was coiled up, I aimed for head, pretty much tore him into 4 pieces, and the head was just plain gone. I did get the rattle, though!
 
I was lucky when I shot this one that he was not coiled up. He was stretched straight out, I walked up behind him from about ten feet. It wasn't a perfect shot though, I aimed at the center of his head, and hit right behind it.
MachIV, I would love to see a big diamondback. I have heard that we are supposed to have some Eastern Diamond backs around, but all I have seen are these Timber rattlers. That all right with me though, they seem to grow plenty big here.
 
Good shootin'. I've taken them out with .22s, even a NAA mini once, but that was as stationary rattler.

Yes, Kel Tecs are accurate. My P11 will put 10 rounds into 3.5" at 25 yards off the bench. That ain't going to compete in a bullseye match, but it's right in there with most snubbies, like having a service pistol in the pocket. A 115 grain 9mm +P is packin' some punch, too. Here's my Kel Tec kill.....:D

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