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I killed the bigger one then went back to check on the size. I took a barbecue fork to pull it out. To my surprise it was alive. There were two. I had stuck the live smaller one. It didn't take me long to examine it though, that's for sure. I dropped it like a hot potato. 
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and (I am 6'4")
The editor left out the size. Just read (Local Man Lands Monster)and said who I was and where I caught it. And me in shorts and flip flops out beside the house... Brilliant! Holy Stuff......I thought they were small little bugga.....I hope they are as timid as experts say.RIHMFIRE wrote:Dang thats a big one!...
Biggest one I have seen here in Florida 5'-6" long....right next to the back door
of my neighbors house.....
I killed a 24" coral snake the other day that was trying to enter the house!
and my neighbor to the north killed one the same day....in his garage..
anybody ever cooked a copperhead?
You have got to be kidding. I tried rattler once. That was enough. It sure don't taste like no chicken I ever ate. I guess "IF" I were really, really, really hungry. But, that would be after exterminating every insect in a twenty square mile area.CalvinMD wrote:Them rattlers are tastey when prepared right
There was one particular Rifleman episode that would just make your skin crawl--uh maybe bad phrase?--where at a campsite Lucas lies frozen in absolute fear with a rattler under his blanket. One of the (I would imagine) more realistic portrayals of what that must be like. The entire episode focused on how to extricate the unwanted bed mate without someone--especially him--getting bit. Brrr.Lastmohecken wrote:I hate snakes. I wonder how the old cowboys survived sleeping outside on the trail, in Texas espacally. I know one thing, that old trick of laying your rope around you bed at night, might not work, but sure can't hurt. I have hunted in Texas a little, but I must admit, I would be a little uneasy sleeping out under the stars down there.
). We've got timber rattlers in Az but they're not plentiful at least where I've tromped.
Those are HUGE snakes......and a 2 foot coral snake, no thanks.Sixgun wrote:Dang! Those pics gave me the "heebie jeebies".
Funny thing about snakes--most guys are afraid of 'em. I know I am---spiders too. I noticed black guys are especially afraid of them, even little ones that are friendly. One buddy at work who is a bad black dude who ain't afraid of nothin' will jump 6 feet in the air at the sight of a 2' garter snake. ---------Sixgun
No thanks! I still say brrr!BlaineG wrote:I usually let copperheads alone. Once you are aware of each other, the last thing they want is to be around you, and they are not aggressive. This one place I night-fished for cats, on a bunch of rocks, was copperhead heaven, and they crawled all around me and never once paid me a bit of mind.
Always hear of bunches, crawling piles, "mating" balls etc of Cottonmouths and Copperheads back east. Fortunately in Arizona we seldom see such numbers together, unless it's a remote den or you go looking (?) for them. Just (generally) don't have the lush habitat or prey that goes along with, or preponderance of waterways to support those kinds of colonies. The Mohave (green rattlers?) have a combination of both kinds of venum....gak wrote:No thanks! I still say brrr!BlaineG wrote:I usually let copperheads alone. Once you are aware of each other, the last thing they want is to be around you, and they are not aggressive. This one place I night-fished for cats, on a bunch of rocks, was copperhead heaven, and they crawled all around me and never once paid me a bit of mind.
One exception I heard of was when a local college professor studying Mohaves--the deadliest kind in the US--found a den of hundreds southwest of Phoenix. Tagged a bunch and let them go. What an opportunity - why molatoffs were invented! I'm otherwise a wildlife lover but don't need these. Several years ago, I spoke with one of the graders blading the desert in the foothills for a golf course east of Phoenix,...carried an M1 Carbine with 30 rounder onboard to take care of unearthed dens of Diamondbacks which he said were numerous -- "hundreds..." Gives me the heebeegeebees.
Used to see the rattlers beady eyes inbetween the concrete canal linings and earth east of town, and would occasionally see them in the undercut banks as we theretofore blissfully floated by--including one swimming along the shoreline of a local river--when we'd go tubing. There went a previously fond belief (about the swimming) and a another perfectly fine beach!
Yep. Neuro (think cobra, coral etc) and hemo toxins (most NA pit vipers).BlaineG wrote: The Mohave (green rattlers?) have a combination of both kinds of venum....
Of interesting note, there is also a red rattlesnake that lives in a fairly small area of SoCal. These also have both hemo and neuro toxins in their venom, and apparently it's even more potent. I've dealt with greens. I have no idea why a critter with a nasty venom was also blessed with a nasty temper. And these things are a "protected" species. What were the idiots in Washington thinking. Some crittes should be made extinct. Hmm, politicians for one.BlaineG wrote:The Mohave (green rattlers?) have a combination of both kinds of venum....gak wrote:No thanks! I still say brrr!BlaineG wrote:I usually let copperheads alone. Once you are aware of each other, the last thing they want is to be around you, and they are not aggressive. This one place I night-fished for cats, on a bunch of rocks, was copperhead heaven, and they crawled all around me and never once paid me a bit of mind.
One exception I heard of was when a local college professor studying Mohaves--the deadliest kind in the US--found a den of hundreds southwest of Phoenix. Tagged a bunch and let them go. What an opportunity - why molatoffs were invented! I'm otherwise a wildlife lover but don't need these. Several years ago, I spoke with one of the graders blading the desert in the foothills for a golf course east of Phoenix,...carried an M1 Carbine with 30 rounder onboard to take care of unearthed dens of Diamondbacks which he said were numerous -- "hundreds..." Gives me the heebeegeebees.
Used to see the rattlers beady eyes inbetween the concrete canal linings and earth east of town, and would occasionally see them in the undercut banks as we theretofore blissfully floated by--including one swimming along the shoreline of a local river--when we'd go tubing. There went a previously fond belief (about the swimming) and a another perfectly fine beach!
Yes, a relation to the Mohave IIRC. I've heard they populate the coastal areas down around San Clemente and such? We have one brand of not-often-seen rattler in Az that's protected--I think a smaller subspecies. Thankfully, the Mohave is not protected here nor is the all-too-common Diamondback. We actually need more bullsnakes and California Kings--also native to Az--here to take care of the rattler types! Red Racers do a good job on them as well.jeepnik wrote:]
Of interesting note, there is also a red rattlesnake that lives in a fairly small area of SoCal. These also have both hemo and neuro toxins in their venom, and apparently it's even more potent. I've dealt with greens. I have no idea why a critter with a nasty venom was also blessed with a nasty temper. And these things are a "protected" species. What were the idiots in Washington thinking. Some crittes should be made extinct. Hmm, politicians for one.
Judging from the OP's first photo, it appears in the middle they conspire to get together and combine features--long AND fat!octagon wrote:5' rattlers are not uncommon at all in West Texas, and six foot ones are here and there. I think it's neat that in E. Texas they tend to be shorter and a lot fatter than in W. Tex where they tend to be long and skinny. I shoot em Every time just for being there as we are lousy with em in West Texas. .22 Hp in the head from a rifle works best, but I got my last one with a Husqvarna (weed eater).
You know the only thing wrong with folklore of this type? No one ever informed the critters. They'll just crawl right over you barrier and continue on their way unimpeded.Machado wrote:"That was a rough old horsehair rope the old cowboys put around them when they slept. The new nylon ones wouldn't stop a worm."
Local folklore has it that if you surround your camp with calcium carbide rocks (used for lighting purposes), snakes, scorpions, centipedes and some such will stay away.
Antonio
