New Respect for 22 snake shot

[ollogger]

While cleaning out a irrigation ditch today, I came face to face with a
rattle snake, it was not buzzing but coiled & waiting for me to take
one more step & then it would have been a strike from belly to neck
high, I took one step back, pulled the old longhorn out & blasted him in the face, it was the lenght of the fork away with the step backwards
I was making plenty of noise with the fork in a concrete ditch, so it had lots of time to go away, but for me 8 out of 10 times they never warn me or try to leave, I dont like em Most of the time i carry a 357 or 45
with 2 snake shot in them, but the 22 worked great

ollogger

[harry]

Most of my work is between Gillette and Buffalo and the rattlers are out in force.

[.45colt]

Good for You OL,I'm sure glad You didn't get bit. We don't have many round here but when I was a Kid a Friend of the Family got bit by a small one in the barn and was in bad shape for a while.

[Nath]

N.

[Blaine]

They are mutating, and don't rattle near as much as they used to for safety (to them) purposes.

[Old Ironsights]

They are mutating, and don't rattle near as much as they used to for safety (to them) purposes.

We keep shooting all the noisy ones...

All that's left to breed are the sneaky quiet bass droppings...

[jeepnik]

Sometimes, a good ole JHP will do the trick, even if you miss a bit. Got this one with a hunk of rock, sorta like barking a squirrel.



It did buzz, but not till I was just about to take a step backwards and onto it. I sat down for a bit afterwards to "recover". Oh, and Bob Munden had nothing on me that day.

[Don McDowell]

Brings back memories from 72, I was on the Muddy Wagonhound sw of Douglas, irrigating the meadow. The first week I was there I killed 17 of those buggers just changing water. Before they moved me up to Duck Creek in mid July I had over 50 sets of rattles tied on my hatband.
Was glad to get to Duck Creek to high for snakes, and all we had to do was doctor yearlings and calves.... We did kill a big ol rattler,while we trailing a batch of steers from Bosler to Chug clear up on top of the divide tho.

[Mike D.]

Not "mutating", just molting. Removing old skin to show nice new clean one. I know how well .22 shot works, 'cause I nailed a cat with it as it vaulted the fence after it killed my neighbor's kitten. I loved it when the *** flipped and flopped for a few minutes.

[Don McDowell]

They don't shed around here until about August, then they're mean ****'''

[ollogger]

im always nervos blazing away with bullets in a ditch or my rocky ground Don did you have nightmares after all them snakes
you ran across? 2 years ago they were thick here I was jumpy till it snowed out

Mike D how close was that cat? good shot at a flying cat

ollogger

[Don McDowell]

Naw , but a feller sure learns about how to perfect the standing broadjump, and the 5ft shovel polevault

[Mescalero]

That shovel polevault is my only olympic event.

[Blaine]

Not "mutating", just molting. Removing old skin to show nice new clean one. I know how well .22 shot works, 'cause I nailed a cat with it as it vaulted the fence after it killed my neighbor's kitten. I loved it when the *** flipped and flopped for a few minutes.

No.....evolving and/or mutating......So much for sportsmanship leaving an animal to purposely flip and flop dying

[Don McDowell]

That shovel polevault is my only olympic event.

man I should of gotten a gold medal about the size of a pizza pan for a couple of those.

[piller]

Not "mutating", just molting. Removing old skin to show nice new clean one. I know how well .22 shot works, 'cause I nailed a cat with it as it vaulted the fence after it killed my neighbor's kitten. I loved it when the *** flipped and flopped for a few minutes.

No.....evolving and/or mutating......So much for sportsmanship leaving an animal to purposely flip and flop dying

Not evolving, but natural selection. It is what was originally mistaken for evolution. Evolution is a random event without any driving purpose and is a total dead end as it changes the genetics of a single creature, and leaves it thus unable to procreate viable offspring. Mutations are much the same, but don't affect the total DNA to the point that the organism cannot procreate viable offspring. Natural selection simply chooses to keep certain traits within the gene pool.

[jackruff]

Not "mutating", just molting. Removing old skin to show nice new clean one. I know how well .22 shot works, 'cause I nailed a cat with it as it vaulted the fence after it killed my neighbor's kitten. I loved it when the *** flipped and flopped for a few minutes.

No.....evolving and/or mutating......So much for sportsmanship leaving an animal to purposely flip and flop dying

Not evolving, but natural selection. It is what was originally mistaken for evolution. Evolution is a random event without any driving purpose and is a total dead end as it changes the genetics of a single creature, and leaves it thus unable to procreate viable offspring. Mutations are much the same, but don't affect the total DNA to the point that the organism cannot procreate viable offspring. Natural selection simply chooses to keep certain traits within the gene pool.

Is not natural selection the means by which evolution takes place?

[piller]

Not the way it is taught in college. In college, evolution is a total, random genetic change.

[44shooter]

Not the way I learned it in college. Evolution is the the genetic change in a population of organisms over time/generations. It is not random but can be affected by random events. Both natural selection and mutations are mechanisms that drive evolution. Evolution also does not have to always mean speciation either. In our case the species has not changed.

An extreme but simplied hypothetical extention in this case would be:

Snakes that rattles are killed at a higher rate than those that don't. Therefore, snakes that don't rattle have more offspring. Over time rattling snakes get bred out. Rattlesnakes no longer rattle.

This assumes that rattling behavior is inherited. I have no clue whether it is or not. I don't buy the premise that rattling snakes have an overall higher morbidity rate because they evolved to rattle in the first place. It is pretty clear that it works in getting most predators to leave them alone.

[Mescalero]

It works on me!

[Mescalero]

Walked the creek on the gold mining endeavor last saturday, lots of wash down brush and downed trees.
Hand was never far from the Llama MiniMax.
Scary in that tight undergrowth.

[bdhold]

feral hogs eat rattlers.
the quiet ones survive to reproduce.

[Mescalero]

Odd you would mention that, saw a couple of hog beds.

[Dave James]

Used to run a gun gang back in the 60's for awhile cleaning ditches out for the County, got tired of the 97 they issued and went wth a pair of Colt 357's with 6" barrels, one was loaded with home made snake loads with a dose of 9's, killed a ton of "short neckers" and helped keep the inmates in line to boot

[Pitchy]

While cleaning out a irrigation ditch today, I came face to face with a
rattle snake, it was not buzzing but coiled & waiting for me to take
one more step & then it would have been a strike from belly to neck
high, I took one step back, pulled the old longhorn out & blasted him in the face, it was the lenght of the fork away with the step backwards
I was making plenty of noise with the fork in a concrete ditch, so it had lots of time to go away, but for me 8 out of 10 times they never warn me or try to leave, I dont like em Most of the time i carry a 357 or 45
with 2 snake shot in them, but the 22 worked great

ollogger

Is that a Longhorn Nine by High Standard, had one growing up.

[ollogger]

Ya Pitchy its a high standard, good little revolver had it for years
and its starting to look it age

ollogger

[Pitchy]

Ya Pitchy its a high standard, good little revolver had it for years
and its starting to look it age

ollogger

Shot a lot of rats at the town dump with mine back in the late 60`s, wish i still had it.

[Pitchy]

Ha, found a pic of said dump and me with my longhorn nine and other that i can``t remember.
I remember now, my nine inch longhorn is in my left hand and my cousins longhorn with a six inch i think barrel.

[Old Savage]

Wow, how things change

[Pitchy]

Wow, how things change

Yea we used to walk around town like that
Sorry about getting off topic a little ollogger, glad ya didn`t get bitten by that snake.

[ollogger]

Wow, how things change

Yep things sure change, Cant shoot rats at the dump no more
I miss those days

Neat pix. Pitchy

ollogger

[Old Ironsights]

I picked up a super cheap .22 SA revolver ($80) for working the ditches. IIRC it's a "Deputy marshal" or summat. Quick pointer with Federal Snake Shot. I keep 2 snake and 4 60gr SSSTs in it.

[Batman1939]

Not the way I learned it in college. Evolution is the the genetic change in a population of organisms over time/generations. It is not random but can be affected by random events. Both natural selection and mutations are mechanisms that drive evolution. Evolution also does not have to always mean speciation either. In our case the species has not changed.

An extreme but simplied hypothetical extention in this case would be:

Snakes that rattles are killed at a higher rate than those that don't. Therefore, snakes that don't rattle have more offspring. Over time rattling snakes get bred out. Rattlesnakes no longer rattle.

This assumes that rattling behavior is inherited. I have no clue whether it is or not. I don't buy the premise that rattling snakes have an overall higher morbidity rate because they evolved to rattle in the first place. It is pretty clear that it works in getting most predators to leave them alone.

"44 Shooter" has pretty much nailed it. IIRC, the first rattlesnakes appear in the fossil record back in the Miocene at about the time when grasslands were becoming widespread in North America. The rattle was apparently "selected" (via natural selection) as snakes which could "warn away" hoofed mammals had an "advantage" in not being trod upon. Why didn't all grassland snakes evolve rattles? Probably because they didn't have a "mutant" gene for developing a rattle.

Ol' Bio Prof

[Lastmohecken]

I just always figured that God gave some snakes rattles and the rest he didn't, and natural sellection took it from there, but I don't believe much in evolution of hardly anything, except maybe viruses and bacteria.

[44shooter]

Why would bacteria and viruses be able to evolve, but not plants, animals, fungi or algae?

The theory about warning grazing animals not to step on them does make more sense. I said predators but an eagle, hog or kingsnake would not care if the snake rattled or not.