Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Hey, look at me. I'm big and mean

That's a fact Jack!
I mean Chuck!

Oh, ya, bats!

Did you notice any in the brush? I mean up in the brush and not on the ground. Seems like they'd get up on the brush go get away from the heat next to the ground. I saw quite a few that did that in the hottest part of summer. Hikes were short during that time. Two canteens. When the first was empty, it was time to head back to the vehicle where more water was at hand.
Paul B.

Most of us are creeped out by something.
If I found a wild rat, I'd probably do a double take too.
When my Dad was a boy, the rats used to travel through the sewage plumbing. There were reports of bathroom experiences when all of a sudden one would come out of the commode. Talk about surprise. Yikes!

Never did.

I had a very close call on a summer hike in the Rincons right out of Tucson. I hiked up the back side (away from the city). I had 5 quarts of water. By the time I got back to the truck I was in very bad shape! My face was numb. Strange. I think my electrolytes were out of whack.

Bears have been known to kill people. Wolves too. And big cats. And dogs. Skunks, coons, armadillos carry nasty, sometimes deadly diseases. Mad cow disease, tick- carried diseases, rats, prairie dogs.... etc.

Let's kill every one of the bastards, by golly, until only we and plants (some of those are suspect too!) are left. Just so no one will ever have any kind of those kinds of problems again.

Jeeze, you guys!

Keep in mind we have plenty of people and dogs in the world - one here and there snake bitten isn't going to make any more difference than killing a snake for the sake of irrational fear and ignorance, because you can.

Me and mine excepted of course.

If it's dull looking, has a triangular head it's pretty much a dead snake. All y'all snake lovers can kiss my chicken azz, I'm killing every poisonous snake that I come across.
Fact is, once it's dead it's not going to bite anyone or anything.

I'm with Grit on this one.

thinking back, i know of one guy minus an arm due to a diamondback, another a leg due to a diamondback, i have come close to being bit a number of times, and lost a golden retriever due to a snakebite.
I shoot, bludgen, cut, whatever every venomous snake i come across.

Don't like spiders either, but I'm much more comfortable stomping one with my boot.

Years ago when I was in the Nat Guard, we had a battalion from the south, maybe GA or SC but I don't remember, come here to so. Idaho for training. There were ground squirrels everywhere. They started calling them Go Downs 'cause ever time ya see one, it's a goin' down. The name stuck and for some years everyone in the Guard called them Go Downs.
That said, gopher isn't correct but it's commonly used.

No, but you can bite it.
I hear that they are good eatin.
The hides aren't bad looking either.

Timber Rattler Skin suspenders would be Uber

I understand where you are coming from. I don't blame you. Just realize that if it's in striking distance, your chances of getting bit too, go way up when you take a stick to one.
If it's not in striking distance, you Normally have to get that close with a useful stick. They are quicker than us.

My preacher buddy wasn't a Pentecostal snake handler, but he enjoyed catching them. We'd go hunting and he'd wear his hatband with rattler band and belt.
Holsters with snakeskin are premium too.

I had a thread that might be remembered as the bigchickenpussybaby thread. And my first snake kill during my first prairie dog shoot was a bull snake.

Oh well, it was good practice & pistol shotshell testing for the prairie rattlers that followed.

Ded snake not even a good one in my book. I ask that buds remove the carcass from the area so's I don't pee my pants later in the day.

I've eaten some. It was ok but I wouldn't go out of my way for it. It would make a good survival food. They say it tastes like chicken but I'd say more like fish. It's white and flaky.

Fixed it just for you

Killed lots of rattlers, in my time. If it's venomous - it dies.
Some rattle and some don't.
Bull snakes, red racers, garter snakes, and all others get a pass.
I've lost a calf, a yearling steer, and had 2 horses hurt bad by rattlers, so would drive 10 miles out of my way to kill one.
We have a lot of prairie rattlers, and a few western diamondbacks.
If I get involved, I try my damndest to reduce the venomous population.

looks like a Western, but I never saw one in Arizona with a coontail. without the coontail we would call that a "great basin" around here.

we have diamondbacks and mojaves with coontails in Arizona.