Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire What do YOU do with snakes?

Rogmatt jr. loves to chase and pick up snakes. In the yard at times and in the field. I give rules to follow: If it is non-poisonous, we will release it somewhere it won't be bothered and can have a good habitat. He likes to find Black snakes, Pine snakes, Rat snakes, and king snakes. All have been released. If he finds a poisonous snake, especially near human dwellings, it most likely will meet a different fate. Rattlers can be eaten so nothing is wasted. However last year he did pick up a Cottonmouth and then released it into the creek again. Mom threatened me with divorce for allowing that to happen.

All but the black snakes DIE!

We don't have any poisonous snakes here. When I lived where there were rattlesnakes we'd kill them, bread them, and fry them like fish.

If it isn't a king snake it has to be pretty quick to get away alive. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

rogmatt jr. sounds about like me 10 years ago.
but i never tried to catch anything poisonous...risk/reward ratio is a little too high.

Growing up, whenever a bunch of us kids were together, and someone would yell "SNAKE!", usually the next words were "Don't kill it, let's catch it!"
I guess I haven't grown up completely, though I've certainly gotten a LOT older... Just proves God IS watching over us! And, I've never been bitten, by a poisonous snake either. Mostly turn 'em loose after awhile, unless there's someone around that needs scarin! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
The bigger Rattlers, though, are a different story. They find their way to the table! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

As an eco-weenie I usually just give snakes in the wilds a polite greeting and then go about my business. I do appreciate the courtesy warning ratlesnakes often give, you don't get bit, they don't get pounded to a pulp, and I find a rattlesnake in full writhing/rattling display to be "way cool".

Last week while birding I came across three separate coral snakes along the trail, beautiful snakes. Deadly as all get out but you really got to work at it to get bit by one. Cottonmouths bother me the most on account of they're pugnacious and don't give a warning.

'Course, any venomous snake around human habitation ought to be quickly dispatched.

Birdwatcher

Dispatch all poisionous snakes near habitations? Um - maybe. They aren't any more dangerous than bears, and we don't treat them that way- at least I don't. Tho I admit that I was a bit twitchie the first couple years we lived here, what with 5 and 6 year olds terrorizing the yard and woods around. Had a brownie thru the yard a few minutes ago. The dogs are still twitching, but I thought it was pretty cool. Kids (same ones) are due home from college Sunday.

On the other hand, I may just hold the world record 70 lb bale toss, from when I was an 17 year old Dakota farm boy. Working on a stone-boat behind the baler, making stacks of ten. Sunk the hook in the right end, grabbed the strings with the left hand, started my heave and turn to put it on the stack behind me on the boat when I noticed about 8 inches of rattler tail hanging out the side of the bale. Nice arc. A good 30 feet - including the hook. Boss driving the tractor wanted to know "What the HELL are you doing????" There was only about 2 inches of snake (brand new, freshly dead) inside that bale, and we found nothing in the one before or after, or on the ground. Maybe a cow ate it anyway.

i saw a rattle snake on the road about 3 weeks ago, the first one I have seen in many years, maybe almost 30 years, I could have killed it but let it go, it never rattled thou. if it was in my yard, it would be dead.

http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/caer/ce/eek/critter/reptile/massasauga.htm

Long time ago I picked up a copperhead along with a fence post. Those things hurt when they bite <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Since then along with watching where I put my hands if a poisonious snake is in a place where I am likely to run into him again he ain't living there no more. I welcome all of the others. Got a rat snake that is a perminent guest in my barn. I'm used to him but he will make visitors fall over things when they first see him unexpected like. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

BCR

How about differently dangerous? In as much as a bear ain't likely to crawl under your back steps and inflict crippling bites on your unsuspecting people and pets.

Interesting how some folks react to snakes with a visceral dislike, something which I believe is an instinct rooted in our genes.

On the topic of great moments in sports, two of my most athletic moments lately have come courtesy of rattlesnakes. Once in tall grass the grass just in front of me started writhing and buzzing, and then the grass right next to me started writhing and buzzing too. Next thing I knew I was thirty feet further back. Same thing when I was clambering down a steep hill and an unseen rattlesnake buzzed, suddenly I was way downslope. I must've flew both times <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />.

I dunno what they sound like elsewhere, but Texas rattlesnakes don't rattle, they buzz. If you catch a cicada in your hand, that loud buzz it makes sounds exactly like a rattlesnake.

Birdwatcher

Elect them.

1B

I'm the rare exception around here. I live and let live with snakes UNLESS they're near my home or usual work areas, THEN if they're poisonouse they are returned to nature ahead of their normal schedule. I killed a pretty big copperhead in my driveway yesterday, my hired hand said I couldn't get him, but my aim was true and those 16 inch tires did the deed.

We don't have that many in my homes immediate area, but we have a fair population of timber rattlers on some of my places. Beautiful snakes that I leave alone if at all possible. I don't see that many of them, which is good and bad. But, if you see one, they will sure change your concentration set if you are squirrel hunting. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> They are not a play snake, make a mistake with them and it is hospital time, if you get that far.

Water moccassins are a real pain, quiet, fairly pugnacious, and common. My least favorite snake.

The rule to my kids is that "I" have to approve picking up any snake. They get a lesson in ID'ing snakes every time we see one.

We VERY rarely get rattlers around. Hell, I even stop on the driveway and move sunning snakes off so the other neighbors won't run them over.

Same rule though, if there is a nasty one near the house, it goes!

My rule with my kids is that they better not be standing in my escape route when the "s" of the word snake is first spoken. I usually runaway screaming like a girl.

Kill 'em all...Let God sort 'em out!!!!


I live in the middle of many acres of pasture and woods, if they can't stay away from our little patch they get whacked...

Mike

non -poisonous ones get a free pass, no matter where they are. If a rattler ever did show up in the yard, it'd be released back into the wild, far away from any housing. Rattlers in the wild are left alone. Alone as in I'll just gawk at them for half an hour or so.

Snakes just fascinate me. Like Muley, I too will escort snakes off of the road. I'd like to adopt my brother in laws rat snake, but my wife thinks of them as Satan incarnate, and wouldn't have it in the house.

Regards,
Scott

What do you do with snakes? Mmmmm....., let me think.
I know- elect them as US Senators from Mass. and NY!!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Qtip
Soli Deo Gloria!
To God Alone Be The Glory!

What do I do with snakes?

If its non-poisonous, I try to grab it either around the head or just behind the head before picking it up.

Like this water snake.


If its poisonous I use a forked stick behind the head before picking it up.

Like this little water mocassin.

A few years back one of my bosses told me about his trip down to Georgia for a deer hunt. One morning while climbing up into a tree stand he was met by a snake. You'd figure this guy spent enought time in the woods that a little snake wouldn't bother him. For the remainder of the trip his guide went up the tree first. Rick's biggest mistake was telling me the story <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />