A while back a biologist that does some contract work for the California State Department of Fish & Game stopped by to talk about guns and such. He came with a warning. While doing some research on rodents he has come across a large number of rattle snake young. He believes that this is due to the mild winter we had this year leading to a larger number of young surviving the winter. I don't know about the rest of the western states but for those living here in California or to those coming for a visit be watchful, BE VERY WATCHFUL. Watch the kids and your pets as it's usually the little snakes that get them. I’ve already killed 9 this year just going to work and around the house. Lawdog

Rattlers can be deadly, thank goodness I live across the United States from those little spawns of satan.

NH_Hunter

Hey Muleskinner, there must be SOME purpose in the world for palmer ridge. Isnt he also named Pocket Navy or am i way off. I thought i remembered that back in the days of shooters.com. Those were good days, but these are better.

NH_Hunter

Maybe carrying a handgun of some kind could help out with that problem. If it is rattleing and seems to be offensive,or is threatening some one else than just shoot it, but if it is defensive than just keep walking.

NH_Hunter

Hey MULESKINNER . . . watch it . . . I'll get my step-son's ATV and go on tour in western Wyoming.  Spook all the deer and a couple of elk too.  LOL!

Well, to the late-informed, I screwed up the whole business on Pocketnavy.  It was always my handle, due mainly to my interest in Civil War handguns [I had a website on them], but I switched servers, had to pick a different handle and Shooters wouldn't change it back . . . said that handle was already in use!  Geez!  No kidding!  So . . . I also use Pocketnavy on BSB and sign my posts on Shooters like I want them.  Need to keep the casual observers on their toes . . . right?  Irritates those who NEED irritated . . . most people just go with the flow.

But, you are in luck, my new puppy is trying to get my attention . . . she is upstairs eating the sofa or something!   Guess I will get off here and let MULESKINNER tell wild tales.  By the way MULESKINNER, what ever happened to that eye-ball we were going to have . . . and the steak dinner?  We ain't THAT far apart.  By the way, don't know about New Hampshire . . . strikes me that it would be hard to hunt with New Yorkers roamin' all over the place in their limos and L.L. Bean jackets! 

Gotta lay some sod, move a plant, and do something useful.  If you need a good rifle MULESKINNER - let me know - Howa has to go.  It's kinda like Monica and the Democrats.  Saw soomething the other day where she said the Democrats leave a bad taste in her mouth!     It's a .30-06 too.  What else is there?

Pocketnavy in Colorado

Haven't heard about a seeding project in East Texas with TP&W. I never saw many rattlers there anyway, but lots and lots of copperheads.

Also haven't heard of any research documenting neurotoxins in rattlesnake venom. Do you have a source, Foxer? I'd be interested in looking at it.

Pocketnavy, no new yorkers come up here and mess around. It is too untamed and the people are too damn poor and dirty. Well, most of them are. I am one of the lucky few where my family is doing alright. The new yorkers are too scared to bring their ll bean everything up here because it is too swampy, and their limos just get gawked at so it scares them away. I have a Grandfather who lives outside nyc, and he hasnt been up this way in 10 years, it displeases him.

NH_Hunter

Hell NH, I was warmin' up to ya 'til you said you wasn't poor an' dirty.

Triggerguard,

Try going to

http://www.whozoo.org/Intro2000/rickahlg/RICKSRATTLEEXTRACREDIT.html - I think this may be what you're looking for.  The biologist friend has told me the same thing.  Lawdog

Fella's;

When I was 18, a friend & I were going down the N. Platte in an orange crate canoe from Alcova to Casper.  Anyway, out in the big bend before the river goes under govt. bridge, Jack got bit by a good sized snake in the fat part of his right calf.  I had to give him first aid miles fron help.  It was an interesting experience.

Unfortunately, the snake bit & ran & therefore survived.  But I do take care of business with any others I meet.  I'll tell you something else.  That venom doesn't taste so good either.  All the more reason to stay mad at 'em.

900F

Well muleskinner, i am personally poor because i dont have a job right now, i have school. and i am dirty right now because i havent taken a shower since this morning.

NH_Hunter

I had the opportunity this past September to hunt dove on some land between a big tailwater pit and some cropland that hadn't been plowed up yet.  To quote Pat Green, it was where "the birds, they flow like wine".  Needless to say, we were all spending a lot of time looking up and not paying too close of attention to our feet.  I was over in some land closer to the tailwater pit, between it and a little ditch full of weeds that ran down into a big hole that normally had water in it, too.  I was scanning the sky back over my right shoulder over the barrel of my shotgun because quite a few birds had been flying in from that direction.  I turned back around and caught some movement out of the corner of my left eye.  Turns out I came waaay too close to stepping on a rattlesnake that was every bit of 4 feet long.  It didn't even have time to shake its rattles before I introduced it to one of my 3.75 dram loads.  Scared the sh*t out of me... mostly for just being a dumbass and realizing a bite would have been my fault for not paying attention to what was going on around me.  Maybe it would have kept going and not payed me any mind, maybe not... but not a chance I was goign to take.  We ended up killing another one about an hour later and less than 50 feet away from the first just before it had a chance to show the lab we were hunting with that it was through with the warnings.

Tex,

I and the family lived in Tyler, TX 1969 to 1971. I never encountered a rattler, but experienced closeness to two copperheads - once while on horseback and another when at the office in a hallway a small one was between the men's and ladies' rooms. I saw mocassins while on horseback, too. I was very cautious when deerhunting and dove hunting. Our secretary's husband got bitten by a copperhead and he didn't even know what it was until he checked into the hospital. Here in SE Mich we have the Massasauga rattler, but it has a less potent venom and is smaller than others. People here occasionally get bitten. Recently here a man was fined for killing one by the DNR. We're suppose to leave them be. Man, they could still kill a dog or a child.

Gene

Hey Gents:

I lived in Cedar Hill Texas for a couple of years (that's 25 miles SW of Dallas).  Guy in a truck in front of me ran over a rattlesnake just 1/4 mile from my house.  That devil was almost 6 feet long and his body at the widest part was as big around as my arm right below the elbow.  He was a big damn snake.  I didn't get to count how many sections it had on its rattle since the guy who squished him already cut it off and had it in his pocket before I pulled over.

I grew up in Missouri where we have our share of big snakes (cotton mouths get big in these parts) but that fellow was the biggest I ever saw.

Cedar Hill had lots of wildlife.  We had javelina, deer, bobcats, coyotes, tarantulas, rattlers, scorpions, etc. running around the subdivision all the time.  I hated the idea of those damn javelina running around on my one-acre lot with my wife and kids around.  That was pretty much the only animal I thought might have actually hurt somebody.  I kept the .45-70 handy for those damn pigs but never shot one.  A guy I know in San Angelo (West Texas) shoots them on his ranch from his helicopter.

Everybody picks on the poor javalina! You hear tales of  aggressive charges and other BS. Actually, those are tales to impress the folks that haven't dealt with them!

Javalia are nearsighted little herd animals...when you disturb them, think of them as a covey of four legged quail that stink and can't fly. They just explode, and many a "hunter" has tales of a charge he "just managed to escape from" when all that happened was the poor critter paniced and ran by the person. Odds are the javalina never even saw 'em.

Not like wild hogs at all...

Rancher where I hunt hires a service to fly his ranch and kill hogs and coyotes with an AC-556. Does it monthly. We still see hogs when we hunt there.

Fella's;

When Y'all come up here for one of these reunions - - - - - - - - but I'll let that go.  Stop into the Sinclair truckstop in Harlowtown.  Go into the cafe & sit & then look up on the back wall.  Best not to have a mouth full of coffee.  If you have a female companion, be prepared for some public heebie-jeebies, if she's 'sensitive' about snakes.  It's called "Montana's First Citizen".

I always figured that it was the inspiration for the guy that thought up those 6-shooters that'd load either the .45-70 gov't or 410 shotshells.  Personally, I wouldn't want to take the sucker on in anything much less than a Bradley. 

900F