.22 Lever Action Rifle For Snakes?

My buds brother was digging out his girl friends burn pit with a backhoe and scoped up a load of copperheads. He went to his truck and got a 22 lever action and started shooting snakes. Here is a couple of pictures of some of the snakes he killed. Over 40 snakes shot. Plus in the burn pit there were lots of old tin cans and he said every can had a baby copperhead in it. She lives around Thackerville in Oklahoma.

whughett said:

Jesus’s, talk about a pit of vipers. My guess they were torpid from winters hibernation. Nice bunch of head shots it seems.

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Thats sort of what I thought. Cold snakes are easier to shoot since they are sluggish. But let those suckers get warmed up and shooting them with anything but a shotgun is a chore if they are trying to crawl off. I reload 32 mag shot loads and my bud (brother to this guy) has shot many snakes with those loads from a Ruger Single Six.

whughett said:

I don’t like snakes, don’t hate them and won’t kill one under ordinary circumstances, but that’s not an ordinary circumstance. Thackerville Ok must be riff with copperheads or every snake in the county decided to winter in that pit.
My wife would not go within a country mile of that pit if she knew that. She won’t walk down the side yards or the back yard here in Florida cause we have a health population of harmless black snakes

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I don't like killing snakes either. But I would make an exception for a load like that. My bud who lives in Weatherford Tx has killed more copperheads than rattlesnakes. And yes there are rattlers out there. I stepped on one that was 3.5' long while dove hunting many years ago. He never rattled until he crawled off and curled up. I guess he was stretched out asleep and I stood on his head and thats the ONLY reason I didn't get bit. But it ruined me for dove hunting the rest of the day. I went home after I killed that snake. And every time I walk past that spot to this day I look for snakes.

Another friend who lives about 6 miles south of me in Burleson did get bit by a copperhead 8 months ago. He's an early bird and walked out to his truck around 4am in his socks and got bit. He said he was dancing around and couldn't shake the snake off his foot. It made him sick as a dog for about two weeks and I think he still has a little problem from it. We now call him "Fang". And no he doesn't like it.

herrwalther said:

Anyone else reminded of that scene from Indiana Jones?

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Snakes! Why did it have to be Snakes!!!

I saw one TV show where they were hunting the Pythons in the glades so they could tag them. So how did they hunt Pythons? They walked around in the shallow water bare footed until they felt them with their feet. %&#@ That! And if I caught one it would be a dead python.

I use #12 shot for these loads. I use a 2.5gr Bullseye charge. Charge the case and then seat a gas check for a 30 caliber bullet over the powder. Dip the case in a box of shot and leave an eighth of an inch or a little more at the top. Then seat a 30 caliber gas check over the shot charge and crimp enough to get the flare out out of the case and hold the GC in. Just a slight roll crimp.

I bought a piece of all thread in 10/32 and made a flat bottom seater to push the GC down on the powder. I also recommend running the top GC through a .312 sizer, I use a Lee 32 sizer and squeeze the GC down a little. Because the GC are flared (Hornady) they are a little over sized and hard to get in place. Shoving the GC down the case base first is easy. No need to resize. Trust me on this.

A 30 cal GC sounds like it would be too small but they are not. Remember the case is around .310 in the mouth opening. They are a tight fit in the case. The case will hold around 78grs of shot. In #12 that works out to around 325 pellets.

To push the GC down in the 32 mag case I use my all thread seater screwed into the bullet seating die for a 38/357 case. I know this sounds like a screwy way to load rounds and it is. But it works very well and makes shot loads you can't get for a 32mag or even a 32 long with a little tweaking. I just loaded another friend 50 32 long shot loads. The only difference was a slightly smaller payload of shot.

I wish the guy that shot these would have measured some of the longer ones. A 36" copperhead is about the max size they get and some of these look close to that size.

I knew the knife maker Jack Crane who made the knives for the movie "Predator" and "Road House". He was in his shop late one night bare footed and a copperhead bite him twice on the foot. Jack had been in a bad car wreck once and spent a long time in the hospital and hated going to any doctor. He had heard that you could zap the bite with a stun gun and it would neutralize the poison. So thats what he did. He told me it made some knots in his foot around the bites but he never got real sick. And he picked up the habit of wearing shoes. He lived across the street from my Weatherford buddy and taught my bud some of his knife building tricks.

I not only don't like snakes, I positively hate them (mostly because I'm scared of them-they rank right up there with werewolves and high places for me). I'll kill one under any and all circumstance. My dad always told me to never trust something that can move around on the ground without arms or legs. And, as a species, we're still paying for Adam and Eve's misplaced trust.

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My two friends I have mentioned in this thread both hate snakes. Not me. I think they are cool. I won't hardly kill them even after stepping on that one rattlesnake. And I did kill him. A couple of years ago my son came in the house and said there was a snake on the front walk. I went out and looked and sure enough it was a young copperhead. So I got a 5 gallon bucket and picked him up by the tail and put him in the bucket. Then drove over to the RR tracks a couple of miles away and released him. Everyone thought I was crazy. (I am) but like I told them "he is just one of Gods little creatures trying to make his way through life the only way he knows how". Now they are sure I'm crazy.