Snakes in Fl

I just wouldn't feel ill prepared with a nice sharp long handled shovel.

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Let's see, a 12' plus snake, with a head the size of a baseball glove, and a neck the size of a mans lower leg, and the capability of striking half its body length at the speed of "Holy Sh_ t". I'd feel inadequately prepared with a shovel, even with the longest fiberglass handle. As for how to hunt them, I'd stake a dog, preferably a Pit Bull, out for bait on a "snake crossing" and wait. Or follow a bunch of guys with shovels into the mangroves, and hope I get lucky. ROFLMAO

I have no clue, the only one I ever saw that was killed by man was killed with a Kenworth pulling a full chipvan........ now that sucker was HUGE.

The naturalists would just walk right up next to the snake and pick them up; they don't seem to go anywhere in a hurry.

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You have to take into consideration that the majority of these snakes were human raised. So they have no reason to fear us. They are also long lived. The best thing for Florida to do, if they want to get rid of the problem, is to open the season year round an put a bounty on them.

OK, say they are huge. From what we have learned they are incredibly quick and impossible to wrestle at "striking range", let's say 12' for a monster. Or heck, let's go out to 20 or 30'. From 10 yards the shot column of a 12 ga #5 pheasant load is pretty impressive still, and the anatomy of even one of the internet nightmares shown on this thread are not nearly bear (or hog) tough. The extra pellets will be handy and my bet is they penetrate well enough for sure. 3" mag if it makes you feel better but my bet, it's not necessary.

A 12 ga at 10 yds and you will be ripping flesh off of the baddest python like grabbing chunks with your hand.

I guess the trick is staying at 5-10 yards. You need a strategy that keeps you out of knife fighting distance or even 00 buck and you could be screwed. Drag that bad boy out in even a small open and 12 ga will hammer him.

A 12 ga at 10 yds

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NOW we're talking!

Stake 10 yapping lap dogs out in the swamp and when the yapping stops shoot the snake. Radical enviromentalists and animal rights protesters will also work but remember not to shoot untill the yapping stops.

i would be using a shotgun, 12ga with some #4 turkey loads. after i got enough to make me some snazzy boots and a belt to match, i would like to try setting up some bait and shoot them in the head with a judo point.....more sportsman like i suppose.

if you want a challenge you could try a handgun....i guess the judge finally found something its almost good for!

after i got enough to make me some snazzy boots and a belt to match

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So what are you going to do with the remaining 98% of the snake?

44 Mag-10 1/2 inch barrel SA Ruger Super Blackhawk! Head shot would be sporting. I have done it many times on big Timber rattlers.......30 foot minimum!

Makes no sense to me

I'm surprise that nobody has commented on the fact that Florida wants to make money on the snake problem. First the state complains that the snakes are a problem, then they open a very limited season and charge for a permit. Makes no sense to me why anyone would want to buy a license to kill a snake that is a problem in the first place. The state should be paying a bounty for every one of these snakes taken out of the wild.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/22/1493525/python-hunting-season-set-for.html

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- State wildlife officials have created a special python hunting season to try to stop the spread of the nonnative snakes throughout the Everglades.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says anyone with a hunting license who pays a $26 permit fee can kill the reptiles from March 8 to April 17 on state-managed lands around the Everglades in South Florida.

The season is open for Burmese and Indian pythons, African rock pythons, green anacondas and Nile monitor lizards.

Thousands of the nonnative Burmese pythons are believed to be in the region, upsetting the natural balance of the ecosystem.

Wildlife officials on Monday trained a group of hunters on how to identify, stalk, capture and remove the reptiles.

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anaconda's are slow and clumsy on land but rarely show that as they stay in the water the great majority of the time where they are FAST... Boas are not near as clumsy on land, neither are pythons, they move much better than most anticipate and with all that motion of their bodies as they move, they do not offer a great target... add that to the 1/3 the length of their body strike and you have something dangerous. Think about it... an 18 foot python can strike 6 feet... I am staying out of shovel range... their strike is MUCH faster than their A to B movement.... I dont have the numbers, but we will call it blink of an eye speed.

Keep your range at 15 feet from the head. Cylnder choke shotgun, #4-#2 2 3/4oz shell to the head. Done done and done.

BTW I wear a size 10.5 boot.

I have a six-foot boa constrictor, and the teeth are quite long. She became quite excited for her food once and struck her own body, and pulled one of her teeth out in the process. I'm glad that she 'likes' me as I don't really want to feel her teeth grinding against my bones.

Really, its not the burmese python that I'd be afraid of; there are reticulated pythons out there as well, which are reputed maneaters in my parent's homeland. I won't bother arguing whether they really are or not, and the ErrorNet is full of altered photos, however, the Everglades reptile house has one that eats a 50lb pig once a month with no problem. I am betting that some hunter will be taking a son/daughter along that may be of that size.

Based on the observations of my own constrictor, I'd take a shotgun!

Nile monitors in the Glades? Now those you really need to worry about. These are the second largest lizard in the world (Komodo dragon is 1st,same family)and their razor teeth are full of bacteria so nasty that you can die from it. I once helped a guy feed a wild caught six footer that was thrashing its tail in an oval cattle water tank. My job was to weild the baseball bat while he threw a full sized rabbit to it. He told me not to hesitate to use it if the monitor came through the top of te tank. Thankfully it was more interested in that poor bunny which was torn apart pronto. Oh yeah, that's a nasty critter.as mentioned earlier Reticulated pythons ain't nothing to mess with either.

It's been a year or two, but I recall reading about the monitors being found near residential areas in southwest Florida. Around Fort Myers, IIRC.

Kill 'em all! Snakes and lizards big enough to be dangerous won't live around my grandchildren as long as I'm alive.

Glad your pet Boa "likes" you? Uhhh, I'd be careful with that assumption. Reptiles aren't known for forming affectionate relationships or being very sentimental, that's why a lot of "pets" have ended up dumped in the 'glades.

I was kidding about the 'like' part; I treat it as a wild animal, and not as a dog. I made the choice to buy this animal and keep it caged around 15 years ago; long before I was married with children. I will keep her healthy, but caged, until she dies because I made the commitment years ago and am responsible for her until then.

After years of keeping this animal, I've pretty much changed my tune as to whether or not people should own them. Although many of the animals in Glades were released after hurricanes, I'm quite positive that many people were just releasing them into the wild. Hell, someone released an alligator into someone's pond in SE Ohio when lived on the other side of WV.

We have a known group of alligators in Inland Lake just a few miles from here,N.C.Alabama. I would not be surprised to to learn of released pet boas already here as well.

id probably take a taurus judge and a 20 gauge shotgun. the taurus id alternate .410 and .45colt as a primary but if i couldnt get close enough for the pistol id use the full length shotty.

any limit?

My go to gun for snakes is a ruger 10/22. Although for man eating snakes I'd have to use my 12ga with at least #6 shotshells. Maybe even high brass. You don't want to give those things the chance to get mad and do something about it (to you). If it doesn't have ears, you can't trust it!

Art, those water monitors have been killed in areas of Volusia Co., east of Orlando.........friend of mine was a LEO for the Deland PD & shot one in that town. My understanding is that there is a breeding population in the St. Johns river basin...........mayhaps the recent cold snap did some good with them tho as I understand it wreaked havoc on the Iguanas further south.

By the way, the comment on the F&G 26 buck fee was right on.........some states have real wildlife management organizations...........we have FF&W............quite similar in effectivness to our Department of Children and Families that's always involved in some scandal or another...........oh, well, I'm very sure that those snakes are really here to stay.

For all you would be snake killers, maybe you should check your snake physiology. I believe the central nervous system of a constrictor is 12-18" behind its head. To sum that up, if you shoot the head you have a blind headless constrictor flopping about wrapping itself around everything with in the length of it's body. Sever the head from the body 12-18" behind the nose and the snake dies quickly without flopping about.

if you shoot the head you have a blind headless constrictor flopping about wrapping itself around everything with in the length of it's body.

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Admittedly I have never shot a boa,anaconda or python but I have shot other constrictors in the past(chicken (grey rat) snakes) king snakes,etc in the head and never experienced that type of reaction.

jimmyraythomason said:

Admittedly I have never shot a boa,anaconda or python but I have shot other constrictors in the past(chicken (grey rat) snakes) king snakes,etc in the head and never experienced that type of reaction.

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Black snakes will, dang things will flop and twist till dark.

Dad took the head off one AND threw it in a mud hole and it still kept that water churning for a long time.