Country Gun

[22-rimfire]

I'd like to get one of the Taurus 4410 revolvers (410-45LC). It is on the list. It is pretty much a pure luxury item for me and I have not pulled the trigger on acquiring one. The only place that snakes bother me other than my yard is when I'm walking through tall grass or fern covered areas in the woods. I have to be able to see where I'm walking.

Either a 357/38spl or 22 LR revolver will serve you well. You're choice. I'd go with a 22 first.

 

[TimboKhan]

I hate snakes with a passion bordering on zealousness. Really, thats all I have to say on that. Aaryq, for the cost, you could pick up a little single six for under a couple hundred bucks, and .22's are more than enough for snakes, although the shotshells work best at close range. My stepdad uses the .22 shotshells to dispatch moles that get into his window wells, and they won't break the glass. Now, the .357 and Judge ideas are great ideas too, but nothing beats a little .22 for general plinking and utility.

 

[PigPen]

Tomcat47,

'm sorry. didn't mean to imply that the Cotton Mouth would not attack. All of my life (Tennessee>North Carolina) have heard that they would. i just mean't that after 63 years that i had not seen it happen. Yeah, i've seen them be aggressive. i have heard tales but i have not personally seen it. Look where i have lived for 63 years......have i had an opportunity to see Cotton mouths up close and personal.......You can bet your bippy.


PigPen (Don't know what is wrong with the capital i )

 

[rtl]

I carry a Taurus Gaucho as a chores gun; for gophers, snakes, barn swallows, skunks and pop cans. I usually keep it loaded with snake shot but also keep six .357s in the pocket as I do live in bobcat country. It didn't brake the bank, I don't really care how scratched up it may get and it's much more accurate than I expected. The action on it is incredibly smooth right out of the box, too.

 

[KINGMAX]

JMOHO = Start looking for a Smith & Wesson 686 w/ a 4 inch barrel, in .357. You won't be disappointed.

 

[bulltaco]

I'm With Pigpen.

I could see harvesting a snake for the skin but just to kill a snake because it is a snake don't make sense to me. I found a gorgous copperhead coiled next to my hay barn. Beautiful marking, would have made a neat hat band. Didn't have time to skin and cure it so I let him be. My wife and daughter had a fit when I told them I gave it a pass. Just my opinion. For sure don't kill bull snakes. They predate on beaucoup bunches of rodents. I hunt and fish and love animals. No PETA in my house!

 

[Vern Humphrey]

My farrier's wife was bitten by a copperhead in his barn. About six weeks later, he was bitten by a copperhead in the same barn. He is not so charitably disposed toward poisonous snakes as he formerly was.

 

[bulltaco]

Snake In The Hay Barn

The lady I bought my Paso Finos from had an encounter with a copperhead on a bale of hay as she was feeding up. Sometimes you deal with snakes when they are where they aren't supposed to be. I can appreciate your farrier's opinion based on his experience. A couple of years ago I was setting in my kitchen talking to my wife on the phone at 1200 when an 6 foot black rat snake (we call them chicken snakes in NC) fell off of a curtain rod in my living room. I tried to catch him and ended up fighting him for about thirty minutes before I could get him out the front door. I blew his head off with a shotgun in the front yard as he was crawling away. He crossed the line when he tried to encroach on my space. I look for snakes when I go into the barns. I just don't see the point in killing them on sight if they are where they should be. I don't claim to be right or wrong, just my opinion.

 

[earplug]

Any good alloy DA revolver in .38/.357.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

I recommend reading Desert Solitare, by Edward Albee.

Albee was the summer ranger at Arches National Monument, back before there were any paved roads there. The summer ranger lived in a trailer in the desert, with a single electric wire coming miles and miles to that trailer. The water system was a 55-gallon drum that had to be hauled into town and refilled.

One morning, Albee got up and sat on the front steps to put his boots on -- and saw a rattlesnake between his feet!

He managed to jerk his feet out of the way (it was still cold in the mornings and the snake was sluggish.) He got his boots on, jumped over the snake, went to the tool shed and got a shovel. Now, it's illegal to kill anything in a National Monument, and Albee was a committed Environmentalist. So he scooped up the snake, took him out into the desert a quarter of a mile and dumped him.

A couple of days later, as he was starting down the steps, he saw the snake again. He jumped over him, got the shovel, scooped him up and took him a mile into the desert.

A fewdays later, as he was starting down the steps, he saw the snake again. He jumped over him, got the shovel, and chopped the snake into little pieces.

The moral of this story is you can only cut a rattlesnake so much slack.

 

[bulltaco]

I Get Your Point

Thanks for the recommendation on the book. It sounds just like the kind of book I enjoy reading. One more snake story and I'll let it go.

Summer of '71, right before my senior year in high school I spent a week on the Appalachian Trail near Bryson City, NC. The last day on the trail, we got turned around and ended up on a side trail near Standing Indian Mountain. The four of us were talking and not paying attention when I looked down at a stick on the trail or so I thought. The stick was a 5-6 foot timber rattler stretched out sunning on the path. If he has bitten one of us I can only imagine the graveness of the situation. I shouted and we each picked a large rock and shoulder to shoulder we crept up to near the rattler and flung our rocks. Only one landed on his head and he commenced to rattling something fierce. I whipped out my boy scout hatchet and chopped his head off. We skinned him right there and brought the skin and rattles home to Raleigh. The skin has since disappeared and my little brother (43 years) still has the rattles.

To each his own discretion.

Get 4" 357 mag revolver and CCI shot cartridges. Keep an eye out for two-legged snakes especially.

 

[22-rimfire]

Killing the rattlesnake... you probably should have left it be. If you were in the Park, you really broke the rules. Technically, you aren't allowed to kill snakes in National Forest areas either. I don't believe that was the case in 1971 though.

I've killed many rattlesnakes. I can understand people's fear of them. I leave Rattlesnakes and Copperheads alone now. Water Moccasins were mentioned earlier.... I have seen them approach simply to bite you. I hate those things and they get big.

If I were buying a handgun for day hikes, I'd get a 4" Smith Model 617 or 18. If it's for longer hikes in the woods, I'd go with a 3" Smith Model 317. They are running around $450 these days.