Snake shot

[Meplat]

I'm with Biker in most cases....(yeah, you knew it, didn't you?) EXCEPT for rattlesnakes. After all, they're what's for dinner! lol The rest are here for a reason, and I let them be. 75% of all snake bites are incurred under one of two conditions: 1.) While the bitee is trying to catch the creature, or 2.) while the bitee is trying to kill the creature and underestimates it's striking range.

snakes have a VERY primitive nervous system. Therefore they can be dead and act very much alive. Even if you cut the head off killing it instantly it will still thrash around violently for a while, and if you pick up the beheaded body, the body will try to strike you. this can continue quite sometime after death. I once killed a snake, gutted it and skinned it. The carcass would slittl wrap around my hand and try to strike even though there was no head, no organs, and no skin. There is a good chance you killed the snake and it's nerves and body just didnt know it.

That's for sure. I have, on many occasions, been struck by a phantom headed rattler I was getting ready for the wine sauce treatment. Head or not, it still gives me the shivering willies.

 

[Rock_Steady]

I've seen a human shot at point-blank range with several CCI shotshells from a .38 revolver. I'm sure it was painful as heck, but the wounds were by no means horrible. Most of the pellets had barely penetrated - all were visible from the surface. I don't think I'd be willing to trust them against an angry rattler - better to go with the old fashioned garden hoe. The bruises from the shot "capsule" were worse than the actual penetrating trauma.

 

[Coltdriver]

I had a norinco .45 with a worn out slide return spring.

CCI Bird shot would cycle the pistol.

We built a house in a valley that had seen nothing but cattle for the previous 100 years. The valley was infested with rattlers.

At three feet the CCI bird shot would turn a rattler into stone. One shot at that distance did so much damage to their nervous system that they could not move. If you have ever tried to kill a rattler with anything else you know they are amazingly tough creatures.

Just don't get so close that one can bite you!

 

[Hutch]

After 25+ years of being prepared to do so, I finally snuffed a snake with my trusty Trail Boss and handloaded .44M Speer shot caps. I'm here to tell ya, that load of 7 1/2 at 3 feet will kill 'em graveyard dead. Didn't wiggle or writhe or nuthin'. After gingerly retrieving the luckless serpent from the monkey grass, it seems he was a young one, too. Maybe the size of a well-fed bull nightcrawler. I got over my dismay at such a puny trophy by congratulating myself on my marksmanship under duress. Hell, anybody can hit a BIG target, as my next door neighbor observed when seeing the one and only deer I've ever taken.

 

[1wildbill]

I know several people who use "snake shot/rat shot". Two in revolvers and one in a bolt action rifle. None of the guns are prize, and they have complained about the shot messing up their rifling, (probably build up from the shot that a deep cleaning woud fix)). 4-5 feet good distance, closer if safe(?). The last water moccasion I killed was with a 12 gauge, #8 shot, at about 15 feet. Shot it's head off, the rest of him rolled around.

 

[Hardtarget]

I've shot two snakes with CCI ammo. Killed both with one try. I wondered how the shot pattern looked, so I shot a target and counted the holes. The spread was about basketball size with 165 holes. Distance was about 6 ft. feet, and I used a Colt, Diamondback, 6".
I don't kill snakes often...I just catch them and take them off to the woods a long way from the house.
Mark.

 

[Cacique500]

I had to shoot one down in FL a few years ago. Ruger .22 with CCI snake shot.

One shot to the head and it was lights out.

 

[84B20]

Biker,

I totally agree with you up to the point of one trying to get in my back door or trying to attack me. Other than that I leave them alone.

 

[Biker]

Oh, if it's between me and him, I'm having fried rattler for dinner.

Biker

 

[loose cannon]

i dont know if they still do but cheaper than dirt used to sell 25lb bags of #12dust shot.if you was to load this useing the speer shotshell capsules i suspect it'd do a nice job on most snakes.

rifled barrels just mess the heck out of shot pattern so more pellets are a better bet and it dont get more than 12s.

 

[72Rover]

Biker wrote:

>Oh, if it's between me and him, I'm having fried rattler for dinner.

You betcha! I hope the rattler that was the subject of this thread was skinned and cooked. Rattlesnake is mighty fine chow...tastes like chicken (really!...but with the flaky consistency of fish.)

Best device for dispatching snakes: a swing blade (a scythe-like thing for cutting brush and grass.)

Cheers

 

[V4Vendetta]

I usually have to kill any & all snakes around my house because of my dad. He's insane. I would commit him but I don't know how to go about doing it. "Why do I think he's insane?" you might ask. I'll tell you.

We were at a barn recently. I was sitting in a chair playing with a puppy. Dad yells the classic phrase "hey, watch this." He had seen 2 black snakes mating & tried to walk up & grab one . It lunged at him with it's mouth open. He jumped back in time & they slithered away. I don't usually curse especially around my folks because they don't like it but I said straight out "What the hell's wrong with you! " He just grinned & laughed. All the ride home I just looked at him like he just escaped from a nut house.

Most of the snakes around my house are either copperheads or black snakes. The copperheads are dead on sight but the black snakes I usually allow to live if my pop's not around. We used to have a serious mice problem. I guess the snakes are around even when we can't see them .

 

[arizona]

He wrote
"I once killed a snake, gutted it and skinned it. The carcass would slittl wrap around my hand and try to strike even though there was no head, no organs, and no skin."

How can anyone eat these beasts?

For awhile, after they are dead, they can still bite you. Even if the head is seperated from the body, they can still bite you. After you kill them, I recommend keeping your distance for a few minutes and then punching with with a stick or other object to be certain they have completely expired.

Also, they are best shot in the head for a quick kill.

 

[Biker]

"How can any one eat these beasts?"

With some peas and pearl onions, washed down with a cheap brew.

Biker

 

[MechAg94]

Best weapon for snakes..

Is a shovel. A few hits to the body to keep it from getting away and then a hit to cut off the head. You can bash it a few times if you are concerned. Shovels are typically long enough to take care of most snakes.

I know everyone wants to shoot stuff, but a shovel, some pipe, or a good walking stick are much better for snakes.

We didn't typically hunt snakes in the woods, but snakes were not allowed in or near our house. My Mother got bit by a copperhead when i was a kid so my Dad set the law. Ignorance of the law is not excuse. (btw, my mother chopped up the snake with a hoe.)


If you must have a projectile weapon, get a medium powered pellet gun that is accurate enough to make a head shot at 10 feet. That will kill a snake just as well and can be quiet enough not to bother neighbors.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

I shot one snake with a Marlin 60, using Remington hollowpoints,
hit it twelve times (YES I was panicked), and the pieces still moved,
including the head and jaws.

I shot another snake once with the head nicely centered in a
CCI .22 shotshell pattern, Ruger pistol 6 in barrel range three foot;
it writhed but gave up the ghost quicker than the other snake.
As with zombies, you must destroy the brain.

So will those snake shot rounds cycle an auto?
The .22 will not cycle any of my rifles or pistols.
The CCI .45 ACP will cycle my 1911.

 

[sarge83]

In the last 3 yrs. I have dispatched nearly a dozen copperheads around the house and neighborhood with CCI .38 shotload. Head shot or just behind the head seems to do the trick everytime.

 

[MechAg94]

Snakes always move after being killed and remain a danger for a time. That is why we always had the rule to sever the head and mash it a little. We also buried it where the dogs wouldn't dig it up.

As a kid, me, my brother and my cousin found a mocasin in a stream near our house. We plugged it with our Red Ryder BB guns repeatedly with little or not effect. I think one BB lodged in its eye. We finally got a big stick and pounded it. We mashed its head into the ground and were sure it was dead. Later that evening, my Uncle came across it and killed it 200 yards away near the barn. Our rule there after was to sever the head or let my cousin's labrador tear it up and chew on it for a while.

 

[Firethorn]

I tried some 9mm CCI in my CZ-75. After the first shot, it jammed the gun so bad, I couldn't even field strip it without a lot of effort. I finally got it apart and found that the second round smashed the plastic cone when it tried to chamber. The tiny shot got stuck everywhere in the gun. It took a lot of flushing with brake cleaner and compressed air to finally get it all out. I'll never shoot that stuff in an autoloader again.

That's funny, I've shot CCI shotshells out of my CZ-75 without problem. Full function even, though the cases crushed easily.

 

[Pumpkinheaver]

As stated earlier my kimber functions fine with it, so did my XD-9, my CZ75 in .40 funtions fine with it as well. The only automatic I have tried it in where it didn't funtion is a ruger 22-45.

 

[Wes Janson]

What about using standard FMJs on a rattler?

 

[silverlance]

speaking of snakes

friend of mine has a dog that regularly kills snakes and other critters (squirrels, possum). he's getting worried that the habit of killing them critters might make his dog excessively aggressive, and that (more realistically IMHO) the dog might get bit one day.

i suppose i should tell him about the undead snake bite thing.

 

[Limeyfellow]

The only snake I had to shoot was a copperhead that was threatening the dogs and living too close to the house that it became dangerous and a .38 special more than did the job. Most snakes I let go on as normal. We have an awesome black racer snake on the property that does vermin control for me and will even eat other poisonous snakes.

 

[Steel Talon]

Hello,

Ive killed many rattlers with snake shot. I load my own with speer caps and #9 shot on top of 3.5grs HP-38 all have been one shot kills. The CCI shot caps in 22lr. aren't effective the 22mag if they still offer them was OK and the .45ACP wouldn't cycle my 1911. So I carry my wheel gun while in the field.

As a kid I would skin and tan hides. Ive killed snakes thrown them in the freezer for a week than place them on concrete on a summer day so I could tube em, and have had them start moving when the thawed out.

The decapitated head can still deliver an injection of poison several hours after decapitation so we always bury the head, under a large rock so the dogs wouldn't dig it up.

Peace,
ST~

 

[Jamie C.]

The last snake I had to kill, I did in with nothing more than a 4 ft long switch about 3/4 in. in diameter, tapering off to nothing.... The snake was a 3 1/2 - 4 ft long rat snake that had run my step-daughter inside. The dogs cornered it and held it in place 'til I got there.

One good smack across the noggin and Mr. Snake was toast. ( Snake skulls are pretty fragile, and no critter survives long with a crushed brain case. )

I usually leave the non-poisonous snakes alone, since they keep down the mice and such, but in this case, the kid would never have gone back out in the yard if I'd let it go. Also, she had stepped on it while running across the yard, so it probably wouldn't have survived anyway. ( That was how she discovered it in the first place. )

Come to think of it, mom probably wouldn't have either...


J.C.