which gun should you use to kill a snake?

[D Boone]

I've killed 2 snakes this year with a hoe. It's what was handy at the time. Last year I killed 4 or five, one was with a 9mm Hi-Point Carbine, one with a 12 gauge, and the rest with hoe/shovels. 12 gauge to the head finishes the job with minimal effort.

 

[SaxonPig]

I don't kill animals that serve a useful purpose in nature. Snakes are beneficial in keeping rodents under control and unless it's in your house or yard you should just leave it alone. If it's inside then I throw a towel over it and take it off my property.

 

[BBQLS1]

Maybe get a few king snakes in the area for the poisonous ones.

 

[hacksaw]

I'm suprised no one has said...

Take off and nuke 'em from orbit. It's the only way to be sure!

Daisy Red Ryder Carbine action BB gun! with an RIA Tactical matte nickel .45 acp for backup!

 

[HoosierQ]

I'm with SaxonPig on this one. Snakes are not much danger to humans in the US. Most of the big scary ones here are not venomous anyway...big king snakes for example...big, scary, aggressive and completely harmless unless your are a rat.

Rattlesnakes rattle for a reason...to warn you away from them...they want nothing to do with you. Almost all rattlesnake bites are in enclosed areas when somebody reaches in somewhere and the snake sees what it perceives as a threat and perceives no time to issue a warning. Rattlesnakes and not very aggressive.

Now that situation is very different in Australia and Africa where there are many aggressive and venemous snakes...like cobras and mambas. Those things will chase you if you get in their territory and kill you if they catch you.

Do nature a favor, don't kill snakes. Save your hunting for deer and other game which you should hunt to your hearts' content.

 

[welldoya]

I let the harmless ones go wherever I find them. The poisonous ones I will let go unless they are around my house. I do have a hard time passing up a cottonmouth though. That is one ornery snake and we see a lot of 'em in Florida.

 

[CoRoMo]

I prefer that non-venomous snakes keep a healthy population to keep down the vermin.

But if I find a venomous creeper that needs killin', this seems to do just fine.

Recoil is manageable, and the report is safe without hearing protection.

 

[loneviking]

Shotgun or rifle? Why not load you EDC with snakeshot? CCI makes this and you can buy it at Walmart. Good for about 20 feet and certain death on snakes.

 

[heron]

If you're going to kill it, fire up the BBQ and eat the thing. No point wasting good meat . . . well, I've heard they're good . . . really, leave 'em alone as much as possible; they have a job to do, and you might miss them if they weren't there doing it.

 

[Cannonball888]

A water pistol.
A little water on his head and he'll divulge where the others are.

 

[psyopspec]

if you don't know for sure......

If you don't know for sure, do a little research. Your state's Dept. of Conservation/Game and Fish/Dept. of Natural Resources should have a webpage devoted to identifying the poisonous snakes that reside in your area. One of the first things I did when I got to CO was hit up said page. Turns out this state is home to several varieties of snake, but only 2 are poisonous, and both of those have rattles. Neither of the poisonous breeds are known to hang out above 10,000 feet. It took me less than 5 minutes to develop the ability to know which hikes are likely to bring me in contact with one, and how to ID it as poisonous or not. Information very much worth having no matter where you reside.

 

[Zombie_Flesh]

If you actually find a poisonous snake, I like the riding lawn mower method.

 

[Superlite27]

A Colt Python?

 

[gunnysmith]

I don't kill snakes. I has transplanted many over the years, both deady and not.
Broom handle, eye bolt in the end 3/16" cotton clothes line in a loop on the end. 5 gallon plastic bucket with a lid. Then off to the country.
Open lid tip bulket with the broom handle and they are on their way.

 

[Matrix187]

38 spl with bb shot.

 

[mossberg]

The kind with a 3 foot long wooden handle and a 10-12 inch wide flat blade at the end of it.

So, a Mosin Nagant then?

 

[george29]

I must have been 5 years old, we were playing at my dad's house near N. Cave Creek Rd and Cinnabar in the 85020 area. Looks way different now, but back then was just a few streets and The Mountain as we boys called it. My brother and his friend (both dead now) were three years older than me and we were climbing the Mountain one fine Sunday when as we got around a big rock my brother screams "Rattlesnake" and along with our pal jumps from the ledge and runs to safety. Lil ole me is petrified and froze from fear right next to a coiled Rattler. This is Phoenix of the early 60's and no one around, the Yuppies have yet to be invented never mind discover this poor white trash neighborhood. My brother and his pal keep encouraging me to jump yelling "The snake's gonna get ya". Not only am I petrfified but the jump looks like 10 feet easy and I was afraid I would break a leg. Well, Mr. Snake and I musta been eyeball to eyeball for quite a while before I got the nerve to jump. I was sure he was gonna bite my backside at the very least, but he didn't. Y'see, snakes don't like to waste energy and they like even less to waste precious venom on meatsacks that they cannot eat. You really have to piss a snake off before he will strike and even moreso before he will allow his venom to flow.
Been mentioned already, if I had a rattler problem I would get me some King snakes.
Been mentioned already too, this is a double thread of snakes.
Someone else said it in the other thread, when all you got is a hammer, everything appears to look like nails.

 

[largecaliber]

I shot snakes around my place when I lived in Arizona with whatever gun I had withe me at the time. I've shot them in the head with a .45 long colt, .45 auto, 30.06, .22 but the best was a twelve gauge shotgun. Within ten or twelve feet aim at the head and it takes it clean off destroying it. I never killed them out in the desert because I saw no need for it but around my place I killed plenty of them this way.

 

[slzy]

not that i would do it myself,that pygmy dude in "The Gods Must Be Crazy" ran around a mamba,longer than he was tall,picked him up by the tail and cracked him like a whip. deader than 4 o'clock.

i'll still go with the tomato stake in the meanwhile.

 

[deano186]

22 rifle

When I was younger and living on my parents' farm, we'd often find large rattle snakes in the yard or barn. I was always able to kill them with a 22 rifle by shooting into the main part of their bodies. This was usually done at close range, and having a semi-auto was a plus in case you missed or needed more than one hit to stop them.

I didn't have any snake-shot, just standard round nose 22 ammo.

 

[deano186]

After reading George29's childhood experience above, I thought of the time when I was helping my dad plow some ground on the farm as a teenager. We were taking a break and I walked over to a tree stump to sit down. As I was in the act of sitting down I glanced between my knees and saw that I was inches away from sitting on a large timber rattler coiled up on top of the stump!

It must have been asleep or something, because I got away without getting bit.

 

[slzy]

i have seen snakes bite when people were picking up fire wood,and on nature shows,they aggravated the snakes every way possible to get them to bite,and when they did,would not neccesarily pump venom,then.

just gotta watch,i guess.

with that said,birthday wishes to yogi berra,who famously noted you can observe a lot just by watching.

 

[heviarti]

I would use on a venomous snake the same thing I use on starlings in my eaves: CCI .45ACP Shotshells out of my 1911. When I'm on the butte in rattler country I carry shot in the pistol, mags with bullets on my belt.

 

[Owen Sparks]

I don't advocate killing snakes unless it is necessary, but if you need to kill a large snake nothing works better than a shotgun loaded with bird shot. The trick is to sever the spinal column and paralyze the snake so that it can't strike. ANY firearm has ample power but it is difficult to hit with single projectiles. I live on a lake and have several dogs. Several times they have cornered large cotton mouths. Normally I would leave the snakes alone but they pose such a danger to the dogs that I simply dispatch them with a shotgun.

 

[Prophet]

Spinning blades of DOOM!!

If I have it on me, I'd use my 20ga. That would do 'er up right quick. If not, then I'd just use .40 S&W pistol shot (terrible performance at any range, outrageously expensive) or a long handled shovel.