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Snake!! I thought these little bitches sleep in the winter

Kogapsp

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Feb 17, 2004
473
19
Santa Barbara
www.kogapsp.com
I went hiking and guess what I almost stepped on by 6 inches. This thing was supposed to be sleeping in a den but I guess it did not get the memo. It was one of the biggest Rattlers I have seen. it was at least 3 1/2 to 4.0 inches around in the thickest point.

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Its California...even the snakes are 'funny' out there. But if that's the biggest you've seen....well I consider you very lucky. Glad your ok.
 
Mmmmm!! That reminds me...gotta be checking in with my buddy over in the eastern panhandle re: this year's Rattlesnake feed (should be coming up in the next few wkends)!! ;)

Seriously...glad you avoided the pointy ends of that one. NOT a good thing to have happen to you this soon in the new year (or EVER for that matter)!!
 
crotalus oreganus. On the West side (pacific divide) these things are pretty damn scary. On the East side they rarely grow to more than 3 ft. And, are pretty much as docile as rattlesnakes get. This one looks like a Western/Pacific cross. Not a good cross if you'd like to keep all your fingers and toes.
 
What was the temp when you encountered the rodent terminator? Snakes don't have calendars but are pretty good thermometers.
 
Ahh, that's a beautiful boy. We used to find 4-6 footers all the time out near Goldstone labs. They'd get stuck to the sticky rodent traps and we'd spend hours trying to get them unstuck without killing them and without getting bit.

--Wintermute
 
Ahh, that's a beautiful boy. We used to find 4-6 footers all the time out near Goldstone labs. They'd get stuck to the sticky rodent traps and we'd spend hours trying to get them unstuck without killing them and without getting bit.

--Wintermute

wow. the sticky trap boxes have instructions on how to get things off the trap (for those hippies that don't want to hurt the blasted mice). me and the buddies used to pull the mice off the trap, stuff em in a Gatorade bottle....

stuff a bunch of cheese charges into a 120MM tootsie roll, put that gatorade bottle on top, put the lid on the tootsie roll, and sit it upright in the middle of the burn pit.

A few minutes after lighting up the burn pit, Major Tom and his space capsule would shoot off into the wide blue yonder.

Oh sticky traps. good times.
 
WTF. I've had so many run ins with venomous snakes, I can barely count them. I hate the damn things. Makes a good argument to buy a Saiga-12.

I remember fly fishing in Colorado one summer. Nearly jumped out of my waders when I bumped a log and 3 water snakes slid off of it.
 
Ahh, that's a beautiful boy. We used to find 4-6 footers all the time out near Goldstone labs. They'd get stuck to the sticky rodent traps and we'd spend hours trying to get them unstuck without killing them and without getting bit.

--Wintermute

Machete
 
I was a little surprised this year as well...although far less threatened!
 
wow. the sticky trap boxes have instructions on how to get things off the trap (for those hippies that don't want to hurt the blasted mice).

Not the ones that JPL was putting out around goldstone to keep the mice and rats out of the wiring... The only way to get the snakes un-stuck was to use a knife covered in oil to separate the scales one at a time from the sticky goop.

--Wintermute
 
reminds me of home.. I have seen some monster in San Antonio TX.. I have a picture of me holding a live one we caught when I was 12 it was measured at just under 6' we caught it in the back yard. We put it in a cloth bag and let it go in the woods. No need to kill it unless your going to eat it and rattle snake is good !
 
About 30 years ago a LGS had a Polaroid of a guy with a rattler draped over one shoulder. The head and tail were touching the ground. The story was the guy was clearing land in southern AL with a dozer when he uncovered the snake (in hibernation). The guy was standing next to the dozer and appeared to be average height.

Was it a doctored photo? I have no idea. It looked to be legit. According to the store owner, the pix was from the '60s.
 
Not the ones that JPL was putting out around goldstone to keep the mice and rats out of the wiring... The only way to get the snakes un-stuck was to use a knife covered in oil to separate the scales one at a time from the sticky goop.

--Wintermute

wow. that's hardcore.
 
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They don't always take a nap during the cold weather. Running up on them sucks when you're not expecting it.


All American Gunsmithing LLC
Baton Rouge L.A.
 
Dude...that's hardcore. I just let them free while keeping from getting bit if they're poisonous. How would you even do that to a snake (never mind a spider...not even going to go there :)) and really...wouldn't it be easier to just kill them instead?

--Wintermute

A friend of mine said one time during a BS session, "You'd f@#K a snake if someone held the head." I couldn't resist. I said, "I could get a blowjob if he'd hold the head right."
 
A bunch of us used to round this things up along with others slithering critters and put them in a 5 gallon bucket then take them up To Jane Fonda's ranch where we knew they would be safe from being harmed or killed. Of course we had to add our local ground squirrels to feed them so they would not starve.
 
Rattlers come out of their holes and sun themselves during the winter. If you only saw the one consider yourself fortunate they like to gater in groups in their hole during the winter and then many of them come out to warm up in the sun. I've seen 12 in a patch 15" by 15" before.
 
About 30 years ago a LGS had a Polaroid of a guy with a rattler draped over one shoulder. The head and tail were touching the ground. The story was the guy was clearing land in southern AL with a dozer when he uncovered the snake (in hibernation). The guy was standing next to the dozer and appeared to be average height.

Was it a doctored photo? I have no idea. It looked to be legit. According to the store owner, the pix was from the '60s.

My dad grew up on the Arkansas/OK border. One day the milk truck came over the pass down to their little town (pop 10, spread out over 5000 acres) with a rattler draped over the front bumper, head dragging on one side, across the bumper, to the tail dragging on the other.


Around here we get 1-3 foot rattlers. I have a daughter and livestock, so if they decide to hang around the house/barn they get the shovel, but they can have the 400 acres up the hill. Bull snakes get free reign.