Cast boolit did it's job!

[429421Cowboy]

I've taken several porky-pines, gophers, prairie dogs and such with cast boolits but this is my first "real" critter. I always carry my Super Blackhawk while working and this was no exception. The neighbor's cows having gotten mixed with ours we ran them into our old rundown shipping corrals that are all we have on our summer pasture. After sorting mine form his i ran mine one way and was walking his out when they all bunched in the far corner then tore down the fence. Of course i couldn't hear him over the noise of the cows till i got right on him....:Fire: First round up WAS always my homemade birdshot... Never again. Wanna have a crisis of faith? shoot a buzz-tail from four feet away and make a bunch of black marks on his head. That only makes them madder. Next round up was a .429 240 lswc backed with 9.5 of Unique. Total removal:mrgreen: That ends a long and unhappy engagement with birdshot in handguns for me. Not enough to handle pests and not dense enough the take care of a snake. Back to the solids! It seems as though i keep coming back to them as the thing that works in one fashion or another every time in a big bore. I also had to shoot a monster rattler later that day that came out of the ditch after my girlfriend K who works with me on the ranch. I have never seen a meaner snake then that one, usually they try and get away. I wasn't able to look at the eyes to tell if it was shedding as they get mean then. But i didn't have phone or camera then so only pic's of the little guy.

[Jim]

Good job there, Cowboy!

[geargnasher]

Glad you got him!

Now, I have to agree with this: "Wanna have a crisis of faith? shoot a buzz-tail from four feet away and make a bunch of black marks on his head. That only makes them madder"

That's why I developed a method of making snakeshot loads that actually WORK. I, too, had a long, unhappy engagement with snakeshot loads, leading me to develop something better than the established methods, and though I've only killed a 3' cottonmouth near my wife's pond with it, there was NO doubt in my mind when I pulled the trigger, and I shot it against a rock wall from about six feet away, shielding my eyes from richochets with my other hand right when I pulled the trigger. Ricochets from a full-sized slug are not cool.

If your snakeshot doesn't suck, and you live in the rocks, you will have no worries. Check this out: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=77286&highlight=revolver+shotshell

Gear

[canyon-ghost]

Sir, I dub thee a genuine Critter-Killer, lol. We have them on the shooting range, of all places. I use a Contender .410 and #4 pheasant shot. It gets me 20 feet away and a good shot will cut their head off.

When it comes to rattlesnakes, there is no overkill.

Ron

[Tom W.]

I shot a huge moccasin one day with my .357 that I was almost standing on. The first three shots were CCI bird shot, the last three were 158 gr SWC. The first three pounded the snake enough to where I could jump back and not slip in the mud, but it didn't really do much. The last three killed the critter. I promptly went and bought a .44 Mag the next weekend.

[Fly-guy]

OK cowboy, from the picture, it looks like the rattler has your blackhawk - just wondering if you were able to get it bacK? :bigsmyl2:


[smilie=f: guy

[Rick N Bama]

Shovel - 1
Buzztail - 0

http://i401.photobucket.com/albums/pp92/Ricknbama/DSC00445.jpg

But according to my son "Dad That's why God invented the freaking 12ga!"

Rick

[Catshooter]

Cowboy,

Good on you. So I don't make the same mistakes, what size shot was it that doesn't work?


Cat

[RobS]

Glad you got him!

Before the snake got you!!!! :shock:

Nice shooting Cowboy.

[429421Cowboy]

Ok first off, Gear thanks for the awesome link! If i understand it right i can use the process with uncushioned .410 wads in my .44? I love experimenting with things like that and i have issues spending money on anything.
Just fyi, i was using a over powder card cut from a shotgun shell box over 8 grains of Unique and 120 grains of number 9 shot and another card over the shot with super glue too hold it and elmers to seal.. Can't get no 12 which i'd prefer. I had read the article at Gunblast before and just decided against the roundball idea. .410 is my favorite for snakes but i've killed most of them with shovels. I gave up carrying my Henry .22 on the swather long ago because it didn't reliably tear them up enough and was a bit light for coyotes at all but the closest ranges. Now i prefer my SBH for most everything and i usually have my BLR .243 saddle gun or one of my 870's with me also.

[41 mag fan]

When a snakes shedding they go into what is called in the blue. The eye caplets will separate from the new caps causing a snake to go temporarily blind. The old caplets look blue so that is the name, herpers like myself have dubbed it. All they can basically see is shadows. Which a snakes eyesight is not very good to begin with.
When a snake is in the blue, they do become edgy, but rarely attack. They will strike out if they think they are in danger.
Of all the boas, burmese pythons, reticulated pythons, blood pythons, rat snakes, king snakes, emerald tree boas, I have had over the years, the rat snake and neonate burmese were the ones to strike out when messed with when in the blue.

[BOOM BOOM]

HI,
YEP, HARD TO WRONG WITH A STANDARD 44 MAG. LOAD. Good JOB.:Fire::Fire:

[429421Cowboy]

Thank you .41 for your insight on the subject, as i said there wasn't much head left to inspect after the smoke cleared. In 18 years of growing up around these snakes i have never seen any agression like that unless they were messed with. Both snakes were shot only due to proximity to livestock and where we work not wantonly killing just so everybody knows.

[Thumbcocker]

Nice business like looking Ruger there.

[Fly-guy]

"Both snakes were shot only due to proximity to livestock and where we work not wantonly killing just so everybody knows."

I'm the same way, but if a snake is in my "proximity", he has proabably made the mistake of letting me get too close to him and then I become his worst nightmare.

Genisis 3-13 "The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.”14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

See, it's biblical for us to "protect" ourselves! :bigsmyl2:

[smilie=f: guy

[Hang Fire]

Present company excepted, but am always a bit surprised when I hear someone ask can a cast boolit t kill big game? Well, if cast boolits were good enough to wipe out a few million buffalo and several million humans around the world, I think that should suffice as an answer.

[429421Cowboy]

Fly-guy; HEHEHE yep, i'm not much for killin' stuff that i won't eat (not that a fresh snake is bad fried from time to time) or isn't causing direct econimic harm but rattlesnakes are a different story... Hate it when people kill bull snakes and such because of a hatred for all snakes though.
Hang; I was raised without such prejudice so i also find it hard to understand when people don't see how anything thats not copper clad and lab raised ain't fitten' to shoot a gopher with. That said i also harbor no dislike for the J words in general but shooting is shooting to me.

[Longwood]

"[I]

Genisis 3-13 "The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.”14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

See, it's biblical for us to "protect" ourselves! :bigsmyl2:

[smilie=f: guy

I don't believe Biblical nonsense but since I have seen several times what a bite can do, any rattler I see is soon dead meat for the coyotes.
I killed my second one two days ago and saw another laying in the road to my house that was missing it's head about a week ago.
They don't get very big around these parts.

[Fly-guy]

My wife and I walk almost every morning just before the crack of dawn and the last two out of three mornings, we've seen a copperhead. I even found one between the house and garage a couple of weeks ago, almost bent my weed eater (idiot stick) trying to beat some sense into him. :guntootsmiley:


[smilie=f: guy

p.s. the bible isn't a collection of fairytales!

[nanuk]

[smilie=f: guy

p.s. the bible isn't a collection of fairytales!


lets not go there, OK?

no point derailing a good thread.

perhaps you could start one in the "off topics" forum.
cause I'm sure it would generate very good debate

[geargnasher]

+1 Nanuk.

It amazes me that anyone can hit a snake in the head with a slug from a few feet away in an emergency. Most people, in fact almost all, can't hit a human torso with a pistol boolit from a few feet away when the chips are down and the adrenaline is pumping. Only those who train diligently with their handgun have the muscle memory and reflex to be an effective shot when the brain is in freak-out mode. So again I have to say good shooting!\

Something else, I've heard myths about it for years and know of two local examples that support it, copperheads are rumoured to strike the second person passing close by rather than the first, so finding one when out walking (assuming single file) can be bad for the person following. Anyone else ever hear of this?

Gear

[NHlever]

I watch a few woodworking videos by an Austrian woodworker who is something to see with hand tools. He will say, "and then you saw the board srtraight across. I don't have to tell you what straight is, you know it already". I think that sometimes the same thing happens with shooting, and I have made some memorable shots when I didn't remember seeing the sights. I think folks can shoot snakes in the head because the snakes head is what they have in total focus, and they don't have time to think about correcting sight picture. The hand / eye coordination that we are capable of is downright amazing at times.. if we don't think about it much.

[Doby45]

Same thing happens in FATS training situations. The first time I used the FATS system while I was in the academy I was in a felony stop situation. I was in the position of having walked up on the rear of a vehicle and was giving verbal commands to have the driver exit the vehicle. I noticed the truck started to bobble a bit. No sooner did the trunk lid fly up I fired two shots, the first would have gone down the assailants shotgun barrel and the second hit him in the chest.

My instructor told me he had seen the same thing a few other times that day. He surmised that it was the point of attention that seems to draw the rest of your body to react to the specific threat.

So yes, I could see you busting the head off a buzztail with a reactionary point and shoot. Now if you aimed for his peanut you could prolly go through 100rds before you evacuate his tiny cranial vault.

[txbirdman]

My son gave me one of those .45/.410 derringers awhile back. I was doing some experiments with .410 (#8 shot); home made shot shells using 7 1/2 shot; and store bought .45 Colt shot shells. The shot shells won every time in regard to pattern density. I think it must be because the shot capsule holds things together to form a tighter pattern. I have no doubt they would take a rattler at 10 to 12 feet.

[Fly-guy]

+1 Nanuk.

Something else, I've heard myths about it for years and know of two local examples that support it, copperheads are rumoured to strike the second person passing close by rather than the first, so finding one when out walking (assuming single file) can be bad for the person following. Anyone else ever hear of this?

Gear

Several years ago, my wife was trying to work off some excess weight (mine) and we were walking up and down our lane late in the evening. She stepped over a copperhead with her right foot and was bitten on the inside of her left foot.

If that puppy was really trying to bite the second person, his depth perception must have been off. It turned out to be a very painful and expensive walk that evening!

Speaking of copperheads, I was moving a wheehbarrow full of plants for my wife this morning and missed stepping on one by less than a foot. And no, I didn't draw and fire instinctively, I just used a spade on him.

[smilie=f: guy

[429421Cowboy]

Well this is getting ridiculous. I was just preparing a place to set up our tools to work on the haying equipment by a grain bin when i noticed a large shed skin... Then i spotted this beast layin' there catching the last few rays of sun. SBH comes out from under the arm as soon as my feet hit the ground8-) This time i was ready for her:Fire: Laying on the concrete footing in a tight coil left me with something that i figure resembled the snake Keith talked about in Sixguns after three rounds of .45 Colt on bed rock; only this was 2 of .429 HC; either way it results in a messy snake. Boolits+rock+velocity= BIG FLAT GNARLY hunks of lead that leave rather ugly wounds. First one took the fight out of 'em and the second "charmed" the head. Apparently it's easier to hit them in the head when you aren't trying.

[429421Cowboy]

Fly-Guy; You and i might as well move to Alaska if this keeps up.

[Fly-guy]

All of these copperheads have me walking around looking at the ground! Several that I've found around here looked like sticks at first glance, not good as we have alot of small branches on the ground around here. I don't know if it's because of the drought or what but we're seeing more snakes than usual this year.

I've even found two snakes in our garage, and I would describe them as being too slow for thier own good as they suffered catastrophic structural damage to thier bodies.

Just remember, "just because you are paranoid doesn't mean that "they" are not out to get you."

[smilie=f: guy

[Racer X]

In my younger years, I would shoot any snake out of trigger happiness. I once shot a 3' Cottonmouth at our hunting club with .357 snake shot in my 6" GP-100. He was about 15' away and it peppered the back of his head and killed him.

I know many who still shoot ever snake they see. Nowadays, I let them all live and would only kill a poisonous one if it was in my yard or in the vacinity of people, such as the sidewalk at work. I kind of enjoy seeing them in the woods.

[DLCTEX]

Last week my wife called to me "there is a rabbit in our garden and a snake's after it". I grabbed a Buckmark 22 pistol and stepped onto the deck and watched the rabbit circle the 6" Bullsnake and pounce on it repeatedly. I shot the rabbit, as they have been doing a number on the garden, and looked the snake over. It was scratched and bleeding in a number of places. I let the rat eater go on his way, much to my wife"s chagrin. I wondered later if it was a female with a nest nearby, but it had already become supper for the dog so I couldn't see if it had been nursing. My son said I should have given the rabbit a pass on general principles.