6 1/2 foot rattler

[Tenbender]

Killed about 6 miles from my home. Two more killed sense this one in the last few days. If I get photos of them I will post.

174581

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Now that's the kind of thing that gives me bad dreams at night........

[Hamish]

Apparently y'all have had several mild winters,,,,,,,

[dannyd]

Thought all the snakes were in Richmond :shock:

[jaysouth]

That would feed a bunch of hungry people.

The snakes in Richmond (and DC) don't warn you before they attack.

[gon2shoot]

yup fire up the grill.

[TCLouis]

Yep, around here they always say they start moving around in August getting ready for winter.

[OS OK]

'Hai Cadah!'....find another and make a pair of boots...have a BBQ for the whole neighborhood.

[RP]

BB/Q I always deep fried them but never got one that big.

[joatmon]

Now just where in the southwest Va mountains are you!!! Gonna hafta watch my steps!!
Aaron ( in the very southwest tip)

[richhodg66]

My dad killed one that big when I was a little kid. Pretty big even for coastal S.C. where it never freezes hard and the growing season is almost year round for cold blooded things.

[Tenbender]

Now just where in the southwest Va mountains are you!!! Gonna hafta watch my steps!!
Aaron ( in the very southwest tip)

Smyth County

[joatmon]

Good! please keep them bigens over there and out of Lee co. I was a bender and HVAC tech for many years myself.
Aaron

[leftiye]

When I was a little kid someone ran over a big rattler with a disc on the canal road. Huge diameter, and cut into about 6 inch pieces.

[bullet maker 57]

I heard there are some pretty big snakes in D.C.

[w5pv]

As of now there are more than enough to go around and "oo"C/Word wants to get herself in the top position.

[Boaz]

Nice one ! Pretty too, must have shredded lately. Biggest I have got was a 6 foot 2 incher . nuff hide there to make you a new pair of underwear!

[Hickory]

Looks more like a Syrian refugee.

[OS OK]

BB/Q I always deep fried them but never got one that big.

When we run out of cows and chickens, I'll PM you for the recipe...:bigsmyl2:

[Tenbender]

Heard of another one today.. Hope I can get some photos !! Unusual to find more than 2 at a time in this part of the country. When I was a kid , just out of school, I worked at a local State Park. Back then the park had a dump. We killed rattlers every summer there but only 2 at a time. Times are changing or people are just not killing snakes like years ago. I guess people don't venture off the beaten trail like we did . Has been really dry here but from the looks of the first rattler there has been no lack of food.

[rodwha]

Certainly many these days that don't want to venture further than the sidewalk...

[Mauser48]

I'd love to find one that big.

[crowbuster]

wow. What a hog. From my limited exposure to them. In fla. hunting and fishing and out west hunting. I would rather have em nice and big. Easier for me to see. Hate them sneaky little buggers you cant see. I love them deep fried as well. Still have a few rattles around somewhere.

[rodwha]

Always grilled them myself and made tacos. However a friend of mine once thought he was some sort of culinary expert and stir fried it, which was pretty damn good. Tastes like chicken (dry)...

[RU shooter]

wow. What a hog.. I would rather have em nice and big. Easier for me to see. Hate them sneaky little buggers you cant see. I love them deep fried as well. Still have a few rattles around somewhere.
I agree! Don't see too many eastern Diamondbacks up my way anymore and never seen one bigger than 3-4 foot . But lots of copperheads still in the ridges and the same thing small and hard to see .

[dubber123]

Saw my first, (and hopefully last) in Marion Va. last year. 42" even with a couple missing sections from the 12 gauge. Plenty big enough for me. Scary SOBs :)

[kenyerian]

Rattle Snakes are considered endangered species here in Ohio and if you get caught with one you are subject to hefty fines. I have only seen two and have lived here all of my life. Now copperheads are a different story. Plenty of them around.

[T-Bird]

Big one like that have a lot of meat. As they get longer, they get fatter.The meat on a snake is all outside the ribs and looks like a long backstrap on a deer- except white meat. Filet that off, marinate in anything-or just simple Italian dressing for a few hours then grill. Rattlesnake is not one of those meats you have to develop a taste for, it's great. Same texture as frog legs. I've also fried these as someone else mentioned- good too. The big ones can be tough tho. Shoot straight, T-Bird

[6bg6ga]

The only good snake is a dead snake. I've never seen one in iowa but if I ever run across one it will end up dead and I don't even care if I have to shoot one in town.

[DougGuy]

I lived on the bayou in Mississippi in a house on stilts. We had this old white haired black man that used to come sit and fish all the time. One day he was leaving in a hurry and all scared, I asked him what was wrong and he said he was sitting there watching his bobber and the biggest cottonmouth he EVER seen swam across the bayou and came out of the water and headed his direction and he was beatin' feets pretty good getting out of there. Now this guy had to be nearing 90 years of age, and I reckon he had seen his fair share of moccasins so I took him at his word.

Week or so later I had just got out of the shower, pr of cutoffs on, and someone remarked about the size of a snake off the back deck. I looked down and there was this HUGE moccasin basking in the sun. I put on my boots and went after him with a hoe and a machete, got 3' from him and sunk in the mud beyond my knees, and the snake is just gathering himself to strike when I hit him with the machete, nearly severing his head. I got the hoe and lifted him up and finished cutting off his head with the machete, and it fell down into the marsh grass biting at the grass and shooting huge squirts of venom out of it's fangs.

The head was a LOT bigger than a golf ball, much fatter, and with 6" or 7" of his head and neck missing, I skinned him out and his hide went halfway around a creosote telephone pole sized stilt that the house sat on, it went from the fascia board all the way to the ground, a distance of nearly 8 feet, so you add his head and neck back to the rest of the hide and he went about 8' 2" with his middle dang near as big as my calf. Most moccasins don't get over 4 1/2' to 5' in length but this one was a whopper.

I hung his head in the bushes by the fangs, 4 fangs, 2 in front about an inch and a quarter in length, two more behind those about three quarters of an inch.

When I went after him I never thought about sinking in the mud, but there I was, within arm's length of the biggest moccasin I have ever seen, about a half second away from getting bit. After skinning the snake I had to lay on my belly and reach down into the mud and fetch my boots where they stuck as I couldn't get out of the mud, it's a DANG GOOD THING that I struck the first blow...

[OS OK]

You are a lucky duck or someone above has work for you to do cause...you should be 6 foot under from that fiasco! Machete...are you kidding, where was your shotgun?
Cottonmouths have a distinctive and aggressive personality....I've had 4 to 5 footers crawl intentionally after me when I was a kid in Texas. You have to put the petal down and get gone, if they can see you they come after you especially so when you've done something to them first.

[Oklahoma Rebel]

that rattler is beautiful! I love snakes, I only kill them if they are eating the chickens eggs or if there is a poisonous one in the yard, but that hasn't happened yet, I know they are around but for some reason I have never come across a poisonous snake in 29 years of Oklahoma woods walkin' bloody shame, even though I don't want to get bit I wouldn't mind snapping a few pics, also just so im not the only one that's not seen one

[opos]

Got a buddy that is a California state fire fighter and of course they are really pushing on a couple of big fires here....he said one of the things that are hardest to deal with are the snakes that are present while they are fighting the fires...we have lots of rattlers and lots of those nasty little Mojave green ones...when the fire season comes the snakes are an ever present danger....I'm not a fan of any poisionous snake in populated areas.

[OS OK]

I've often wondered about the wildlife that the fires push ahead of the inferno. I'd hope to suppose that the big cats and bear are in some state of self preservation that puts them to thinking more about getting down the road than attacking a good meal along the way...snakes...I don't think they have the sense to even know to run in any particular direction.

Some old black and white photos of men holding big fat rattlers...Picture of what might be the World's Largest Rattlesnake Cascabel Mas Grande (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN4IwKFT1b0)

[leftiye]

News today has a 12-15 ft something or other snake skin found on penobscot (close but not exactly) creek. Snake has been loose all summer apparently. Police don't know exactly which species.

[birddog]

Something like that will give a man a bad hair day!!
Charlie

[Tom W.]

I saw that picture with the black man at Wingate's Lodge at Lake Seminole in Bainbridge Georgia. A long time ago.

[daniel lawecki]

Now that's a lot of sausage with the right spices that's good eats.

[Blackwater]

Anyone who's tramped much in the woods HAS come awfully close to rattlers, but just didn't see them. They'll sit still as a dead stick unless there's a reason to move, such as they're threatened or stepped on. And they can be VERY hard to see to the untrained eye, and even a trained one can easily miss them sometimes. It all depends on the background they're laying on. In dead leaves turned various shades of tan, yellow, brown and near black, they can be practically invisible unless you look for the patterns in their coils. This is where one's instincts, that "little voice" Thomas Magnum in his TV show used to speak of, comes into serious play. If you EVER get the inner feeling that you shouldn't take a step or move in a certain direction, DON'T TAKE THAT STEP! How it works I'm not entirely sure, but apparently, we have some mechanism in our minds that "sees" things but doesn't always let it reach our conscious minds, but just kind'a "whispers" to us "Don't DO that!"

I've experienced this several times in the woods, and it's never been wrong. When hunting or just tramping about enjoying the woods, one's mind is often not focused on snakes and other assorted nasties, but whatever the element is inside us that operates like this, keeps us out of trouble IF we'll but just heed it.

Usually, they'll lie just off to the side of game trails, waiting for something to come along in the easy walking area. We have all, I feel sure, walked right by more than we've notices or seen. They don't lie out there just waiting to poison someone. They're just out there trying to find a meal, and they very typically let us walk right by and never move an eyelash. So if you've never seen one, and have done a lot of woods walking, you really need to adjust your eyes more to the surroundings. It's astounding how much we can miss when we're not focused on it. My woods eyes are pretty good, but not too long ago, my wife nearly got bit by a fresh shed Canebreak (Timber) rattler, and she took me out to kill it. She was so scared I couldn't help but kill it just to appease her fears. It was lying in some nice brown fallen leaves of various shades and shapes. She had to point it out to me! It was smaller than I'd anticipated, at about 3.5 ft., and the color and sheen of its freshly shed skin matched the leaves so perfectly, it was virtually invisible until it moved. First thing I saw was its tongue flickering out, then the head, and then the rest of its form.

Seeing things in the woods is a real art form. Native Americans have long been famous for their "woods eyes," and being able to see things most of us just simply don't notice consciously. To them, every line and color and texture means something. I'm not THAT good, but I've spent so much time in the woods and swamps that you can't NOT learn at least a fair amount if you just keep your eyes open and your focus oriented rightly. But it's a progressive thing and one just has to keep at it to get better at it. I'm still learning, and lessening acuity in vision makes me ever more leery when I put my feet down in the woods these days. I learned long ago never to put my foot on any spot I haven't checked out very well before I do so. Nearly getting bit a few times will teach you the price of being a little too casual in the woods! FAST!

[Hooker53]

That's one beautiful rattler. It would make a gret belt. Back in the 90's, that skin would fetch about two C notes. Skin that thing out Rub borax on the inside and stretch/nail it to a board. then after about a week in the shade, send it to the belt maker. Yes on more photos. Thanks for posting.

Roy
Hooker53

[Ramslammer]

G'Day Here's one from a few years ago. It's a tiger snake from Tasmania the bloke holding it is about 6'2".175596

[JMax]

I caught one about that size at the Okeen OK snake hunt a very long time ago. Took me about 45 minutes to get it into a gunny sack to turn in for a prize. My dad and grandfather sat and were entertained by my battle with the snake. It was 4th largest of the hunt and I got enough money to buy my 56 Chevy. I spent my summers on my grandfathers farm and part of my summer was catching pit vipers for sale to drug companies to make anti coagulants. I was trained by an old hermit that took a shine to me and by the end of my first summer I could walk around and see where they were.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

G'Day Here's one from a few years ago. It's a tiger snake from Tasmania the bloke holding it is about 6'2".175596

Oh...gee...another place has made my list of those not to be visited!

[bruce drake]

Typical forced perspective photo. That said, a 2M tiger is nearly a world record.


G'Day Here's one from a few years ago. It's a tiger snake from Tasmania the bloke holding it is about 6'2".175596

[Good Cheer]

Going on yard hunts with my trusty Briggs & Stratton is one thing I just don't miss since relocating from southeast Texas.
We had copper heads, rattlers, coral snakes, king snakes, water snakes, racers, the long pencil thin green vine snakes, chicken snakes, cotton mouths... and more that I never did figger out what they were.
The lawn mower was an equal opportunity mulcher.

Working outside we still think about looking for them. And laugh at ourselves.