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Old April 21, 2013, 02:50 PM   #26
22FOREVER
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22lr shot dont work for me except with carpender bees (fun too). 22mag works well with short barrel on snake out to 10 ft. stay away when you can but sometimes it is necessary.
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Old April 21, 2013, 03:22 PM   #27
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If noise is an issue, use an Airgun. .177 or .22 works nicely.
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Old April 21, 2013, 06:20 PM   #28
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Never a fan of snakeshot at all

In the time I realize that a snake is underfoot I've found that I can jump back(and outta range) faster than I can ever draw and shoot my gun. Snakes tend to bring out the little girl in many, many people. That fear response while drawing and discharging a handgun seems awfully dangerous.

I carry regular loads in my revolver and if I meet a snake, I give him some distance. If I need to kill him it seems far easier, quieter and economical to whack him with a stick or chuck a large rock on him.
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Old April 21, 2013, 06:49 PM   #29
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In the 8 years I've been here I've shot 11 rattlesnakes with a "dedicated" snake gun, (J.C. Higgins revolver loaded with .22 snake/bird shot). 18 inch to 4 feet long and I was generally about 5 feet from the snake. Never had to fire a second round. Head shots all, and only the ones in my yard (I believe snakes have their place, but the ones that can kill have a place away from me and mine).
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Old April 21, 2013, 06:59 PM   #30
Super Sneaky Steve
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Some CB Shorts would do the job nicely. It won't damage your hearing and should have more than enough power to kill any sized snake.
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Old April 21, 2013, 07:01 PM   #31
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22 snake shot

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Originally Posted by full case load View Post
In the 8 years I've been here I've shot 11 rattlesnakes with a "dedicated" snake gun, (J.C. Higgins revolver loaded with .22 snake/bird shot). 18 inch to 4 feet long and I was generally about 5 feet from the snake. Never had to fire a second round. Head shots all, and only the ones in my yard (I believe snakes have their place, but the ones that can kill have a place away from me and mine).
11 rattlesnakes in your yard wow, keep up the good work. I generally like snakes ok, but will go out of my way to kill poisonous ones. If you like cats, may want to consider a couple. They kill snakes very effectively.
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Old April 21, 2013, 07:29 PM   #32
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The Shot shells work best in 44 and 45. 38 is tolerable. I thought the 22 shot shells were ineffective. What works best on snakes is a real shotgun. 20 gauge full choke is perfect.
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Old April 21, 2013, 07:50 PM   #33
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Man, y'all are a lot nervier than I am to be shooting 4 foot rattlers and mocassins with .22 shot shells. Especially as aggressive as mocassins are.
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Old April 21, 2013, 08:27 PM   #34
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I guess I don't understand why you would need shot shells at the distance they would have to be at to be a threat. At that point head shots have been fairly easy for me.
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Old April 21, 2013, 09:23 PM   #35
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22 snake shot

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Originally Posted by Hawg Haggen View Post
Man, y'all are a lot nervier than I am to be shooting 4 foot rattlers and mocassins with .22 shot shells. Especially as aggressive as mocassins are.
It might just make em mad and more aggressive I've seen copperheads ran over in the road and they just keep going.
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Old April 21, 2013, 09:49 PM   #36
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I hand load Speer shot cups. No.9 shot in .38 special cases.

Even from a stubby little four inch barrel, I've killed several dozen rattlers in the foothills.
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Old April 21, 2013, 09:57 PM   #37
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i went paint some hunting club boundary lines one summer deep in a louisiana swamp. walking. middle of the day it was dark in there. creepy. mocassins everywhere. shot the ones in our path with .22 shot only made them mad. next day i brought a light sawed off 12 ga crack barrel with bird shot that worked.
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Old April 21, 2013, 11:10 PM   #38
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You had me there for a few minutes cajun. At first I thought you meant you had to smoke something in that crack barrel before you went into the dark swamp. Then I realized you meant a break-action shotgun. Thanks for the chuckle.

I think my grandfather also used to call his double barrel a crack barrel shotgun.
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Old April 22, 2013, 05:22 AM   #39
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I use CB shorts if necessary to kill one. The harmless one just get moved closer to the house for pest control.
I'm planning on taking the wife in a canoe trip this summer to a certain creek. Last time I was there, the banks, trees and water looked like moving spaghetti. She hasn't ever seen that many snakes in the wild. That area looks like one of those snake farms. I want to see how she handles removing them from the canoe every 5-8 minutes.
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Old April 22, 2013, 07:45 AM   #40
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22 snake shot

I'd find another creek. Dropping in your boat from trees would be a little un nerving poisonous or not!
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Old April 22, 2013, 12:42 PM   #41
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I would use the .22mag over the lr. There is quite a bit more punch with the mag shot shells, IMO.
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Old April 22, 2013, 12:52 PM   #42
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I don't go out of my way to find them/kill them but also don't like or understand the idea of leaving them to be someone else's problem to deal with and perhaps bite someone else, including perhaps a child or someone's favorite bird dog. I'm talking on and near the homestead, trails, campgrounds, popular watering holes 'n such especially, nd certainly don't begrudge those that would clear such areas. We have our share of the legless fanged ones in Az as the OP suggests, but (generally) nothing of the number or variety (rattlers, mocassins, copperheads) I've seen like the southeast, Texas and such though! In addition to the ubiquitous and always dangerous diamondback, we've got the most lethal of all the North American legless ones, the Mohave rattler--most strains of which combine both the regular rattlers hemotoxin with the more cobra-like neurotoxin. We lost a gal near Prescott three years ago to one. Nasty critters.

Want rodent control on the property? - move the bad ones on out as someone suggested and bring the good ones closer in. Bull and king snakes make good rattler (etc) control as well, both being adept at killing the fangerd ones. Someone mentioned cats - we raised a pair of half-bobcat twins at my folks' desert home in the Superstition foothills east of Phoenix (purposeful breeding by a cat fancier friend) that got to be great rattler killers--but only after an incident where one of them got hit as a youngin. Disappeared for two days, we found him in a storage area of the unfinished part of the house feeling pretty grumpy, his front leg swollen to three times the usual size. We found fang marks in his balding "armpit." A visit to the vet got him back to normal quickly. (Btw, I actually found the culprit, five foot diamondback still hanging around the wood pile). We figured it was his first rattler and, you can picture, got hit being a little slow on the draw "playing" with the snake. Never again. He and his brother got several after that--we'd find them belly up, presumably broken "necks" as they were otherwise unmarked. We found another five footer in front of the house with the same cat (as above) playing with it. This time expertly, tiring it out. Picture a feline Ali! We didn't want to chance it and whacked the snake with a 2x4, and you've never seen such puzzlement and disappointment on a cat's face - like "hey, I had him, I had him!"

Back closer to OP topic - over forty years or so, I've found when out 'n bout storebought .38 or .44 shotshell works pretty good out to 10' or so, most of them only single shots necessary. I got lucky once with a regular round out of a Smith snubbie .32 Mag I was carrying on a day hike, not wanting the heft of my K frame on the hip that day. Right in the noggin' from seven or eight feet (still too close for me!). I prefer the greater "surety" of shot however under "adrenline" circumstances. I'm not talking drawing and shooting at the same time--Hollywood style-- but these circumstances can be pretty abrupt.

Regarding other methods, I don't like to get that intimate with them, so I'd think .22 or .22 Mag shot woulld be better 'n a stick--of course aiming for the head if you have to opportunity--with the .22 allowing decent quick follow-up shot(s) to be sure. All else being equal. I'd prefer a caliber starting at least with a .3_ however.
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Old April 22, 2013, 03:37 PM   #43
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You know what's interesting gak is this, I killed the rattlers I did with .22 mag rounds in my single six. Thinking about using something else that was a .22 makes me feel uneasy at the thought. I realize now the platform rather than the round gave me that confidence. My Single six points better than anything else that has hit my hand. When I'm defending myself against something with fangs I want the sights to be on the target as quickly as possible. Maybe for other folks who are built different a different gun would point naturally for them. Maybe the question shouldn't be what caliber but what gun considering some here are using .22 shorts successfully.
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Old April 22, 2013, 06:03 PM   #44
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Good grief there's a bunch of stuff here that makes me wonder if people have any personal experience or are just spouting off.

My house is in very rural AZ and we kill an average of 9 rattlesnakes per year (for well over 20 years) in the yard. We're deep in snake country and even deeper in lion country, thank goodness the mule deer are slowly starting to regain ground.
I don't bother snakes of any kind outside of bite-my-kids range, I just admire them. But come into the kids play space and it has to go.

I've never shot a plastic milk jug with a .22 shot shell but I've squashed quite a few rattlesnakes with one. There's a Ruger single action at the back door loaded with 6 shot shells for anyone to use on snakes in close.

.22 shot is VERY good when the snake has crawled up against the house or the car or anything else you don't want too many holes in. I can fire just about anything in the safely in my yard.

A 12 ga works better in the open. Immediate change of color and "cease to function" but even a single .22 shot cartridge in the head stops aggresive/dangerous behavior, a couple more seals the deal.

Over the years I've used .45acp, .45 acp shot, .357's, .38 shot, .22LR, .22 shot, and 12 ga. They all work but .22 shot is good to go. When I was a kid and my Dad was stationed in Arkansas I shot hundreds of water moccasins close to the house with .22 shot, all with good effect.

I do have bada$$ barn cats outside and they do reduce the close in snake population, but some still get in.

Me & Wife/Chic ran into a large Bull snake in the drive today, first of the year. We just walked around him. Every few years we'll see a King snake, they sure are pretty.
But rattlesnakes in the yard have to die, I've got a 8 year old, a 11 year old and a lovely bride who spent too much time living outdoors.

J
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Old April 22, 2013, 06:17 PM   #45
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I've killed a lot of snakes and I never had one quit moving right then. Even if you take the head clean off they roll and curl around for several minutes. The last one I killed was a timber rattler by my MIL's pool a couple of years ago. I shot him with #6 shot from about 3 ft. The shot cup took his head off. He didn't quit moving for 20 minutes. When he did quit I went to pick him up by the tail because his neck was such a bloody mess and he still tried to bite me.

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Old April 22, 2013, 06:24 PM   #46
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Hawg, I was always taught "just because the snake is dead doesn't mean it can't bite you". You're experience matches mine. I hit them with head shots to stop them from an offensive strike. After that I got out of range.
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Old April 22, 2013, 09:22 PM   #47
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22 snake shot

Yes they can still strike. A copperhead I cut in two with shovel last year and tried to strike me 3-4 times before he was cut into about 10 pieces.
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Old April 22, 2013, 09:37 PM   #48
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you may find this informative... although the testing was done with a rifle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh0jCg8Ymuo
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Old April 22, 2013, 11:31 PM   #49
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that shotgun size snake gives me the creeps. im worries about those giant snakes in florida that eat gators coming to louisiana swamp.

*smokes crack barrel*
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Old April 22, 2013, 11:59 PM   #50
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3 feet is fairly effective range for CCI Mag shot,just be sure you're outa HIS range.It has a tendency to anger them and the little SOB's can get nasty.The .38's work a lot better.
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