Snake hunters?

You have brass huevos to go in tall grass after snakes. I stick to open ground.

The closest encounter I witnessed happened when two dumb teenagers (me and a buddy,, dad always said the only thing dumber than 1 teenager is two of them together)decided we wanted to take a rattler without making a mark on the body (to make some kind of full body mount). We thought of everything from drowning it, to holding the head up to the exhaust pipe, to lord knows what else. Well first we had to capture this snake live and then decide how to finish him. What better idea than a fishing net with holes large enough for the snake to crawl thru (obviously our diameter judgments skills were sub-par)!! We found our snake on the road (a bonus-snake we like to call them) and went to work. Well after tangling the snake in that net beyond fixing, I decided we needed to stop before someone got bit. My buddy held the snake down with a branch firmly while I proceeded to move in for the removal of the snake's head with a knife. Just before I lowered down for the kill, my buddy's branch decided it was time to break. Keep in mind I made him re-assure me that all his weight was on that branch cuz I didn't want no rattler coming at me cuz it "slipped out". My buddy landed in "push-up position" over the snake with a real good close-up look at the head. He didn't get bit or even struck at (probably cuz the snake was still a little tangled in the net) but he did manage to instantaneously levitate above the snake, scramble 20 yards or so, and scream like a school girl all in less than a blink of an eye.

We have since become more sophisticated using snake sticks and decided snakes are less burdensome when they have no head, and we really don't need a full body mount that bad anyways.
 
You've got some good stories and pics Mog...I like it.

Whats the temps have to be at day and night for the critters to be out(mostly interested for night hunting).

Its been in the high 70's to low 80's during the day and High 40's to low 50's at night.

I got one last year(wasnt looking for him at the time), but i want to go out hunting for um.
 
The temps for night hunting need to be warm. You're gonna want to go out in April but you're probably wasting your time, maybe even May too. The temps need to be > 90 degrees daytime for at least a week or two. The absolute hottest part of the year is when my success has been highest (July/August). If you can time it right after a monsoon, you will see all sorts of nasty critters you would never want to. One night we saw hundreds of tarantulas and plenty of snakes. Desert waterholes are loaded with snakes. Wherever there are mice/rats, there is usually snakes. Never go alone, never drink while doing it, and invest in the best/brightest flashlight you can afford (if you're doing the on-foot method).

We made a snake-stick that merely consists of pvc pipe with some rubber coated wire that slips inside and has a loop coming out the end. This works great for grabbing a hold of the no-legged monsters and holding real tight for head removal.
 
mog-Never really thought about it.Maybe that or I dont have any since I dont know which.We'll go with the brass heuvos though cause I dont wanna admit Im stupid. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

But yeah I've never had that close of a call.I did pick up a baby rattler by accident one time so I guess that was pretty close but I would rather take a bite on the hand than on the face.If you want to have a full body mount done on a rattler or you dont wanna tear up the skin buy a fiber glass "cattle prod" and smack em' behind the head with it.Or you could go to a feed yard if you have any around where you live and they would probably give you one.Or tie a knot in the end of a rope and swing it real hard and knock em' right in the head.....a couple times.You dont want them to be "playin possum" when you go to pick them up (also happened to me) and that works pretty good too.
Im gonna try to make one of those snake-sticks your talkin about.That would probably be alot better than using a regular ol' stick. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif
 
I grew up in Benson(50 miles east of Tucson)and there is an old rail road bed from Benson to Tombstone. Travel that in the evenings and you should find what your looking for. Where Kartchner caverns is now I used to hike that area and found lots of rattlers. I knew there were caves there in the 60's because of those snakes, but I wasn't inclined to crawl in with them crawling out.
 
Back
Top