Has anyone else (besides me) every picked up a live rattlesnake by the tail before?

[don5]

A question that only a true country boy would ask! That is a conversation stopper right there! Nice pic BTW. You got the proof for sure. This country boy has picked up some pretty wild animals but no way I am picking up a rattlesnake. My hat is off to you.

 

[ACP230]

We lived overseas when I was a kid.
One place dad planted some trees and used to clear the grass and
weeds from around them. We were in the tropics and stuff grew fast.

One day dad grabbed a root (he thought) and tried to yank it out
from the base of one of the trees. The root turned out to be almost
two feet of snake. It was grayish and poisonous, since all the snakes
there were.

Dad threw it down, chopped it into three pieces with a
shovel and chucked the pieces into the harbor which was 20 feet from our house and connected to the South Pacific. It floated there for a few hours and I took some other kids down to the shore and showed them.

I've been careful around roots and snakes since, even though there
are no poisonous snakes in Da U.P., eh?

 

[feralmerril]

Heard a story years ago of this couple returning to their ranch house at night. The guy ran over a huge rattler in their driveway. After they unloaded their groceries he decided to go cut the rattels off for a souvinear. The next morning on driving out he decided to stop and throw the dead snake off the driveway. He got out and was surprised to see it still had its rattels!

 

[Straightshooter2]

Not only no but.....

CW

 

[Straightshooter2]

Not only no but **** no. Emptied my 9mm at one about 18 inches from my foot but upon strategic exit from that AOO, I did not stop to pick the thing up. My wife and I have an agreement. I dispose of all household rodents and, while I may kill the snake, she disposes of it. Meanwhile after killing the snake, I will be relaxing with a double Valium and vodka cafe latte.

CW

 

[fat tom]

NO!
I pick them up right below where their head used to be.
Bill@Yuma

Even without the head,I still pick 'em up by the tail.



f.t.

 

[carpe pugna]

I was bit by one at Philmont Scout Reservation back in the late 60s...got a nice ride to the hospital. It is something I would rather not repeat.

FYI, it was my fault that I got bit...I was tired and not used to elevation and stepped over a log.

Now, they get their own 44 snake shot if I see them.

 

[Roadtrash]

Used to many years ago but now with age creeping up on me I'm not sure enough or quick enough to try it.

 

[Delos]

NO!
I pick them up right below where their head used to be.
Bill@Yuma

This must be the California method of putting a rattlesnake under citizens arrest?

(No, his head is missing, it is the Texas Method).

(Somebody please photoshop a big mean head on that snake)

 

[BCDWYO]

Never a live rattlesnake, but I've reached over to my wife when she was sleeping.....pretty much the same reaction-only the wife is quicker than the snake-and the bite MUCH more painful

Sounds like someone needs to warm his hands up!

 

[Sprefix]

Coffee??!! Nope, Don't think so.......

I've picked many up by the head. A couple by the tail but only in desperation (i.e. they got away from the handler while I was holding the bag-new meaning for"left holding the bag") and they crawled across my hand. Usually, grabbed the tail and slung them. My buddies learned not to watch from the left side since I held the bag with my right.

Now I'm older, hypertensive, diabetic and don't move so fast-so those days are far in the past. Just yesterday I backed down from an irate badger (isn't that a redundant choice of words?)

Somehow, I don't think any amount of coffee does anything for you after some of your "fun".

 

[BearBio]

Somehow, I don't think any amount of coffee does anything for you after some of your "fun".

Actually, I prefer a roast called "Deadman's Reach" from Ravensbrew Roasting in Alaska. Very high caffeine but low acidity. It's so smooth, I had 6 cups the first time I had it at home. Thought I was going to have a heart attack. Description: "Deadman Reach is a shoal along Baranof Island in Peril Strait in the Alexander Archipelago of Southeast Alaska. We thought Deadman's Reach sounded like coffee and were inspired to design this special high-speed blend of very rare coffees for:

Jump-starting Your Mornings,
Long-haul Trucking,
Cramming For Exams,
Winning Races,
Inspiring Great Ideas and Noble Emotions,
Graveyard Shifts,
Deadlines,
States of Pure Bliss,
and Intense Coffee Pleasure.

Actually, the risks go with the job. I chose to be a wildlife biologist and always wanted to be one since I was a kid. 20 years as an amateur and 20 years as a professional.

We used to say: "Marine biologists end up as shark SAAA"

 

[kozmic]

I breed snakes (non venomous) and handle them all the time. We still go on snake "hunts" in the spring, but just to observe them. I handle wild snake when needed (while mowing, etc.) or the urge strikes me. Just not "hot snakes".

I see no reason to test your hand-eye coordination against that of a creature who makes a living out of striking for survival and food and packs enough poison to absolutely ruin your day. To me, it's about the same as Russian roulette.

Even as tame and docile as mine are I still occasionally get surprised by their speed and accuracy of their strike when presented food.

I find them truly fascinating.

 

[Tam 3]

Yep. It was coiled and I missed the head, but got the tail. Threw it about 20 feet. It coiled again, sans rattles now, and took dead aim at my pistol muzzle. Its last deliberate act.

Regards,

Tam 3

 

[Jswiney9]

Yes, and lets leave it at that. haha

 

[Hillbilly77]

Actually, I prefer a roast called "Deadman's Reach" from Ravensbrew Roasting in Alaska. Very high caffeine but low acidity. It's so smooth, I had 6 cups the first time I had it at home. Thought I was going to have a heart attack.

Raven's Brew Coffee - Served in Bed, Raises the Dead.

 

[Hillbilly77]

Never a live rattlesnake, but I've reached over to my wife when she was sleeping.....pretty much the same reaction-only the wife is quicker than the snake-and the bite MUCH more painful

Sounds like someone needs to warm his hands up!

He was tryin' to!

 

[tlay]

Not a rattlesnake but I live in Georgia and right after we moved here my wife screamed that there was a snake on our sidewalk. I went out to it and it was around 4' long. It was kind of dark in color and had a copper colored head. I didn't think about it and picked it up by the tail and put it in a garbage bag. I didn't want to kill it so I took it out to the woods and let it go. I later went on the internet and found the snake, it was a copperhead!! I don't pick them up anymore.

 

[jkc]

I'm wary of any rattler until it's head's been severed and buried. Once, on a hunting trip, I found a den with a huge Western Diamondback, partially exposed, and fished it out with my snake hook, pinned its head with my hook, and was about to sever the head, when a new guy to our party, a short, slightly built Aussie dentist, Harvey, insisted that he wanted the snake, entire, as a taxidermy trophy. I advised against it, but he was insistent so I turned the balance of the capture operation over to him.

He seized the snake by what I guess you'd call its "neck" (snakes have more neck than giraffes...), and had to hold it head high to keep from dragging the rattles on the ground. He, along with the two other members of our party, proceeded toward our camp, down a steep slope covered with ball-bearing-like loose, decomposed granite. Harvey was somewhat off balance, with the snake held high, and away from his face. The trio advanced, close together, but I held back some distance. At some point, one of them, realizing that I was not keeping pace, turned around and asked if something was wrong.

"Not yet," I replied, " but we're on a mighty slippery slope, and while I don't think Harvey's very smart to be carrying a live rattler down this slope by hand, I'm pretty sure that he's smart enough to fling that snake as far away from himself as he can, if he loses his footing. I'm just staying out of range..."

 

[TexasG]

I grew up in Florida, along the eastern inter coastal waterways just south of the Kennedy Space Center. My buddy's and I did a lot of exploring around the islands (sand bars) between the mainland and the strands of inhabited islands known as Cocoa Beach.

This was the late 60's/early seventies - we would swim from our subdivision across the Banana River estuaries to the sand bars and spend all day petending we were Pirates stranded on the beach. Long story Shorter - we came a across a very small rattle snake common to occur in the southern Florida shores known as a Pygmy Rattler. They appear harmless to the casual tourist, but we knew better having grown up around them our very young lives. Buddy 1 grabs a stick and proceeds to stir (sleeping pygmy) up to a very PO'd mess. Buddy 2 tells him to pin it down just behind the head/neck so he can "catch it". Buddy 3 (me) exclaims - "aww hell no". Buddy 2 reaches just behind the cute pygmy's neck just in time for it turn and pop him on his right index finger.

Panic sets in - it's Sunday afternoon, we need to swim back to civilization, ride our bikes 3 miles to any semblance of normal.

Within minutes - buddy 2 (victim) begins to throw up, breathing is shallowed and profuse sweating presents. Buddy one and me, carry him to the shoreline, and proceed to take turns swimming him about a hundred yards to inhabited side of the intercoastal's and our only escape - Schwinn Stingray Bicycles. We make it across, leave the victims bike, we take turns "handlebar towing" buddy 2 to the nearest Emergency Room which is Patrick Air Force Base Hospital. Remember, it's Sunday afternoon - it's minimal staffing, doctors are on call but not in-house, nurses are few and far between, the 18 to 20 year old med techs are there mostly alone. We arrive, victim's in the early stage of hallucinations, losing fluids from all orifices, and index finger is close to twice it's normal size.

The tech looks through his "Tech Orders" and finds the phone number to the Miami Sea Aquarium and calls the direct phone number to Bill Haast. Bill Haast is a world renowned serpent expert who has been bitten by almost every poisonous snake on the planet. He not only lived to tell about it, but developed anti-venom using his blood for most of the common North American venomous snakes.

Eventually, victim fell unconscious, US Coast Guard launches and delivers Pygmy Rattle Snake Anti Venom via helicopter about 2 hours later. Victim spends the next 6 - 8 weeks in various stages of recovery. Another year or two for all the wounds to dry up, scar and heal.

End result, he lost his index finger and part of the web between the index finger and thumb. The left side of his tongue has several pieces that needed to be removed (never suck on a rattlesnake bite). All in all, he's lucky to be alive.

We're still friends, I speak to him occasionally these days - it's one of the days that changed my life. Definitely changed his, to be straight up honest, he lost something that day and was never the same.....