Head-shooting of snakes tip?

[Texas Star]

The python thread got me to wondering about shooting snakes in the head.

I recently wrote a fan fiction story about a boy who had to shoot a king cobra in the head as it menaced him and a companion. I surmised that the snake might have aligned its head on the muzzle of the lad's S&W M&P (four-inch bbl., round butt) as the gun came to bear, as a common cobra will focus on a snake charmer's flute.

I think I recall that the late Skeeter Skelton also theorized that a rattlesnake will sometimes aim at the gun as it prepares to strike, assisting the marksman in getting a head shot. Of course, the gun hand is the closest thing on you to the snake in such a case, or one hopes so! The rattler may see it as a threat. Or, the heat-sensory pits may aim it in that direction as a warm target, although I'm sure their vision suffices at reasonable ranges.

Does this make sense? Has anyone tried aiming at snakes' heads and seeing if they seem to follow your gun hand?

 

[Lee in Quartzsite]

I suppose if you gave them enough time they might focus on the gun. I just shot 2 rattlers this past week using my 642 and CCI Shot shells. I simply put the red dot from my Crimson Trace laser on their heads and squeeze the trigger...one shot, one dead snake. The first snake was in my wife's garden and made itself known when she started trimming the bush he was in...never did rattle but did coil as if to strike. She was very lucky. It was a young Western Diamondback with only 6 rattles. The other was the same, but it was over 4 feet with 17 rattles.

Here is a photo of a Sidewinder track I saw last summer. Biggest track I have ever seen...most of the time they are much smaller and nearly invisible unless you know what you are looking at.

 

[silentflyer]

If the ground they are laying on is hard, just shoot just in front of them, the "splatter" is like a shotgun blast...or the CCI shot shells are great. We used to go to old quarries and rock slide's looking for rattlers and copperheads. Don't tell PETA and the tree huggers...

 

[Texas Star]

Thanks. The splatter idea hadn't occurred to me. I know about "barking" squirrels that way, and once wrote a safari tale in which a bush-stranded woman was about to fire her .275 Rigby at a stone in hopes of killing a couple of Guinea fowl with the rock splatter. But a rooikat (caracal lynx) charged the flock, and plucked two birds out of the air. While the lady and her friends watched the cat through binoculars, a rescue party drove up and saved them, so they didn't need the birds, anyway, and they were thrilled to see that caracal strike so fast and so high in its leap.

In the case of the king cobra,it had raised about three feet of its length off of the floor of an old temple and was about to glide forward and strike. Shooting at the coils wasn't an option. It was about ten feet; they reach at least 18 feet, measured from an actual example. (That story is set in colonial India in 1937, so CCI shot ammo wasn't available. I figured that a normal 158 grain .38 Special bullet in the nose might blow the snake's brain out the back of the skull.)

Back to real life, thanks for the photo of the sidewinder tracks. Pretty impressive!

 

[fat tom]

I surmised that the snake might have aligned its head on the muzzle of the lad's S&W M&P (four-inch bbl., round butt) as the gun came to bear, as a common cobra will focus on a snake charmer's flute.

Been hearing that one since I was a child. Old wives tale,if you ask me. Never seen any statistics to support such a claim.
f.t.

 

[old bear]

T.S. your theory makes sense, for two reasons, the movement of your hand and arm should attract the snakes attention, and also your hand and arm would be the closest part of your body to the snake and would be perceived as a new danger.

 

[COL Jagdog]

If you can get a clever and well-trained rat to balance on the front sight as you point your revolver at the rattler, the heat-seeking cells in his "pit" will definitely have him looking straight at your barrel

As noted above, the snake will most likely be focusing on your hand and arm as you point your gun at him as they do
watch movement (both for self-protection and to track their prey).

 

[OFT II]

I've also seen it happen. The snake will concentrate on the object closest to it. You still have to aim the gun directly at him though in order to hit him.

 

[Faulkner]

I made this one shot stop with my Walther PPK/S and there ain't no way I'm giving the snake any of the credit.

 

[Art Doc]

Can't help. I don't shoot snakes. Short of being in the house they don't frighten me and given half a chance they will vacate any area with humans as fast as they can. Got a snake in the garden? Go make some loud noise and he'll be gone.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

OK. Billy Bob Thornton. I have called him Billy Boob. In the movie SlingBlade he say' some folks call them Kaiser blades, some folks call them slingblades. Where I come from we call them Kaiser blades. You city boys are thinking what is he talking about? Think a machete on a strong 4 foot handle. I have killed snakes with hoes, sticks, guns, shovels, axes and kaiser blades. Kaiserblade by far the best.

 

[Rule3]

OK. Billy Bob Thornton. I have called him Billy Boob. In the movie SlingBlade he say' some folks call them Kaiser blades, some folks call them slingblades. Where I come from we call them Kaiser blades. You city boys are thinking what is he talking about? Think a machete on a strong 4 foot handle. I have killed snakes with hoes, sticks, guns, shovels, axes and kaiser blades. Kaiserblade by far the best.

Hold my French Fried tators and watch this

 

[pharmer]

I have shot exactly one rattler with a 12 ga. #6 shot. I have killed rattlers, pygmy rattlers, cottonmouths, copperheads and a few benign species, that shouldn't have been in the garage, with a square point shovel. The shovel is way superior on snakes. Joe

 

[A10]

I have shot exactly one rattler with a 12 ga. #6 shot. I have killed rattlers, pygmy rattlers, cottonmouths, copperheads and a few benign species, that shouldn't have been in the garage, with a square point shovel. The shovel is way superior on snakes. Joe

Now THIS deserves its own thread! What's the best kind of shovel for snake defence??

 

[Lee in Quartzsite]

Now THIS deserves its own thread! What's the best kind of shovel for snake defence??

One Made in the USA!.....with a L o n g handle.

 

[venomballistics]

Now THIS deserves its own thread! What's the best kind of shovel for snake defence??

I've found spade shovel to be effective on beavers

 

[brucev]

The python thread got me to wondering about shooting snakes in the head.

I recently wrote a fan fiction story about a boy who had to shoot a king cobra in the head as it menaced him and a companion. I surmised that the snake might have aligned its head on the muzzle of the lad's S&W M&P (four-inch bbl., round butt) as the gun came to bear, as a common cobra will focus on a snake charmer's flute.

I think I recall that the late Skeeter Skelton also theorized that a rattlesnake will sometimes aim at the gun as it prepares to strike, assisting the marksman in getting a head shot. Of course, the gun hand is the closest thing on you to the snake in such a case, or one hopes so! The rattler may see it as a threat. Or, the heat-sensory pits may aim it in that direction as a warm target, although I'm sure their vision suffices at reasonable ranges.

Does this make sense? Has anyone tried aiming at snakes' heads and seeing if they seem to follow your gun hand?

I have extensive experience in shooting snakes with all manner of firearms, mostly S&W revolvers. For run of the mill little snakes up to maybe 4 feet or so, if they're up close and about to get real personal, just pop them wherever you can get a round to go. Do it double-action. Be sure and put two or three rounds into the thing. They'll jump and bounce around a bit, but they settle down nicely when you get some holes in them. Of course if there's time, if you're not about to step on the thing barefooted, then put their little head on top of the front sight and squeeze of a round single-action. Almost every time you'll completely decapitate the thing.

If you like lots of horsepower, you can't do better than big fat 240 gr. .44 Mag. JHP's. Those things are the business. Once I was hanging the laundry out in the backyard behind the parsonage. My wife and our first daughter had just been brought home from the hospital and I was busy doing a few of the chores. I needed to sight in a 6" 29-3 for a upcoming deer hunt. I shoved the 29 in the back of my shorts Mexican style and headed out the back door. I didn't see the rattlesnake until my bare right foot was about to step on him. I threw the basked of wet cloths aside, grabbed the cross piece of the cloths line with one hand, pulled out that 29 and proceeded to give that rattler a round DA at about 12 inches. I never knew how loud a .44 Mag. could be... or what a mess it could make spraying bits of snake everywhere all over wet cloths, etc. It was a mess. Nowadays I prefer a .44 Special or a .45 ACP for such shooting.

If you think your going to run into a snake that is substantial... maybe one of those imported foreign types, I think the .44 Special or even the Magnum might be real nice to have. Their skulls do not look to be very strongly constructed, i.e., there's no heavy bone to punch through, etc. But their brains are not large, and there's a lot of area to shoot that may only make the thing angry rather than killing it. Personally, I'd just load my .44 Special w/ some nice 200 gr. JHP's heated up hotter than the hinges of the place of eternal torment. It's a 21-4 Thunder Ranch. I think it's about ideal for killing snakes of all sorts and even medium game like deer and hogs.

 

[Texas Star]

I'm seldom (never) armed with a shovel when hiking or fishing, but if I had a barn or a garden, I'd sure keep those shovels in mind...

The adventurers in a book that I'm writing may also encounter a snake or two, and they won't have shovels or hoes, either. Will have handguns.

 

[old bear]

What's the best kind of shovel for snake defence??

One with a handle 30 long

 

[Faulkner]

There may be some places in the not-so-free parts of America where it's prudent to open carry a shovel where concealed carry of firearms is not legal.