Rattler

He's pretty. Much prettier than a diamond back. Looks bright, like he shed recently. Ones 'round here are western diamond back. Pretty dull colored by comparison. And, not docile like that one. Found a couple babies at my shootin' spot a while back. Wife wanted me to kill 'em as I sometimes bring my kids there. Couldn't bring myself to do it. I like seein' them. I moved a couple away from me so I could shoot without worrying about them. They never got upset. Rattles looked like a little scab. They were bright and pretty too.

Anyway, thanks for the pic.
 
Grit

Glad to hear you dont kill em either. They are a vital part of the wildlife. There's no reason to kill them unless they are a nuisance and there is no other way.

Changing direction, knowing when and where they most frequent and at what times they like and moving them can all be used prior to killing them.

Cottonmouths and Copperheads excluded, copperheards have a nasty temper and so do cottonmouths. They inject loads more venom than their cousins the rattlers and do so out of anger as well as fear.

Rattlers differ in this as they normally bite but don't inject venom. Of all the bites by rattlers a good portion of them dont inject and have "dry bites" while cottonmouths and copperheads 99% of the time bite with venom.

The cottonmouth and copperhead are territorial and therefore use venom to defend territory.

Rattlers for the most part will flee before fighting and this has been true for the two I have moved they wanted to get to the woods fast once discovered.

Neither one of them coiled up for striking purpose or rattled much this shouldn't be confused for tameness though :D
 
Kudos on moving the Crotalus horridus horridus. If you are in middle Georgia, it would still be considered a timber rattler...if memory serves, you must be pretty close to the southern border to get into the canebrake subspecies. It takes about 75 - 100 mg of dried Timber rattler venom to kill the average human and they can carry over 200 mg. They usually don't inject enough on a defensive bite to do more than cause severe swelling. I'm in a position to do a fair amount of education about snakes in Tennessee, and it is rare to find someone who will move any snake instead of wack it here...and it is a class B misdemeanor to kill or harass them here!

Once again, great pics and good move.
 
BigDaddy0381 said:
Daveosok,
I'm in Douglasville.it's west of atlanta but i work down town atlanta and hunt in alabama,I have land i can hunt in Jefferson county and glasscock county it is close to sandersville if i'm not mistaken
Click to expand...

Yep I know where that is been there to visit a buddy of mine who also works at GaTech. He does something in the testing department tests structures or actuators something along those lines.

Yes Glasscock and Jefferson are to the east of me. I'm almost in the upper corner of Washington county near Hamburg state park. Ogeechee river is our northeast border for the lease and 102 is our northwest border with spartendavisboro rd the south border pretty much.

Dave
 
Glad to see alot of others avoid killing rattlers, I'll even move one off the road on occasion. I do have to kill one every now and then when there's a bird dog on the ground. But we just have prairie rattlers out here, don't know if I could bring myself to kill one that pretty.
 
daveosok said:
Grit


Cottonmouths and Copperheads excluded, copperheards have a nasty temper and so do cottonmouths. They inject loads more venom than their cousins the rattlers and do so out of anger as well as fear.

Rattlers differ in this as they normally bite but don't inject venom. Of all the bites by rattlers a good portion of them dont inject and have "dry bites" while cottonmouths and copperheads 99% of the time bite with venom.

The cottonmouth and copperhead are territorial and therefore use venom to defend territory.:D
Click to expand...

No offense, but I have to disagree. No snake has the capacity to be "angry", but some are more agressively defensive than others. All pit vipers control their venom flow and reserve their venom for hunting. 50% of all venomous snakes bites are dry. Most of the rattlesnake bites I have seen (not many) have been pretty nasty. Copperheads and cottonmouths are close relatives. More cottonmouths show aggressive tendencies than copperheads. Most copperheads are completely passive and rely on camo for defense. Most copperhead bites are about like a severe hornet sting...I know because I have treated several before sending the patient to the hospital. I saw an 11 year old girl step on a young copperhead barefoot and get bitten. She was sent home from the hospital with Tylenol 3 after spending the night for observation. That's pretty typical. I move 20 - 40 copperheads a year from around campsites and public areas and have found that about 1 out of 10 will turn to face you when approached. Most lie still until touched. About half will try to either strike or escape if you pick them up with a stick. Most will lunge at you if you pick them up by the tail. Pinning the head to pick them up is down right dangerous because the little ones can stick you by popping a fang out of the side of their mouths...treated a biology student from Murray State 2 weeks ago for that. Cottonmouths and copperheads have highly hemolytic venom designed to start the digestion process from the inside of the prey before it is consumed. It takes about 150 mg of dried cottonmouth venom to kill the average person, and they carry about that much and rarely inject more than 75% of that when hunting, less when defending themselves. Copperhead venom is more potent and they can kill humans with as little as 70 mg. Most carry about 40 mg and inject 75% or less in a strike. Juveniles carry less but it is stronger so you can expect the same symptoms from a juvy bite as an adult. To my knowledge there has never been a death from a copperhead bite in Tennessee, and only a handfull in the southeastern U.S. ever. I have seen several people get bitten and actually debate whether to get treatment or not because symptoms were so mild. If every copperhead you see is aggressive, you walked by 10 times that many that were passive and went un-noticed.

My 2 cents worth.
 
my buddy killed a 6ft 2 inch diamondback last weekend on the county rd running by the ranch i asked him why and he said only good snake was a dead snake some peaple just have a unreasonable fear of snakes .i told him not to kill anymore we have had so much rain here in south tx that the rat population has exploded the deer cant even get the corn from the feeders because of the rats the feeder goes off and the rats come from everywhere looks like the ground is quivering with them i told him we need the snakes to help control the rats we will just have to be carefull of where we walk and wear snakeproof boots i had him eat that snake by the way
 
daveosok said:
Yep I know where that is been there to visit a buddy of mine who also works at GaTech. He does something in the testing department tests structures or actuators something along those lines.

Yes Glasscock and Jefferson are to the east of me. I'm almost in the upper corner of Washington county near Hamburg state park. Ogeechee river is our northeast border for the lease and 102 is our northwest border with spartendavisboro rd the south border pretty much.

Dave
Click to expand...


Ga tech is a neat place to work.I might know him I usually run across about everone that works here at one point or another doing what i do for the campus,.

I hunted in washington a few times.But haven't been down that way in a long time.I tend to stay hunting in alabama more now days the season works better for me and football season events.

B
 
His name is Rick Brown I believe.

Do any good over the opening weekend? My wife and I shot a doe each.
 
I think he works in the Bunger-henery building.

I didn't even get to go opening weekend.We had a stinking homecomming game and it had me tied up friday ,saturday, and sunday.The weather was nice and all i could do was see down town atlanta...i did see some nice racks but thats another storie for another time

Congrads on the kill's
 
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