Rusty Bowtie
Miscellaneous => Outdoors Area: Hunting, Fishing, Firearms, Camping, Hobbies, Videos etc => Topic started by: sixball on May 30, 2021, 05:42:32 PM
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I was headed out to where the frame is stashed to check if a new tool will help with the rivet holes and was greeted by a 32" rattler. Funny thing is that Wednesday I took the dog we got last summer to a rattle snake avoidance class. She did well but evidently I should have payed closer attention. :) It is good they make noise because I was headed to the big weed it was hiding under to pull it. That would not have worked out with a quiet poisonous snake. :o This guy was more aggressive than most of the ones we have here.
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They are protected here in NY! Another crazy thing is that if you find any gold in NY..it belongs to the state!
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Glad he gave you a rattle, some folks around here said they have been struck at with out a warning last couple years. Been lucky here yet, no sighting since last fall across the alley. They seem to move into town towards the end of july when it gets hot and dry.
Several weeks ago i got startled by the biggest Blue Racer i have ever seen. He was just shy of 6', i was mowing and came face to face as he was chilling on a low branch of the tree. Couple weeks ago another showed up, it was right at 4' and very fast 😁 I told the neighbors so they wouldn't freakout when they came across them.
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At my grandsons" baseball games last week i spotted a good sized gopher snake. I was amused at how many people it crawled by who never saw it.
Our Great Basin rattle snakes are usually pretty timid. This one was ticked of for some reason. It may have been sleeping and I was pretty close what it woke up.
Nevada's gold discovery site is about 5 miles away and they were digging here by 1850. We can pretty much keep the gold we find but the gold deposits here are not usually the coarse dust and nuggets like California. Much of it is the microscopic stuff mined mostly by big Canadian companies. Neither the State or the Country gets any of it. They have a good lobby.
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Snake's whooo they cause me to hurt myself trying to get away, Seen the skin off a a black snake while mowing next to the trees on the back off my lot, I know he's in there somewhere I'm sure hes eating the field mice.
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#2 About 10 yards from yesterday's. About the same size but it was running in stealth mode. The rattles are broken off with only the newest one and the one before it. Didn't make any noise. The older dog was with me, the one that has been bitten 3 times. She picks them up pretty quick now and saw this one before it saw us. She made a quick stop and backed up and sniffed at the same time than looked at me as if to say, "Well, the gun is in your hand use it!" and got behind me. It was coiled with it's head down. I couldn't get a clear head shot. I blew it up too bad to skin it. I think I'll move the frame to a less snake spot. I got the Rust Doctor on almost the whole frame. I need to clean the places where I tried the WD 40 and Mystery oil. I'll reload the gun and try to get pictures of it tomorrow. :)
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I guess that's one of the good things about living in an urban area, the only snake I see around my way is the garden snake. No threat there. And as far as finding gold? ....only in a safe deposit box ;D But, if I did find gold you know I would turn it over to the government, riiiight......
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And this morning #3. The biggest yet a little over 3' 8 rattles, under the tractor. All about 30 yards apart and 20 to 50 yards from the house. One of my friends was upset because I discarded the others and placed his order for the rest. He tried to convince me of how good they taste. He is wrong but welcome to them.
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#4 this morning. Just when I was thinking it was safe to leave the house. ;D My wife discovered another 3 footer on her way to the car to go shopping. It was about 20 feet from the back door. This will make two that I've cleaned and frozen for a friend who wants to make some rattle snake chili. I'll skin 'em and clean 'em but I won't eat 'em. ::)
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My brother is on 6 i believe. 4 adults and 2 babies that showed up in his shop🤯 He dosen't like killing them, but can't have them at the house or shop. Too many grandkids and pets around. He leaves them alone on the outskirts of his property.
His latest one last weekend. Looks like the same as yours Sixball.
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He is ahead of me and I hope he stays there. This is a contest I don't mind loosing. I'll call it off now if he will. :D I don't like the babies they just bite. I don't like killing them either and don't do it if they are not where we and the dogs have to be. The rodents they eat cause a lot of damage and carry Hantavirus and Bubonic Plague. At least the rattlers sound a warning. I have to move my activities up to the springs next week to get the fire system fully operational. We'll see who's hiding up there. :o
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I don't want any part of that contest :o
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Rattlesnake chili? I'll just stick to ground beef in mine. I'm down the Jersey shore for the summer running my miniature golf and ice cream shop. I found one problem down here....mice. I'm not big on killing any animal unless they get in my way, and these mice are in my way. I set 4 traps with peanut butter and they picked them clean! I reset them. Picked them clean again! I'll try a different bait that they have to tug on........at least I don't have rattlesnakes, that's one good thing about the city I guess.
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But...."Tastes like Chicken"🥴 Well, i'll just have the Chicken😁
Those mice can be tricky to catch sometimes. Get yourself a good female mouser cat. I've seen lots of business' use those to keep mice down. Most customers like petting the "House Cat".🙂
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Haha! Me too, if I want something that tastes like chicken I will just eat chicken. A cat might be a solution but then I have to take care of it, traps only cost $1.00 ::)
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When i bought and moved in my Trailer house in '82, it had sat empty for 2yrs previous. Full of mice, they kept evading the trap triggers. Borrowed my brothers female (Siamese mix), in 2 days she had it cleared out. She had her fill of eats, and left a big pile of dead ones.
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Taste like chicken my ass! Maybe chicken that has been eating frogs and sardines. If it lives on land and has no legs I'm not eating it.
We had barn cats in Texas but we also had very few quail or cottontails. We had a Manx here as our first cat and she drug home jackrabbits bigger than her. There were no rodents in the house though. The next one was good too but she went out one day and never came home. The cat we have now was never a good mouser. She is old now and doesn't even pay much attention to them. I think she is a Democat! ;D
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Rattlesnake chili? I'll just stick to ground beef in mine. I'm down the Jersey shore for the summer running my miniature golf and ice cream shop. I found one problem down here....mice. I'm not big on killing any animal unless they get in my way, and these mice are in my way. I set 4 traps with peanut butter and they picked them clean! I reset them. Picked them clean again! I'll try a different bait that they have to tug on........at least I don't have rattlesnakes, that's one good thing about the city I guess.
Get yourself a black snake he will make you a nice effective mouse trap
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No snakes or cats, just a good old snap trap, I'm just baiting it wrong. I thought about glue traps, but that's a little too cruel.
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No snakes or cats, just a good old snap trap, I'm just baiting it wrong. I thought about glue traps, but that's a little too cruel.
Been there with the glue traps they squeal a lot
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#5 This evening. On my way to the Poultry Palace to put the chickens to bed I saw this one before it saw me. My rattlesnake mode is kicking in. ::) It was up on the rim of the plastic tank I made to soak the frame about a foot off the ground right in the edge of the machine shed. Stretched out straight just a little shy of 3'. I wonder if the glue traps would work for the snakes, I don't care how loud they scream. ;D
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If they taste like chicken, maybe he was on his way to the palace to hang out with them ::)
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If they taste like chicken, maybe he was on his way to the palace to hang out with them ::)
Good idea...chicken wings up here in NY are going for at least $1 each!
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Rattlesnakes would be a real pain in the ass if they had wings. :o
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I'm sure he was looking for something to eat
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Mean buzzing' even half dozen! #6 this morning in the chicken pen to greet me this morning.
Another 3 footer amazing how they are all the same size. I cleaned the chicken house yesterday and displaced several mice. This snake has 6 recognisable mice in her all lined up head first. You can tell it is a female because her body thins down in the tail section. That's where th boys pack their stuff. ;D
After I got inside and was calming down with a cup of coffee the dogs started in with their "Dad come and check this out panic mode barking". Thinking it was another snake I grabbed the pistol and headed out to dispatch it. It turned out to be what I would estimate to be a 500-600 pound bear about 20 yards from the house. It trotted over the hill to the springs on the other side. It took the dogs a while to calm down. I imagine they were nose to nose with it. They've been sticking close to the porch the rest of the morning with an occasional bark to let the bear know they are not following it. ::). No bear pictures, sorry.
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You've kinda got a homestead invaision going on, Rattlers and Bears🤯 Too bad they are not just a mess of Bullsnakes. I had a 7 footer hang around here for years, pretty mellow fella. Use to pick him up and move him if i were going to mow. My buddy Tom was scared of him, I swear he use to pop out just to scare Tom😁
Lastnight i took Rowdy out to pee before i went to bed. We came back and just as we stepped off the sidewalk to grass, a frog jumped up and hit him in the lower chest. Lol... he jumped and had know idea what hit him. Two steps later he stepped on a Garter snake,(probably after the frog). He jumped straight up like a bucking bronc😁 Yanked me to the backdoor, pulled me in. Took me several minutes to get the leash off him under the table😆
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Dogs are as good as it gets! When I went down to see what the barking was about the younger boxer/pointer just headed for the porch. The border collie/pit bull came with me to show me what was bothering her. She was a bit cautious but I knew right off it wasn't how she acts with snakes. By then the bear had crossed the road and was in the brush heading up the hill. She was barking but not chasing. I was thinking mountain lion then I saw the bear. I didn't want to chase it either. ;D
We have Gopher snakes here. They mimic rattlesnakes as a defense. They can flatten and widen their heads, do a hissing and tail shaking in dry weeds that sounds like a rattler, coil and actually strike. I have been bitten by them many times while catching them. Sadly that trait has led to many newcomers to think they are facing a rattler and kill it. Then they tell their newcomer friends they just killed a rattle snake without rattles. Another suburban myth is born. I did kill a rattlesnake with no rattles several years ago. I don't know what the story is there. I bring every gopher, king, & garter snake I find home. I brought a 6 footer home a couple of weeks ago. Sometimes its tough carving an empire out of the wilderness. ::)
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When my wife and I first got married we lived in an old farm house along with a 6 1/2 ft black snake he was a great mouse trap
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#7 this morning. I heard it last night when I went out to put the chickens to bed but couldn't see it. Then it went quiet so I left. It was cool last night from a little rain so I thought it might be sunning it's self this morning. It was out but too fast for me and got back into the barn. I could hear it so I started moving stuff. Finally located under a pallet with some windows on it. All I could see was the necks I stuck the gun in almost touching it. She lost a few inches on the head end and only measures 32". A fat girl full of mice like the last one. I called Leroy and told him to hold off on the chili because I had another donation. I finished my window trim.
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My brother just got his 7th. Wife spotted it this morning, he wasn't quick enough, just his tail heading in the rocks of the new yard pond. He had to go to work, couldn't mess with snake. Got home, it was still in there. Put a couple gopher gas bombs in there, nothing but frogs came out in 30mins. He was talking to me on the phone when the rattler came out. He got him, little guy about a 2 footer.
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I spent the day cleaning out a very rodent friendly part of the barn. No snakes but the pit bull had fun with the mice. She was busy. I removed some brush and weeds too. I'm hoping some clean up will help. Mostly I think the dry weather is moving everything into the springs. I know the water is why I'm here. :)
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My only problem, or so I thought, was mice. I put out traps and 2 or 3 kept getting picked clean but never tripped. I started to closely watching the traps.....ants! Ants were cleaning the traps. I took away the mouse traps and put down ant bait ::)
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There's always something. ;D
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I ran across this old thread from last year. I wound up killing 7 rattle snakes in the less than 100 yards between the house and the chicken house/barn last June. I only heard one more but didn't get a shot. Here we are approaching mid July and I have seem only one snake. It was a 3' gopher snake stuck in the chicken wire inside the chicken house. I freed it and turned it loose on the barn. I did some rodent reduction work and and scattered some rodent repellant. It seems to have helped a lot.
I need to shoot some ground squirrels. I have about 1/2 dozen that greet me each morning when I toss some grain to the quail.
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My only problem, or so I thought, was mice. I put out traps and 2 or 3 kept getting picked clean but never tripped. I started to closely watching the traps.....ants! Ants were cleaning the traps. I took away the mouse traps and put down ant bait ::)
Sticky pads, cruel but effective
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Sticky pads for the rodents or snakes? ::)
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Rodents. We lived in an old farmhouse for a couple years. In the fall and winter months the mice would move in and stay until spring. It wasn't unusual to catch 3or4 mice a night sometimes, one spring I thought I had caught them all, until I found a 6.5ft black snake in the kitchen drawer. he was the best mouse trap until my wife made me get him out :)I
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Snakes are great rodent control. The poison ones make me nervous. :o When I was a kid in Texas there was a huge bull snake in our cellar. We had very few mice & no rats but my mom would not go down there to get the home canned food stored there. I caught a packrat in a trap in the house last week. My wife didn't like that. She was glad I caught it but not that it was in the house. Our cat is useless for rodent control and pretty much anything else.
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The first one of this year was there to greet me this morning when I opened the door to the barn. 30" inches with 7 rattles. I had to go back to the house for the gun. I kind of blew it up a bit with a quick shot because it was headed toward some new solar panels. I'll skin it but Leroy won't get any meat. ::) This is at least a month and a half later than last year's start. I think the barn cleaning & rodent repellant has helped. I think if I had found this guy in my garden I might have left it. Rodents are giving me fits there. :(
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My brother is only on 3 so far, one was waiting for him in the shop. He text me last month he was in the dog house with the wife. Said he killed one, gutted it out and wrapped it up in waxpaper and threw it in the shop freezer till he had time to skin and process the meat. He forgot about it.
Below is the first text he sent😁
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My wife doesn't like them in the freezer either. Many years ago I killed one with no rattles, sort of a local legend around here, and kept it intact in the freezer for several years. I tried to contact a local expert several times to have him look at it but finally tossed it for some domestic peace. ::)
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I got earthworms in my yard ;D
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;D