Timber rattlers

[1frozenhillbilly]

totally agree sawdustmaker, i have tracked heart shot deer for over a mile, any hand gun is a last resort for a big bear, i prefer a neck breaker shot anyway, if you can sever the spinal chord you got a chance and frankly the first shot is into the ground to let it know what i am and that i'm gonna cause a hurt if i hafta all of this is hypothetical anyway, i'm not going looking for a bear or a rattlesnake if i can help it happy new year y'all and keep having fun

[Fishing-Nut]

I know this topic is pretty old. But I found it interesting. Where I am from we are OVERLOADED with timber Rattlers. AKA cane breaks. I'm 29 years old and have caught hundreds and hundreds of them. (Foolishly I'll admit) but when you grow up in the sticks sometimes boredom will make you do things that you wander about. Anyway, I particularly found the part about the snakes not rattling anymore very interesting. I have dealt with tons of them that didn't ever make a sound, even after coiling up and striking a few times. They all did eventually start rattling at me. But the whole thing about rattling before biting simply isn't true. Also I am in agreement with the person who spoke on the fact that the snakes that rattle get killed by man, and therefore that snake gets culled from the gene pool. Just like some people will fight and some people will sit there and remain quiet. Some snakes are more prone to rattle than others. And whether fortunate or unfortunate, more times than not that snake dies. Also I do not believe that here in Georgia the snakes have learned to hide from wild hogs by not rattling. Even though it is a fact that a wild hog absolutely loves to eat a snake, I just don't think that the snakes not rattling is there way of hiding from them. I think that falls back to the strong instinct to rattle has been culled out throughout the years. I have been wrong before though. Just like this.......my wife and I do feral hog removal, we use dogs (and other methods) to catch hogs. The old timers talk about how it used to be so easy to catch hogs, they'd stand still and "bay up" just about every time. It was the hogs natural instinct to stand his ground and fight. Now throughout the years the hogs that stood around to fight are dead and have not passed on those genes. Most of the hogs we deal with will run for miles and miles. And it is pretty hard to catch a lot of hogs in a trap. Because the ones that are "dumb" (I use that term loosely because hogs are rediculously smart) enough to enter a trap get killed. What I'm getting at is that over the years we are essentially creating a smarter animal, and unknowingly manipulating their genetics. These are just my opinions. And before anybody smacks me around for hog hunting I'd love to show you the damage these things do. I've seen Farmers in tears, crops absolutely destroyed, newborn livestock literally eaten alive, and the list goes on and on. In order to just "maintain" a healthy balance in nature that involves feral hogs, 70% of them need to be killed every year. That's a fact. So Trust me when I tell you that a wild hog isn't something you just want to leave alone because it's a "part of nature". Some things just don't work like that.

[eltalia]

>I know this topic is pretty old. But I found it interesting.

Myself also FN... I learnt teener rattlers have no rattlle!
A onetime "snake catcher" - in a past life - I supplemented my lowly scholarship 'income' with
doing "Joe Blake"(snake) removals and selling the creatures to enthusiasts. All highly illegal
Down Under today without not easy to get G'mnt permits. Crippled for the purpose of those
outdoor activities I still hold a wonder for our scaly friends and actively encourage others to
leave them well alone.
I cannot offer any insight into the evolutionary behavior being brought up other than pass on
lhe observance feral pig numbers in this Country having exploded - attributed largely to a long
held 1080 baiting of our dingo - the number of 4x4s now kitted out for pig hunting is way over
the few one saw around back when I was your age and out hunting them every other weekend
- pigs at dawn/twilight, bees after breakfast ;-)
One trusty companion is still at it today despite some ailments. He was always the fittest of our
small group and the local 'inventor' of hobbles and breastplates, necessary as we ate a lot of
what we caught and a dog tusked/hit in the chest was a common injury which layed a dog low
for anything up to a month. We dogged all our pigs, no guns, no traps, and yeah, a bevy of
"luggers" who would pull a pig up inside of a 1/4 mile.
I still today breed a line as these creatures are the most gentle of dogs around us humans and
yet held in such awe by the unknowing they are the best of "guard dog" one could feed.

Thanks for the education on rattlers, a snake the movie industry has us all afar greatly afeared
of maracas[1] to this very day ;-)))

Cheerio....

Bill

--
[1]

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fUgj-aL6EXg

[Fishing-Nut]

Eltalia , I read a lot of stuff on the Aussie way of hog dogging. I do it a lot different, but I do enjoy reading about what works for other people. A friend of mine got some pups from me and sent them to Australia for a guy to use on hogs. I was extremely interested to see how they turned out but unfortunately lost contact with the person before any information could be passed back to me. I do like the style and the breeding behind what is commonly used in Australia. The lurchers, finder holders, bull Arabs, or luggers as you called them. A big leggy dog with a ton of speed that finds and catches the hog. Mainly sight hounds. I like the concept. But I hunt mostly thick woods and swamps. We rarely ever see the pigs. Therefore I use a scent dog that will pick up a trail. Not hounds though. I don't want them taking a day old track. I breed and raise black mouth curs. I like a dog that will take a track of no more than 5 or 6 hours old. My style of dog will only bite the hog if it's running. When the hog stops to fight the dog will back up and bark.. with the gps collars on the dogs we can get to them in a hurry with the bulldog. Or catchdog as we call them. That's a quick run down of how I do it. I do have friends though that cross bulldogs into their scent dogs and refer to them as running catch dogs. I must admit that they catch a lot of hogs, but they also spend a lot of money on vet bills and lots of down time letting dogs heal. That's why I don't go that route. A wild hog can do some damage rather quickly. If your dog is hanging off of a hogs ear and it takes you 30 minutes to get there it's not going to be good most of the time. I like my dogs more than most hunters do anyway. When one gets hurt I feel pretty bad about it and usually the dog sleeps in the house until it's ready to hit the woods again. Then it's back to the kennels. Hahaha.

[Ben Framed]

i grew up on southern CA.  rattlesnakes and black widow spiders were just a fact of life.  we learned young where to step and where to put our hands!

but...years ago, in an effort to pacify the loons in CA, Camp Pendleton became a nature preserve.  nothing could be killed except the mice unless there was no other choice.  military even assigned snake wranglers to be called in to relocate snakes that were a problem.  pretty soon, snakes were a problem everywhere.  i don't know that anything has changed there.
 it did become a distraction.  we were more concerned about the constant rattling in the brush, than with the big gunny that was going to stomp on us if we messed up the exercise.

so...live and let live....up to a point.... ;)

Jerry Clower told a few years ago of a rattlesnake roundup somewhere in Texas. They had the cruelty to animals people there to make sure they killed the snakes right. Mr. Clower ask the animal rights guy;  Fellow How can you kill a rattlesnake wrong!!!  ??  😬

[The15thMember]

An interesting thread, especially the discussion about how rattlesnakes seem to be rattling less due to natural selection.  We see rat snakes all the time on our property and occasionally garters, but we saw our first timber rattler this past summer.  It was the first time I'd ever seen a pit viper in the wild.  It was pretty big and definitely scary looking.  There is just something about the eyes of a venomous snake that makes your blood run cold.       

[Ben Framed]

I have never seen a wild rattler here, but we have plenty of cottonmouths and copperheads.... I don't like running across either.

[The15thMember]

I have never seen a wild rattler here, but we have plenty of cottonmouths and copperheads.... I don't like running across either.

Cottonmouths are more rare here.  From what I've heard, they like water, and our streams are generally too swift for them, although I have seen common water snakes in slow moving water before.  We have copperheads, but I've never seen one.  Supposedly one of the guys who put up a fence for us a couple years ago saw one on our property, but I'm not totally sure he knew what he was talking about.  I saw a baby rat snake last year who I mistook for a copperhead briefly.  Apparently baby rat snakes have dark patches like a copperhead both for camouflage and for mimicry, but upon close inspection, they are easily distinguishable by their round heads, unlike the pit vipers' triangular ones.   

[Ben Framed]

Copperheads are not very easy to see in fresh fallen (Fall) leaves. Their colors blend in really well....

Cottonmouths are very common here, you can find them in any creek, ditch, pond or lake in my area. They are not limited to just these areas, though these spots seem to be their favorite places to hang out... You might however, see one just anywhere, here...

[Ben Framed]

An interesting thread, especially the discussion about how rattlesnakes seem to be rattling less due to natural selection.  We see rat snakes all the time on our property and occasionally garters, but we saw our first timber rattler this past summer.  It was the first time I'd ever seen a pit viper in the wild.  It was pretty big and definitely scary looking.  There is just something about the eyes of a venomous snake that makes your blood run cold.       

Regan have y'all ran across any more timber rattlers since that one you found a couple years ago??

[The15thMember]

Regan have y'all ran across any more timber rattlers since that one you found a couple years ago??

No, we have not.  But we do see a lot of black snakes.  And our compost usually has earth snakes in it, and we always pick them up and hold them when we find them.  We also saw a northern water snake at the lake last week.  It almost came in for a swim with us!   

[Ben Framed]

i just love Alaska! mostly if its gonna bite you its big enough you cn see it coming :D

Yeah, but if it bites you it drags you off and eats you!!!!!  :-D

Ed

 

[Ben Framed]

The15thMember
It almost came in for a swim with us!   

Well, he could have had the swimming hole as far as my part would have been concerned if I
had been there!  lol.