First one of the year

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jaws

I put the fun in dysfunctional
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Just under 30 inches, and 8 rattles. Wanted to stand his ground in front of the garage, he lost the argument.
 

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Did he have a lead pill for breakfast?
 
Please tell me you at least fried him up and ate him.
 
I even freak when I see a black snake, I scaaared of snakes.

Lemmie tell you a little somethin bout them black snakes. That's probably what's called an Eastern Indigo Snake. Also called the King Snake or Coachwhip. They are irridescant on top and look purple and blue in the sunlight and they are generally yellow or yellowish/white on the bottom. They get a touch over ten feet long full grown.

Now, lemmie explain why you should leave them alone. First, they are protected by local state AND federal law. Of course, that's not the real reason to leave them alone. They are immune to the venom of every poisonous snake in North America. They also EAT poisonous snakes, but they are not poisonous at all.

The reason they are protected is because back in the 30s-60s, people kept them as pets and of course, they eventually die in captivity, so their population dropped off dramatically. They are very docile snakes. If ever you could say a snake could be your "friend", the King Snake is it.

That's why I get sorta upset with people when they say stuff like "the only good snake is a dead snake". Cause if the King Snake population starts dwindling again, we'd be ate up with sho nuff bad snakes. the best thing to do is get familiar with them enough to spot a bad one. It's not hard to do. Just a little research.
 
I am a huge snake fan! I would scoop it up into a bucket and see if you can get the skin off of it, stay away from the blood though.
 
StrokerScamp,
You are right on with the exception that the King snake and the Coachwhip are two different snakes. A coachwhip, while non-venomous, can be mean as hell. Pick up a sho-nuff coachwhip. That ba$tard will beat the beJesus outa you.

On another note, I got my first of the year yesterday as well. 13 rattles and a button. A smidge over 5 1/2 feet. You see in the pic I'm holding him pretty well straight out shoulder high. About 9 inches of him still on the ground. Gonna make a nice belt. lol.
 

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This ones a prairie rattler, a big one is 4-5 feet. My brother grabed him to make a hat band. I don't shoot the Bull snakes, and I gave this one 5 min. to vacate the garage.
 
yea the King Snake is the BEST snake... they also come in stripes, black,yellow/white, and red... like a coral snake, which we have here

Some species of kingsnake, such as the scarlet kingsnake, have coloration and patterning that can cause them to be confused with the venomous coral snakes. One mnemonic rhymes to help people distinguish between the coral snake and its nonvenomous look-alikes is "Red touch yellow, kills a fellow. Red touch black, friend of Jack."

now you will also so large gopher and garden snakes, here they look really close to Diamond backs, but you can tell they are not becasue they have a smooth head, and no rattles...

Vipers as have a very visual key, the Arrow shaped head, bad news...
 
although hot snakes i stay away from... i never would kill a Kingsnake... there is one floating around here relocated it to the back yard in a brush pile..

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here is a pick of my corn snake... he acts like he has a rattle when i feed him.. his tail gets all twitchy

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my male hognose i will try to breed

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to this female

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I had a nest of four 6 inch ringnecks in the yard a few weeks ago. I've lived in the midwest for most of my life and never even heard of a ringneck snake. Got a foot-long garter snake the same day.

Growing up in Colorado, my Granddad would get a rattler or two every year. He had a pill bottle he kept the rattles in. I think the biggest in there had 17 rattles on it. Rattlers and copperheads are the only ones I would kill, but if it's a rattler, I'd have to call it a harvest, and fire up the grill :)
 
if you guys get another i sure would love to have the rattle

last year I was burning a brushpile,( left overs from the big ice storm).was setting on the tailgate having a cold one,( only one)
watching it burn,2 big rats came out of the middle of the brushpile,guess the heat was getting close, a minute later a huge black snake started comming out of the other end of the pile,he had his head above the grass-weeds which needed mowed,he kept coming out and his head went into the brush and weeds beside the creek.his head was in the creek before his tail came out of the brushpile! I set there kind of dumbfounded,I had never seen a snake that big anywhere but on T V.after the brushpile burned way down, I took a tape measure and measured the distance between the edge of the previous brush pile and the weeds in the creek, was a little over 9 feet! he was cole black all over,and his girth was bigger than a soft ball ! haven`t seen him since, but think about it every time I go back there and mow.
sorry for the length of this, bob
 
This ones a prairie rattler, a big one is 4-5 feet. My brother grabed him to make a hat band. I don't shoot the Bull snakes, and I gave this one 5 min. to vacate the garage.
I'm glad to hear this. At least you gave him a chance to run. I'm not one for killing Gods creatures for no reason but that's a dangerous situation when they're in the Garage.
 
Bullsnakes are rat/mouse killers fom hell, they rock. Rattlers have their place too, it's just not in my place. 'nough said.
 
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