Two close friends and a cold dead enemy...

Eric Blair

Eric Blair

Joined
Dec 25, 2000
Messages
868
Here we go again; today we had our first Western Diamondback of the season. He measures in at 43" and has 8 rattles. This one was VERY aggressive and actually began coming towards me when he was around 20' away. As he was on the move I managed to pop him in the side of the head with my Glock 23. Anyway, it turned out to be a nice photo op for two of my fave daily carries (Emerson 2000 Commander BTS, and Emerson La Griffe).
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Emmersnake.JPG

I hope that this topic is appropriate for this forum; my primary intent is to give any of you Westerners a heads up that it's absolutely Rattler season already. Be careful out there!


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Eric - Usual Suspect
"The best toys are the ones that you can put an eye out with."


[This message has been edited by Eric Blair (edited 05-02-2001).]
 
GOOD SHOT!

20 feet,moving target,small target size,not to mention using a handgun. sounds pretty good to me
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nice knives BTW.
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Well, I think you handled that all wrong!!! A "REAL" knife knut would have waited until the snake was at full speed and when it was just inches away is when you whip out the Emerson using the wave to open the knife in a flash. Then in one deft move you would side step and take a mighty slash causing the head to sever, and quickly wiping the blade on your pant leg, closing and pocketing your knife before the head hit the ground
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Next time do it right.



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Richard Todd - Digital knife photography
icq 61363141
My WebSite
Do your site a favor, get quality digital images!!!
New photos added!!!
 
Eric,

If you have not disposed of the carcass yet, take that Commander and cut the buttons off of him for me.

No, "buttons" is not a unique euphemism for "testicles." The rattles.

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"You are no more armed because you are wearing a pistol than you are a musician because you own a guitar." ~Jeff Cooper
And the same goes for a knife...
And, I'm a Usual Suspect.
Some of my Knives and other neat things
 
Great picture !!! We have some rattle snakes out here on the east coast, but nothing like that bad boy. Actually he's a beautiful snake.

Do me a favor if you don't mind. Post more knife pics, that just happen to include rattle snakes, and if not, maybe just send me a copy in email?
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Dark Nemesis

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Crimson Horizon
Nothing but edge baby...
dark.nemesis@home.com

[This message has been edited by Dark Nemesis (edited 05-02-2001).]
 
Good shot!!!!!!!
Good photo too...
Thanks,
smile.gif


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***
teacher
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Eric,
Nice shot.
However, on this one I agree with Richard's method.
Yeah right!
Lenny
 
Personally, I would have waited until this snake was in the middle of attacking and then, before he could bite me, I would have struck him on the side of the neck with a two handed karate chop. You know, the chop used masterfully by Captain James Kirk.
smile.gif


Or maybe, I would have hit him with a Dim Mak death touch. Yeah, that's the ticket. And now, I have to go talk to my wife, Morgan Fairchild. Yeah, that's the ticket.

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Danbo, soul brother of Rambo
 
Poor snake, I'll bet if you look back, he had a bad childhood, probably didn't eat as many rats as his siblings...
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Nice shot! I would have used the Vulcan Neck Pinch myself, now I have to get back to my girlfriend, Stephanie Powers.

Let us know how he tastes!
 
Looks like it's chili tonight!

Nice shot remind me not to make any sudden moves around you
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Good shot. I don't think I could have made the shot with my Glock. To bad you had to kill him; rattlesnakes (and other pit vipers) are really pretty cool from a herpetologist's point of view (hollow folding fangs, venom, infrared sensors, warning system (rattle), and ovoviviparous).

gm
 
"Well, I think you handled that all wrong!!! A "REAL" knife knut would have waited until the snake was at full speed
and when it was just inches away is when you whip out the Emerson using the wave to open the knife in a flash."

I actually watched a guy do this once. I was on a canoe trip. Several of us had stopped on a sand bar in the river to rest, and found we were sharing it with a rattlesnake. One guy walked over to where the snake was coiled, slowly waved a stick in front of the snake, then took a small fixed blade with his other hand and popped the snake's head off.

It was amazing. My palms still get sweaty thinking about it.

John Ownby
http://www.johnownby.com
 
Nice shot. Save the skin it looks like it would make a couple of nice sheaths
 
I can see it now - Eric's gonna have rattler heads mounted on the front grille of his truck!
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Hellava shot! One less to worry about.

The calls for rattlesnake removal are already way above normal this year in the Phoenix area, especially in north Scottsdale as residences push further into snake territory.
I read an article in the paper last summer, which said that the only company which made the antivenom was shut down for poor quality control, leaving us with the limited supply on hand. Someone is experimenting with a new method to grow it on a sheeps butt or something similar but I haven't know if it's ready. Furthermore, different types of rattlesnakes have started to inter-breed which they didn't do before. The result is that the very strong venom from the pacific rattler is spreading into formerly less venomous rattlers.

Be aware.



[This message has been edited by RKnight (edited 05-02-2001).]
 
Good shot Eric -- you managed to save the best part. I assume that by now you've removed those chunks of meat along the back, rinsed in cold water, dipped in milk, dredged in flour, and then pan fried them. I envy you.
 
GREAT SHOT! But I would have used a chainsaw
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or a Katana or if it has to be a gun an F N Minimi
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Bloody good going.

What cal is a Glock 23? 9mm?

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Wayne.
"To strive to seek to find and not to yield"
Tennyson
Ranger motto

A few useful details on UK laws and some nice reviews!
http://members.aol.com/knivesuk/
Certified steel snob!
 
A friend of mine was out catching live rattlesnakes with a guy who was an amateur herpetologist. Joe grabbed a large western diamondback by the neck and discovered that it was too strong for him to control. (Joe was about 15 at the time and only weighed around 115 pounds). He ended up killing it with his knife.

As I recall what he used to carry he probably used a dagger that he had put together from odds and ends. The blade was taken from a weird Solingen "diving knife" that had a slim dagger blade in a cork handle. The handle was hand carved out of a baseball bat shaft. The brass guard was made by slicing vertically through a round lawn sprinkler head about a quarter inch off center to opposite sides. You'd have to see it to appreciate the elegant and complex contours that the T-guard made. This is typical "Joe", he would take trash and make a treasure. Then he'd tackle a rattlesnake with it. I thought that I was doing pretty good when I killed a small rattler with my 17"-bladed Enfield bayonet (that I carried as a machete).
 
Great shot and great pic!
I'm really not surprised at the shooting though, I always seem to shoot VERY well when I'm popping a poisonous snake.
We've got rattlers here in AR, but you don't encounter them often. Lots of Copperheads though, and of course, the ones you REALLY have to watch out for, the Cotton Mouths.
Those things are the most AGGRESSIVE snake I've ever seen. I've had them actually attack my canoe on the river before. They don't survive the encounter.
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As far as the people who don't want you to shoot poisonous snakes, forget THAT!
I'll leave the harmless variety alone, but to me, a venomous snake is nothing but a little self propelled land mine.
Eliminate on discovery.

The heighth of hilarity around here, is that it is illegal for us to shoot rattlers.
As soon as they pass a law making it illegal for rattlers to bite ME, I'll listen.


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Tráceme no sin la razón, envoltura mi no sin honor
Usual Suspect
 
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