Snakes on the range !!

[JR777]

I live in OKC, and we've had an invasion of snakes in our suburban neighborhood. Someone actually found a five foot rattlesnake in their backyard the other day, which is an extremely rare occurrence in this part of the state, especially in the city.

 

[CutBaitNBlowSh*tUp4ALivin]

is he gonna kiss that thing or is he blowing in its ear??

Pretty sure he kissed it haha

 

[okierider]

LOL, keep an eye on that boy ! He ain't right .

 

[DRC458]

And I have no problem sending them to snake hell. Especially if they cop an attitude on me.

I don't care what their attitude is. All they've got to give me is a clear shot!

Killed many of them when we had the place at Keystone. We used railroad ties for erosion control, and you wanted to be very careful moving those things. I found more than one nest of little ones, and killed as many and as fast as my flying shovel would allow. We always had kids around and we told them to NOT pick up anything they thought was a worm!

 

[Boehlertaught]

The second picture is not a dangerous snake. The first picture is a copperhead. Specifically a baby. The yellow tail tip is a babies way to bait its lunch till the snake learns to hunt.

 

[Timmy59]

Was on the range about 0620 this morning and noticed, although I wasn't going to shoot paper, I saw that there were no paper targets so I hiked over to the stat house to get a few for the other shooters.

Got about 20' from the stat house and saw a snake stretched out up against the building and when I got a little closer I could see that it was definitely a Cooperhead.....per the pic in this thread https://www.okshooters.com/threads/copperhead.315876/

and this pic from the web.
View attachment 209814


I had no desire to kill it but I wanted to at least get it away from the stat house so I walked over to the tool area and got a long handle rake to herd it along back to the wood line.

As I was herding it along I saw two other Copperheads within 20'-30' of the first around the perimeter stat hose......I think what is drawing the snakes in is that the stat house has security lights on all night and I noticed somewhere around 30 or 40 dime size frogs hopping around that are drawn to the area because the lights draw bugs and the snakes are drawn in by the frogs.

Anyway, two of the snakes herded along fairly good but one had a attitude and clamped down on the rake twice and lunged and struck at me 3 times before I got him far enough from the area surrounding the stat house.

Finally I went back to the pistol range and did what I came to the range for in the first place which was to run 50 rounds of 45ACP through my Ruger SR1911......after all the excitement and snake herding I guess I was kinda wound up because I didn't shoot all that well but still enjoyed myself.

I called the TCGC main Range Safety Officer earlier explaining what happened as he's going to send a email out to all members telling them to be extra careful at the range especially around all building that are security light lit at night.

Good to hear ya didn't kill'em.. I'm a fan of snakes and never miss an opportunity to catch and handle.. Not the venomous though..

 

[Hangfire]

The second picture is not a dangerous snake. The first picture is a copperhead. Specifically a baby. The yellow tail tip is a babies way to bait its lunch till the snake learns to hunt.

The three Copperheads I saw this morning were apparently mature and didn't have the yellow tipped juvenile tail (just changed the above pic) with a very defined triangular shaped head.

Our head RSO did send out an email to club members today warning everyone to be careful........having learned where there is a easy food source I'd be willing to bet that the snakes return tonight to dine on young frogs.

 

[Timmy59]

I may need a bit of help with this one. We captured one in the yard that I was 80% sure was a Texas Rat Snake but I'm no herpetologist, and I'm fairly colorblind. Did I catch and release a dangerous snake?
No, this beanpole isn't me, it's my fearless neighbor
View attachment 209799 View attachment 209800 View attachment 209801

LOL, your neighbor has a choke hold on'em that's not fearless.. Oklahoma is intergrade territory between TX rat and black rat.. What I catch and play with here, darker with more black rat than that 1 there which looks to have more TX rat.. TX rats have an attitude.. I had 1 just like that turn around and latch into my wrist, the lady that was near had eyes as big as pie plates, she say's it's biting you I said I know.. Been biten 1000's of times and still around to talk about it..2 bull snakes in the tractors path copulating, of course I couldn't pass up a photo shoot..

 

[okierider]

Good to hear ya didn't kill'em.. I'm a fan of snakes and never miss an opportunity to catch and handle.. Not the venomous though..

Just so you know if you start kissing em we gonna keep an eye on ya!!

 

[okierider]

Guys caught this dude in one of the apartments we are building. Took him to Draper and let him go !!