H'mmmm shoot a snake. with a gun? never would thought of that. if it is a bad snake i use a shovel and chop off its head. lets see i can remember using a hoe,a shovel,even a big stick,the heel of my boot if non poison. shoot it? never would of thunk it.
Hmmm, hit a cottonmouth with my tackle box? Nope.
Hmmm, hit a cottonmouth with my fishing rod? Nope.
Hmmm, try to step on a cottonmouth? Nope.
I killed a rattle snake one time with an empty gas can, but I had nothing else close by to use. I have also killed a few snakes with a shovel/hoe if they were handy.
I only fish small creeks and ponds on private property. I don't know about fishing lakes. Discharging a firearm out in public like that kinda bugs me.
Any way to quickly and easily dispatch a poisonous snake besides a gun? Never would have thunk it.
I grew up near, and still frequent, the woods of SE Oklahoma. There we have lots of Cottonmouth and Copperheads and quite a few Rattlesnakes. At certain times of the year Cottonmouth can be very aggressive and Copperheads are frequently downright nasty in coming after you. Not always, but I have had many experiences of this. In the yard I always just used a hoe or shovel. However, I spend a lot of time in the woods so always have a firearm of some sort with me, but rarely a hoe. I have used whatever I happened to be carrying at the time. One of my favorites for a long time was a S&W629 with CCI shotshells. That was until it took all 6 rounds to stop a particularly nasty Copperhead. There wasn't much left of him but he was still coming after me. I picked up a 3"bbl 2.5" chambered Judge not too long ago and have already used it twice this year on close proximity poisonous snakes in the deep woods. I think even if I were not thinking of snakes I would have one of these because they are just so much fun to shoot. Large shot leaves a lot of holes in a fairly close pattern but birdshot or skeet loads work great. I was also pleasantly surprised how accurate the .45 Colt's were fired from this gun. I bought a decent holster and don't even know it's there. The stainless ones seemed a little heavy but I got the lightweight model and it's great.
I've wanted a judge for a long time, but other guns always seem to find their way home with me. Where were you aiming on the snake? Seems like I can tear a snake up pretty bad if I shoot anywhere but the head and it will keep on coming. The .38spl CCI shot shells normally take 1 or 2 and the most I've ever used was 3 to dispatch a snake. (Aggressive, fast moving cottonmouth was hard to hit.)
I always aim for the head. This one was moving very fast and two shots hit it in the body. All others hit it and by the last shot there was no head to be seen. The two I've shot with the Judge, both Copperheads, took one shot each.
Did you get the 2 something inch one or the 3 inch one? I imagine a 410 shotshell would do the job.
What holster did you get? I'd like to carry my judge when I take my son, niece and nephew fishing. The gun is fairly light but it's pretty good sized. About like a 6" N frame. Probably not a lot smaller than that 629 you used to carry, maybe bigger if it was a snubbie.
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