I hunt in Throckmorton and we have rattlers everywhere. Killing copperheads as a child on my grandparents place in Parker County was a regular experience. Their house was on a point of a hill, about 4 acres of which was surrounded by fencing. They watered this area every day. The rest of their couple hundred acres obviously was not watered. Copperheads would visit just about every night while cooling down in the plush, damp grass. One night my grandfather killed 23 copperheads. He knew nobody would believe him so he threw all of them in a box and took them up to the dry cleaners he owned to show the patrons. We have pictures somewhere. I wish I had one with me to post.

There was also a very large snake den on the adjacent property to his, but we had complete access to it. We'd regularly have snake hunts when the family got together. All in all, hundreds of rattlers were killed out there over the years.

Interestingly, I've never seen a corral snake in the wild.

If I'm not mistaken, isn't it almost the time of year for rattlers to start breeding?

Rattlers breed in late March through April and give lifebirth in late August through September. Right smack in the middle of dove season. That's why you need to be careful where you step and put your hands during dove season. We have rattlers in an enclosure and one female just gave birth to 7 babies. Cute as a button but oh so deadly.

Would love to find a place to hunt them.All I have here is cotton moth and copper heads,

Out around our family land, we have killed tons of copper heads, I cant count the amount of times I've been walking along, looked down, only to see one of the lil bassterds sitting between my legs.

I have killed a bunch of cotton mouths as well, most if not all of these have been in the creek or in a tank somewhere. They use to be real common aruond there, but I havent seen one in a while (and I know the difference between a cotton mouth and a water snake)

As for rattlers, my uncle killed one. That is all we have seen out there.

I killed one coral snake I found one night hunting by myself as a kid. It was lying in the middle of a dirt road and took a 20ga to the face.

I have seen a few rattle snakes out around gonzales though.

i'm completely aware that 99% of the time people claim to have seen a cotton mouth, they really saw a water snake. But how do you tell the difference between the two? I've tried figuring this out but no luck.

moccasins are black. most water snakes arent. They have different shapped heads, cottonmouths are short and fat witha pointy tail, water snakes are long and slender.... once u know how to tell the difference, it wont take two seconds before u know for sure what is what.

Cool. Thanks.

The cotton mouths I have killed in Canton are not that big most are about 3 feet long and fairly big around with a bad attitude, jet black and have a cotton colored mouth and they do stink, the smaller ones will vary in color, most of the posinous snake have diamond shaped eyes except for the coral snake and they are round.

great info. thanks.

Smiling Mallard...

Is that a ball python? Nice little snakes.

Very refreshing to see someone here that has atleast some knowledge of domestic snake species. In a former life I was a co-owner of a company that imported various reptiles for research and for the production of anti-venon. We also would catch domestic species for the same purpose and do house calls for snake removal.

I've owned atleast a dozen Texas Coral snakes and all were extremely doscile. God has a twisted sense of humor giving an animal the infinite ability to kill and then making them highly unlikely to bite. This is true with most of the extremely toxic snakes, they just tend to not bite unless severely molested.

I would bet good money that I have owned just about every snake species that you are aware of, both foriegn and domestic.


Chupa

Yep, they emit a foul smell that is hard to describe but you never forget it. They are short and stubby and that white cotton mouth when they are pissed off or about to bite.