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Post by sixshot on Feb 14, 2016 17:45:55 GMT -5
I read a while back where a guy stated that a big rattlesnake could strike hard enough to break a man's leg, is that possible. I always thought snakes hit fast but rather soft so they didn't damage their fangs, whats the true story here. I've been around a lot of ratlesnakes in my life, more than I wanted to be but I've never been bitten, just wanted to know if that was a true story or not. Sounded a little far fetched to me. Same guy said a big cast bullet would glance off a black bears skull if it were charging, I know the answer to that one! Laughing!
Dick
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KRal
.375 Atomic
Posts: 1,063
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Post by KRal on Feb 14, 2016 17:59:33 GMT -5
This sounds like a feller that would believe that bullets rise. I've been struck by a big cottonmouth and if I had t been looking at it, I wouldn't have known it. It hit my leather boot...I figured it was hungry, so I feed it a big stick. Maybe rattlesnakes have some kind of super power.
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rgp
.30 Stingray
Posts: 244
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Post by rgp on Feb 14, 2016 19:25:19 GMT -5
I read a while back where a guy stated that a big rattlesnake could strike hard enough to break a man's leg, is that possible. I always thought snakes hit fast but rather soft so they didn't damage their fangs, whats the true story here. I've been around a lot of ratlesnakes in my life, more than I wanted to be but I've never been bitten, just wanted to know if that was a true story or not. Sounded a little far fetched to me. Same guy said a big cast bullet would glance off a black bears skull if it were charging, I know the answer to that one! Laughing! Dick Get some doctors from South Texas to chime in on this. When I lived there, a broken or fractured shin was a fairly common result of being struck by a large rattler.
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Post by magman on Feb 14, 2016 20:11:51 GMT -5
Well I hope to never find out.
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Post by perterra on Feb 14, 2016 20:22:59 GMT -5
Thats a new one on me, I've been around them my whole 58 years and never heard it. I've seen some pretty big western diamondbacks and cant recall one that felt over 5 or 6 lbs. Maybe if you got bad osteoporosis it could happen. If it could hit hard enough to break a leg, it could drive a fang clean thru snakeboots,
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Post by contender on Feb 14, 2016 20:46:00 GMT -5
The biggest sub-species is the Eastern Diamondback. I have personally held one that weighed over 30 lbs. A female. A head as big as my fist, and with a nose width of about 1-1/2" across. Caught it in Florida several years ago. We have pics somewhere of our Ranger milking it. Now,, as for one breaking a leg. I'd say it's highly unlikely,,, but not totally impossible. A frail person, a large snake, the angle of the hit, and the bone which gets hit. Kinda like getting struck by lightning. Very unlikely,,, but maybe on that rare occasion.
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Post by sixshot on Feb 15, 2016 0:30:51 GMT -5
I figured Tyrone would know, it just seems weird that a rattler would hit that hard. I've watched them strike prey on high speed cameras on TV & it looks like they know exactly how far to reach & don't really hit hard.
Dick
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Post by bulasteve on Feb 15, 2016 8:46:55 GMT -5
When in the "blind", would guess their depth perception is gonna be off some. Terminal balistics says..well, we know they are fast, x enough weight/mass in the head, I think it is possible, but yeah, gonna be rare. Likely the snake would incur some damage too then.
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Post by BigBore44 on Feb 15, 2016 8:47:27 GMT -5
I'd think it would cause a heck of a head/toothache for the rattlesnake. Sounds like a job for the Myyth busters to me BigBore44
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Post by contender on Feb 15, 2016 9:19:57 GMT -5
I have a friend who at one time was collecting as many of the subspecies of rattlers as he could. He had 11 or 12 of them,, including a mated pair of Westerns, (Who had babies 4 times) and a nice example of an Eastern. His eastern was almost 18 lbs when he decided he could no longer trust his ADHD son to NOT fool with them. We had a heck of a snake killing & cooking. Still that Eastern was a big one compared to all the others. He called me to help him with his snakes,,, as he knew I could safely deal with them, as we dispatched them.
This thread got me to thinking. So I did a search about the Eastern diamondback. According to what I found,, one of the heaviest ever recorded was about 36 lbs. Now,,, my post about one over 30 lbs is not fiction, but what the Ranger said who kept this one after we caught it. I do NOT think he ever actually weighed it,,, but that his weight estimate was exactly that,,, an estimate. Still I did hold it & she was a HEAVY snake. But the one my buddy had,,, in captivity, where all it did was eat & sleep,,, we did weigh after it was dead. His was big,,, but not as big as the one we caught in the central Fl swamps. Now I'm going to have to see if I can find that pic of Paul & the big one.
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Post by perterra on Feb 15, 2016 10:42:58 GMT -5
I went to a lecture not long ago that discussed snakes in depth, very interesting creatures. Never realized that the western diamondback in Texas (not sure of other states) can carry a combination of neurotoxins and hemotoxins, with some snakes in west Texas exhibiting one over the other.
Also the herpetologist stated that the average poisonous snake bite victim across the country was a drunk, middle age white guy. He said though it wasnt documented he suspected it involved the start of deer season and was usually accompanied by the words, hold my beer.
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Post by bulasteve on Feb 15, 2016 12:16:50 GMT -5
Contender had me at "& cooking". Just need another skillet of fired taters n onions. Taste ? For me, somewhere between frog legs and scallops, a good place to be. My wife would be reaching for her garlic powder, I'd be reaching for the sweet chili sauce.
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Post by contender on Feb 16, 2016 10:18:41 GMT -5
Yep,,, cooked rattler is quite good! I've had it on several occasions. But NONE like the time we dispensed with my buddies collection of them. I took some antelope to throw on the grill for the folks who wouldn't try the snake! And the bigger ones have more meat!
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Post by MackaySagebrush on Feb 18, 2016 18:55:43 GMT -5
It is a little known fact that both non poisonous and poisonous snakes can kill at a distance around here. Snakes are fully capable of giving me a heart attack, just by surprising me....
They can also make a grown man scream like a teenage girl in a horror movie....
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Post by contender on Feb 19, 2016 10:33:04 GMT -5
Spoken due to experience?
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