Rattlesnake posing yesterday
Contributors to this thread:Pronghorn
From: JohnMC
29-Jun-22
Found this guy yesterday while doing some antelope scouting/visiting with landowners. He was willing to pose for a few photos. We did not harm him maybe against my better judgement.
From: JohnMC
29-Jun-22
From: JohnMC
29-Jun-22
From: JohnMC
29-Jun-22
From: DanaC
29-Jun-22
Handsome guy, in a 'f* around and find out' sorta way ;-)
From: JohnMC
29-Jun-22
From: JohnMC
29-Jun-22
From: wytex
29-Jun-22
Nice pics! We've relocated more rattlers this summer, so far, than last 2 years combined.
From: JL
29-Jun-22
Beautiful pics!!
From: P&Y400
29-Jun-22
Cool photos.
From: JohnMC
29-Jun-22
Wytex where do you relocate them to? Liz Cheney's place? Or is she the snake you are talking about relocating?
From: TheGreatWapiti
29-Jun-22
Great pics John! Thanks.
From: P&Y400
29-Jun-22
Cool photos.
From: Bou'bound
29-Jun-22
gorgeous animal and photos. magnificent.
From: Brotsky
29-Jun-22
Awesome photos John! Nice work!
From: Casekiska
29-Jun-22
Thanks for not harming him. Sometimes better to take a picture & a memory than a life. Beautiful photos,..." cover pictures!"
From: JohnMC
29-Jun-22
Case us hunters normally take lives. It was no where near where I am going to have a blind come season or he would have been dead. Guess I am get soft in my middle age. I have not let many go over the years. Thanks for the complement.
From: Rgiesey
29-Jun-22
I’ve mostly let them go. Now I kill some near houses or blinds
From: APauls
29-Jun-22
Cool stuff John.
From: tm
29-Jun-22
Great pictures.
From: Beendare
29-Jun-22
I’ve found a couple like that…grin
From: TGbow
29-Jun-22
John, what species of rattler yal have in Colorado?
From: MA-PAdeerslayer
29-Jun-22
Great pictures John. You have quite the talent for photography
From: JohnMC
29-Jun-22
TG - Prairie rattlesnakes. They are relatively small. I'd guess around 3 feet. That one is typical of what I find in the area in size.
From: Casekiska
29-Jun-22
Hey JohnMC,...I was just complimenting you on the photos, not trying to make a political statement. I certainly am well aware that hunters take lives,...I've rifle and bow hunted my native Wisconsin, out west, and in Ontario,...and, at age 77, have taken numerous big game animals (the truth is, I've actually lost count of how many). I have also let plenty of animals walk. There is no shame in that, just as there is no shame in pulling the trigger. Either is an honorable outcome. Again sir, very nice photos.
From: TGbow
29-Jun-22
Ok. .we have the Diamondback and the Timber Rattler here. I've seen some so big I think they would break your leg if that struck you.
From: Bowbender
29-Jun-22
Where's Rut Nut?
From: SBH
29-Jun-22
Great pics.....I hope you don't regret your decision. Bet you'll be checking your blind extra close before you climb in!
From: cnelk
29-Jun-22
I killed this prairie rattler many years ago as it was in the old horse pen we were using. He was 54” long and I still have him on the wall
From: cnelk
29-Jun-22
I kill ‘em when I see ‘em.
From: Ironbow
29-Jun-22
They are good eating why not kill the them?
From: Ron Niziolek
29-Jun-22
Great pics John!
From: bigswivle
29-Jun-22
I “accidentally” ran over one a couple months ago. Almost 6’, 17rattles and a button.
From: bigswivle
29-Jun-22
From: t-roy
29-Jun-22
Great pics, John! Looks like you’re only a couple of feet away when you took the pics. How far away are you actually from him?
From: Oryx35
30-Jun-22
Nice pics!
Beendare, those bows are beautiful! Did you make them?
From: DanaC
30-Jun-22
T-roy, judging by the shallow 'depth of focus' I'm guessing he has a good zoom lens on his camera. And is using it beautifully ;-) Those are some great shots.
From: BULELK1
30-Jun-22
L@@king good John!
You da Photo Man,
Robb
From: hawkeye in PA
30-Jun-22
Nice pictures, I've been to close a couple of times and was very lucky. I'm to the point I'm happy not seeing them or hearing them!
From: JohnMC
30-Jun-22
Troy I was probably about 8-10 feet from it.
From: Grey Ghost
30-Jun-22
Great pics, John, and kudos for not killing it. I've killed a few that got too close to my house, because I feared for my dogs, otherwise I live and let live. I believe they serve a valuable purpose in Mother Nature's grand scheme.
Matt
From: deerhunter72
30-Jun-22
Awesome pics as always! 8-10 feet is too close for comfort for me because I don't like snakes. Would've been tough for me to let it go alive, but kudos to you for doing so! Just seeing that snake brings to mind the snake bite thread from a few years back. Can't remember who it was, but he was lucky to survive and he sure did suffer.
From: Beendare
30-Jun-22
Oryx, Those are ILF limbs. I bought the skins on Ebay and glued the skins on myself with waterproof wood glue then dusted 4 coats of matte finish poly over them- easy
It’s been about eight years on the one prairie rattler set of limbs and they’ve been through the rain and many hunts- they have held up well.
From: goelk
30-Jun-22
cnelk is that a cap & ball 32 caliber
From: SBH
05-Jul-22
Great pics.....I hope you don't regret your decision. Bet you'll be checking your blind extra close before you climb in!
From: nchunter
05-Jul-22
Great pictures. I had a farmer in southeastern Georgia ask me to kill the hogs at night that were getting in his corn field and garden. I started my walk to my treestand down a dirt road at dusk. There was eastern diamondbacks every 30 yards on that road through that cornfield. It was terrifying walk out because I had to walk blindly through about 50 yards of corn rows to get out before the dirt road. I heard rattling 2 times as I was going through. I never saw the ones making the noise. The next morning we went driving across the property. I bet the average rattler was 5 feet long and there sure was a bunch of them sunning on the asphalt roads. I told the farmer I was not crossing that corn at night ever again.
From: LBshooter
05-Jul-22
So deadly and yet beautiful at the same time. I have a set of skins waiting to go on a bow. Not such much of the attitude of killing them when I see them. Most don't need to be killed, they don't want to have contact with you any more then you want with them. Great for keeping verminous down, and let's face it, snakes do what snakes do. If your not going to eat them or use thier skins the. Let them be. Unless they are around the house , but you could relocate them.
From: badbull
05-Jul-22
John, great pictures as always. I'm a little curious what the landowners say as to whether to kill or let be. Once I had a rancher mad at me for letting one of those mean little buggers live.
From: JohnMC
05-Jul-22
Badbull most of them will kill them, but they don't seem to worried about them either. I'd say they rarely bring them up unless we do. I would guess they would be more upset about letting a coyote live.
From: Pop-r
05-Jul-22
I can't imagine seeing that thing and not killing it.
From: Will
05-Jul-22
Amazing pic's! Super cool snakes.
