Sweetwater Texas
Small Game
Has anyone been to the rattlesnake roundup in Sweetwater? If so, have you been on a half day hunt to look for snakes? Is there a particular outfit you would recommend? Thanks in advance.
I’d love to hunt for Timber rattle snakes here in New England but just for the thrill of the hunt as they are rare but no way would I ever kill one. Not really a fan of the Texas roundup but to each their own I guess.
I've been to it probably a half dozen times through the years.
It's really hard to describe. Kind of like a small town carnival atmosphere built around a commercial snake catching event. Lots of people LOTS of snakes to see Carnival type food. Gun and knife show. BBQ Cook off. Very Unique
Id pass on the $75 snake hunt. To many people in each group. That's just me but I catch lots of rattle snakes every year.
Do a search on the event and the videos that you find will give you a feel for the crowds etc.
If you do go make hotel reservations early Sweetwater is not very big and not near anything 1.5 hr from Lubbock, 50 min from Abilene and 2.5 hr from Fort Worth
Pm if you have any other questions
What does rattlesnake taste like, like chicken?...8^)
Whitemeat. Tastes like Rattle snake. Light flavor. Most people fry it andis good if a light batter is used. We take ours and strip all the meat off the bone and use it like crab meat as a topping for wedge salad etc or in sauces for topping fish, chicken, beef
RK, Sweetwater is close, that is a Texas close, to Midland, Odessa. Lots of newer hotels near the ball park (Rockhounds AA afiliate of Oakland).
Terry
What are "nope ropes"...
Curious, do they kill all the rattlers they catch?
Z, nope ropes are any kind of snake(at least to me). Think buzzworm ;)
When I think of a buzzworm, the worm at the bottom of a Mezcal bottle comes to mind...8^)))
Coyote
115 mikes to midland Odessa and good luck getting a hotel there, due to the oil boom. Air service to Lubbock and Midland more reliable
If I were planning to go I would make a reservation in Abilene now.
I would like to experience it before it’s shut down by the humaneiacs.
Do it TMac ! But I would stay in Sweetwater. Does not cost anything to make reservations now and if you don't go cancel them. Sweetwater has a La Quinta Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Hampton Inn and others. It has enough restaurants for eating in and take out places
Fly to DFW then either rent a car or fly American eagle to Abilene and rent a car.
It will eventually get cancelled and that's to bad
Just curious……………..do they kill most of the snakes or just bag them and then release them after the roundup?
Rut-nut.
Majority killed. Parted out for venom, meat, skins to make rattlesnake products. A few get sold alive for various purposes. It's been going on since the fifties.
Would think a bunch of people find and keep every rattler they find there wouldn't be many left for seed, but if it's been going on that long , I guess not...
Renewable resource
So much so that the heat the roundup catches from the ECO people is not about how many they catch but how they flush them from there dens. Small amount of gasoline to produce fumes in the den and snakes leave to get away from it. Snag em when they come out. They get some flack about numbers but they have stayed the same for decades
Other rattlesnake roundups in other states like Pennsylvania limit the amount that can be caught. But those are Eastern Diamondbacks and there are not as many of them.
They have another roundup in South Texas at the town of Freer. Not as big as the Sweetwater event. In 23 one of the handlers was bitten in the neck and died in the helicopter in route to trauma center in Corpus Christi
Well, IMHO that is good that they kill most of the snakes(or do NOT return them to the wild) in Texas.
In Pa we have several big snake roundups every year and I hear a lot of the snakes get bagged and then released back into the wild after they are weighed, measured and recorded. A rattlesnake expert from Penn St. is now saying they believe the snakes that are released are being conditioned NOT to rattle(and get caught) and over time, may even be imprinting their offspring genetically with that trait. With all the Marcellas Shale gas drilling recently in Northern Pa and construction of pipelines they are disturbing/encountering a lot of rattlesnakes. BTW- these are TIMBER Rattlesnakes- there are NO Diamondbacks in PA. Timber Rattlers are notorious for NOT rattling and although not scientific, my own observations and talking to people who have had encounters in the last 6 years since my unfortunate incident, seem to back that up! I’ve only seen 2 in the wild in PA and neither one rattled. And 9 out of 10 people I have talked to over the years say the rattler they encountered NEVER rattled.
So in my opinion, every snake caught should be killed and used for something. (Instead of putting them back AND conditioning them NOT to rattle.) In Pa you can hunt them with a license/tag and can kill one per season.(per licensed hunter) At that rate I doubt it would endanger the species………………
As long as there are fast cars and slow possums, I won't be eating any snakes....
Where are these PA rattlesnake round-ups, never heard of them before...
It’s my opinion Timber rattlers don’t rattle as much because their climate is cool enough that many times they are “sunning” when you walk up on them. Trying to draw heat from ground. As, in they are colder and lethargic. And, it’s also why you find them in and around rocks and rock piles and row fences from old homesteads so often.
Now, on most mid July through the end of August days, on any given normal temp day, they will rattle at you like you’d expect.
That’s here at about 3000’ elevation in southern WV. Rattlesnakes in PA might act very different. I’ve seen them up there cruising timber and never had one rattle at me. But, I suspect it was based on temperature.
I don't want anything to do with a rattler..or cottonmouth for that matter..lol
Z-bone- 2 of the more popular ones are in Morris, Pa and Noxen, Pa. I think there are a couple smaller ones too. I’ve never been to one though.
WV- that’s an interesting theory, but not so sure that’s the reason. Timber Rattlers have a HUGE home range from Florida all the way up into Southern New England. BIG difference in climate……………. And both of the rattlers I encountered were in July. Most people I have talked to that spotted one were in the Summer also.
I just looked it up- 2 more I found are at Sinnemahoning Pa(Cameron county) and Lock Haven Pa(Clinton County)
Well, I don’t like this at all! : (
Not a timber. But we ate him.
Rut, it’s not as complicated to me as I think you are making it. We are dealing with a reptile. It’s not a monkey. Or even a dumb dog. It’s a lizard without legs.
I mean no disrespect. But, There’s a reason they are a different species from other rattlesnakes. And, the environment has made them that way.
Maybe I’m wrong. But, its brain is pretty small. I think they use every bit of it responding to their environment versus breeding out rattling genetics.
Not being a wise guy but, we don’t agree. And, that’s A ok with me. Just discussing. I find everything about them interesting.
I agree with you to some extent. But being conditioned to elicit a specific behavior does not mean the animal is intelligent.
And I believe it is just a theory at this point- I don’t believe anyone(including the rattlesnake expert from PSU) has done any studies so far. It’s just some observations of snake behavior.
I think it is interesting and a little concerning……………….especially since I just discovered that both of the big rattlesnake roundups in PA return all snakes (alive) to where they were found. In essence, conditioning them over and over to NOT rattle. NOT a good thing IMHO!
BTW, I didn’t take your post as being a wise guy! Nothing wrong with discussing different viewpoints or opinions respectfully…………………………
Been to the rattlesnake hunts in Waynoka OK. It's a blast, a carnival just like RK says! Also went on a day hunt with a friend in TX. No event or anything, just a day spent driving around gassing dens and exploring the TX landscape. Very enjoyable!
How many people get bit at these events every year?
In ‘22 at the Freer tx round up a handler was bit and died but from what I can find it’s infrequent. These events days are numbered and is something I would like to attend before they are gone.
Not sure Drew, but my toxicologist said people that handle snakes and get bit usually only get bit once………………(then quit! ;-)
A guy that works in a sport shop that I frequent several times a year asked me one day about my “incident.” When he found out how much my medical bills were he asked his insurance agent if he would be covered if bitten. His agent told him yes, UNLESS he was HUNTING them. He would regularly hunt them every summer and had pics all over the bulletin board of him with Timber rattlers. He never hunter them after that!
I agree with WV on this one Rut. I worked on Ft. Stewart, GA as a wildlife biologist for a decade and Timber rattlers were probably the most common snake I encountered in the field. I saw them all the time. They hardly ever rattled, even when I messed with them - which was most of the time. It is flat HOT in south GA and the installation is huge with large portions closed to the public. I doubt most of the snakes I encountered ever saw people and yet I can count on one hand the times I heard them rattle. I never killed any of them. Pretty snake and pretty docile. Seemed the eastern diamondbacks rattled more often but I rarely saw them in comparison to Timbers and usually only saw them when searching for indigo snakes on sand hills around gopher tortoise burrows. Of course they can and will bite but I just never had a negative interaction with them.
Lee
I was interested in going last year, until I found out there are no restaurants, street vendors , etc., available, that prepare and allow one to eat rattlesnake. Definitely not a complete “roundup”. Used to be a highlight of cross country trips to stop at The Big Texan in Amarillo, to eat rattlesnake.
I was interested in going last year, until I found out there are no restaurants, street vendors , etc., available, that prepare and allow one to eat rattlesnake. Definitely not a complete “roundup”. Used to be a highlight of cross country trips to stop at The Big Texan in Amarillo, to eat rattlesnake.
Pirogue you’re hard core I like it but for me I can do without not a make or break deal.
Lee- glad you never had a bad encounter! So your observations back up what I’m hearing………………Timber Rattlers rarely rattle. And I guess like a lot of wild things, they are “docile”………………until they’re NOT! ;-)
