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My recent rattlesnake experience was kinda freaky...


Cholla

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I hunt rattlesnakes as a hobby and make things out of their bones and skin. I have harvested hundreds since the mid 1980s so I thought was was fairly well versed on what can and can't happen.

I killed a snake at sunset Friday. I cut the head off and placed the body in a small cooler with some blue ice for the night as it was too late to skin.

The next morning, about 13 hours after I had cut the head off I pulled the body out of the cooler and it immediately started withering about.

I placed it on my skinning board and flipped it over and it instantly started flinging about to turn upright. I flipped it over and it did it again. It kept doing this as I was trying to cut down the belly scales with my scissors. It began rolling, coiling, and flipping so hard I was having a hard time holding onto it. at times it even seemed to be trying to strike at my scissors hand. I decided to cut another inch off the neck just in case there was part of the brain still left (not likely) but it had no effect. After a great deal of work I was able to make the cut all the way down to his vent. The thrashing finally stopped when I pulled the skin off.

I got to admit it was really freaky. Sometimes I have a snake jerk or slowly move, but nothing like this. At times it was coiling and rattling its tail violently.

It had to be all involuntary responses because with no brain, no sensory organs, and no blood flow there couldn't be thought behind the movement but it still freaked me out.

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You should have made a video!
 

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I thought about it. My wife was watching from inside the sliding glass door and she was freaking out as well. I was going to have her make a video but I didn't have a shirt on and I figured FB would decide the video was some sort of porn!

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1 minute ago, Widder, SASS #59054 said:

Were their any babies inside?

 Of, down inside your cooler?

 

..........Widder

 

 

No babies. I keep an eye out for that kind of thing. I have found half digested mice in some. I'm sure in some parts of the world some sort of delicacy would have been made from it.

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3 minutes ago, J-BAR #18287 said:

What is “blue ice?”

 

That plastic stuff you put in the freezer and then in your cooler.

BlueIce.jpg

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1 hour ago, Cholla said:

I thought about it. My wife was watching from inside the sliding glass door and she was freaking out as well. I was going to have her make a video but I didn't have a shirt on and I figured FB would decide the video was some sort of porn!

 

Zombie headless rattlesnake porn. Available now on Netflix and Amazon Prime. Must see quality entertainment.

 

Heck, I talked my self into it......when's the debut?

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Any pins, tacks, or other metal stuck in the snake at the time?

 

Luigi Galvani thought he had discovered "animal electricity", the supposed animating force of life, when he was dissecting frog legs and they twitched.  What he did not understand was that two dissimilar metals (brass hooks and iron scalpel), immersed in the tissues and fluids of the frog, formed a basic battery, causing the leg muscles to contract and the leg to "move".

 

Which reminds me of the story of the university biology professor.  Working in his laboratory with frogs, he first noted that an intact frog would jump 4 times when prompted by saying "Jump, frog!".  He amputated one of the frog's legs, again said "Jump, frog!" and found that now the frog jumped only 3 times.  He amputated a second limb, again commanded "Jump, frog!", and watched the frog jump just twice.  Another amputation followed by "Jump, frog!" produced just one jump.  Finally, he amputated the last leg, and repeated his command..."Jump, frog!", but saw no reaction.  He repeated the command, "Jump, frog!"  No reaction.  The professor's conclusion?

 

Amputation of all of a frog's legs causes him to go deaf.

 

LL

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19 hours ago, Cholla said:

 

I got to admit it was really freaky. Sometimes I have a snake jerk or slowly move, but nothing like this. At times it was coiling and rattling its tail violently.

It had to be all involuntary responses because with no brain, no sensory organs, and no blood flow there couldn't be thought behind the movement but it still freaked me out.

Eerie!

Similarly, right before July 4th weekend, I came home to the Hill Country after working in Houston all week. About an hour before I got home, my son "Killed" one by stabbing it a few times in the head with a frog gig.Upon my arrival he told me to out towards our burn pile and see the one that he killed. I walked out and told him I didn't see anything. He came out and said, "He was right here."

I reminded him, "You have to cut off their heads"

Evidently that don't work always, either...

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1 hour ago, Pulp, SASS#28319 said:

Watching the butcher pen at a rattlesnake roundup is interesting.  The headless, skinned carcasses will work their way out of the bucket and start crawling across the floor.

 

 

OK, guys...

 

Eastern dude here...

 

What's a "rattlesnake round-up"????

 

LL

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4 minutes ago, Imis Twohofon,SASS # 46646 said:

Rattlesnake Round-up  nope

Imis

 

Awe c'mon, just think of the cool hatband you could put on that big ol' tent hat!

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On 8/16/2020 at 9:50 AM, Cholla said:

No babies. I keep an eye out for that kind of thing. I have found half digested mice in some. I'm sure in some parts of the world some sort of delicacy would have been made from it.

Don't advertise that or we might be quarantined again.  :unsure:

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We were warned as children to look out for them when we played in the woods behind my grandparents' house.  Rutherfordton, NC.

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7 hours ago, Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438 said:

 

 

OK, guys...

 

Eastern dude here...

 

What's a "rattlesnake round-up"????

 

LL

Way cross, Ga has a rattlesnake roundup with eastern Diamondbacks, canbrakes and pygmies every year.  I used to live in Brunswick and work in forestry research.

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