I once killed a Timber Rattler tryin' to get into a slash pile where my cat had stashed a litter of her kittens. Sucka was almost 6 feet long! Had 13 rattles and a button and bigger around in the middle than a baseball!
I shot the ****er thru the head with my trusty .22 mag rifle, cut it's damn head off and burried it! Ya know that sucka wouldn't quit sqirimin' for close to eight hours so I could skin it, dress it and throw it in the fryin' pan!
"Toots" wouldn't eat it! She don't know what she was missin'! Helluva lot more tender than chicken and in my opinion a heckuva lot tastier! The cat luved the stuff! Didn't let the dogs have any, as I didn't want 'em gettin' any ideas out in the woods!
I've told the story on here before, but I came close to getting bit by a Mojave green rattlesnake when I was at FT Bliss. The thing was in the center of a triangle of three SP4s, so I strode over to see it, and stopped maybe 10 feet away. The damn thing charged me, stopping four-five feet away, and I remember thinking, "How badly do I want to get out of this exercise?" My answer was three words, with a backwards step for each one: "Not . . .
that . . . badly." My commo sergeant stepped behind it with a walking stick, smacked it on the back of the head, and killed it. I stood there with my jaw on the sand, saying "I thought you were afraid of snakes." His answer? "Sir, we have to sleep here." I thought to myself, "Damn--that's smart!"