Actually 1977

[kenley]

Christmas Eve, 1977 and I was checking out an old fort on the Rio Grande S.E. of Laredo, Tx.
I walked back to the Jeep and this thing was laying across the trail. I killed it with a .22 magnum derringer loaded with rat shot. It was 6' 4" after I cut it's head off and had only 5 rattles.
I was planning on tanning the hide, but the kid's dog got hold of it and chewed it up. We fed the family and some of the neighbors on the meat.

 

[rginn]

That's a big un. Rattles only indicate how many times they shed, not how many years old they are, but this one may have lost it's rattles at some stage and started over. Then again, coulda been a really fast growin snake and that's all it had. Now you will catch hell from some folks for shootin it, but I shall not judge your actions.

 

[GopherDaGold]

No hell from me, that's a bigun!

 

[kenley]

didn't have the problem in 77 we have now. I should have left it to guard our Southern border.

 

[rginn]

'Guard our southern border', hahaha, that's pretty good! I come from Oklahoma, where we have 'rattlesnake roundups', and we catch them, and kill them, and eat them. I was disappointed eatin rattlesnake, because it was a little tougher than I thought it would be. And it don't taste like chicken, it tastes like snake. Sorry you didn't get to keep the skin. I had a good one I tanned out about that long, but it had eleven rattles and a button.