A serious discussion about the need for more gun control

On Thu, 17 Jan 2008 07:24:03 -0800, with neither quill nor qualm, "Stuart & Kathryn Fields" quickly quoth:

I had some nice little birdshot rounds for my old .22 eons ago. That would be the way to go in a boat, if one had to shoot a snake. But I guess I'm lucky in that I've never met a viper in a tree.

Bwahahahaha! Good 'un, Stu. I hope you later closed that opening into the house, too.

- This product cruelly tested on defenseless furry animals - --------------------------------------------------------

I grew up south of you. Yes Cottonmouths do swim in lakes and then climb a tree that is in the lake. So they can drop out of a tree into a boat. Probably equally common is for a cottonmouth to get snagged by a bass lure. Have not had it happen to me, but have heard people describe the feeling of catching a snake while bass fishing. A real what do I do now minute. It is so hard to push on a fishing line. And the snake is not exactly happy about being hooked.

Dan

What I want to know is what is a "cottonmouth rattler," and how is it different from a water moccasin (Agkistrodon piscivorus).

-- Ed Huntress

...

Excerpts from The Declaration of Independence: "...He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: ... For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: ..."

Remind you of anyone?

Thanks, Rich

Don't you remember the video of the rabbit attacking a snake - the snake took to the live oak tree. That was some video.

Snakes dropping out of trees are typically in swampy areas. Hard to do that in death valley!

Martin

Mart> On Thu, 17 Jan 2008 01:45:39 -0600, with neither quill nor qualm, Don

Mart>> >>> I grew up in Arkansas, where the Air Police used shotguns to kill the

Thanks, but yes, I know what the snake is. I was just pulling somebody's chain about the "cottonmouth rattler or water moccasin" line. They're the same snake. But they don't rattle.

-- Ed Huntress

I grew up in coastal Texas, and yes, I've seen it a lot. I've mainly observed it in the early spring, when the cottonmouths sun on branches hanging over the water. It you startle them, they drop in the water. Just don't have your boat under them when they try. I also damn near rolled a canoe letting one have it with a 12 ga. (on a limb, not in the boat). We raised rice. There were a LOT of cottonmouths. I know exactly how it feels when you step on one, it sort of rolls.

The only time I was ever struck, I was standing right on top of one in the water. It hit about an inch or less below the top of my boot. They strike hard, like getting hit with a broom handle. It makes you jump. High.

Pete Keillor

On Thu, 17 Jan 2008 13:03:24 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, "Ed Huntress" quickly quoth:

OK, OK. They could look so much like rattlers that we called 'em that. For a long time I thought there were two different snakes, and I never saw a live one for long. They were deadly and we knew it, making tracks upon the first sighting, frog gigs in hand. We were smart enough not to try to catch or kill one at

You are probably a lot smarter than I was. I can't remember exactly what age I was when a friend and I took up hunting for snakes. We would have hunted any kind of good sized snake, but cottonmouths were by far the easiest to find. Cottonmouths are suppose to be aggressive, but my experience is mostly different. One time when we were hunting frogs, I saw a snake and yelled snake. Harmon jumped up in the air and had not spotted the snake before he landed. He did spot the snake when it was about three feet from him and bent the bejesus out of the net killing the snake. I always thought the only reason the snake headed toward him was that he was between it and the water.

After that we went looking for snakes rather than frogs. We carried a single shot .410. When we found a snake, one of us had to get pretty close ( about three feet ) to convince the snake to coil. Otherwise they did their best to get away. They can't go all that fast, but you had to work at getting close as they went under bushes. When one of us got the snake to coil, the other one hunted up a stick. We then pinned the head down and blew it off with the gun. We were skinning them and trying to tan them so did not want holes in the body. I don't think we were ever sucessful at tanning them.

I doubt most parents would approve of our efforts today. We were probably 12 or thirteen at the time. Definately before we were 15 and I think after fourth grade.

Dan

On Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:53:36 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, "Ed Huntress" quickly quoth:

"Took" it to class.

Oops. You got lucky, son.

--- Chaos, panic, and disorder--my work here is done.

I didn't personally witness it, but I was warned about it by local guys on a river in South Carolina. They did carry handguns in their boats. Most were aluminum johnboats; patching a bullethole would be easy to do on those. A shotgun would make a bunch of holes or one very large hole, not as easy to patch.

Besides the snakes, the skeeters were murder on that swampy river. I decided to skip the river and go to a nearby lake.

Jesus Christ, is this a metalworking hobby forum, or the freaking American Heritage Book of English Usage? Did everybody get a new grammar book for Christmas?

Besides, there's nothing at all wrong with "brought," past tense of "bring," which works perfectly well in that sentence. It's true that I don't know if it was a "him," but we'll assume the epicene use of "him," which is perfectly legitimate in English, so quit yer gripin'. d8-)

Luckier than one of my buddies in the Boy Scout troop there in Hagerstown, who sat on a snake on our five-mile hike, and nobody got a look at it after it bit him on the butt, but before it disappeared, to see if it was a copperhead. The area happened to be loaded with them.

No jokes about who was going to suck the poison out. Our scoutmaster, fortunately, was a medical doctor. It apparently wasn't a copperhead, or else he got a dry bite, which the experts say is quite common with copperheads.

-- Ed Huntress

We use 20-ga or smaller and #9 shot in Jersey. Except for the twin-engined Jersey skeeters, of course, which are harder to bring down.

-- Ed Huntress

I just wasn't acclimated, since that trip was in April. Skeeters in the MN northwoods are a fact of life. There's no controlling them. We merely need to go thru an itchy time each spring until some immunity is regained. Once that's done, they still bite but it's easier to ignore once the fear factor of itch insanity is past. Kinda like building a tan in more southern climes.

On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 01:40:06 -0600, with neither quill nor qualm, Don Foreman quickly quoth:

Gimme the tan _any_ day!

--- Chaos, panic, and disorder--my work here is done.