Coming down this track, a Rock Python crawled across the track in front of us. It was a young one, about 15 or 18 feet long. But it stopped in the road and I was not about to try and run over it. It did not move so I told the guy I was giving a ride to get out and take a picture of it and scare it away. He called me a nasty name and would not get out of the truck. I opened the drivers door and stamped my foot on the ground and that durn snake raised up over the hood and looked in the front window! I said a bad word and rolled the windows up.

It eventually moved on and so did we.

Some asked me why I didn't drive over it. I said that if it got wound up in the undercarriage I would have had to set the truck on fire and I did not want to do that.

The largest Rock Python that I heard of was 27 feet long.

A young Boa Constrictor

We were approaching it at a pretty good clip, and I was shouting for everyone to roll up their windows (there were four of us in the car). I was afraid if we ran over it the head would flip up into the vehicle.

Mr. Rattler was smarter and faster than I, it was out of the road before we got to it. I was too rattled (heh!) to slow down but it all worked out. We probably saw at least a dozen rattlers that day, but none others as big as that one.

Otony

Deer hunting on a warm day, I was climbing up these rocks. As I went to put my hand on the rock above me, a bit above head level, I saw it looking at me, waiting, coiled up. I jumped back and pulled the Single Six and put a bullet through its head.

I pulled it down .. man it was heavy ... and holding by the neck I held it up at arms length and a bit of the tail was dragging on the ground. It was a monster!

A few years ago a work colleague of mine killed one over in the Big Sandy bottoms in west Tennessee that was just under 6 feet. He found it coiled under his ATV when returning from a turkey hunt.

It might have made 6 feet if not for the several inches removed by his 3 inch magnum turkey load........

That might be a useful pistol to have around.

Around the house a hoe or a shovel worked just dandy also, although I shot more than a couple in our driveway over the years.

I know some who spend a lot of time experimenting with such things and that's great, for them. We all should pursue what interests us. It just never interested me.

Now the 20 ga. shotgun? Or the 12? That interests me. At 5 to 15 feet they will vaporize the part of the snake you are aiming at, using just plain or #8 or #6 loads.

FWIW, years ago I loaded some .357 diameter shot capsules into .38 S&W cases and shot them in an old .38 S&W revolver with a worn bore that was at least .360 or larger. Limited testing on paper targets and one 3' timber rattler seemed to show good patterns at short range. Number 9 shot and a dab of Bullseye, IIRC.

I don’t shoot many, but I have made some pretty good shotshells for .45 colt and acp revolvers, using .30/40 Krag, .444 Marlin and .308 brass in moon clips. I haven’t tested them for velocities but payload is pretty similar to .410 shotshells.

https://doubletapammo.com/collections/dt-snakeshot%E2%84%A2