Posted on 05/12/2016 8:40:32 AM PDT by w1n1
Here's a story from one of the angler's on his experience shooting water moccasins with the .410 load. While out fishing with his brother-in-law, snakes were everywhere swimming right up to within a few feet of us to check us out, heads above the water the entire time and not even remotely afraid. Given that I live about 100 yards from the pond, and I'm not a fan of water moccasins (which I'm pretty sure is what these were, because most harmless water snakes swim with their heads down and shy away from disturbances), I ran back to the house to grab my Bond Arms Snake Slayer.
The Snake Slayer was loaded with .410, #9 I believe, and I fired right into water about 8 feet away. I could see the snake’s entire body, and his head was poking above the water looking at me. The shot churned up the water right where he was, and he just calmly floated there looking at us like, "Is that the best you got?" Read the rest of the story here.
I had a clutch of mocs just hatch about a month ago.. probably 6-8 2’ers in the pond 10ft from my door, but never together. I’m assuming a clutch since there’s more than one of the same size. Have a red-tailed hawk that normally takes care of them but haven’t seen him around... it’s gonna be tricky and painstaking to take each one out, one by one, but I won’t live with the (&^%*ers. Nope.
When I’m in a heavily populated area and run into a Water Moccasin, I find that I get the best results by using the natural enemy of the Water Moccasin.....the Reindeer.
I bring out a reindeer and the Water Moccasin sees it and he gets all happy and excited because he thinks Santa is there to give him a present. Remember, Water Moccasins have a pea-sized brain, just like Al Franken.
So the Water Moccasin is standing there grinning and clapping his hands and thinking he’s going to get a new video game system from Santa and the Reindeer just stomps him into the dirt.
For every solution, there is an easy problem. Or something like that.
I assume the author’s arsenal was lost in the boat accident that followed this event, right?
(I’m sorry. Even the story has a boat in it. I couldn’t stop myself.)
One was a long barrel (4 and 1/2 inch?) for .45 Colt and .410 3 inch shotgun.
Great for keeping ready while driving or in your pocket in dark areas, etc, but nothing to speak of beyond 6 feet.
I hated the huge front sight, so I put it in the Bridgeport and removed it, polished it back up and it became much easier to maneuver and carry.
Then I reloaded some .45 Colt with pepper shot encased in wax.
The first experiment put a hole in a 55 gallon drum at 6-8 feet.
I felt this might have been just a bit much, so lowered the amount of wax and used the same amount of pepper shot, but encased in a plastic cup.
That one was just about perfect...at 8 feet, the steel drum was not penetrated but it was hurt really, really bad.
I went looking for snakes.
Since I've seen the most of them from my tractor while bush-hogging pastures (along with field rats), off I went.
I killed two copperheads and two rats without getting off the tractor or even having to change my posture very much.
I felt quite confident that with one of my .45 Colt "Special" loads on top and a .410 three inch "Defender" in the bottom barrel, I had a pretty damned good concealable defensive derringer.
Not my first choice by any means, but with the carry holster that Bond has (modified slightly to accommodate the removal of the front sight), it would be pretty damned good for handling thugs at the drivers window, if need be.
But, then, the boating accident...and, well, life just ain't the same.
I bounced a .45 ACP hollow point round of a beaver head from about 30' once while we were fishing from a bank. I was sure I hit the critter but it didn't float. The beaver re-surfaced about 15 minutes after the event with a bald spot between it's ears. It was decided that the nuisance creature earned another day. We argued the rest of the day about whether the bullet was from a bounce or a grazing shot.
A .410, or pretty much any shotgun with any amount of choke. is only going to be throwing a pattern a few inches wide at 8ft. A 1/2 oz load of #9 shot traveling at 1200fps is going to blow a moccasin in half at 8ft. The guy missed is what happened.
Had an episode like that at a friend’s place, he fired several of the wussy 9mm shot type shells at the thing and it kept coming back up for more. He finally ran out and was going to give up, and I asked him to give me the thing with a solid round. Direct hit finished the job nicely.
Don’t exactly care for snakes myself.
Moccasins are really unafraid and aggressive. We live on a small lake and they will hang in the water just offshore and watch you standing on the bank. Its creepy.
I missed the 8 ft range part; if that is accurate I would also expect even #9 shot to be effective.
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I agree!
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Damn Water Moccasins. I hate’em.
Used to wade fish several small creeks in the area. Loaded with them. Had several close calls. Went canoeing yesterday. About halfway through the trip a tree had fallen across the creek. My buddy decides that the best path through is directly under the branches. Of course, we get caught. As I’m trying to shake us loose a big ‘ole cottonmouth drops out of the tree and just misses falling in the canoe.
Did I say I Hate Water Moccasins?
yuppers
W000 H000!
Pesky beavers!
I prefer overkill myself, and nothing says over kill like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDMUekfOR-E
Might be a case of the guy looking at the end of the barrel but not quite down the barrel.
‘Anything worth doing is worth over-doing’ - M. Stewart
They can be. In this case, they had ruined some portions of some property on this river and the population was being "managed".
Kablooey!
"There's nothing more dangerous than a wounded mosquito."
Hank: Well, I follow the moth in the helicopter to lure it away from the flowers, and then Roy comes along in the Lockheed Starfighter and attacks it with air-to-air missiles.
Roy: A lot of people have asked us why we don't use fly spray. Well, where's the sport in that?
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