Used to hunt them with a 12 gauge when I was younger, more agile and a lot more stupid.
When I was 12 me and a friend when frog gigging one night. My daddy said “Son, whatever you do, do NOT gig a snake.”. First snake I saw I couldn’t resist. I gig a cotton mouth. Of Course, it didn’t kill it and we couldn’t get it off the hook. We couldn’t find a stick so we beat it to death with the frog stringer. The frog hunt was over for the night.
One morning, when I was a kid, the neighbor drove up honking like it was an emergency. We all ran out and he proudly showed off a big rattlesnake he’d shot. When he shot, lots of something flew hitting him in the body and face. Apparently, the snake was giving birth and little snakes came flying out at him. He put all he could find in the truck bed. That’s something I’ll never forget.