I killed a rather smallish (18 in.) in my yard with a nine-iron. Nasty critters, they are.
The last rattler I killed was in a hallway of a new house my brother was building. We didn’t want to damage the expensive floor tile or walls with a .410 shotgun so I got a 10 foot 2 x 4 and did him in. He was about 2 1/2 feet long and was mad as hell. I was nervous, too.