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Just a fraction of the nearly 25,000 pounds of diamondback rattlesnakes displayed at the 2016
Rattlesnake Roundup in Sweetwater, Texas. (Scott Fortin/Sweetwater Jaycees)

Kill it with fire!!!

UGH! That pic brings back memories. One day ... years ago ... a friend and I went hunting on the outskirts of Sherman, TX. Nothing targeted in particular ... squirrels, birds, fish, tin cans, etc. When we decided we’d had enough, we started trekking back to the car. My friend walked over a huge pile of rusty old metal slabs, but I stopped dead in my tracks at the sight directly in front of me and yelled at my friend to stop. About 4 feet directly in front of me, under the first sheet of old rusty metal, was a diamondback ... coiled, rattling and ready to strike.

I guess all his friends heard the commotion and they started rattling too. I told my friend not to move and that he was on a rattlesnake den. Before I knew it, he came flying right at me off of the pile and knocked me back a couple of feet ... right next to another slithery beast and he began firing. My .410 was empty and as I fumbled for shells, I told my buddy that there was one by my foot. “There’s one by mine too!” he yelled.

After finally getting some shells into my shotgun, I took out the one right next to me and unloaded on the next 2 I saw. The rattling was deafening ... must’ve been quite a few around us. So we kept firing. Not sure how many we killed before turning around and running off. I made sure to get the first one I saw though ... the one that started everything in the first place.

Fortunately, neither of us got any bites. But that sure was a dang scary moment!

OMG just gross, and SCARY!!!!!