I won't say that I hate cottonmouth moccasins, but I really, really dislike them. The other day, after a hard day of mowing and planting plots, my buddy and I knocked off a little early to go down to my pond and see if we could get some fish slime on our hands. The pond and its pier are down a steep hill, and as soon as we got out of the jeep, I saw that there were two moccasins coiled up on the pier. (yep, I took pix but don't know how to get 'em from my phone to the forum).
Didn't want to go shooting holes in the pier with my .38 (no snake shot) so I lay down on my side so I could shoot parallel to the deck. I aimed at the middle of the coil of the biggest one and ruined his day---he hauled it off the side of the dock, but lots of little pieces of him hit the water off the end of the dock. The second snake was smaller, a little, which I will use as the excuse for missing him the first time, but it made him mad and he came crawling straight for me. That was not a good scenario---fat man with a bad shoulder lying on the ground with a perfectly healthy, pissed off cottonmouth coming from twelve feet away. The gun holds more than two rounds, so even though I missed him a second time, it made him pause and the third shot, well, the Good Lord called him home.
Oh, yeah, we caught several bass, too.
The story still isn't over. A couple of days later, Chile Relleno came to help me out, and we also went fishing at the pond. Damnme if there wasn't another moccasin coiled up in the grass right at the step to the pier. Chile almost stepped on him, but shot him with his nine instead. Kinda messed up the snake.
We caught bass then, too.
Anyhow, that whole thing has kind of made me jumpy ever since, and I've stayed on the tractor ever since. I know from past experience that the front end loader does a fine job of eradicating unwanted reptiles. Chops 'em right up.
