Cholla from Arizona

[Cholla]

Hello. I live near Prescott, AZ. I hunt rattlesnakes. Shoot CAS. Enjoy history. Write for a few magazines. My first rendezvous was near Williams, AZ back in 1994 or so.

 

[Ames]

Hunt them for.....food?

 

[nit wit]

Welcome from Maine
Nit Wit

 

[deermanok]

Welcome from Oklahoma.

 

[thomas]

Welcome to the forum.
Thomas

 

[Old Timer 48]

Welcome!

 

[Cholla]

Hunt them for.....food?

If they are big enough. Mostly for the skin and bones. The rattlesnakes in this area don't get as big as Texas or Florida. A big snake here is 40". Most are less than 30". Fully 50% of my finds are fresh road kills. As long as I can use part of it, it comes home and gets made into something.

 

[Ponderosaman]

Welcome from Cave Creek. Once you get settled in, please educate us on how you process your snakes and the products you make with them.

 

[zerosprk]

Hi and welcome from northern New Mexico!

 

[The Crisco Kid]

Are there the Mohave snakes in your area? We have them here in Cochise and Santa Cruze counties. They inject a neurotoxin as opposed to a hematoxin and are the more dangerous, or so I've been told. I've also been told that the antivenom injections kill quite a few people due to an allergic reaction. Again, that's what I've been told. Like most things these days I don't know what to believe except that I sure don't want to get snake bit.

 

[mushka]

welcome to the forum from Yuma. We have lots of rattlers down here, I mostly just leave them alone on the desert. I did walk up on a nice Mojave late last summer, I didn't bother him. I live outside of yuma and am surrounded by miles of farmland and haven't seen a rattler around the area in years.

 

[Cholla]

Are there the Mohave snakes in your area? We have them here in Cochise and Santa Cruze counties. They inject a neurotoxin as opposed to a hematoxin and are the more dangerous, or so I've been told. I've also been told that the antivenom injections kill quite a few people due to an allergic reaction. Again, that's what I've been told. Like most things these days I don't know what to believe except that I sure don't want to get snake bit.

Most of what I find around our area are Mojaves. We seem to live in their preferred habitat (grassland-oak chaparral) according to my copy of Rattlesnakes of Arizona. I see lots of kangaroo rats which are supposed to be their preferred prey. We went looking for rattlesnakes by Bagdad last summer at night. I saw hundreds of kangaroo rats but no snakes of any kind. I did ingest about a quart of bugs that were attracted to my headlamp!
I also find an occasional Arizona Black Rattlesnake and a few Blacktailed Rattlesnakes. I have not found a Western Diamondback in 18 months, which is tragic because I have requests for WDB buckles and other items that I can't fill.

 

[Cholla]

welcome to the forum from Yuma. We have lots of rattlers down here, I mostly just leave them alone on the desert. I did walk up on a nice Mojave late last summer, I didn't bother him. I live outside of yuma and am surrounded by miles of farmland and haven't seen a rattler around the area in years.

I try to stay away from Yuma in the summer. My last trip was for the Trump rally before the election. The company I work for was contracted at the last minute to provide air conditioning for the aircraft hanger the rally was in. It was a nightmare! It was 115 at 7pm! I had already worked a full day and the equipment didn't arrive until 9pm. I worked until midnight. At that point, the younger guys told me to go get some sleep and come pack at 6am to stand watch over the chiller. When I came back they were beat and it still wasn't ready. We barely got it running in time! They went to rest while I and another fellow sprayed the condenser with garden hoses to keep the unit running in the heat. As bad as it was for us, the secret service guys were in the full sun watching for issues. There were two snipers dressing full black on a platform on the tarmac! I can't imagine what hell they were going through! The secret service guy with us was in a polo shirt and he admitted he got the good duty. Another crew came in to tear down the equipment and I headed back towards home and got as far as some town with a space alien theme motel and went to bed. The only snake I saw was beyond using from being run over.

 

[moose23]

Welcome from Beaver County PA

 

[mushka]

That town would have been
Gila Bend. Yuma is fine once you get used to it. AC in summer beats freezing in winter.

 

[The Crisco Kid]

Yuma in the summer must be Hell on Earth. I've been to the Territorial prison and I don't know how people survived it. Interestingly, there are photos of former inmates on the walls of the visitors center. One of them is of a fellow who's last name was Flake. He must have been an ancestor of the former Arizona Senator and fierce anti Trumper Jeff Flake. This photo is of yours truly by the way, not some anti Trumper named Flake!

 

[Cholla]

That town would have been
Gila Bend. Yuma is fine once you get used to it. AC in summer beats freezing in winter.

That's the place. That was as far as my sleep-deprived body could go.

 

[frankie]

Hello. I live near Prescott, AZ. I hunt rattlesnakes. Shoot CAS. Enjoy history. Write for a few magazines. My first rendezvous was near Williams, AZ back in 1994 or so.

welcome

 

[Cholla]

Once you get settled in, please educate us on how you process your snakes and the products you make with them.

Done.

 

[toot]

Yuma in the summer must be Hell on Earth. I've been to the Territorial prison and I don't know how people survived it. Interestingly, there are photos of former inmates on the walls of the visitors center. One of them is of a fellow who's last name was Flake. He must have been an ancestor of the former Arizona Senator and fierce anti Trumper Jeff Flake. This photo is of yours truly by the way, not some anti Trumper named Flake!

View attachment 123741

a great photo. thanks for posting!