Horns, Thorns, and Fangs: Hunting Rattlers

Bill Kinney Photography

Texas is known for its variety of hunting. One year some friends told us about their hunting trip they take every year to Texas and invited us along. So, we followed them all the way down to Texas to go have some fun and maybe hunt a few pigs. What they didn't tell us was that these hunting grounds were a maze of horns, thorns, and fangs. Every way you turned a cactus that poked, a bush that bit, or thorn that scratched. For the hunters a large clearing had been made in the middle of this field of dangers. The camp was crawling with desert creatures trying to pass through and was full of wildlife.

Hunting began the second they opened the gates and everyone rushed out on their four wheelers to find the wild pigs. The sand storm created from this stampede of hunters was unbelievable. Any where sand could get, it got, and then some. We were cleaning out sand for more than a week after we got back from this trip...our recommendation: where a dust mask.

That night around the campfire everyone shared the days hunting stories and got some rest to go out the next morning. Coming back that afternoon our friend was cleaning a rattle snake, a big one. Taking a closer look you could see it didn't have a scratch on it. So we asked him,"How'd you get that one?"

He turned to us,"Well this guy here was in my blind with me!"

"Really?!? That's a pretty big snake. What happened?"

He took a breath,"Well now, I'd been sitting there and just out of nowhere I start hearing a hissing. So I thought my wife had put an aerosol can in my lunch pack or something. I started looking around and after about five minutes of a hissing noise I still couldn't find it. Finally I turned back and was about to give up, but sitting right there in front of me was this guy!"

"What did you do?" That snake must have been ready to bite, he'd been hissing at him for five minutes!

"Well, he was just right there, so I reached around, got out an arrow....and I thwapped him!!" he said with a quick flick of his wrist and a triumphant smile.

Folks, let me ask you. What would you do in that situation? Slowly back away? Maybe put a shield or anything between you and the angry snake? Nope, he thwapped him. Not exactly the recommended version, but that's one way to go huntin' rattlers!