I stumbled on the following story quite by accident. I had stopped by Kocer’s Fallen Timbers, a unique Wagner business on East Highway 46 that specializes in tables, benches, and chairs made from rough-sawn timber. This place is well worth a special trip! While visiting with David, he showed me a big glass jar containing live rattlesnakes. I asked where the snakes had come from, and was told that Craig Link had brought them back from Texas. I called Craig as this was a story I had to have.

The Links had hosted some Texas pheasant hunters who invited Craig and his son, Matt, to come down to their ranch in Albany for a snake hunt. Albany is about an hour’s drive west of Ft. Worth. The sage brush country is rolling with rocky outcrops. Their hunt was on March 7th, shortly after the snakes began coming out of their dens from hibernation. Their Texas hosts, Paul and Mark Hamilton, had located dens prior to the Link’s arrival. With the coming of warmer weather, a rattler, shortly after crawling out of its den, will lie near the den for a short time before moving on. The Hamiltons had located these early snakes.

To protect themselves, the hunters wore boots and chaps although Craig said that none of the snakes actually struck. They were more interested in eluding the hunters. Their primary piece of equipment was a snake tongs, a metal pole 3-4 feet in length (note photo) with a jaw-like gripper on the end very similar to what old folks use to reach cereal boxes etc. on an out-of-reach shelf. After gripping a snake with a tongs, the captured snake was placed in a snake box that appeared to be about 30 inches square and made of plywood. These Texas rattlers averaged about 4-6 feet in length.

Once a den was located, a pumplike weed sprayer with a short length of copper tubing on the end of the hose was used to squirt a small amount of gasoline into the den. Care was taken not to squirt too much gas as this would prevent snakes from returning to this same den. The gas drove the snakes from the den. They were then picked up with the tongs and placed in the snake box as described above.

The Hamiltons sold the snakes to the snake “round-up” people for three to five dollars a pound. Nothing goes to waste. There is a market for the venom “milked” through their fangs, the meat goes to east coast restaurants, and the hides are used for belts and hat bands. When Craig stopped by the house to relate this story, his hat sported handsome rattlesnake band.

I asked Craig if the Hamiltons had any anti-venom on hand in case of an accidental strike. They saw no need for the very pricey anti-venom as they had been at this snake hunting business for fifty years without a mishap.

When I told you about our opening day pheasant hunt last week, I didn’t tell you the whole story. Near day’s end, we hunted an eleven acre patch of CRP. I was one of three blockers on the west side of the field as a column of nine walkers marched toward us. We anticipated that a few birds would be roosting in the CRP as it had been a productive field in the past.

As the walkers advanced, a rooster flushed and flew directly at me. Shots were fired at the low-flying bird, and a number of pellets struck my thighs and chest. One pellet hit my neck just below my chin. I put my right hand up to feel the wound, and when I brought it down, blood covered my fingers. I swore to myself as the rooster approched, and I dropped him dead as I swung around and fired. The bleeding stopped and I kept it to myself as I didn’t want to embarrass anyone.

After experiencing moderate pain for the next three days, Wednesday morning brought me to Beth Schroeder’s office in Lake Andes where the X-ray clearly showed the pellet in my neck. She cut it out, and all is well. I was dang lucky. My regular glasses would not have stopped that lead pellet. Two things: Always wear shooting glasses, and where there are blockers, walkers mustn’t shoot unless there is plenty of blue sky between the bird and the horizon.

See you next week with an amazing elk hunt story.