Rattlesnakes... Bite 'em Back!

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Butterbean
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Rattlesnakes... Bite 'em Back!

Post by Butterbean » Sun Jun 23, 2013 03:26

Topic was split 062413 @ 17:27 by CW from Hyde Park forum at this link:
http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.php?p=20127#20127

It was very good. My wife even liked it because my daughter lied to her and told her it was beef. (she has this mental thing about eating Bambi)

Took my daughter and her boyfriend out there tonight and shot another one. This one didn't fall but ran off. I knew I hit it so we drove to the far corner of the field and found where it had been standing and followed the blood trail across the field and into the woods. Just as we began to step in the woods I got on a big rattlesnake that thankfully warned me not to come any closer. I am so thankful it warned me because this hasn't been a good period here with all the people getting snake bit and I didn't need to join the ranks.

We went home so I could change my britches and if you heard a woman scream about an hour ago - I'm sorry - that was me. :oops:
Last edited by Butterbean on Tue Jun 25, 2013 00:34, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by sawhorseray » Sun Jun 23, 2013 05:03

Great story fella, I came within six inches of sitting on a rattler some years back and just about crapped myself also. My wife won't eat a steak, deer backstrap, or anything associated with being part of a lamb. She will eat cheeseburgers, deer and wild hog sausage, smoked ham, and a number of other meats that I just won't tell her the origin of. Heck, as long as it's nothing life-shattering or serious, what could be more fun than lying to your wife? Keep whack''n them, they'll go somewhere else. RAY
“Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.”
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Post by Chuckwagon » Sun Jun 23, 2013 11:36

Holy crap! And I thought I was the only one who kept steppin' on those diamond-backed, skulky, bitin' little buzzers and lyin' to women! All my life I've been plagued by rattlers, lightning, and yup... mean ol' females who didn't brush their teeth in the mornin'... they SHARPENED them! :shock:
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably needs more time on the grill! :D
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Post by Butterbean » Sun Jun 23, 2013 16:16

I almost sat on one too! Scared the tar out of me too. We have diamondbacks and cane brakes and pygmies. I squatted down on bent knees to take a break and I spit between my knees. As I watched the spit fall to the ground I noticed a set of eyes in the pine straw staring up at me. I looked closer and saw the eyes belonged to a pygmy that was coiled up under the pine straw and had I not squatted on bent knees the sucker would have surely bitten me in the butt or worse.

I work outdoors and have been pretty lucky in my career as I've only been bitten three times and only twice by venomous snakes with all being what you'd call "dry bites". Dry bites are defensive bites and don't have much venom. This isn't to say they don't mess you up cause my leg bite rotted my flesh for some months before it finally healed and I still bear the scar but they are not life threatening. Funniest bite was one from a cotton mouth that bit me on my hand. My wife insisted I go to the hospital but I blew her off because it only hurt like a wasp sting. However the next morniing my hand was three times the size it was supposed to be. Sortof looked like Popeye's forearms.

Here is what the one looked like yesterday. Fantastic camoflage

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Post by Chuckwagon » Sun Jun 23, 2013 20:59

Can't believe you survived the cottonmouth without being treated. That buzzer in your photo is a nasty thing. Did ya ever try eatin' one? :shock:
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably needs more time on the grill! :D
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Post by el Ducko » Sun Jun 23, 2013 21:58

Chuckwagon wrote:Did ya ever try eatin' one? :shock:
Nope, but one tried eating ME. (Summertime, they used to drop into the boat, down at our duck hunting & fishing club. YEOW!) :shock:
:mrgreen:
Experience - the ability to instantly recognize a mistake when you make it again.
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Post by Chuckwagon » Sun Jun 23, 2013 22:02

DROP into the boat? Uh... from where? Enquiring minds.... oh sheeyuks, just answer the question!
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably needs more time on the grill! :D
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Post by el Ducko » Sun Jun 23, 2013 22:14

Chuckwagon wrote:DROP into the boat? Uh... from where? Enquiring minds.... oh sheeyuks, just answer the question!
...from the trees overhead.
Bayou Meto, Arkansas River bottoms, close to DeWitt, AR, fifty years ago, before all the lock-and-dam projects. ...subject to periodic flooding, whenever the Arkansas or the Mississippi was running high. Mississippi flyway. Quack! Quack! BOOM! Quaaaaaack!
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Post by Chuckwagon » Sun Jun 23, 2013 22:28

Goodness! :roll:
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably needs more time on the grill! :D
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Post by Butterbean » Mon Jun 24, 2013 00:05

Yes, I've eaten them and they are really good. Our extension office has or had a recipe for rattlesnake hollandaise and that is really my favorite.

One good thing about snakes is they are very easy to clean. Just slit them open, give a pull then all you have to do is pull the meat off the ribcage like you would a backstrap but you gotta be careful cause the mothers will swallow their young and you will sometimes be met with a sight like this and the babies are extremely dangerous because they can't control their venom flow. This is where I've been lucky with my bites. They were reactionary bites and not agressive bites. According to my doctor, most bites are reactionary unless beer is involved and these bites are usually pretty bad and occur on the hand or face.

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Post by Chuckwagon » Mon Jun 24, 2013 23:12

That's an incredible photo. I've had 'em to eat too but out here in the west, the only way they would "drop" into our boat is if someone like El QuackO pushed 'em out of an airplane! :roll: Wear yer' "gaitors" pard!

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon... safe in the desert... where there are no trees overhead with little surprises in 'em!
Geeeze... I've tripped over 'em, stepped on 'em, and even intentionally caught 'em fer' supper... but I've never had one "drop" in to visit - no thanks! :shock:
Last edited by Chuckwagon on Tue Jun 25, 2013 00:03, edited 1 time in total.
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably needs more time on the grill! :D
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Post by Chuckwagon » Tue Jun 25, 2013 00:01

Hey, hey, Butterbean!
Did you know there are 32 species of Crotalinae and seventy sub-species? As Ray would say, "Boy Howdy"! I'm sure you know a heck of a lot more than I do about these critters, but I couldn't help postin' my recipe for the WESTERN diamondback. My ol' fishin' partner got nabbed in the sagebrush by one of these devils and it screwed up his entire immune system for the rest of his life.

"Rattlesnake Rub 'N Roast"
(Cookin' A Western Diamond Back Rattler)

If you kill a rattler for supper, step on its head, cut it off and leave it alone. The unpredictable reflexes of the reptile may yet deliver venom up to twenty minutes more. As with any other meat, the flesh must be cooled before cooking it. Wash the flesh, pat it dry, and keep it clean. If you are going to use the head, skin, and rattles to fashion a great hatband that will bewilder, amaze, and impress everyone you cleverly and subtly bump into, make sure the reptile is dead as a can of store-bought corned beef before you start operating. Hang the snake by tying a strong cord around its flesh behind the head. Separate the head from the flesh but not the skin. Make a vertical slice down the belly almost to the rattles. Eviscerate the innards but leave the rattles connected to the skin as you easily pull the skin from the snake. Roll the head, skin, and rattles in plenty of salt, refrigerate the thing, and take it to a taxidermist as soon as possible, or get busy yourself, tanning the skin and preserving its head.

Having removed the entire contents from inside the snake, thoroughly wash and cool the meat. Slice it into two inch sections including the rib bones, and then rub the meat with a little black pepper, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, and a bit of cayenne pepper. Pan fry the pieces in butter or grill them over mesquite coals. The meat is not exceptionally flavorful, and contrary to popular belief, it doesn't taste like chicken. It tastes like... a gall-derned old rattlesnake. Actually, they are quite tasty, although I'd rather see one spread out on the grill than coiled in the sagebrush.

Chuckwagon`s "Rattlesnake Steep"
(20 Minute Marinade For Lean Fish Or Rattlers)


Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup grape seed oil
1/2 tsp. white wine vinegar
1 tspn. dried herbs of choice

"Robber's Roost Rattlesnake Venom"
(Hot N' Spicy Sauce For Chicken Or Rattler)

1 cup Frank's Red Hot Pepper Sauce
1/4 cup cider vinegar
2 tspns. brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 tspn. black pepper
1 tspn. cayenne pepper
1/2 stick of butter

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably needs more time on the grill! :D
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Post by el Ducko » Tue Jun 25, 2013 14:57

Another variant on your recipe is to split a snake, nail it to a board, slather your favorite seasonings on it, roast it in a fire, remove the snake...
...and eat the board.
:mrgreen:
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Post by sawhorseray » Tue Jun 25, 2013 15:46

That photo makes me think of having a wide open choked 12 gauge with #8 shot in hand. Many years back I was golfing and my partner hit his tee shot into a water hazard. When we got near the hazard to retrieve his ball the ground came alive with those dammed things. I ran away screaming like a little girl, don't like snakes, never have, never will. RAY
“Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.”
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Post by Butterbean » Tue Jun 25, 2013 19:17

I've never left the ribs in myself. Flesh comes off so easily from the ribs. What is the purpose of leaving the ribs in?
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