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The Rattlesnake Hunt.
April 05, 2007Okay...now that I have fully recovered from the rush of adrenaline...here's the story.
So, for my birthday, I decided that I wanted to do something a bit foolish and fun at the same time. I don't think I was going to be able to do any better than my 27th birthday when I covered the Texas Rangers on opening day.
But I wanted to have some kind of fun...so I decided that looking for highly venomous snakes in their natural habitat and trying to catch them sounded like a great idea. The entire thing is for a photo page that will run on Monday (everybody go buy a copy)....and to tease the Waurika Rattlesnake Roundup next weekend.
If you've never been up to Waurika, I highly suggest going, it's a blast. Plus, all the money raised goes directly to help their volunteer fire dept. (which is also a great cause).
Well, I AM officially scared of snakes, but as I do with all of my fears, I wanted to face them.
So...without further delay...I'll show off some of the snakes and me actually catching them.
If you're my mom and/or don't want to look, now's your chance to back out.
So me and three guys headed out to a known rattlesnake den on Tuesday afternoon, looking for trouble.
Before long, we found what we were looking for.
This was the trouble we were after, and it didn't take all that long to get him all pissed off and riled up at us. This guy was about 4'6" long and in a bad mood.
So, after a few minutes of getting friendly with the snake and taking a few pictures, the guys decided they would let me catch him. I was...hesitant....to say the least.
But I figured, no guts no glory right...what's the worst that could happen.
Death...that's the worst that could happen.
So they give me the tongs and showed me exactly where to grab the snake at as to not injure him or anything...
Clearly...I am a bit jumpy, I've got my front leg ready to send me jumping and scrambling backwards.
This next one...my knees buckled a bit. The snake made a lunge at me and I nearly peed myself....much to the delight of my three country boy friends that were having a blast watching.
Finally....great success! After making sure that the snake wasn't going to get loose from the kung-fu grip I had with the tongs, I reached down and grabbed for his tail. I missed the first time...but the second time, I got him.
Hey mom...look what I found.
Following this photo...I might have curled up on a rock and cried for about 10 minutes. j/k
Putting the snake in the bag, you get a better idea of just how large he was. That's a big snake folks, that's the kind of snake that Indiana Jones hated.
Then..believe it or not, I got into the snake pit wiht about 150 rattlers when we made it back to the Roundup building....yeah, I said I got in the snake pit.
Then I took a picture of myself....
For reference...note, those are the snakes in a pile in the corner...'cept for a few that were a bit more active, and mad. Also note...two of my hunting buddies on the other side of the wall.
And that...folks, was how I spent several hours of my 28th birthday, cheating death and taking pictures.
Peeeeeeeeeeaceout....jason
Posted by Jason Palmer at 02:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Comments
Jason you are crazy but you did get some great shots. I couldn't do it. sorry
Sounds and looks like you had a lot of fun. Great Pics.
