Watch Your Step Near Those Deer Feeders!!
Bob McNally 10.19.15
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Two buddies, Mike Mooney and Gary McKendrie, were out the other day at their deer hunting property checking feeders, filling them, and looking at remote camera images. Fun stuff this work, learning where deer are living and feeding, and planning where to place stands.
They wandered around the feeder site a bit, looking at tracks and checking other whitetail sign. Mike bent down on one knee to inspect a large track, when suddenly he caught a bit of movement, turned, looked, and there coiled, cocked, and ready-to-strike, was a 5-foot diamondback rattlesnake.
He moved like an Olympic sprinter, yelling and leaping out of strike range. My buddies conferred a moment, and then one of them drew a pistol and dispatched the serpent with ultra-fine rat shot.
Not long after that we were having a game dinner at our hunt club, and my pair of pals was there with the snake. They cut it into chunks, floured and seasoned it, and soon we were eating fresh rattlesnake. It was excellent, though a bit boney, tasting, and I hate to say it, like chicken. I munched a piece and my teeth went crunch, then crunch again. Inspecting the not-so-soft food I’d just chewed, and there were a pair of size 12 lead shot.
I guess even eating a rattlesnake you gotta watch for those pellets. And I suppose Mr. “No Shoulders” did get the last laugh. That was the first time I ever got a toothache from a rattlesnake.
