Once while departing a military pistol range at Fort Gordon Georgia, I saw a rattlesnake slither across the road in front of my van. I wasn't more that 50 yards from the range shack where my team had broken for lunch, so I called back to my team to bring me my 1911A1 and a clip of ammunition. A young sergeant brought it to me and asked me what the problem was as I was locking and loading my weapon. As I aimed at the snake I told him that about ten feet to his right was a rattlesnake about 30 inches long. He said "how can be you sure?" I told him to pick up a tree limb that was about 8 feet long and wack him with it from a safe distance. He did so, and the snake immediately coiled up and began his rattling... upon which I drew a bead on him and emptied the magazine of .45 ACP. The young sergeant asked me why I did that... my reply was that I was going to be back out here tomorrow and might NOT see the snake...
I Hate Snakes! We killed at least one rattler a week on that pistol range...
Not many rattlers here in Virginia, but my favorite weapon of choice is a riding mower... They just can't deal with the rotating blades very well... It is fatal for the snake at every encounter
I got one other great and true snake story but I will save that for another time.