Wow I would have guessed 2 feet rather than 8 inches LOL. Yeah, with all the mud on it and being so young it really is hard for me to tell if it is a rattler. I only have experience with the ones around Colorado, and unfortunately, larger ones. The body does seem fatter for its size, which might cause one to lean more towards a rattler based on these photos, but the shape of the head and eyes don't seem like the ones around here in my area. Doesn't really matter at this point: since it's a carcass.

For rattlers around here, I am told that if you can't distinguish by other features, if the tail comes to a pointed tip and there is no rattle, it isn't a rattler. If a rattler loses its rattles, it will have a rounded/fat/blunt end of its tail versus a pronounced tip.

The young ones possess especially nasty, toxic venom. I think it gets diluted somehow as their poison glands grow, so it's more concentrated when they are young.

I think I've made a comment similar to this on one of your other threads before, but was it really necessary to kill the snake? And was it really intelligent to use the HG55 to do so? Better to let the thing slither along on its own, or chuck some rocks to spook it away, than risk getting bitten by a rattler just to say you chopped its head off with a knife. Just my opinion.


When I was a kid, learning to hunt and trap, we didn't just learn to kill stuff randomly - we learned about respect for nature. We also learned that certain critters are better off left alone, rather than provoking them. Again, just something to think about.