Pistols to do in snakes such as rattlesnakes?

[Jimbo302]

Shotshells work great, I've used everything from .22 on up. A little 3" .22 pistol has quite the spread at a few feet.
I also slipped a rope through a thin wall pipe to make a long distance noose that works well.

[6.7traveler]

If it's for around the house, a resident bull snake will keep the rattlers away. I used to know some crazy desert dwellers who purposely relocated a bull snake to live under their home. Never had a problem with rattlers again.

I've had to shoot one rattler when I lived in snake country when it got a little to close to the house. The only thing I had at the time was a 12 gauge shotgun. Needless to say, half of the snake completed disappeared .

I don't really like to rely on carrying when in snake country. I'd feel safer with a good pair of knee high snake proof boots. Hard to shoot the snake when you don't see it walking through thick brush and it nips you on the ankle.

The western diamond backs would do their best to avoid you in my old area. The mojave green rattle snake on the other hand was particularly nasty with its neurotoxic/hemotoxic venom and made the diamondbacks look docile in comparison. Don't miss those...

Always look before you stick your hand in somewhere.

[ABQConvict]

If you are too far from your house/barns/stable to go get a shovel, there is no reason to dispatch a rattler, in my opinion.

If you have enough rattlers to keep a pistol loaded with snakeshot, you live in snake central. And I say that as somone who live in diamondback country. I think the only reason for snakeshot is for people who actively hunt snakes for their skins and are too chicken to use the shovel which you have anyway to overturn rocks to find the snakes.

[Blondebaerde]

Originally Posted by TamaraSavannah

Yes, I know that feeling.

The 12 gauge shotguns have been gunsmith inspected but not the others. Perhaps in the new year, I ought to make those part of the plan.....certainly wouldn't try to fire them without an inspection, especially considering the decades they have been in storage. Decades indeed for I know in that stock of shotgun ammo there is also German Luger ammo from WWII!

Given this conversation, I imagine another caliber of pistol is soon to be in my life.

Calibers breed. Ironically, I end up thinning my herd mostly if not always by selling off the occasional extra to friends. Guess I've dispatched a half dozen that way in a dozen years. Sales, not friends!

I'm a simple guy, organizing people and material is what I do for a living. As my father used to say, "many things in life should be be made simple as possible, but no simpler!" For me, weapon calibers are one such thing...and that, I can control.

Seems to me I'm down to 45 ACP for pistols, 223 for rifles, and maybe ten boxes each of 308 Win and 12 gauge for a rifle and shotgun (respt) I inherited a bit more than a year ago. If I have my way, the latter two are out of here and it's going to 300 AAC Blackout OR just 308 Win, tbd.

While neither hoarder nor prepper, for training and logistics purposes I can't have it any other way. I wish I'd started with that HK USP in 45 ACP you mention, back in 1990 in my case, instead of the SIG Sauer P226 I shot for eight years. Nothing wrong with that SIG, but 9mm and I just don't get along well I've concluded. 45 ACP does. I sold the SIG to a guy after one of my first combatives courses, when I (correctly) deduced it was too big, wrong caliber for my tastes, and just didn't shoot well in my hand for whatever reason.

Ironically, HK USPs do. Go figure.

Circling to OP, I'll pass the advice provided to me by an "Operator" who runs one of the WA - based training institutes for LE and civilians. I think of them as Xe or Blackwater guys "on loan" to teach when in-season and they're not off doing God knows what or where:

"Shoot the most-est that you can handle best-est!" For one of said-Operators I consider a friend, Glock 19 and end of story. For me, 1911 Commanders. YMMV.

That could be 410 in a handgun, such a critter exists. I know guys who swear by just about every caliber out there. Or, as I think another person said, one of those not-so-little 410 Derringers for emergency use only, which sort of defines when one has to dispatch a reptile, right? Here, I just looked it up: Bond Arms, the "Snake Slayer" 410. Whoo hoo!

[HB2HSV]

3 guns ONLY!!!???!!!

That's like saying a woman ONLY need 3 pair of shoes 👠!!!

[NVplumber]

Originally Posted by Blondebaerde

Answer: any.

I've dispatched one or two with my SIG Sauer P226, long time ago. And regretted it, btw, but let's not get too moral about it. YMMV.

I'm a 1911 guy these days. Any will do. That, too, is more my style and has zero to do with a context-less question about what OP would prefer. All my pistols are 45ACP, including a revolver, for approximate consistency in recoil. Only one type of ammo needed for bulk buys, too.

Ever since I was just a kid and was into building cap and ball from kits I've used an 1860 44 Army with 35 fffG with a cotton wad #6 shot sealed with bees wax. When all I was worried about was snakes any way. Carried it with me on every saddle trip. I know it's a pain to load and such, but it works and it's cool.