Snake Shot: Do you use it for your trail/camp gun when overlanding?

[Desert Runner]

Are the chances of encountering snakes more likely to cause you to choose this ammo over a standard round. Personally I don't like them, similar to Indiana Jones phobia. Years ago I almost stepped down on a Western Diamond Back/Mojave rattlesnake?. Another stride and it would have been bad JuJu. It slightly moved, which alerted me to it's presence, and I had been diligently watching out where I placed my feet. It blended into the red/brown sandstone, and matched it's surroundings. This is more a concern of mine, than 2 legged creatures. If I feel there is a dual possibility of trouble, 2-3 chambers can be modified to address this also.

A 'speed-feed can hold a backup ammo choice if wanted/needed. This assumes just this situation, and not big bad 4 legged animals, which have been addressed in other OB threads. A 38 or 357 loaded with CCI shot should be sufficient if close enough to be concerned. If a little distance is involved, I will generally leave them alone, as long as kids or dogs won't be threatened by their presence.

Who uses it, who is thinking about it? Has It come in handy in the past? Have you ever had a close call, or someone you know. At some point this scenario becomes a possibility. Ever had to make a midnight pit stop, and wonder whats outside your tent when stepping out?

On a side note: Those with autos will just have to rely on larger mags to ensure adequate termination, no snake shot cartridges. Dead snakes can still strike/bite!

******This is about handguns, so a shotgun will have to play 2nd fiddle, and be sidelined for this discussion.******

 

[Charles M]

I have encountered a lot of snakes in my lifetime and only shot at one. I had a cotton mouth water moccasin actually chase me for over 20 feet while I was trying to get away.
Moccasins are the only snakes I have ever seen that might chase and possibly bite you. Anything here in the west like rattlers are not aggressive so I prefer to leave them alone.

I have shot other varmints with .357/38 rat shot loads and watched them run away. I have very little faith in rat shot past a few feet and if something is more than a few feet away I wouldn't bother shooting it.

In the time I can draw a weapon I can jump or run to a safe distance and at that point I wouldn't need to shoot it...

 

[systemdelete]

I carry snake shot when working in my back yard. Never worry about it when out camping. I’m not there to kill the wildlife, I’m trying to live alongside it unnoticed. I still carry in the woods, but it’s more for particularly aggressive bears, or two legged problem makers that can’t be nudged out of the way with a walking stick.

 

[Ghost]

I’ve alway been pretty underwhelmed with the performance so I don’t use it.

 

[Sasquatch SC]

I don't take my revolver when I'm overlanding - one of my 1911's lives in my glovebox. I've modified it with a compensater & light pull trigger. I can be surgical with it. My CWP weapon is a Glock 26, but shooting a 9mm out of a compact frame is more for self-defense - 10 rounds in the magazine and one in the pipe. It's a show of force weapon where you can put a lot of lead down range really quick. I easily can qualify with it, but it isn't like my 1911 where I can turn a target silhouette into a smiley face. When I am out in the hills on game management land, I keep my Marlin 30-30 in the trunk. We have a coyote and wild hog problem around here. You can even cash in for a bounty with coyotes.

I do carry an old Charter Arms Off-Duty .38 Special snub nose revolver when I am kayaking. I keep 3 rounds of snake shot and 2 FMJ rounds in it. I used to carry it when I was working around in the fields, but I have never had much luck with it. Usually the scabbard with the Remington 870 is pretty close on the tractor so I stopped carrying the revolver with me for farm tasks. But the revolver with snake shot is fantastic when on the kayak. Usually, when you are sitting low in the water like that you don't see the slimy bastards until they are far too close for comfort. A round or two of snake shot usually annihilates them. I have a serious phobia of snakes. I'd rather be 30 yards from a bear than 30 feet from a snake. I know some snakes are harmless, etc - but I don't get close enough to find out which are which.

What are your thoughts on a hybrid revolver like the S&W Governor or the Taurus Judge that can fire a .410 bore shot shell or a .45 long cartridge?

 

[madcratebuilder]

I've loaded shot shells for .44mag and .45acp, pretty effective at short range. I stopped hunting 20 years ago and I wouldn't shoot a snake unless it's a Politian. I carry a small 9mm bottom feeder for different kinds of snakes.

 

[MMc]

I don't use any, I leave them alone. I have almost stepped on more then one but have not stepped on any. If they are in camp a long stick will get them to move along.
The snake shot tends to blowback.

 

[MidOH]

I have encountered a lot of snakes in my lifetime and only shot at one. I had a cotton mouth water moccasin actually chase me for over 20 feet while I was trying to get away.
Moccasins are the only snakes I have ever seen that might chase and possibly bite you. Anything here in the west like rattlers are not aggressive so I prefer to leave them alone.

I have shot other varmints with .357/38 rat shot loads and watched them run away. I have very little faith in rat shot past a few feet and if something is more than a few feet away I wouldn't bother shooting it.

In the time I can draw a weapon I can jump or run to a safe distance and at that point I wouldn't need to shoot it...

Water Moccasin was also fleeing towards safety. It's just that you were running towards it's safe spot. (they aren't exactly the smartest creatures) Were you fleeing towards a river perhaps?

Don't waste time with snake shot. Keep your ccw for two leggers. You're either bit by a snake, or have a chance to walk away. There really is no in between, where you have time to fiddle around with a pistol, that you couldn't just have walked away.

East coast cottonmouths and rattle snakes won't bite unless you seriously mess with them. And even then, I've never been able to make a cottonmouth aggressive. They just coil up and hiss. Completely over rated, here. I've pretty much written them off, as no threat at all, to my hiking. Maybe it's different breeds over west.

 

[Sasquatch SC]

Water Moccasin was also fleeing towards safety. It's just that you were running towards it's safe spot. (they aren't exactly the smartest creatures) Were you fleeing towards a river perhaps?

Don't waste time with snake shot. Keep your ccw for two leggers. You're either bit by a snake, or have a chance to walk away. There really is no in between, where you have time to fiddle around with a pistol, that you couldn't just have walked away.

East coast cottonmouths and rattle snakes won't bite unless you seriously mess with them. And even then, I've never been able to make a cottonmouth aggressive. They just coil up and hiss. Completely over rated, here. I've pretty much written them off, as no threat at all, to my hiking. Maybe it's different breeds over west.

Cottonmouths will come after fishing lures - especially noisemakers or shallow jigs.

 

[Charles M]

Water Moccasin was also fleeing towards safety. It's just that you were running towards it's safe spot. (they aren't exactly the smartest creatures) Were you fleeing towards a river perhaps?

Don't waste time with snake shot. Keep your ccw for two leggers. You're either bit by a snake, or have a chance to walk away. There really is no in between, where you have time to fiddle around with a pistol, that you couldn't just have walked away.

East coast cottonmouths and rattle snakes won't bite unless you seriously mess with them. And even then, I've never been able to make a cottonmouth aggressive. They just coil up and hiss. Completely over rated, here. I've pretty much written them off, as no threat at all, to my hiking. Maybe it's different breeds over west.

Actually I am a displaced Florida boy.. While I agree most will not come after you there have been few cotton mouths when growing up who broke that rule... lol I was fishing around a pond with a steep embankment and couldn't climb up it so it had me cornered... Otherwise being a snake lover ( I had eastern diamondback and coral snakes as pets) I never kill them. I have picked up more than a few and relocated them...

Although I do NOT recommend that practice and I refrain from doing so now I am much older. The very large majority of bites happen when people are handling or trying to kill the snakes. So I agree with a few people above.

 

[Noble Savage]

I personally only carry snake shot in my 357 when kayaking. I alternate between that and a hollow point. On land I carry a 1911 in 10mm. I’ve had some experiences with hogs charging me and others in a hunting party. A rifle with shitty shot placement didn’t even phase it. That 10 knocked it on its ass. Plus it’s on great little round.

As far as snakes and other wildlife, I try to leave them be if they are not on my agenda. Snakes have their place in the world and contributes to the ecosystem so I leave them be.

 

[Ekaphoto]

I think you would be better off using light 38 loads so you can shoot accuratly. If you have not got a handgun yet the Taurus jusge with bird shot turky loads might be a good option.

 

[Tupenny]

I keep a .22 target pistol loaded with snake shot for when working in the wetland/woodland section of the property (fence repairs, etc). Only used it once on a moccasin that was damn near under my foot before I noticed. Would rather not shoot, but was glad I had it then. Worked well

 

[Lanlubber In Remembrance]

Never shot an animal with them but I have shot plenty of oriental cock roaches with them when I was young and living in cockroach infested rentals. I had a pull chain light over my bed and when I had to go potty in the middle of the night I would stand on my bed, turn on the light and start shooting away at those monsters. So yes I killed a lot of varmints with the .22 rat shot but never a rat.

 

[Anak]

Never shot an animal with them but I have shot plenty of oriental cock roaches with them when I was young and living in cockroach infested rentals. I had a pull chain light over my bed and when I had to go potty in the middle of the night I would stand on my bed, turn on the light and start shooting away at those monsters. So yes I killed a lot of varmints with the .22 rat shot but never a rat.

I can just imagine being in the adjacent bedroom when the gunshots start. LOL.

How do you get back to sleep after that?

In today's world CPS would haul you off so fast it would make your head spin. Yet somehow you survived.

I will have to save your story for use on The Varmints when they are whining about some perceived hardship in their world.

 

[Lanlubber In Remembrance]

I can just imagine being in the adjacent bedroom when the gunshots start. LOL.

How do you get back to sleep after that?

In today's world CPS would haul you off so fast it would make your head spin. Yet somehow you survived.

I will have to save your story for use on The Varmints when they are whining about some perceived hardship in their world.

Things were different in the 50's. It was a single room rental on the side of an old converted service station on a commercial street.
Those damn cockroaches were 3" long and all over the place @ night. I had to fill coffee cans with soapy water and set the legs of my bed in them to keep the monster roaches from sleeping with me. The building was made from quarry rock and mortar, so the roaches would home in the falling out mortar, impossible to get rid of. $35 a month was all I could afford, just out of the Air Force, married with pregnant wife, and bottom of the pole on a go no where job. WE only stayed there until I could afford a $50 a month place that wasn't much better but didn't have the oriental black cockroaches, instead had small brown house cockroaches that insect spray would control (almost)..
Anyway I think I hocked the 22 rifle for some diapers or something like that, it was a looooooooooooooog time ago. I do remember my wife getting me another single shot rifle with 3 green stamp books worth about $2.75 each a few years later. I still have it in like new condition. Being a single shot it's not likely to burn the barrel out with so much rapid fire going on.

 

[Downs]

I've messed with ratshot for fun but never bothered to carry it for any kind of varmint purposes. I just walk away from them or push them out of the way with a stick if need be.

 

[Lanlubber In Remembrance]

I've messed with ratshot for fun but never bothered to carry it for any kind of varmint purposes. I just walk away from them or push them out of the way with a stick if need be.

If you like to play with them (snakes) with sticks why not go over to Sweetwater during the rattlesnake round up. Better yet take a few women with you who fear snakes and listen to their squeals as they walk the deserts peeing in their pants.
The .22 rat shot is fun with a pistol. Fill water balloons, throw them in the air and practice shooting from the hip for accuracy. It's tricky to do but fun trying. Do not do this around your kids !

 

[Jeep backroads]

I always just carry regular loads .

 

[bgenlvtex]

I have killed dozens if not hundreds of copper heads and water moccasin with shovels, axes, knives and shot a few. Every dog I have has been bit, most several times. We keep inject able diphenhydramine and antibiotics in inventory specifically for that reason. I hate me some venomous snake and kill every one I come across given a reasonable opportunity to do so.

A snake is a pretty durable creature, my experience with "rat shot" is in .22LR, I would not expect it to effectively dispatch a snek of decent proportions.