I killed a large cotton mouth in my garden this evening. I don't like to kill snakes unless I'm sure it is dangerous and located where it is dangerous to me or my dogs.
I always check my garden just before sundown. My eyes are tuned in to watching for snakes and I saw him out of the corner of my eyes against one of my raised beds with a huge toad in his mouth. I went in the house to get my son in law to look at it and tell me if it is the snake he saw a few days ago. I knew the snake wasn't going anywhere with that toad in it's mouth. I also wanted to double check my identification before I killed it. It was bothering me that I couldn't smell the snake. Cotton mouth snakes usually have a musty smell like a week skunk smell in my experience. All of his markings were correct. His size and shape were correct. I couldn't get a good look at his head to see the pit viper shape with the toad in his mouth.
I took my normal flip flops off and put my snake boots on and got my .22 caliber pistol. I carry a 9mm pistol but it is way to big for snake shooting. I went back to the garden and shot his head off from about six feet away. He was over forty inches long and weighed about four lbs.
I still hated to kill him, but better him than me.

Coouldn't agree with you more there Donnyboy, I don't like killing them either, but there are times....

Your account read like an adventure story. I used to find snakes fascinating until I had too many close encounters with rattlesnakes. Now, I sure understand your choice here, and appreciate your ambivalence. My grandmother in TX took out a few rattlers now and then with a shovel when they made a home in her garage. She was easily in her 90's then. If she'd had a .22 pistol, I'm sure she would have used it.

For safety reasons, I'm glad you got it. Snakes here are free to come and go except for the occasional timber rattler. There are copperheads and cottonmouths in the area but I've never seen one on the property. Yet. There are four cats here and I don't want any overcurious ones getting bit, especially around young rattlers.

I once knew a granny lady close to 80 years old that took an old sawed off twice barrel 12 gauge shotgun pistol like thing to go gather eggs.
Sometimes you would hear the thing go off too.

LK2020 wrote: ↑Sat May 02, 2020 9:53 am Your account read like an adventure story. I used to find snakes fascinating until I had too many close encounters with rattlesnakes. Now, I sure understand your choice here, and appreciate your ambivalence. My grandmother in TX took out a few rattlers now and then with a shovel when they made a home in her garage. She was easily in her 90's then. If she'd had a .22 pistol, I'm sure she would have used it.

I keep a sharp, flat blade on a rake handle in the garden for dealing with snakes, but I really didn't want to get that up close and personal with a really large cotton mouth. The pistol allowed me to dispatch him from a greater distance.

GoDawgs wrote: ↑Sat May 02, 2020 9:57 am For safety reasons, I'm glad you got it. Snakes here are free to come and go except for the occasional timber rattler. There are copperheads and cottonmouths in the area but I've never seen one on the property. Yet. There are four cats here and I don't want any overcurious ones getting bit, especially around young rattlers.

Timber rattler's are protected in Texas. I think the fine for killing one is about $500.00. I'm not sure if they are federally protected. The thing about killing any protected species in Texas is the fact that you also face the cost of "replacement value" which means either the cost of raising a replacement for many species and/or paying the assigned value of the animal. Those fines and charges can be assessed for killing a game animal out of permitted season.

My SIL took some cell phone photos of the snake both alive and dead. He thought he sent them to me, but he uses AT&T cell phone service and it simply doesn't work where we live. If I get the photos, I will post one. I didn't think the photos would take because it was almost full dark when he took them, but they took surprisingly well. I saw them on his cell phone.