Snakes on the range !!

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Hangfire

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Was on the range about 0620 this morning and noticed, although I wasn't going to shoot paper, I saw that there were no paper targets so I hiked over to the stat house to get a few for the other shooters.

Got about 20' from the stat house and saw a snake stretched out up against the building and when I got a little closer I could see that it was definitely a Cooperhead.....per the pic in this thread https://www.okshooters.com/threads/copperhead.315876/

and this pic from the web......."Updated pic of adult / not a juvenile with yellow tipped tail"
View attachment 209815
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I had no desire to kill it but I wanted to at least get it away from the stat house so I walked over to the tool area and got a long handle rake to herd it along back to the wood line.

As I was herding it along I saw two other Copperheads within 20'-30' of the first around the perimeter stat hose......I think what is drawing the snakes in is that the stat house has security lights on all night and I noticed somewhere around 30 or 40 dime size frogs hopping around that are drawn to the area because the lights draw bugs and the snakes are drawn in by the frogs.

Anyway, two of the snakes herded along fairly good but one had a attitude and clamped down on the rake twice and lunged and struck at me 3 times before I got him far enough from the area surrounding the stat house.

Finally I went back to the pistol range and did what I came to the range for in the first place which was to run 50 rounds of 45ACP through my Ruger SR1911......after all the excitement and snake herding I guess I was kinda wound up because I didn't shoot all that well but still enjoyed myself.

I called the TCGC main Range Safety Officer earlier explaining what happened as he's going to send a email out to all members telling them to be extra careful at the range especially around all building that are security light lit at night.
 
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John6185

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Yep, with snake shot you can still shake and shoot. I always heard that Copperheads..maybe Coral Snakes had to gnaw on you and they didn't strike. But I am not taking any chances.
 

CutBaitNBlowSh*tUp4ALivin

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I may need a bit of help with this one. We captured one in the yard that I was 80% sure was a Texas Rat Snake but I'm no herpetologist, and I'm fairly colorblind. Did I catch and release a dangerous snake?
No, this beanpole isn't me, it's my fearless neighbor
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okierider

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