Quote:
Originally Posted by SpringerXD
That was my thought. I don't like the idea of having to hit a relatively small, moving target with a 5-inch competition 1911, let alone a tiny little pocket deringer. I guess there's a possibility that the bang might scare a snake away, but actually hitting it? Good luck.
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If I should happen to encounter a snake and it is moving, then it keeps on moving (Read my posts, it goes it's way, I go mine). If the movement is a strike at me, then it will be back in a poised position soon, and I am either bit
or in the process of backing out of range. If I am bit, BANG, then we both go to the local hospital. Otherwise I am picking a different path
Laying under a piece of equipment and one coming up out of a prairie /dog/gopher/other rodent hole, or even taking a nap under said equipment, it is now a territory dispute and I am not in a position to whack it with a shovel, or scoop it up and fling it away with said shovel that
I am not carrying around with me. A hasty retreat out of range may not work so well either if it is coiled up and ready for a strike.
Use of a snake gun is a last resort (as is all my usage of any gun on anything other than paper).
On a side note, I finally talked with the company safety supervisor about this;
"Unofficially and off the record, since there is a abnormally large problem with the rattlesnakes in Lamar, if an employee should happen to keep a 2 shot derringer with bird shot with them in the event that they are caught in a position where the avoidance of one is not feasible, like while under a piece of equipment performing repairs or maintenance, what stance is the company going to take?"
"Guns are against company policy. If the employee kept it hidden and was not showing it off to everyone and it was only used in the defense of their personal safety - not just out hunting them, then I expect an exception would be made."
I suspect that I would still get written up and possibly removed from that job or suspended if there were witnesses or it became the talk of the job site. Usually when I am working on equipment, it is beached at the staging area or somewhere on the site if it just stopped working, either way, there is not a crowd of coworkers around.
As for a relatively small target, the safety supervisor had just came back from that job and had a nice picture of a 3"-4" OD and 5' long rattler coiled up and cranky.