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One of Florida's most lethal python hunters

gardenandgun.com

141–150 of 161 posts

Re: One of Florida's most lethal python hunters

#141

This might be a bit gruesome, but why not shoot the snakes the on site? That seems way easier and faster than physically wrestling dangerous snakes sometimes bigger than yourself, throwing them in your truck, and shooting them in your garage. Is it just the solemnity? The chance of missing and it escaping and the difficulty of wrestling with a gun?

I imagine you'd end up with lots of leaded bullets in the water, over time. Naturally lead + water = bad. Note: I know about this because there's a gun range near where I live by the lake, and the lake is now permanently off limits for swimming due to lead pollution.

I grew up in a shooting and hunting family. Whenever we were driving around town my dad would point out a wheel weight on the ground at a stop light/sign and my brother and I would jump out of the Land Cruiser and collect it. This was the 80s of course so we were drinking out of hose bibs, riding our bikes on high-traffic streets without helmets, and playing live Frogger to collect wheel weights. It was a game to my brother and I because wheel weights came in various shapes and sizes so it was fun to see if we could land a whopper. We would also stop by Tire stores and scour the parking lot for them. At some point we would melt the lead down into bars using a crucible. These would be later cast into bullets. My brother and I were also (in hindsight) child slave laborers that were tasked with reloading cartridges and shotgun shells for target shooting and trap/skeet. In our house this was considered a chore. This was our childhood. None of us ever used gloves or masks during any step in this process.

In a recent conversation over breakfast I brought up lead poisoning and my dad was adamant (in his conspiratorial way) about how all of that lead exposure via handling lead and inhaling lead fumes didn't result in any significant health problems for us. I'm assuming he meant that we all weren't dead yet. He's 80 and a wreck. He's had all sorts of health issues include recent cancer remission. I'm 55 and I've had nerve issues since my teenage years which manifests itself as a noticeable tremor in my right hand that has got worse over time. I developed adult onset asthma in my late teens. I have a host of other health conditions as well. Who knows how much of that is tied back to lead exposure.

Re: One of Florida's most lethal python hunters

#143
post #80

Here is an official Florida government source on the humane methods for killing a python. https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/nonnatives/python/humane-... - Your method should result in the animal losing consciousness immediately. - You should then destroy the animal's brain by “pithing” which prevents the animal from regaining consciousness. Looking at the diagram, the head is very small in comparison to the entire b…

A large body doesn't really matter, but the small head does. It's about half the size (linear measurements) of a deer head for reference, which is a pretty easy shot for almost anyone at 50 yards and not bad with a twidge of focused training at 250 yards.

However, for whatever reason, snakes don't seem to die very quickly when you shoot them in the head a few times (enough news stories if you're interested). I'd imagine that's at least part of where the recommendation comes from. Plus, they die incredibly slowly (if ever) if you go for a body shot. It'd probably suffer less if you drowned it (an ordeal that itself also takes hours), and none of those methods are even slightly humane.

Re: One of Florida's most lethal python hunters

#144

This might be a bit gruesome, but why not shoot the snakes the on site? That seems way easier and faster than physically wrestling dangerous snakes sometimes bigger than yourself, throwing them in your truck, and shooting them in your garage. Is it just the solemnity? The chance of missing and it escaping and the difficulty of wrestling with a gun?

They get paid per verified kill: https://www.sfwmd.gov/our-work/python-program No idea how it actually works but shooting them where they are has to be tough to verify.

It's not hard to transport an esky of snake heads.

Re: One of Florida's most lethal python hunters

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Particularly with snakes… https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse_incentive

Wikipedia says the snakes lay between 12-36 eggs, are capable of asexual reproduction when without a mate, and can reach over 2m in length within a year. Seems like a bunch of characteristics which would make farming them a straightforward affair. Less certain about the diet of feeding a clutch of snakes, but really seems like a business opportunity for the entrepreneur.

I though the same but what's the pay for killing them and what's the cost of feeding them so they get that big?

Re: One of Florida's most lethal python hunters

#146

This might be a bit gruesome, but why not shoot the snakes the on site? That seems way easier and faster than physically wrestling dangerous snakes sometimes bigger than yourself, throwing them in your truck, and shooting them in your garage. Is it just the solemnity? The chance of missing and it escaping and the difficulty of wrestling with a gun?

I imagine you'd end up with lots of leaded bullets in the water, over time. Naturally lead + water = bad. Note: I know about this because there's a gun range near where I live by the lake, and the lake is now permanently off limits for swimming due to lead pollution.

It's nationally illegal (yes i'm being american centric) to hunt waterfowl with lead and has been since the 90s at least. You use Steel or Bizmuth usually. But that's with shot with is 80+ bb's per shell vs one. If folks are firing a 22 at these it's not going to be a ton of lead in one spot. Also this is florida, people are definitely using the swamp as a backstop for their gun ranges.

Re: One of Florida's most lethal python hunters

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We shouldn't even be doing that for cats. Domestic cats are an invasive species that decimate the native wildlife. "free-ranging domestic cats kill 1.3–4.0 billion birds and 6.3–22.3 billion mammals annually."[0] Since we're talking about Florida, this is what their Fish & Game department has to say on the topic: > * Domestic cats are not a part of Florida’s natural ecosystem. A single individual free-ranging cat may…

...are you advocating for outdoor pet cats to be put to death by the state?

That's what I heard.

Re: One of Florida's most lethal python hunters

#148
post #96
post #87

Should we be capturing the large ones, sterilizing them and rereleasing like we do for cats? I wonder how you tag a python as spayed though. No ears.

No, they should be eliminated immediately. Finding a living mammal in the everglades is becoming rare with these snakes destroying the ecosystem. I spent several days hunting for Pythons earlier this year and didn't see even a single deer or rabbit.

But one clutch of eggs will replace the pythons you kill and then some.

A neutered python puts predation pressure on the rest. Creates crowding.

Re: One of Florida's most lethal python hunters

#150
post #143
post #80

Here is an official Florida government source on the humane methods for killing a python. https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/nonnatives/python/humane-... - Your method should result in the animal losing consciousness immediately. - You should then destroy the animal's brain by “pithing” which prevents the animal from regaining consciousness. Looking at the diagram, the head is very small in comparison to the entire b…

A large body doesn't really matter, but the small head does. It's about half the size (linear measurements) of a deer head for reference, which is a pretty easy shot for almost anyone at 50 yards and not bad with a twidge of focused training at 250 yards. However, for whatever reason, snakes don't seem to die very quickly when you shoot them in the head a few times (enough news stories if you're interested). I'd imag…

They can live for several minutes or even tens of minutes after decapitation. As in the head stays alive and remains capable of biting you. Every now and then a person who cuts the head off a rattlesnake gets bitten by the head and has to go to the hospital.

The most humane way to kill a snake is to quickly destroy the brain by crushing the head or pithing as the article points out.

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