Slow day. I hoped to go to the hardware store in the little town nearest where I live, because then I could get the bolts and drillbit(s) needed to finish the stand for paper targets at the shooting range. But Saturday trips are only sometime things, this one didn’t happen, and so I was at loose ends. Landlady came up with a couple of care packages from Big Brother, and he included that new ceiling fan controller with remote that I mentioned before. It was the work of a few minutes to get that going…
Replacing a six-wire controller with clearly-marked wires with a nearly identical six-wire controller with clearly-marked wires is a pretty trivial matter. Took longer to bring the ladder indoors without dinging up the new trim paint.
And now the Lair’s bedroom has a variable/reversible ceiling fan that actually varies and reverses. It has also acquired its very first remote control, and I’m trying not to see that as a bad thing. Seems funny, anyway. The Lair project started in concept as a private little shack with an outhouse. Electricity and running water were not included in the original concept. Pallet construction was not out of the question. It continues to morph into an actual house, sometimes seemingly without conscious input from me.
My 2018 campaign to maintain mobility through the acquisition of expensive textile products is well ahead of schedule. I took possession of five new nylon sheaths, which means…
I have eight new ones, and can finally retire the last of my nylon sheaths that are worn right through. Happy day!
My plan is a two-week supply of socks and sheaths that are actually all the same thickness and state of wear, because piecing together layers of old stuff until the prosthesis fits okay every morning is a pain. Because these are not cheap I’d planned on this being pretty much an all-year project, but I already have 11 new socks and eight new nylon sheaths. That’s where a lot of your Patreon money is going right now so keep reading the blog, okay? 🙂
Running around at mid-day, I hooked up the trailer and was moving some wood from Landlady’s place for my woodpile and the Lair Porch Project (which will go live this coming week, because I have those two concrete piers I was hoping for.) Heading down her driveway I came upon a snake that had crawled out to sun itself on the beaten-down clay after the cloudy morning. At first I assumed it was a bull snake because they do that quite often, so I turned to go around it. But then when it was even with the driver’s window I saw it was a rattler.
Normally I still would have given it a miss – I don’t habitually kill rattlesnakes unless they’re right in the yard or there’s some other specific good reason. But Landlady is up, which means Dharma is running around in her heedless fashion, and leaving this one alive near the Meadow House, right in the driveway, just seemed like poor stewardship.
I could shoot it, but I had the Tracker and when does that get fun? So I backed the Jeep up and took a run to just drive over it. Apparently the snake saw that as a bad thing, because when I should have passed over it with all three sets of wheels – including the Jeep trailer – I found I had missed the snake entirely and it was moseying for the driveway’s edge.
(Sigh) Okay. So I’m all…
Long long time readers may recall the day I dramatically learned that shooting a snake with a pistol is not the extremely decisive event it’s made out to be in an Eastwood movie. In fact that was the day I decided to change from my POS 1911, which only functions well with RN bullets, to something that will handle really cavernous hollowpoints.
Even that hasn’t proven a sure show-stopper which is why on those occasions when I really must dispatch a snake, I prefer a shovel. But the shovel I keep in the Jeep is too short for that application, so I was stuck with the Tracker.
Easy shot, right? What am I complaining about, right? I’m supposed to be this rough tough cedar rat, and I can’t kill a damned snake?
Oh, I can hit the snake. It’s the bullets that aren’t killing the snake. They’re just sailing right through. You ever really try to get an actual headshot on a viper that’s trying to get out of Dodge and weaving all over the damned place? Small target.
Bottom line: Took me three shots. One clean miss. One body hit the snake seemed to barely notice. And one headshot that did not blow it clean off, but definitely stopped the snake. Then I decapped it with the Jeep shovel and tossed it out in the open to hopefully make some hawk’s day.
A revolver loaded with birdshot is the best medicine for snakes (at close range ) .
Tried that once! Worked great, too, except for the part where the recoil uncapped all the rounds in the other cylinders and tiny little bits of expensive shot were rolling everywhere and laughing at me.
You could start skinning snakes. Make some headbands, belts, dog collars? Gotta be some uses for them things. Toss the meat for the wildlife food after you skin ’em.
I forgot is your Tracker .44 special or .44 magnum?
My dear, departed mother’s favourite anti-snake weapon hung outside the door – a snake chain.
Take a short wooden handle, and afix a 6 foot (or longer) length of medium (say 3/4″ links) chain.
Swing it from behind you, overhead, and onto the snake. The chain conforms to the ground, and will likely cut a snake in half, with no chance of said reptile slithering through a gap betwixt ground and implement of death.
.44 mag, but I usually keep it loaded with 200gr Special. Then I’ve got a couple of speed strips, one with light handloads and one for getting Godzilla’s attention.
Joel,the recoil uncapping the other rounds never occurred to me.I never had that happen to me . I used to carry a .357 revolver,loaded with 158 gr ammo,except the first round was the birdshot. That way if you see a snake you can kill it,and if you need a bullet,you just rotate the cylinder one round.
This is why God gave us short barreled shotguns and 00 buck… :^)
https://dlaskarms.com/collections/870-shorty/products/remington-870-shorty
Wow. Except for the inevitable ruptured eardrums that would make one hell of a bedside gun. Illegal as hell in this country without jumping through NFA hoops, of course. And the price seems high, though I have no idea as to the current exchange rate. Nothing says you care about an uninvited guest’s welfare quite like an 870, though.
Sorry I forgot about the NFA tax thing you guys have to deal with. As for me, I could not afford a shotgun like the Dlask shorty, they are high end custom made to order. As for me, my little gun is a Norinco coach gun in 12G. It serves as a bed gun and when I’m out camping it’s my bear medicine.
https://www.cabelas.ca/product/107491/norinco-side-by-side-coach-shotgun
So far as 870 shorties go there has been a flood of Turkish clones that have hit the market up here. They can be gad with 8 inch, 12 inch or 14 inch barrels and the prices are very reasonable.
It’s a shame about the NFA hoops you guys have to jump through, I really like my little coach gun. With the external hammers, I can leave it loaded with no issues about springs getting a memory. It fits under the truck seat or a back pack easily, and if the situation gets real serious both barrels can be fired at the same time.
I had a .38 Spcl. CCI bird shot cartridge do that to me once. What I’ve since done is always load the 1st shot (and no more) with the CCI 1st, then solids after that. The very few times I’ve had to index the cylinder for a solid shot, I haven’t had the issue. Yet anyway.
Fwiw, that might work for you. That CCI bird shot within 15 feet (with centerfire, rimfire isn’t nearly as effective unless inside 8 feet) is the shizzle !!