Rattlesnake Hunt

A very interesting pasttime that I have developed over the last few years is hunting Rattlesnakes. I can’t seem to explain it to myself or anyone else (mostly my wife), other than I am intrigued & mortified at the same time by these cold blooded reptiles. The best time I have found to find the Prairie Rattlesnakes (Crotalus Viridis) among other snakes that inhabit this area is in the fall when the temperatures are dropping and the days are getting shorter. I have visited snake dens in the spring, but I just have never seen the numbers of snakes in the spring that I do in the fall. There is one den, or as a herpetologist would say, a Hibernaculum in particular in this area that is host to many different kinds of snakes.



On a warm fall day you will see Garter Snakes, Eastern Racers, Blue Racers, Bull Snakes, Prairie Rattlesnakes and the occasional Hog Nose Snake. This particular den is being hosted by a southerly facing cut bank that has slowly eroded away from thousands of years of spring snow run off & summer rains. The southerly facing slope is ideal, as it will catch the suns warmth and hold the heat much longer.



A couple of friends and myself chose a beautiful fall day in the middle of October to visit this denning site. My friend Andrew has heard me talk of this den, but could never really imagine what it was I was telling him. I had told him from trips past that I would see Bull Snakes that would stretch past 6’ & Prairie Rattlesnakes that would easily go well over 4’ in length. He decided to take the time and go along on this trip, he was not disappointed.



On our drive in to the den I shot the biggest Rattlesnake I have ever seen in this area, as it stretched to well over 5’ long and was 10” in circumference. When we got to the site, we pulled up on top of the cut bank to take in the view of the surrounding area, and were immediately greeted with rattles buzzing at the bottom of our doors. After dispatching these few snakes, we walked to the edge of the cut bank to peer over the edge to see what kind of snakes were out of the den soaking up some sun. We initially saw a few snakes, but as we stood there letting our eyes become accustomed to the sun and surroundings, we would see snakes come out of every little nook and cranny. My friends both packing good snake firearms killed a few from up top. Andrew had on a good pair of snake boots, but Josh & I both just had leather hiking boots on. Josh & Andrew decided to venture down towards the den, taking along a fiberglass pole with a hook that I brought along, while I stayed up top and tried to spot snakes for them.



When they had come back up top they dumped out a 5 gallon bucket they had taken with them. There were 15 snakes in that bucket and none were shorter than 4’ long. As the day was winding down, I kept thinking that I wanted to skin the largest snake that I had shot & try to tan the skin, as I have never attempted this before. As I was skinning the snake, I asked Josh & Andrew to keep an eye out for snakes coming into the denning site from behind us. They had to shoot another 5 snakes in just the time it took us to skin out 3 snakes. We all would have liked to stay longer, but our nerves were frayed from walking around so many snakes.

In this picture Andrew takes a turn skinning a big Rattler, and I stand guard.


I have done a little research since this last trip. The longest Prairie Rattlesnake ever recorded in Montana is 59.64 inches. So I think we found a real Booner on our trip!!