Bumped into Mr No Shoulders today. Rattlesnake.

[spectr17]

I thought I had a perfect skin for my bottom limb on my longbow but one of the conservancy guys saw me taking pics and stopped and said not to kill it. He was a pretty good size rattler, maybe 3-4 foot long, a dark Southern Pacific I believe. His rattles looked like they had been broken off, I could only see maybe two (bottom right in pic). He was ambushing ground squirrels in this apple orchard. The orchard was schedule to open tomorrow and the guy said they had to move him since he was hanging around the entrance. I named this dude Black Bart, he was all black and man them killer eyes was dark black too. He may have been digesting some squirrel sammiches, I tried to get him to move or buzz and he wouldn't budge. He never rattled. Snake gaiters anyone?

[Shoot-it]

I never seen one that black before.Why couldn't you kill it was it prohibited where you were at ?

[chillincody]

Nice pics ,but your crazy I would never stay long enough for a pic tho lol

[spectr17]

It was on the conservancy property line fence. I didn't want to get in a dust up with them over it but it would have sure looked kewl as hell on my longbow. Them black ones tend to be in certain areas from what I've seen. One way you can tell a Southern Pacific from a Western Diamonback is the SPs don't have the coon tail black n white bands near their rattle.

[Shoot-it]

I think they all have the black and white stripes on the tail.The ones i kill up north on the coastal hills have the tail stripes.
Another CA snake i didn't take this picture.This was on Mount diablo golf coarse i was told.

[chicoredneck]

I've never seen a black rattler like that. Too bad, that would have been a good skin. I was down in the Mojave a few months ago and almost got nailed by a little sidewinder. Those things are small, but they are really cool looking with their little eye horns.

[5shot]

I've never seen a black rattler like that. Too bad, that would have been a good skin. I was down in the Mojave a few months ago and almost got nailed by a little sidewinder. Those things are small, but they are really cool looking with their little eye horns.

The So.Pacific's I see at our gun club are dark gray/black like the one in the picture. That's in the Lytle Canyon area of the San Bernardino mountains. Most of the one's I've seen in the Chino/Whittier Hills are lighter in the body, with black markings. But they've all had the tail stripes.

[spectr17]

This guy must have gotten a bad paint job, he had no tail stripes. About 30% of the rattlers I've seen in person in SoCal don't have the coon tail stripes. Same for the pics from others I've seen. The last one I just put on my long bow didn't have the tail stripes

[spectr17]

This rattlesnake news video has a black one in it with no coon tail stripes. Rattlesnake encounters up 3 fold in SoCal due to drought they say. Be careful, this video say bites cost anywhere from 100K to million dollars.

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/08/04/rattlesnake-wrangler-being-kept-very-busy-around-the-southland/

[devil83dog@hotmail.com]

Million dollars for antivenom? Damn. Better not get bitten....

[w55]

Rattlers good rodent killers...as long as away from house or barn they get a pass from me....