I was backpacking with some friends next to the Yuba River this weekend. 2 rattlesnakes came down into camp around dusk so we tried scaring them away...kicked some dirt at them. It seemed to work, but then one came back into camp about 30 minutes later. We tried bagging it but after that failed and the snake became extremely distressed and aggressive, decided the best option was to kill it. Anyone have any other experience with rattlesnakes and advice on other ways to keep them out of camp or what to do with them if they do come into camp?

so you killed it?


hrm, never had anyone camping find a need to kill a rattler since they usually bugger off. But I wasn't there. Must have been annoying as hell.

They aren't an endangered species. I wouldn't worry too much about killing it.

I wasn't in your shoes but capital punishment seems extreme with regard to a rattlesnake. I've run into many over the years. Sometimes, when spread across a trail catching the sun, they have been extremely reluctant to move but eventually they all did. You tried to put the snake in a bag? Not surprising it would get agitated. I would have tried moving it away from your camp several more times. I gotta believe one of those times the strategy would eventually work.

I don't know, I would have given the snake one try, maybe two, before I took the same route. How many times can one be expected to risk getting bit? But if you killed it, you pretty much have to eat it at that point, right?

buttery but mildly spicy! Nice.

Had a rattlenake come into camp once. We walked slowly toward it and seeing us coming it turned around and slowly slithered the other way. We slowly escorted it several hundred feet from camp and left it. We didn't get close enough for it to feel very threatened or get agitated so it just slowly kept moving away.

Dingus Milktoast wrote:I had some noob hiker dude with a camera wander in my camp. We threw rocks at it till it retreated but it came back a half hour later. So we shot it.

Hiker dudes with cameras are not endangered species.

Takes a real outdoor MAN to kill a snake for the crime of existing.

I didn't saying killing it makes someone a MAN. I wouldn't have, I like animals as much as anyone else, and enjoying seeing them of all kinds. But there are plenty of rattlers around, and if someone choses to kill one it isn't anything for anyone to loose sleep over.

If some noob hiker dude pervert comes walking into your camp taking photos of you, I don't have a problem with you shooting them either.