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Fishing Defense

CaddmannQ

.50 BMG
All this talk about the .410 bore shotgun has got me thinking how much I want a .410 pistol with snake shot for fishing duty.

When a rattlesnake come swimming up to my boat, I don’t wanna have to rely on a fishing net to chase him off.

There are rattlesnakes every place I go fishing, and although I’ve only personally seen three, I really haven’t done all that much fishing. I was stuck at a desk for 45 years. When I got away from that I was usually out in the garage patching up a car.

I could put snake shot in the .44 magnum but I don’t want to take that beautiful pistol out fishing. .45 ACP? meh…

I could do something with that 16 gauge single shot goose gun but why start with a barrel so long?

I think a cut down .410 single shot would be just the thing. It could be carried up high on the vest.

Also I would really like to have a boat gun that floats, because I seem to keep dropping them in the lake, but a lanyard would be good enough. Yeah why didn’t I think of that when I lost the AR.

I just had this weird thought where I take a loaded .410 and shoot the whole thing in plastidip. You’d have to break the plastic a little bit to shoot it. Tricky….

Damn…maybe plastic guns do have a purpose.
 
Makes me wonder how it would do with ants... :D

My brother and I were out boating and beering in a FL lake and went to shore to take a leak. Not paying attention, he laid the bow line across a fire ant mound! :eek: Fortunately, I observed the issue and was able to submerge the line and the ants jumped off but quickly formed a floating "ball" of ants making its way to the little inflatable! :eek: I was able to splash them away but my bro had to run and jump over them into the water to get back to the boat. :D
 
Cad,

Man you are really on your A-Game today with the wisecracking!!!!!!

My take on revolvers like the Governor or the Judge is that the .410 cartridge simply lacks any possibility to build any pressure at all before the base wad leaves the short barrel.

Meaning.... while a .45Colt might do some moderate damage the .410 in a derringer-length barrel has almost enough foot pounds to put pellets thru cardboard at eight feet. And the pattern sucks.

Not exactly confidence inspiring, is it? My opinion is that, while they were wildly popular when they came out, they are simply a niche gun. Great marketing strategy. They are not very good at anything.

Against a waterborne snake I would feel better with one of those packable/floatable survival .22LR rifles that you put together once in the boat. Or an inexpensive .38-Special Rock Island beater revolver with shot shells which are designed to be shot in short kit guns.

Of course, these are just my opinions.
 
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Thank you. I do have some snake shot for the .22 magnum, which is stainless steel and Derringer-sized so totally boatable.

Anyhow, the short shotgun I would build is totally illegal so no point in it.
 
Dad kept a 22 ruger in his boat. But usually, for snakes, he'd smack them on the head with the boat paddle and knock them out.

They'd drown.

He would only do that to the water moccasins.
 
I actually find snakes fascinating, even the ones that might hurt you. If you can see a snake, it isn't going to be a problem. It's those pesky pit viper species that are hiding under a fallen tree or something, and could leap up and bite you that I really don't like much.

But, living where we do, there are more non-poisonous snakes that help out our ecology and I won't hurt one, ever. I might move it, cuz I don't want the dogs to learn they are a thing to be toyed with. Because the next one might be poisonous if they play with it.

But cottonmouth and copperhead and rattler are so rare around here that they really don't even enter my thoughts.

I've never seen a swimming rattlesnake. That would be really cool. I'd be too busy getting pics to think about killing it. :)
 
Rattlesnakes are about the only type of snake I have seen since I moved to California. But this part of California is their natural habitat.

The problem with rattlesnakes swimming in the water is They want to climb in your boat! They are tired of swimming and you look like a nice place to rest.

If I saw one swimming away from my boat I wouldn’t be too worried; but, when I have seen them swimming, I have only seen them swimming towards me.
 
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