Biggest rattlesnake you've seen?

[okrattler]

Caught several 8ft+ Black Rat snakes. As a kid, I remember my uncle stopping traffic on a 2 lane, country, blacktop, to allow a Timber Rattle, to cross the road.
It was draped from one side to the other. My uncle wouldn't even tell people about it, said no one would believe him.
This was around Tates Bluff, in South Ar, 1986/87.

That would be an awesome sight to see. That snake was without a doubt a record and would still be a record if he'd have got it. I don't really remember the record for a Timber Rattlesnake off the top of my head but I'm wanting to say it was 74".

My uncle and his buddy saw a big Eastern Diamondback in North Carolina that probably would have been a record snake also. A guy from Arkansas was loading that dead snake up in the trunk of his car when they went back to get it. My uncle told me its head was on the center line and it's tail was on the white line on the edge of the road. Nothin but the head on that snake had been hit because people were actually swerving to miss it.

[okrattler]

Came across a western diamond back that was 80". I could never kill one that size as they are so rare. My brothers fear of snakes lead him to kill it. We skinned and tanned it. Mounted it on a boared.

We found that one between 6-7000 foot elevation. When I'm in the same area I always hope to see one as impressive but I have not been able to yet. Maybe it was a once in a lifetime experience?
The old bar that is closed now had one that was 84" on the wall.

It's definitely not as common as the pictures of giant snakes all over the internet would lead people to believe. But depending on where you go your chances of finding a trophy sized snake like that definitely increase. Way down in South Texas would be where I would go if I ever absolutely had to find a trophy sized Western Diamondback. I'm the same way as you are when it comes to killin a snake that large. Those big snakes like that have been on this earth a heck of a long time. But also weather has a big part in it too along with genetics and availability of food. I wouldn't completely rule out the possibility of you seeing an 80"+ Western Diamondback again. Just have to be in the right place at the right time is all.

[Draco]

My friend, Jerry Halfrich, killed one on a ranch in Webb county that we were hunting that was the biggest rattler I've ever seen. He shot it with his bow, cutting the head and a few inches off as well as several inches of tail with it's rattlers. It measured 7' 1" with out the cut off pieces. It had to be extremely close to 8' but not quite.

[Drycreek3189]

Biggest I've ever seen was at First Point. Killed him in March while javi hunting. He was so much bigger than any I had ever seen, I thought it was a limb laying in the road. We didn't have anything to measure with, but my buddy, who is six feet tall, held him up about eye level and his head touched the ground. Made me pretty dang skittish after that ! I arrowed an 80 l b. sow that ran and I remember thinking if she gets in that brush, the yotes can have her. We found her just short of the thick stuff.

[bass_lander]

74" with the head removed, 15 buttons. Tilden


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[Ironman]

I killed one on the King Ranch that was over 6'. I can tell you that it's hard to hit a snake with a longbow when it's headed straight for you. I cut its head off and stuck it in my backpack for the 1 1/2 mile walk back to camp. It would start moving around in my pack and even though his head was cut off, it would give me chills when it would move against my back.

[okrattler]

My friend, Jerry Halfrich, killed one on a ranch in Webb county that we were hunting that was the biggest rattler I've ever seen. He shot it with his bow, cutting the head and a few inches off as well as several inches of tail with it's rattlers. It measured 7' 1" with out the cut off pieces. It had to be extremely close to 8' but not quite.

If you ever go to that ranch carry you a deep bucket with ya bud. Reptile Gardens in South Dakota will supposedly pay $25,000 for a true 8 foot long rattlesnake. Just have you a long stick nearby to drop it in that bucket with. That'd be a good payday right there.

[jaker_cc]

Biggest I've found was 6'4" on the dot








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[okrattler]

Track hoe operator killed one in the Ardmore, Davis, Ok area back in 2008 while we were pipelining thru there. Was as long as I am tall missing the head portion of the snake. I'm 6'1. Thought we did good and took into the local store there to show if off and the old lady behind the counter said that was a baby. She said they get 10' 12' long up in them caves in the mountains And then I saw one, one day tracking a D6 down a lease road to start building another one. It crossed the gravel road in front of me and went from grass to grass across the road. My track width on the dozer was taking up all of the road, my blade was wider than the road so I'm guessing 8' to 10' on the length or longer. I hit another gear to try and catch up to it to see it, got close hit park jumped out on the track and it was going over the barbed wire fence, the top strand, and stopped and turned around and looked at me. I decided to re-enter my dozer and view from there. Biggest I've ever seen


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I've heard there's some big ones down in that area. The record in Oklahoma was caught somewhere down there I believe. I know it was measured in Apache at their snake hunt but I'm not exactly sure where they got the snake at.

[Cisco Jack]

This is maybe the biggest eastern diamondback that I've seen.
Neighbor gave this to me and it came from about 30 miles away.
My friend Drifter standing by 79" of hide with several inches of tail and head missing.
This is on a 1x12" board with lots of belly gone.






Ran over a skinny 7 footer years ago, and he went off in the bushes.
Shot one about 55 years ago with 17 rattles that my uncle put across the rear bumper on a '54 Plymouth.
Stretched across and down to road and out on both sides. 7+' long.

[texashunter56]

Several rattlesnakes between 6'2" and 6'5" in length over the years. Biggest had just eaten a half grown jack rabbit. The largest rattlesnake I ever saw was back in the early 60's in northern Live Oak County close to the Atascosa River bottom back in the 60's. It stretched across both ruts in a pasture road and had 21 rattles.
The two skins in the first pic are from La Salle County and both over 6'3" in length. The second pic is a 3 yr collection from the same ranch.

[Serbin]

I have trouble with pics here but this guy caught our attention out of a blind. We have killed a lot of big snakes over 6 ft. Hard to tell how long but definitely mature is all I can get from the pic.

[hpdrifter]

I didn't see it, but I saw pictures of it.

old old polaroid in family from mid 50's. A rattlesnake from around Texoma.

It was touching ground on one side and draped across a flatbed pickup and was about half way down on the other side.

Family said farmer was afraid to hit it on his little 8n Ford, fortunately he had shotgun.

Man, I've searched and searched for that picture, but I think it got burned in a small fire at my brothers house.

[Livin'2hunt]

I've seen several over 6' in S. TX but by far the largest snake I have seen in the wild was 11 or 12 feet long. Don't have a clue what it was but it was in central TX. Saw it twice in my neighborhood growing up. It was mostly black with some beige markings on it. That sucker looked like black corrugated drain pipe and it was FAST. I've heard opinions as to what it could be but I still don't know.

[Duane]

I have run across some very large Western diamondbacks, most while turkey hunting in Uvalde. Once my buddy and I watched a couple of males doing the mating dance while a bigger male had his way with a large female just a few feet away. This was before the days of video on cell phones, otherwise it would have made an awesome video. I shot all four (only took two shots ) and we brought them back to camp. The female was the shortest at 5'-8" and her lover was the largest male at 6'-4" and 17 rattles. All together they totalled 24 feet and 50 rattles.

The story of another fun encounter as told by my buddy Shannon Tompkins who was hunting with us a few years later on the same Uvalde ranch...

http://www.chron.com/sports/outdoors/article/Tompkins-Rattlers-hunters-collide-1527235.php