What shot # would be best for a 12 foot burmeese python?

I used to have a 14' python back many years ago when I was a teacher. Handled it many times & had kids as young as 1st grade handle it too. I controlled the head, and lined up a dozen or more kids to hold the body. It made a nice show.

That said, I have pretty good memory of how thick the skin was.

If it were me, I'd go 00 Buck. 4 buck might do the job, but if you want to kill it, kill it dead. At 12' you're going to get about, what... 2 and a half inch pattern with 00 buck? That would be perfect if you put it on target.

Personally I wouldn't take a chance with something light like birdshot if I had 00 in hand. Why have to shoot it more than once right? :)
 
I'd want 00 buck. If you're close enough the shot cup and piston from small shot will tear his head up if not take it clean off but why take a chance.

I killed this timber rattler beside my MIL's pool with #6 and the shot cup took his head off. Found it later shredded and fused with plastic from the cup.

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I've always been able to kill rattlers and copperheads with a big stick. I would think any standard 12 ga. loading would work. As someone mentioned, snakes don't have very thick skins. Just aim at the head.
 
random fact: When aiming at a snake they will look down the barrel.

Get the snakes atention move the barrel side to side and up and down a few times when you stop squeeze the trigger the snake will be looking down the barrel.
 
Whatever size shot that you have in the gun when you walk upon the snake will work just fine.Peter Capstick killed an African lioness with a 20 ga.loaded with 71/2 shot.It is not the recomended load,but it proved effective when he was attacked while bird hunting.
 
I'd go with a slug. Snakes are long, so you want to damage the thing in a single point along its length.
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If you are close enough to reliably hit something that small/narrow with a slug, then virtually any load will shred a snake.

As I said before, I've killed a few rattlers and copperheads with the first big stick I found lying around. I've killed a cottonmouth (water moccasin) with a paddle while canoeing on the Alafia River in Florida, for that matter. It was in the water, and I was only trying to drive it away. Snakes aren't particularly fast, nimble, or hard to kill. If smacking them on the head with a piece of wood works, I feel pretty confident that bird shot at high velocity will work fine.

That said, I don't recommend walking around snake habitat and flipping over rocks and logs for the sheer fun of it. Most people bitten by snakes didn't see or hear them in time. Cottonmouths can cause a nasty bacterial infection that is just as likely to kill you as their venom (albeit not that likely).
 
Consdiering that the head would be about the size of a good sized partridge, I agree with #6 shot for a good balance between plenty of shot, and reasonable penetration. True, if you're close it doesn't matter. That's what I shoot all mine with.:D
 
I would say it depends on what distance you are shooting it from and what barrel length your shotgun is. Buck shot will give you more range and penetration, but most shots will probably be made pretty close (due to good camouflaging). You could probably move down to BB and still get good penetration if you are pretty close.
 
Maybe I;'m wrong, but I'm envisioning a 12 burmese to have a diameter at the head and neck of about 3-4 inches.

You're naturally going to go for the head, as there aren't any real targets other than the head that can assure a kill, right?

I think any load adequate for a turkey will be able to blow through the skull, arteries, airway and other vitals of a snake that size, and with the emphasis on patterning used in those shells, an aimed head shot would be lethal.

I'd like to have large pellet tungsten loads, just for an added measure of penetration. I'd feel pretty safe taking a shot at one past 30 feet or so with those loads, and pretty certain of killing it instantly.
 
Whatever size shot that you have in the gun when you walk upon the snake will work just fine.Peter Capstick killed an African lioness with a 20 ga.loaded with 71/2 shot.It is not the recomended load,but it proved effective when he was attacked while bird hunting.
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Peter capstick is why Chuck Norris won't go to africa.
 
Anything but a slug.

Unless you are talking about a huge snake? If the snake is huge it may take a little more power and I wouldn't want to have to get too close. In that case I would say 4 shot.
 
#2-#4 will work just fine. Buck shot is overkill. I have shot many rattlers with 9 shot pistol rounds and killed them at close range(3 feet)
 
#2-#4 will work just fine. Buck shot is overkill. I have shot many rattlers with 9 shot pistol rounds and killed them at close range(3 feet)
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At the risk of repeating myself yet again, snakes are not hard to kill, so long as you go for the head. Hitting them anywhere else is likely a different story, as they have a pretty basic CNS. If you're that worried about the load, use your buttstock as a club, seriously.
 
I didn't say it was the smartest thing to do, but it will reliably kill any snake.

Snakes that aren't hanging out in direct sunlight tend to be very, very slow. With the exceptions of a few species, they aren't very aggressive, either.
 
If I used my shotgun's buttstock to club a snake to death I would be more worried about the muzzle of the shotgun pointing at me than the snake.

But I get your point. It doesn't take much to kill a snake. A shovel works great. When I was a child I saw a man STOMP a large water moccasin to death.
 
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