Here's a question - has anybody actually used one of those Bond .410/45 "snake slayer" derringers?
I've shot a couple of rounds from one but not .410 shot. It seems that would have the power and dispersal to do in a snake up to about 15 feet?
I've only actually seen one snake that needed killing. That was a cottonmouth in FL that was in a pile of pilings we were picking up with a crane. I was standing beside the end of the stack and suddenly I felt a "smack" on my boot, and looked down in time to see a black snake head retreating under the wood.
Luckily I had heavy work boots on and while you could see where it hit me it didn't penetrate or leave any venom. Had it been about 8-10 inches higher would have been a different story. We had the crane operator drop the piling on the stack and rolled them around a bit. Then very carefully we moved the stack one by one. At the bottom we found a squashed water moccasin about 4-5 feet long.
Oh, and when I was in basic training at FT. Benning, GA. We were doing a stream crossing, our prissy training company commander, a leg Captain with like two service ribbons and an EIB, was in the line wading the river. He was about 30 feet behind me when someone yelled, "snake!" There was a water moccasin swimming upstream toward us about 100 feet away. Well we all picked up our pace a bit, but suddenly that captain passed me in a blur, he was all but walking on water to get away from the snake! He beat everyone to the other side. LOL