Gun Dog Forum

Has any TX hunters had sightings or contacts with Rattlesnakes during the several warm spells in the Panhandle? Got invite to go work dogs north of Childress this weekend before going to Nats in Boonevile the following week. Lows will be low 40's and highs to upper 60's-70 degrees. Don't want to have problems.

Anyone still hunting in the TX panhandle in the last week or so?
Any birds still around.
Been hearing of a ice storm that may have killed a lot of the birds.
Any sightings of snakes?

I've had several friends go and no one has had any issues at all or seen any. That's not to say they're not there, but we haven't seen them.

Snake Experience:

Hunted the Panhandle for Quail every winter for 10 years with my Setters, neither of which could leave snakes alone. Never saw any snakes in temps below 50 degrees. Saw a few above 50 degrees but they were soaking up the sun and could barely move, saw active snakes above 60 degrees. My solution was always to hunt from first light until lunch or 50 degrees, which ever came first, and then head for Abuelos, in Amarillo for tamales and a Shiner.

Morning hunting on the Ilano Estacado is also a lot less windy in the morning . Wind rarely drops below 15 kts in the mid afternoon until evening; The dogs don't care but I found Quail almost impossible to hit when they had a 15 kt speed boost.

Big plus to the warmer weather; the bugs are active giving the Quail motivation to move out of cover.

Even in warm weather I never saw many snakes and none of them were aggressive unless cornered. Biggest issue is that fast moving dogs, like my Setters would run right over a snake and force it to strike. The slower, closer ranging dogs that I saw hunting the same areas never seemed to encounter any snakes.