A mess of deceased Sylvilagus aquaticus.......

[Big Muddy]

Yep, me too, Postie....well, actually, my first memory at about 5 years old was, carrying a single shot .410 squirrel hunting with my Dad....then, a couple of years later, I graduated up to an old 12 ga. for rabbit hunting.

Ha, I just remembered one of our squirrel hunts....I was walking about 10 ft. behind my Dad, when he stopped, and began looking up into the treetops....I happened to looked down, and right beside his feet there were two timber rattlers, stretched out side by side....they weren't coiled at all, and actually looked like two long tree branches.....totally shocked, all I could do was get out whisper to my Dad, and as he turned around, I pointed to the ground....he looked down, and in one giant leap, he seemed to hover about 3 ft. in the air, then landed about 6 ft. away from the snakes....with one shotgun blast, he blew off both their heads.

He cut off their rattlers....one had 11 rattlers, and the other had 9....I've still got them somewhere in one of my office drawers....that was in about 1954 or '55, and we've never seen another rattler, anywhere on the property, since then....copperheads and cottonmouths, on the other hand, are quite numerous.