This thought process went through my head when I opened my back door to find a three foot moccasin on the ground. I had my .38 pointed at him, but decided against it for your stated reasons. There was a sharpshooter within easy reach which yielded the desired result.Excaliber wrote:Firing SD ammo at the ground to try to kill a snake within a few feet of you is a great way to:
1) Make a lot of noise and use a lot of ammo without hitting that small moving critter
2) Produce lots of ricochets from the type of ground they often inhabit, particularly with our drought hardened soil
3) Keep you occupied long enough to thoroughly tick off the snake, convince him he's got nothing to lose, and get bitten.
If you need to dispatch the animal (a rare circumstance unless a poisonous snake is someplace where it presents a real risk someone who isn't messing with it will get bitten), a shovel or stick longer than the snake's striking range is a much safer and more effective way to go about it.
Since buying my Bond, I had yet to find a proper use for it. It is now my BUG pocket gun loaded with 3" #4s.
On a separate note, the contractor that mows our shooting range said he had never seen as many snakes as last Monday.