Found this fellow waddling across the yard. Hauled him, in a trash can, to a pond nearby.
A little 'snapper'
- Thread starter Fox Mike
- Start date
Help Support Ruger Forum:
contender
Ruger Guru
DINNER!!!!!!!
LOL Ty, you took the words right out of my mouth!!!
Tried turtle once and didn't care for it. He got a reprieve. 
Mike Armstrong
Hunter
Neat snapper photo!
When I lived in upstate NYS, our house was between a little wetland and a big one (we called them "swamps" except when talking to prospective buyers before we moved....). I got so used to transporting migrating snappers out of the county road (one guy swerved to miss a big one and hit a big cottonwood instead!), that I developed a safe transport method:
Bring pitchfork and wheelbarrow to the snapper. Pick up snapper with fork and deposit in barrow UPSIDE DOWN so she can't bail out. Trundle to the nearest swamp in the direction she was headed. Dump passenger into water. Be sure that at no time do you come within striking distance of beak! Ignore hissing.
I say "she" because the ones that travel are almost always "hens" looking for a place to lay eggs. Sometimes we found mud puddles full of silver dollar-sized babies that only got that far from their nesting place. My alley cat once brought me one, still alive and biting, of course....
(We didn't try to eat them because they live a long time and were heavily contaminated with mercury from the glove and hat mills that we still had in our area from the early 20th century. They live forever, if a truck doesn't get 'em. Or a .22.).
When I lived in upstate NYS, our house was between a little wetland and a big one (we called them "swamps" except when talking to prospective buyers before we moved....). I got so used to transporting migrating snappers out of the county road (one guy swerved to miss a big one and hit a big cottonwood instead!), that I developed a safe transport method:
Bring pitchfork and wheelbarrow to the snapper. Pick up snapper with fork and deposit in barrow UPSIDE DOWN so she can't bail out. Trundle to the nearest swamp in the direction she was headed. Dump passenger into water. Be sure that at no time do you come within striking distance of beak! Ignore hissing.
I say "she" because the ones that travel are almost always "hens" looking for a place to lay eggs. Sometimes we found mud puddles full of silver dollar-sized babies that only got that far from their nesting place. My alley cat once brought me one, still alive and biting, of course....
(We didn't try to eat them because they live a long time and were heavily contaminated with mercury from the glove and hat mills that we still had in our area from the early 20th century. They live forever, if a truck doesn't get 'em. Or a .22.).
GetGunz
Single-Sixer
Probably a female off to bury eggs....
A coupla snapper stories...
My childhood buddy's dad was the local meat processor. Had a huge snapper that they coaxed into latching onto a broom handle, stretched his head across the chopping block and removed it. About 2AM the hound dog woke em up with his howling....had a snapper head on the end of his nose.
The same buddy and I were fishing for catfish in a pond. We had one on a stringer and noticed a snapper near it. Pulled it out too late ... nothing but a catfish head on string.
Don't know if it's true, but I heard of a snapper back in the '80's that had a Minie ball lodged in it ... gotta wonder, over 100 years old?
My childhood buddy's dad was the local meat processor. Had a huge snapper that they coaxed into latching onto a broom handle, stretched his head across the chopping block and removed it. About 2AM the hound dog woke em up with his howling....had a snapper head on the end of his nose.
The same buddy and I were fishing for catfish in a pond. We had one on a stringer and noticed a snapper near it. Pulled it out too late ... nothing but a catfish head on string.
Don't know if it's true, but I heard of a snapper back in the '80's that had a Minie ball lodged in it ... gotta wonder, over 100 years old?
They do get BIG! Many years ago I was on a maintenance test flight with my maintenance officer. We were at Fort A. P. Hill in VA. As we crossed a pond we thought we saw a deuce and a half rim in the pond. We went back, hovered over it, and found it was a snapping turtle. A BIG snapper. He had to have been around a long time to get that size.
pete44ru
Hunter
.
Once each year I've lived here (about 50), a turtle from a very nearby pond comes strolling down the street in front of my house, presumably looking for a spawning spot.
IDK if it's been the same turtle every year, or different ones - but I like their determination.
.
Once each year I've lived here (about 50), a turtle from a very nearby pond comes strolling down the street in front of my house, presumably looking for a spawning spot.
IDK if it's been the same turtle every year, or different ones - but I like their determination.
.
Nice picture and nice looking turtle...I am glad he got released to go on living his life in a pond!
Pierow
Blackhawk
Mike Armstrong said:
Just in case anyone has the need to pick one up by hand, you first approach from the rear. Take hold of the snapper at mid-shell on either side and lift keeping upper body and face as far away from the shell as possible. Don't freak as the head protrudes, turns around and looks you straight in the eye while trying to get to your arms / hands. Seemed there was about one foot clearance from his snapping jaws to any appendage of mine.
Not the most intelligent thing I'v e ever done but wanted to get the critter off the road. I also saw one at the first stages of getting dressed. Neighbor tied a coat hanger around the tail, hung it upside down on a tree then dangled vice grips in front of it's nose. Turtle bite the pliers, neighbor clamped them down then stretched the neck. It took more than a few swings of the ax to severe. Very neat for an 8 year old to watch. He always ahd something cool in the back of his truck.
Pierow
5of7
Hunter
Did you weigh it?
I can only guess you are asking me, the OP. No, he was a little grumpy and didn't want to step on the scale.5of7 said:
Tallbald
Buckeye
In the early 90's I lived in a spread out new neighborhood outside of town. New houses being built all the time at the rear of the development. A neighborhood boy about 4 we learned, went running inside to tell his mother a "dinosaur" was in the driveway. Of course it was a big snapper about 15 inches across. Mother didn't know what to do, but shortly thereafter a Spanish speaking roofer driving by stopped and asked in broken English if he could take the "dinosaur". Mom said "sure!". Fella got a shovel and scooped the snapper up into the truck bed and drove away. I'm sure he was planning to release the old snapper into a pond close to home after having a vet examine to poor thing for good health. Don.
We would put them in a water tank with fresh water for a couple days, then clean em.
Joe S.
Hunter
We had one on some land we were leasing once. It lived in a small pond no one ever went to. We drained the pond to just a few feet deep to catch the fish to relocate to a pond we had just built. This guy was laid up in the mud watching all the action. I was younger at the time, about 12-13, but I remember that thing being a good 2 feet in diameter. His head was bigger around than a base ball bat at the business end. We took a stick and started poking at it. He reached out and snapped that stick, which was about an inch in diameter, clean in two. It was superb. We finished up and left. When I walked back to that pond the next day, Mr. Snapper was gone. I have often wonder about that thing. If it is still alive. That was 30 years ago at least. We still live next to that land, but haven't had a lease on it in 20-25 years.
toysoldier
Hunter
We lived on a 50-acre private lake development, and the turtles grew big. A neighbor whose drive paralleled the spillway found a big snapper as he drove in. Being a fanatic fisherman, he ran it over---several times. His VW wasn't heavy enough to break its shell.
