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I finally used my P32 .32ACP at an unplanned event. The good news is that the threat stopped after firing six rounds. Four of my rounds hit the thing I was trying to stop.

Two days ago, my teenage son and I were mowing the lawn minding our own business when that mean snake in the grass menaced my son. He got my attention and reported the snake in the grass.

I stopped the weed eater and immediately came to my son's defense. All I had was my trusty P32. Would you believe he or it was still there coiling and hissing at us both when I got there?

I pointed the P32 at what looked like the neck and squeezed the trigger. He staid there and continued to coil as I fired four more rounds. I waited for the snake to stop moving and fired one last round that nearly separated the head from the body. He was three feet long when we laid is dead body out to determine what it was.

I know that this does not rise to the level of a bonified self defense shooting, but it did provide me with a greater level of confidence in the ability of this little pistol to fire and and continue to function. I don't remember seeing the back of the slide on the gutter sights, but I do remember focusing the front sight on the squirmming snake.

From a standing position I fired at the ground about four feet in front of me. After seeing the width of the snake, I am proud to say that I counted four holes, all of which were within about six inches from the head.

I don't recall the report to be loud, but my ears were ringing when I was through. I hope I never have to use this on a human for any reason, but i feel confident in my ability to point one handed and fire several shots at self defense range accurately.

Remember, I was mowing the yard at the time. That means I sweated all over this pistol and it certainly aquired its share of the attendant dust and floating debris from doing yard work. The pistol functioned flawlessly. I wish all pistols pointed and worked as well as my P32!

It would have been so much easier to just run over it with the mower.

Did the LEO's come? one of your neighbors probably reported shots fired in your neighborhood.

Glad everything turned out the way you wanted it to. What kind of snake was it?


JRG

JRG wrote:It would have been so much easier to just run over it with the mower.

Did the LEO's come? one of your neighbors probably reported shots fired in your neighborhood.

Glad everything turned out the way you wanted it to. What kind of snake was it?

JRG

The "Crawly" kind.


A friend of mine at work says: "There are only two kinds of snakes, the swim-my kind and the crawly kind. I kill them both."

Of course... not all snakes (that swim or crawl) are bad, but his comment made me laugh to tears.

The weed eater would have been a cheaper and quieter weapon. But I know, not nearly as much fun! I carry a stainless steel Charter Arms 38spl loaded with snakeshot when I'm in the yard............,OE

I wouldn't have to worry about my ears ringing. I wear muffs when I'm mowing (usually) or weed-eating/chainsawing (always!)

Irrational fear of and knee-jerk destruction of snakes is as bad as irrational fear and knee-jerk control of guns. Both snakes and guns are beneficial and generally not dangerous. Killing all snakes because they look like one that might injure someone is as bad as banning some types of rifles because of the way they look.

I have a large dent on the hood of my Corolla......those of you that know me might find it slightly entertaining that I made a flat footed jump to the hood position with Kimberly screaming at me from the driveway "DONT SHOOT, You'll blow up the sheetrock" I would do the same thing again today. I did not have a safe shot so I could not take it.

I love snakes....great for boots and hat bands. If they violate my private property rights....things might get ugly I am scared of them.

This one was a 3 ft cottonmouth with a very bad attitude.

We recently had a cottonmouth near the front door. I went to get a 9mm, but Mars wouldn't let me shoot it b/c it was too close to the house. (He's no fun.)

Venus Pax wrote:We recently had a cottonmouth near the front door. I went to get a 9mm, but Mars wouldn't let me shoot it b/c it was too close to the house. (He's no fun.)

A shotgun with birdshot probably would have been more appropriate anyway.

John R. Fuller wrote:I finally used my P32 .32ACP at an unplanned event. The good news is that the threat stopped after firing six rounds. Four of my rounds hit the thing I was trying to stop.

Two days ago, my teenage son and I were mowing the lawn minding our own business when that mean snake in the grass menaced my son. He got my attention and reported the snake in the grass.

I stopped the weed eater and immediately came to my son's defense. All I had was my trusty P32. Would you believe he or it was still there coiling and hissing at us both when I got there?

I pointed the P32 at what looked like the neck and squeezed the trigger. He staid there and continued to coil as I fired four more rounds. I waited for the snake to stop moving and fired one last round that nearly separated the head from the body. He was three feet long when we laid is dead body out to determine what it was.

I know that this does not rise to the level of a bonified self defense shooting, but it did provide me with a greater level of confidence in the ability of this little pistol to fire and and continue to function. I don't remember seeing the back of the slide on the gutter sights, but I do remember focusing the front sight on the squirmming snake.

From a standing position I fired at the ground about four feet in front of me. After seeing the width of the snake, I am proud to say that I counted four holes, all of which were within about six inches from the head.

I don't recall the report to be loud, but my ears were ringing when I was through. I hope I never have to use this on a human for any reason, but i feel confident in my ability to point one handed and fire several shots at self defense range accurately.

Remember, I was mowing the yard at the time. That means I sweated all over this pistol and it certainly aquired its share of the attendant dust and floating debris from doing yard work. The pistol functioned flawlessly. I wish all pistols pointed and worked as well as my P32!

I do understand fearing snakes as I have a healthy respect for the damage to humans that can occur,
but rather than killing them try this approach:
http://tongs.com/shop/index.php?GrID=1&PrID=4

I have this unit and it has safely removed a couple of crotalus atrox that were very near to our feet.
No one and no thing were harmed. I move them to the tree line about 100 yards from the house.
They do not appear anxious to return.

The tong is easy to use as is but I modified mine by putting strips of felt inside the business end
channels to soften the grip on the snakes.
Did not affect function and made the ride a little softer for our slithering friends.

Kind Regards from Western Diamondback country,

Tom

Running over one with a mower can be a real nasty mess.

Didn't really come to mind until now, but I bet the snakes are going to be real bad with all the floods we've been having. I recall Six Flags being shut down when I was a kid because of snakes after a bout of heavy rains. I hope I'm wrong.........

jbirds1210 wrote:
This one was a 3 ft cottonmouth with a very bad attitude.

Isn't "Cottonmouth" and "Bad attitude" redundant?

This is part of the skin a snake shed who lived in the eaves of our house one summer. We didn't mind him being there - he didn't bother us and we didn't bother him. My guess is he was a rat snake or chicken snake. He got rid of the squirrels who used to bang around the roof and we haven't had any other varmits up there since then!

His shedded skin was at least 3 feet long, so he was just a little fella!

LM23 wrote:Running over one with a mower can be a real nasty mess.

It would be with this one: