If you decide to come southbound to the southern fringes of Kern County,The Mojave Green is Known to habitate that area.They are usually no longer than 2 ft. Tops,& As I understand it,There is NO Anti-venin for this particular Rattler,though I haven't heard of anyone Kicking the Bucket,Either!I have eaten quite a few Rattlesnakes,& NONE tasted like Chicken!Rattlesnake tastes just like Rattlesnake with a slight hint of...Rattlesnake!Don't be surprised to see a Rattlesnake swimming,ALL snakes can swim!I've seen 2 at 1 time,Swimming on The Kern River,& 1 on Lake Isabella!Be Careful & Good Luck!

Often in the rocks enjoying some sun this time of year as it cools down. (All except for the last week! 100*F+)

MDinana- Not sure where you grew up here but as a kid when exploring we saw them almost every trip. (This is around Sacramento and the foothills).

I've seen Rattlers in Ballona Creek,Hughes Hills,Baldwin Hills,Malibu Cyns,Santa Monica Cyns,The Santa Monica Mountain Range is Full of em',Anytime of year!They even have one at Disneyland in Anaheim!

Orange County. I saw 2 nearly back to back one day in the Santa Monica foothills (about a day apart, early morning) and once up in the Sierras somewhere. Maybe 1 in the Chino foothills too. Of course, I stayed on mainly trails, not bushwacking. Maybe that has something to do with it.

Snapping turtles are on my list as part of a survival stew,much better than Rat!!.the lakes in Northern Minnesota are full of them and like this one finding them wandering around the woods between lakes is not unusual.

i would however expect a bunch of fly-in fisherman or Boy Scouts on one of their Northern Tier Adventures to stumble onto me before i had to roast a turtle.

You will be pushing it hunting turkeys with a pellet gun. This will not be a humane kill except in rare circumstances. Don't fall for the stupid (Gamo) pellet gun ads that show Buba standing next to a 700lb boar they took with their pellet gun. I have pellet guns and love them. But for hunting, limit yourself to very small animals.

Hard to gauge scale but that snapper looks like a good sized one. Shell looks to be most of a foot long. About big enough to make a nice meal for two. Or take a finger, or three, if you don't watch out. Down here a lot of kids grow up surrounded by concrete and large snappers are an accident waiting to happen. Those smart enough to recognize the hissing and gaping jaws, big enough to fit a baseball in, as dangerous often don't realize exactly how far a snapper's neck can stretch. Easy to get a free manicure, all the way to the second knuckle. Another reason many country boys can't do math.

I don't know the official figure is but I estimate that their reach is pretty much the length of their shell measured from the head end of the shell. With head retracted people get fooled into coming too close. And once they bite they are quite stubborn about hanging on. Good way to loose a finger or three.

No great harm experimenting as long as you use a stick.

Another interesting effect is that snapping turtles are often inhabited by leeches. A friend killed a couple of snappers and went on fishing. He was horrified when he found a couple of leeches climbing up his leg and another half dozen making tracks toward him. He just about lost it.

Leeches lose interest in dead bodies so they went looking for a warm one. In the boat he was 'it'. Funny how some grow men get freaked out by leeches. Charge into NK with nothing but a can of peaches and a P-38 ... no problem. Leeches ... forget about it. Can't handle it. LOL.

California law allows turkey hunting with air guns over .20 caliber. Talked with several game wardens about this and they say a head shot is a dead-right-there shot, but nothing else likely to work on turkeys.

With practice and the right ammo for the gun, the scoped and zeroed-in pellet rifle does group shots at 25 yards in areas little bigger than a dime. Target shooting first to get the system optimized, then rabbit and squirrel hunting to be sure everything is a go in the field, then maybe a very free range Thanksgiving turkey this year!

I lived in Coalinga as a boy in the early 70's. One day while out with my dad, his friend and our dog while they were hunting, the dog ran past me on a thin dirt dike and I actually fell down into an area where several rattlesnakes had holes. Dad and buddy had to pop a few with their shotguns to keep the snakes away and rescue me.

I personally don't remember the experience but there were snakes in Coalinga. No doubt.