The Deer Hunt Was a Bust

 

Dad invited me to go deer hunting with him. Never sure why he would do that. He did it a couple times. Maybe it took twice to learn his lesson. But then I did what he told me to do so maybe that’s why he invited me. Maybe it took twice for me to learn a lesson.

This particular time I was probably 11 years old. We had been up early. For Dad early was like 5 a.m. Then it was a good one and a half hours drive to where we were going. He told me I was to wait about 15 minutes after he got to the top of a ridge where we were parked and then as he was ahead of me on the ridge, I was supposed to make as much noise as possible to drive any deer up the gully to where he’d be watching to get one, if there was one to get.

I did what he said, I guess, because though the hunt was a bust, he didn’t yell at me for doing anything wrong, which I am certain he would have if I had erred on his instructions. He was tired. He needed a nap before we headed home. He told me to climb a little ways up the tree and wait until he’d had a nap. He laid down on the ground and told me to watch a hole near his head. The hole was about 10” in diameter. I was to whisper and quietly wake him if something were to come up out of that hole. He then settled down for a nap.

Must have been about half an hour later when he was quietly trying to get my attention.

“Tsss…. Al…..” I looked over and oh my gosh! “Is there something under my neck?”

“Yes, a snake.”

“What color?”

“Black and white.”

“What pattern? Stripes?”

“No, squares.”

“You mean diamonds?”

“Yes.”

“Stay still, don’t say nothing and don’t move.”

 

He waited until the snake went down into the hole and in quick motion he rolled, got up, found a stick, grabbed his rifle and poked the stick around in the hole. That riled the snake a bit and it came back up out of the hole. Before it was all the way out, before it had a chance to coil up, he shot the head. He used the stick to get it the rest of the way out of the hole. That body was twitching and trying to decide what to do, coil or slither. Using the stick again, he flipped it up on the roof of the car and held it in place until it quit twitching around.

Skinning a rattlesnake is a delicate job. Their skin is thin. He got it skinned. Staked the skin on a board and salted it so it could dry. Eventually it was ready to take off the board, fold the sides into the middle, sew it up and he now had a home-made original hat band for his black cowboy hat. Not many sport a diamond back rattlesnake skin on their hat. Fewer would be the those who make their own.

Side note…. Rattlesnake meat... Nah, you’re not missing nothing. I thought it tasted nasty!