Looking back there was an incident late one afternoon that makes me grin when I think of it.
I'd come up on a rather large rattler early in the day that was stretched out as straight as a string soaking in the sun. I'd been wanting a big snake skin for some time so I put a blunt in his head and settled it. I was going to throw him in the bed of my truck until I got back to camp so I cut off his head and deposited it in the middle of a cactus patch. When I threw him back there I realised that he wasn't about to quit sqirming and there was getting to be blood all over the back of my truck and I didn't want that.
Thinking quick I opened the tail gate and slammed it on the bloody stump which took care of the problem. I went back to hunting and didn't think of it again.
I hunted until dark and went to pick up a couple of the guys that were riding with me. When I pulled up to them standing beside the road in the dark I rolled passenger window down a told them to throw there gear in the back and hop in.
I heard the pack hit the bed of the truck and then the sound of them scrambling over the tail gate. That was almost instantly followed by yelling and cussing... at me!
![shocked :o](https://www.tradgang.com/tgsmf/Smileys/tg/shocked.gif)
The headless serpent had enough life left in him that he was squirming away. In the dark the boys could just make it out and didn't know if it was alive or dead.
By the time we got it sorted out they were convinced I had done it on purpose and no amount of apologizing on my part seemed to make a difference.
I felt pretty bad about it for a long time but now it just seems funny.
![laughing :laughing:](https://www.tradgang.com/tgsmf/Smileys/tg/laughing.gif)
I hope they have forgiven me by now. Honest guys I didn't do it on purpose.
https://www.tradgang.com/upload/charlie/rattler2.jpg![](https://www.tradgang.com/upload/charlie/rattler2.jpg)