A very old critter was no match for me,,,,

[contender]

Here's a big old snapping turtle that made the mistake of trying to go through one of my beaver traps. That's a 330 Conibear trap designed for beaver. This old turtle weighed 33-1/2 pounds.

I put the tape measure under him. From the tip of his tail, to his nose,, 34" long.

 

[Captain America]

Oooooh...snapper soup is delicious!

 

[don44]

I don't know he looks kinda tough!

 

[gunman42782]

That's a whopper!

 

[Taterman]

That's a monster there. I caught a large one once while fishing, thought I snagged a log. As I got it to the boat, my friend netted it and it clamped on the the net frame and started hissing at us. The thing had moss growing on it's back and a mean looking mouth. We were kind of scared and just cut the line.

 

[HW11]

That is a nice one.

 

[WendyZXZ]

He is large enough that I would let someone else handle him!

 

[hdxr750]

Captain America, You have just came across my Favorite Soup in the Whole Wide World.

 

[contender]

He's one of the biggest I've ever caught. He definitely was a whopper.

 

[Wyandot Jim]

He's one of the biggest I've ever caught. He definitely was a whopper.

Soooooooooooooooooo did you fry it or make soup?????
My grandfather would catch them quite often in the 50s. Some really big ones. Good eats were had .
They are one mean critter. I think they wake up pissed off

 

[Rumrunner]

Wow, Boone and Crockett snapper, and with a conibear no less. Lots of good eating there.

 

[GRAMPS 51]

Hey TY that is a Whopper we use to get a few monsters around here but haven't seen one anywhere close to that in a long time has anyone ever figured out how to age those I have been told they can live well over 100 yrs

Gramps

 

[contender]

Sadly,,, by the time I got to him, and the heat & all,,, I was afraid of trying to eat him. In fact,,, there was a LONG discussion between my helper & I about who would have gotten him to eat,, as we BOTH enjoy turtle soup, BBQ etc.

He was living in a pond at a summer camp for kids. No need to leave him in there to hurt a kid who accidentally stepped too close to that big jaw. A snapper is one of the VERY few critters that has ever bitten me. NOT fun!

 

[Mike Armstrong]

A city-raised neighbor of mine in upstate NYS holds the world record for a backward broad jump because of a lady snapper. She was in the road and about to get hit, so he tried to pick her up to "escort" her back into the swamp....them things can HISS! I showed him the proper way--pitchfork and wheelbarrow....

 

[Joe S.]

That's a big'n!

When i was in my early teens, dad leased a piece of property that had a few ponds on it. We had just built a pond in the front of the yard down by the road and dad wanted to stock it with fish from these ponds. He pumped the water down to a level where we could walk across the pond with a seine net and caught a couple garbage cans full of fish. At one pond, when the water level receded we saw a snapper about that size squirming in the mud. Being the curious types we are we went over and started poking sticks at it. We had a limb about 2" in diameter we were using and when that dude had had enough, that head launched out with the speed of a snake striking and snapped that stick in two. We backed off. He stayed right there the whole day watching us. We did what we did and left. Came back the next day and he was gone.

I dont know if it was a common snapper or an aligator but he was a BEAST!!

 

[Joe S.]

That's a big'n!

When i was in my early teens, dad leased a piece of property that had a few ponds on it. We had just built a pond in the front of the yard down by the road and dad wanted to stock it with fish from these ponds. He pumped the water down to a level where we could walk across the pond with a seine net and caught a couple garbage cans full of fish. At one pond, when the water level receded we saw a snapper about that size squirming in the mud. Being the curious types we are we went over and started poking sticks at it. We had a limb about 2" in diameter we were using and when that dude had had enough, that head launched out with the speed of a snake striking and snapped that stick in two. We backed off. He stayed right there the whole day watching us. We did what we did and left. Came back the next day and he was gone.

I dont know if it was a common snapper or an aligator but he was a BEAST!!

 

[tookalisten]

My grandpa used to say "if one bit you, he would not let go until it thundered."

 

[SATCOM]

Just last week I learned something new about these critters. Thru the years I've caught them fishing, watched them in the swamps, and even saw one fishing for bream. On a 4 lane highway just outside Ft. Gordon, a big old snapper was caught in the middle of the road. I quickly returned parked in road next to divider and started to alarm drivers. A couple of 65 MPH close calls and traffic thin out. Went further out in the road and picked him up by shell in front of hind legs. Too heavy to hold that way so tried picking him up nearer the middle of his body. Thats when I found out that his neck was really really long allowing him to reach around nearly bite my hand! WHOA!! Spent 10 minutes carefully getting him into a large cardboard, crossed the road, and down in the ditch beside the road.

I worked with a gopher tortoise project and some of those old males were big. I've sexed, attach trackers, repaired shells (JB Weld works well), raised babies (gained <2 oz in 6 months), relocated/rescued dozens gopher tortoises, saved nests from raccoons and even adopted an African spurred tortoise that weighed 95 pounds and was pushing senior citizen discount age.

However I'll never ever ever pick up another snapping turtle!!

Sorry for run on.

SATCOM

 

[golferboy426]

I move several every spring during egg laying season, always by the tail. I've read you can safely pick them up by the shell , front and back but I'd never try it. When I was a kid my great uncle used to trap them in the CT river. It was not unusual to have one nearly 3 feet front shell to rear shell. I saw one at the Bronx zoo even bigger

 

[Mike Armstrong]

I used to sneak up behind them, slip a pitchfork under them so that their head was between the middle tines, and lift the whole shebang into a wheelbarrow. Then I'd wheel them to the nearest water in the direction they were headed, not very far in my swampy part of upstate NYS. The ones we found on the road were females looking for a nesting site.

My old alley cat Arnold once brought me a baby snapper....I think he wanted me to cook it for him. Like carp, snappers grow old and eat anything, including stuff that's stuffed with chemical waste and heavy metals. In an old industrial area, they probably aren't really safe to eat. (But then, alley cats eat pretty much anything, too).