Quoted:
It would take a year for any snake to eat the volume of food a small mammal will eat in 2-3 weeks. Heck they are only active in NJ for 6 months (see link below) You must have a really small pond if your worried about them reducing your fish population.
You have two poisonous snakes in New Jersey, The copperhead and the Timber Rattlesnake. Copperhead bites have no reported fatalities nationwide (their venom, while unpleasant is not fatal) and shooting a Timber Rattlesnake would be a Felony (its an endangered species). The other snakes are not dangerous and pose no threat to your family. Should you have small children I would shoot the copperheads (they are prolific and you are unlikely to hurt their numbers) and call animal control to have a timber removed (due to them being Endangered). All the native non-poisonous snakes are much less capable of hurting a human (even a small child). A mouse, rat, or mole would be a much bigger threat.
Take a moment to review the document below and that will assist you on identifying the snakes you see:
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/ensp/pdf/snakes.pdf
I have lots of experience with snakes and they are a very important and useful part of the ecosystem, unlike imported animals like the starling in the USA, or the toad in Austraila.
Of course, if you still intend to shoot them then drop the whole "they scare me. they eat my fish" excuse and just be honest. You blast them because it entertains you. And no, I'm no animal rights wacko. I shoot starlings for fun.hock.gif
Now, as to what to shoot them (or starlings) with? I like the Agulia ammo and the CB caps. They dont cycle a semi but they kill them just fine and its funny to see how confused the others get. An alternative (though probably not in NJ) is to use a suppressor and full power subsonics. They sound about the same as a agulia round but will cycle a semi.
Do us all a favor and add starlings to your "kill list".hug.gif
bp
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Honesty the snakes are not the only "threat" the fish population. We also have issues with large birds (herrings i think??? not exactly sure what they're called), large rodents , small mammals (occational beaver, more of a threat to the trees they like to chew apart), and the to round out the list there are the large mammals witch include the bear that like to go fishing in our larger pond. Between the large birds and the bear there are no fish left in our smaller shallower pond (used to have a larger species of goldfish, would daily hear the splash of a bear looking for a midday snack untill the fish were all gone).
The larger pond is deeper and provides more hiding places for the fish.
Nothing we can really do about the bear, my father has on occation got annoyed at them and shot them in the butt with the RWS 1000fps air rifle, that usually sends them running out of the yard. Not going to break out any high caliber weapons on them, that would only bring the state of NJ down on us for illegally killing a bear. Also dont want to severly injure a bear and now have a even more dangerous injured bear running around the neighborhood.
Those big birds we dont kill, not sure if they are protected or not, and we dont really want to deal with a body that big. We just land a warning shot nearby and scare them off.
The rodent and small mammal population has really gotten on my fathers nerves in recent years. Between muscrats digging holes all over the place and eating the fish and the beavers chewing up the trees his patience are gone and he wants them gone to. Muscrats and other small furry animals that present themselves while my father is around will recieve either a .22LR or a .177 pointed pellet, which ever my father has easier access to at the time. Don't think he has ever shot a beaver, just curses at the damage they leave behind. I leave the small furry creatures alone.
We have never had an issue with either copperheads or rattlesnakes, they tend to stay up in the mountain rather than down near the lake. My father just hates snakes, hates them even more once we found them eating the fish. I got started on them also when we found out they were eating the fish.
Snakes have it bad, if either my father spots one or i see one while im visiting, there is soon to be a barrage (sp?) of again which ever is more easily available .22LR or .177 fire. Multiple shots only because on one particular occation i put a .177 point pettet through the middle of a snakes head from close range (about 15 feet), i could see the hole in the head. The bastard flopped around for a few seconds and then jumped into the water and swam away under the surface. Really caught me off guard and annoyed me as .177 pellets dont penetrate the surface of water very well and my follow up shots were on target, but ineffective. Also gave me mixed feelings, i was mad that I shot the thing and it still got away, and I also felt guilty that now the animal is severly injured and will probally go hide somewhere and suffer until it dies. Ever since then I put one in the head and then while their flopping around I continue to fire into the body to make sure they dont get away and expire as quickly as possible.
As for the starlings that you request we add to the kill list. There are some bird species that my father would like to see gone (starling im sure included) but the birds tend to stay up in the trees around the yard. Neither my father or I will take a shot at anything up in the trees. When we fire at ground targets we know our bullet or pellet will strike the ground if we either miss or over penetrate our target. Their are houses in the distance and we will not risk a missed shot not having a backstop to stop the round. The air rifle doesn't have the range capability to reach those houses, but even so we will not risk it.
Therefore the pesky birds live on...
I am looking for a very quiet and accurate round for yard use. May have to buy and test a box of the agulia, sounds like interesting stuff. Suppressors are illegal in NJ, i would absolutely love to have one...but that's just not an option.