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Posted: 9/1/2004 7:34:23 PM EDT
[#1]
You need a fillet knife and pair of channel locks to clean it. Begin by cutting the head off just behind the "hard" part. Next cut off the feet just behind the "foot" at the first joint--the "ankle." Next, cut the loose skin all the way around, from both the shell and belly plate. Use the channel locks to pull it off--this is a mofo--stand on the shell to do it. After that, look where the belly plate joins the top of the shell. There is a line--cut it with the fillet knife along that line and they will separate. Those who don't know this spend two hours trying to use a hatchet. Don't do that. Next remove the guts and eggs (if female) and discard. Now cut the legs, neck and tail from the shell. The hind legs and tail will come as one "piece." In the top of the shell is a real delicacy--the "backstrap." It's a bitch to remove, but if you have a pair of aviation snips, cut the parts that hold it in (it's visible through circles of openings, but is one long piece of very white meat) and pull the two strips out. They, and the neck, are very delicate white meat. The legs and tail are fairly dark and chewy to eat. Many don't mind that, but I do--so I pressure cook it for about a half hour before breading and frying like fish--in deep grease. That's it--they are GREAT eating. 
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Posted: 9/1/2004 7:35:13 PM EDT
[#2]
I used to have one of these as a pet, they are not harmless, but also not so much of a pest that you cant just pack them up in your truck and dump them in another lake. Shooting and killing a turtle is kind of cruel if you dont plan to eat it.
Killing things is a requisite of having a good time for quite a few gun owners. Wonder if that tarnishes the image a bit? Nah.  I also believe they are protected in some states? Maybe I'm wrong. |
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Posted: 9/1/2004 7:37:56 PM EDT
[#3]
I think only alligator snappers are--common snapping turtles are not protected in most, if not all, states. Methods of taking them are restricted in at least Missouri and Illinois--no nets any more, as they work too good. 
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Posted: 9/1/2004 7:41:41 PM EDT
[#4]
Hey...I got the Beekeepers recipe and it sounds great!! Thanks much for the detailed instructions. This thing looks like an M1 tank but I'll see how we do.
As a kid...when we would go camping...friends of our family would clean and eat those things and they LOVED them. I remember guys being COVERED in slime from cleaning them though. From the beekeepers description..it sounds like some serious work. signed Kurt "can someone hand me a wetnap" austin |
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Posted: 9/1/2004 7:50:45 PM EDT
[#5]
It only takes about 20 minutes once you get the hang of it. I never have been "slimed" by one, but the guts are a little juicy. Don't play in them--just scoop them out and fling them for your dogs to eat and puke up later. They really are delicious (the meat, not the guts--well maybe them too, but I've not tried guts). They, like all "seafood," spoil fairly quickly in warm weather, so I'd get on it. You will be glad you did.
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Posted: 9/1/2004 7:51:00 PM EDT
[#6]
The common is the one with a smooth shell right? The alligator snapper is the one I used to have as a pet. Interesting creatures. It would sit at the bottom of the tank and keep its mouth open and wriggle its bright red toungue (filled with blood) to attract fish, and snap! Fish no more. 
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Posted: 9/1/2004 7:54:33 PM EDT
[#7]
Yes, common snappers just have several "points" at the rear of the shell, just above the tail--it's how you figure out where to grab them when you can't see. The alligators have pointy ridges down their back--and tend to be MUCH larger--and are quite rare these days. I think southern Missouri is about the northern edge of their range--and are throughout the south. "Hogging" them is an exciting sport--feel for them with your bare feet, then dive down, grab them and wrestle them to the surface. Much more fun than stuffing polecats in a bag.  Edit: No pics but lots of good info--even mentions the little "worm" in its mouth: www.tortoise.org/archives/macrocl.html Edit II: Another site with a crappy pic: www.nashvillezoo.org/asturtle.htm Edit III: A pretty good pic: www.enature.com/fieldguide/showSpeciesSH.asp?curGroupID=7&shapeID=1057&curPageNum=2&recnum=AR0207 |
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Posted: 9/1/2004 8:00:01 PM EDT
[#8]
Hmmm strange no ones said it yet..
Tannerite! 
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Posted: 9/1/2004 8:05:06 PM EDT
[#9]
There is a nursing home by me on a state park the been have snapper problems in their little pond ,So one day me and my friends talked to the home and the park people and we got permission to remove them from the pond we used trebbil hooks( cut the tips so it is blunted) and the best bait hormel pepperoni the biggest one we got to date couldn't fit into a walleye net
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Posted: 9/2/2004 7:54:18 AM EDT
[#10]
Rule of thumb is it close to the kids and cause them serious bodly harm? Kill it! Don't care what it is. My kids are and always will be unlimited amounts worth more than ANY animal. If it poses a threat to them, it will die! I hold the same point of view for people also. So animals? No problem. Kurt Austin , you did the right thing!Take care. Coondog
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Posted: 9/2/2004 8:07:08 AM EDT
[#11]
Don't kill Animals unless they threaten you, or you are gonna eat them. Plain and simple, dont fuck with the eco system.
With that out of the way, I can get you the Mother-in-Law's recipe for Turtle Soup if you want it. It is TO DIE FOR!!! I love it, anytime I'm up North in WI, we see them walking accross the road. Sometimes it takes two people to lift the sumabitches up in the truck. There shells are almost in-destructable, but everything else is no big deal. |
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Posted: 9/2/2004 8:07:41 AM EDT
[#12]
Nichcon used to keep a small Snapper in a fishtank. It actually grew pretty quickly. Hope he doesn't mind me posting his pics:
  
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Posted: 9/2/2004 8:15:04 AM EDT
[#13]
My dad "killed" one when I was a kid, and buried it, It dug itself out the next day.
they are indeed resilient |
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Posted: 9/2/2004 8:21:01 AM EDT
[#14]
Listen to the thebeekeeper1
There is hardly a more naturally flavored meat to be found, it's like they come with the seasoning built in. Very delicious,try it, the work after the kill is worth it. GM
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Posted: 9/2/2004 8:25:20 AM EDT
[#15]
Believe it or not, I killed one with a BB gun one time. It was sort of small and it took a fair number of shots, but eventually the thing died.
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Posted: 9/2/2004 8:42:14 AM EDT
[#16]
You obviously aint never fucked with a snapper. Damn things will empty a fish pond of fish and eat anything that they can rap a jaw around. His only mistake was shooting it more than once. Ruined the meat. Turtle got like 5 kinds of meat in it. Some of its like fish, some like beef, some like chicken sort of. When you cut that baby open skin out the legs and get that side meat and don't forget the backstrap behind that cartlidge. Lot cheaper to make your on turtle soup than to go eat it at Brennans in Houston. |
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Posted: 9/2/2004 9:08:01 AM EDT
[#17]
I've released numerous large turtles into my pond and they haven't affected the fish in over ten years. Otters will empty a pond--snappers have no noticeable affect.
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Posted: 9/2/2004 9:09:37 AM EDT
[#18]
DAMN YOU! I wanted to be the first. +1 |
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Posted: 9/2/2004 11:49:04 AM EDT
[#19]
We once found a small (less than a foot in diameter) snapper which had been run over. Its shell was cracked in several places, and it couldn't walk. It still lived for another day.
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Posted: 9/2/2004 11:53:17 AM EDT
[#20]
A snapping turtle gun.
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Posted: 9/2/2004 12:22:19 PM EDT
[#21]
Snapping turtle recipe:
After cutting its head off and hanging it by the tail to bleed out the carcass, remove the plastron (the belly-shell) as Mr. Beekeeper described in a previous post. I then remove the entrails, and scrub the shell clean of any moss (remove any leaches found on the skin). Then place the carcass, shell and all, in a pot of water large enough to cover the turtle. Spice the water up with some bay leaves, salt, peppper. Boil the turtle until you are able to remove a claw easily from the turtle's foot. Then remove the carcass and let it cool down. Next you peel off and discard the skin and pull the meat off the bones. chop up the meat. cook up a package of sausage, add a diced up onion and diced up bell pepper (or hot pepppers), throw in a can of corn and a bottle of pace picante along with the turtle meat. Some tequila at this point adds a little somethin'somethin' to the mix. Cook down until its nice and thick and serve over rice. I usually only harvest snappers from spring-fed creeks, it may be all in my head, but they seem to taste better than turtles taken from muddy stock ponds. spelling edit |
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Posted: 9/2/2004 12:37:24 PM EDT
[#22]
<Slur Removed>
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Posted: 9/2/2004 12:41:38 PM EDT
[#23]
Snapping turtles are evil vile creatures. One almost took out my cat (she wasn't smart enough not to fool with it)
Shoot the sonsabitches. They aint exactly going to go extinct... they tend to be kings of the pond. I, however, have not had the pleasure of eating one. We just hung ours on a rock and let everything else take care of em. - BUCC_Guy |
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Posted: 9/2/2004 12:44:24 PM EDT
[#24]
I emptied, reloaded, emptied and reloaded a Marlin Model 60 (?) semi auto .22 into one when I was fishing on my cousin's tank. (Stock pond to you Yankees).
Damn thing just kept coming out of the water to sun the rest of the day. Each time, i shot it at least 5 times, usually around the head/neck area. I'm still waiting for the bastard to come toddling up to my door, because I don't think it ever fucking died! |
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Posted: 9/2/2004 12:47:49 PM EDT
[#25]
"Balming's Snapping Turtle Story"
I was fishing in one of my parent's catfish ponds last summer and hooked what I thought was a HUGE Catfish. This particular pond is around 8 acres and 40 or so years old. I finally brought it in close to the bank, which has a water level around 3 feet below the bank, and it was a huge snapper. It's head was as big as both of my fists put together. I had already lost a few hooks that day, and didn't want to lose another so I figured I would take my brand new Leatherman PST 2 and remove the hook from his mouth. He was too big for me to remove from the water so I reached as far as I could to get a hold on the hook. He snapped at me and I drew back, then tried again. This time he grabbed my BRAND FUCKING NEW Leatherman breaking the line at the same time and swam off!!!!! It happened really fast. Had my then 8 yr old daughter not been standing next to me I would have tried to stop him with my sidearm and retrieve my Leatherman. Bastard! After reading these posts it seems that my Beretta 92 probably wouldn't have stopped him anyway. Balming |
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Posted: 9/2/2004 12:54:44 PM EDT
[#26]
I have a Alligator Snapping Turtle.My friend found him at the shooting range.He is no bigger than a half dollar(shell).When we feed him worms he just murderizes the things.Since you did kill that turtle,at least eat it or something.They really are cool animals.If you have the choice,relocate.These things arent the turtle version of Al Quida.
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Posted: 9/2/2004 1:06:27 PM EDT
[#27]
Hmmm....guess I got lucky. The last one I offed was a stiff after 2 .22 yellowjackets to the head.
It was about 15lb w/shell, we got about 3lb of white meat and about 2lb of dark meat. Mom made it into a soup/stew, it was delicious. A buddy of mine back in Missouri showed me an alligator snapper turtle shell that a farmer near the Meremac River in Cook Station had in his barn. The turtle was crawling across a slab over the river and the farmer shot it with his trusty 30-30. This is no shit-I'm 5'8" and the top of the turtle's shell came up to my KNEE and was easily 3-3 1/2' long. I don't recall if it was mentioned how long ago the turtle had been shot. I was shown the shell in 1982 or 83 and it was pretty well weather worn. Fist-sized whole in the side where the entrance wound was. We used to shoot snapping turtles on sight in farm ponds because 1 or 2 of them can completely decimate the fish population. ETA: Seems as though some people on this board fail to realize that even though we own EBRs and punch holes in paper, we hunt also, and, gee, that means killing. We know what to do with the game also. We also have no reservations about doing what it takes to preserve the health of our loved ones and critters. Or that cool farmer's pond where he is generous enough to let us fish. |
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Posted: 9/2/2004 1:13:07 PM EDT
[#28]
.50 BMG
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Posted: 9/2/2004 2:14:05 PM EDT
[#29]
I grew up hunting and eating snapping turtles. My grandfather, having lieved through the great depression, would eat anything he could catch or kill.
we "hunted" snapping turtles my walking the creek banks with pitch forks. When we would spot a turtle we would stabb him through the shell with the pitch fork and carry him home that way. Worked good becuase when you got home you could just stake him in place to the ground with the pitch fork. I never had Turtle soup though, we usually just pan fried them. We also used to get alot of snapping turtles driving to various hunting and fishing spots. We would see one crosssing the road, jump out, grab it by the tail and throw it in the boat. My grandfather was warned recently by a state trooper who saw he had three live snappers in his boat. Apparently you need a fishing license for them now, and there is a season and bag limit. |
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Posted: 9/2/2004 5:59:47 PM EDT
[#30]
40mm, HEDP.
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Posted: 9/2/2004 6:06:54 PM EDT
[#31]
I was told by an expert that they have their brain in the spinal area in the top of the shell, & that's why you can even cut off their heads, & their still alive days later.
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