Any of you folks going? I'll be visitng the Mother in Law and will probably take the kids. As a bonus, I believe there's a gunshow nearby (probably selling rattlesnake jerky ).

Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup

I used to catch snakes and sell them there when I was growing up. I might just head out there this weekend and take my kids.

One of my buddies Won the tobacco spitting contest there when we were 12 years old.  They gave him a whole case of Redman.

I just found out about this but need to save $ so I plan on driving up to Sweetwater next year. I went to the rattlesnake roundup in Olglesby a few wkends ago. It was small but fun to watch the snakehandlers in pit for a few hours.

I'm guessing Sweetwater is every March?

Quoted: I just found out about this but need to save $ so I plan on driving up to Sweetwater next year. I went to the rattlesnake roundup in Olglesby a few wkends ago. It was small but fun to watch the snakehandlers in pit for a few hours. I'm guessing Sweetwater is every March?

Yep, same time every year. It is the LARGEST rattlesnake round up in the world.   There used to be many more rattlesnake roundups in Texas when I was a kid. I grew up in the small town of Gainesville. they had a round up there too. Lots of folks would bring in Velvet tails or timber rattlers in to that round up. they are illegal to handle in Texas as they are protected.  Both Timber rattlers and Diamond back in that area. They shut that round up down  Cause many folks are ignorant bout the difference and would bring protected snakes in.

We used to sell snakes at  the Gainesville, Jacksboro and Sweetwater roundups. the roundup[ in Gainesville  is no longer, dont know about the Jacksboro round up any more either....

I'll be in Sweetwater in a couple of hours. Hope the roundup is as big as the one 15 years ago. Maybe they will also have a tobacco spitting contest that will allow 12 year olds to participate????

I made it out there on Saturday, and it was pretty good. The weather was great, the crowd was heavy, and needless to say, there were plenty of rattlers. My kids had been there a couple of years ago, but still really enjoyed it, whereas this was my first time to get there (I've been to Sweetwater many times, but have always seemed to have missed this event).

The gun show was decent, and the assortment of guns and militaria was better than I expected. Most noticeable to me was the number of members of the Colt Collectors Association, all of whom had some great looking 1911's to ogle. I saw quite a few AR-15's, and the only area I felt was lacking was  the absence of knife dealers-there really didn't appear to be many other than the Chinese/Pakistani and fantasy crap.

My son was able to pick up some great posters for his bedroom from the Marines, the Army, and also the Army National Guard. The Army had t-shirts available if you wanted to pay for one by doing either 30 situps or pushups, whereas the Marines had a similar offer if you could do pull-ups (although I don't think they required thirty to win one). The Army also had a tent set up with about a dozen laptop computers, where you could play "America's Army" online. They had plenty of copies of the game to give out in a two CD set, one of which I was happy to take. Both the Marines and Army had some nice freebies like lanyards and pencils, etc., so no one went away empty handed, and the soldiers and Marines really seemed to be enjoying themselves.

All in all, a very nice afternoon, and I'm pleased to report we made it out with no bites!