IA Born

Won this in a raffle recently and realized it won't fit my Sig P320 due having a different mounting footprint. I talked to Sig and there are no adapter plates that will work. Only taken out of box for pics. Never turned on. $200. Will gladly ship, but buyer pays shipping.

1 spot left!

I thought the pic I had from helping with a research project in Chiricahua NM was me holding the blactail by its tail, but its me with it in my hook. I had it by its tail, but others were freaking out, so I played nice. Other blacktail pics are from the Santa Ritas and Huachucas. Chiricahua NM Scheelite Canyon, Ft Huachuca Madera Canyon, right off a popular trail Scotia Canyon, Huachuca Mts Right outside Ft Huachuca West Gate They all got defensive and rattled like crazy once I started messing with them, but they were never aggressive or eager to strike. In fact, all of these barely rattled at all when we walked past them. Like barely two tail twitches.

2 spots left in this field day in Flagstaff.

And that could be a product of SE AZ blacktails vs the rest of the state. I've encountered them in the all of the Sky Islands, except for the Pinalenos and everyone was about as docile as they come. Most barely rattled and were content staying quiet until I started messing with them. I've been the third person hiking out of a canyon at night and stepped within 2 inches of a blacktail and it only rattled a couple of shakes after I was past it. I was doing spotted owl surveys on Ft Huachuca many years ago and ended up sharing an abandoned cabin with one and my dog. I relocated it safely out of the cabin and down the canyon and it was all "Hey, cool view from up here!". I'll find that picture of me holding one by its tail when I get to my office tomorrow. I miss seeing blacktails, especially in SE AZ where they are so yellow in color.

3 spots left in this field day

I was able to get an excellent load working for my son's 7PRC with Barnes 160gr LRX this weekend, so I no longer need the Barnes 168 LRXs I have. I have three unopened boxes of the 168s and a partial box with 20 in it. $40/box for the unopened stuff and $15 for the partial box. If you buy the whole lot, I'll cover shipping to you. If Flagstaff. Not sure when I'll be coming south in the near future.

What kind of blacktail info are you wanting? And you're talking blacktail rattlesnake (C. molossus) and not AZ Blacks, right? I've never had issues with blacktails being mean or aggressive in AZ. In fact, most of the specimens I've encountered barely rattled to let us know they were there and they were very docile when handled. I actually used to grab them by the tail and pick them up. I have a picture of that somewhere, too, from down in the Chiricahaus. The blacktails in west Texas were a whole other ballgame, though. They were aggressive AF and would strike like crazy. We had a a set of young Mohaves from west Texas with the neurotoxin. They were born in captivity to a 4-foot female that was captured near Hueco Tanks. It was fun to watch feeding time. It gave you a good perspective as to how lethal the Mojave toxin is. They would strike the mice we fed them, the mice would jump straight up, and hit the bottom of the tank dead with minimal twitching, if any. One of those beauties escaped on me during feeding time once. It hit the ground at my feet and went under some tanks/tubs on the floor. I had to go and lock myself in a 7x15 room with it and start moving tanks, tubs, and cans around to get it back in its cage. That was kind of unnerving.

In our research labs, we called them vent hoods, but they are 100% the same. We had a fancy lyophilizer machine that did all the work. We'd put the venom samples in a -70F flash freezer and then throw them in the lyophilizer when we had time. Another funny story related to that was me flying to Monterrey, Mexico to present my research at a big herp conference and forgetting I had all about 5 vials of crystallized Mojave toxin in my book bag. Somehow, I made it into Mexico and back out with no problems and it was my carry-on bag. I realized my mistake when we came through customs in El Paso (flew out of Juarez because it was cheaper) to cross back in the U.S. I was trying to figure out how to explain that one away. Luckily, the customs agent looked right past those vials.

Understand. Let me think about how to get from you in Vail to me in Flagstaff. Your H1000 caught my eye, too.

Heading to Phx tomorrow. Can throw these in

Separate one or two or selling as a lot? Any interest in trading for RL16?

PM me your email and, when I get back to work next week, I can send you some of the science papers I read that got me interested and motivated if you're interested. I can send you my research publication, too, if you need a cure for insomnia. The original work by Glenn and Straight (1983 and a couple of others of theirs) documented the hemorrhagic toxin to roughly parallel the east side of I-10 between Tucson and Phx (big generalization there) with outliers/specimens all around both towns. The areas having both neurotoxin (called Mojave toxin) and hemorrhagic toxin ran right along that I-10. The hemorrhagic toxin is very specific to a smaller area within Arizona and the area with properties of both is even smaller in AZ. Throughout the rest of their range in AZ, NM, NV, CA, far southwest UT and west Texas (east of El Paso), they have a very strong neurotoxin. Lethality results from LD50 tests puts venom from diamondbacks (all hemorrhagic toxin) at roughly 3-5 micrograms of venom/kilograms of body weight. Mojave toxin LD50 tests were at a range of 0.15-0.25 micrograms of venom/kilograms of body weight. True/funny story. I was processing vials of pure crystallized Mojave toxin in my lab one day, after getting all of the un-pure liquids off and I wasn't at the vent hood in my lab. It took me a few minutes to realize I'd been inhaling the pure, crystallized Mojave toxin. I lost feeling in my nose for three hours and had recurring outbreaks during times of hight stress due to the buildup of antibodies specific to the venom. I'd lose feeling in my nose for up to an hour. That went off/on for about 10 years.

My daughter decided last year she wanted to hunt again after takingseveral years off. She was a junior at UofA, so I put us in for the early Nov 34A hunt. I didn't touch my rifle until she went back to school. I shot my deer the next day. We put that same hunt for our first choice this year, her senior year. Same thing, I won't touch my rifle until she decides she's done. And the 34A youth hunt was my son's first choice for his last youth hunt.

That's a beautiful Mohave. They were my graduate research project. I studied the genetics and evolution of their venom. Most Mohave rattlesnakes have a very strong/lethal neurotoxin throughout their range in the U.S. and Mexico. Up to 40x more lethal than a Diamondbacks, depending on how you interpret the data. It was the ones in AZ that lack the neurotoxin and the ones that have properties of both neurotoxin and hemorrhagic toxins that got me interested. I miss working with those guys! I collected blood and venom from my fair of them share back in the day. Great pics!