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My inlaws own a ranch out near Stonewall, Texas. I have been going out there on a regular basis for 5 years or so. I have never seen a big snake, except a dead Texas ratsnake. For that matter, I don't think I have seen any snakes except a very fast coachwhip last summer that I couldn't even begin to get close to.
Well, Sunday I woke up at 8 am and thought to myself that I would take out the little honda 70 motorcycle and drive the ranch roads and see if something might be out and moving before it got hot. And sure enough, crossing a gravel road heading for a water hole, was this female bullsnake.
I picked her up, she was as calm as could be. I couldn't hold her and drive, and I wanted to show her to my wife and daughter and the other family members that were at the ranch at the time. So I tucked in my T-shirt and had her crawl in. She road there just great. I took her out and showed her to my wife, who thought she was beautiful, put her back in my shirt and drove up to the house, and got her out again to take some pics. She was so mellow, I let me daughter hold her, and my niece. We took a whole roll of film.
I put her in a small carry-on travel bag, as I did not have a pillow case with me and kept her for an hour until my inlaws got back from church. When I took her out of a bag, she was no longer mellow! In fact, she was really hot!! Then she really put on a show. It gave me a good chance to hold her and explain how she tried to act like a rattlesnake or other dangerous animal, but was still just a bull, and needed to be protected if they ran across any more in the future.
Even after I turned her loose shortly after this, and walked away, she kept right on hissing and puffing and rattling. We checked on her 15 minutes later and of course she had disappeared. She was sure a nice one. BL
Enjoy the pics, BL

Nice pics! Cool snake story...and everybody (including the snake) lived happily ever after.

My parents used to own land a few miles from there (in Blumenthal on Jung lane, on the way to Fredericksburg). They owned the land right on the Pedernales river there and I herped that area a lot. Oddly, I never found a Bullsnake in all the years I herped there. I figured they would be in that sandy soil along the river, but never found one live or dead!

TX rats are common, as are two species of watersnake, red-striped ribbons and checkered gartersnakes. There are some really nice dark hognose in that area as well. I sometimes roadhunted the willow city loop where I have found Blacktail Rattlesnakes, Broad-banded Copperheads and Cottonmouths which are harder to find in the rest of Gillespie County.

I kind of miss herping the area. Here's a dark hog from FM 2721 -

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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

This is the first one I have seen any where near there. Otherwise, just a few texas rats between there and Austin. And we had a big rattlesnake bite a labrador pup last spring (05). He almost died, the fang marks were over 3 cm apart. Anyway, I have found Willow City, all though I do not know where the "loop" is, but I would like to check it out some night. I could not find RR2721 anywhere, and I would love to see one of those hognose. I found a nice one west of Liberty Hill 12 years ago, in the hill country (on my inlaws old ranch), but that is the only one I have ever found, so they are a real treat for me. Since I grew up in Kansas, all Texas snakes encountered in the wild are still a real treat for me; I even enjoy seeing the diamondbacks. Thanks for the history...my daughter and neices and nephews always want me to take them out road hunting, but I have always told them the only place I know to go is way out west of Junction or south of San Antone, and we never have time to go that far, so I will try more locally now, thanks, Brad