Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A couple posts down is asking about the smallest pits, what on average
is the largest (girth as well as length). I have heard there are
some locales from Tx that top the charts. Anyone have any specific
ssp or locales that beat them all. And of course if anyone has any
pics of themselves holding one of the monsters that is
always a great sight.

He has a pic of Matt holding a 9'3" MONSTER bull from hwy277. It was the founder male for Shannons bloodline. Ohh wait, I forgot to mention, the 9'3" was with part of the tail missing!

Got BULLS???????????????

I have got to see that picture !!!

its a huge bull snake!

This I've got to see.

Email Shannon Brown directly. He's the only one that can post that image, really.

pic courtesy of Ricky Walters and shows him holding a huge Carolina Pine!

pic courtesy of Ricky Walters and shows Trumbower and co holding a large sayi

while were're on the topic, were youngsters ever produced from this line?......and who currently has genetic lines that produce large n. pines like this? (I imagine to a certain extent that would have to do with their captive care and raising and their age)

In general, do Pituophis trend to be larger sized coming from the north or more southern climates (longer growing season?) or simply genetic pockets of large sized individuals spread thoughout the range?

Dean......I've seen that pic. If I remember the story correctly, that brute was captured on Memorial Day weekend in '00. I heard they were walking along this road cut one night, and they thought the whole rock cut was crumbling down on them. It was simply this monster bull shifting position. He was probably setting up to ambush a baby goat........HAHA. Seriously though, I have personally seen three bullsnakes over 7 feet long DOR in that area.

holly crap!!! 9'3" is frickin huge.. ok.. im in california and texas isnt that far.. where the heck do i go to get those bulls.. a trip to texas sounds great about now!! in those 2 other pics, who owns that huge pine and the albino bull?
-----
Jaylon ( bigJ)

www.hometown.aol.com/flyingcolorsloft/main.html
0.1 black pine
2.6 northern pines
12.68 leo's of all colors/morphs
2.5 UKC registered American pitbull Terriers a.k.a "the bouncers"

And the snake was ENORMOUS!! Shannon actually produces a line of pits that have to be the biggest neonates that I have ever seen..FYI. Saw them at the San Diego I.R.B.A. show...they looked like they were 5 months old .

Food for thought,

Fred Albury

>>And the snake was ENORMOUS!! Shannon actually produces a line of pits that have to be the biggest neonates that I have ever seen..FYI. Saw them at the San Diego I.R.B.A. show...they looked like they were 5 months old .

Hatchling ruthveni could eat them.

Since you know so much about ruthveni,I wont doubt you, but those things were HUGE.

*Ciao*

Fred Albury

Largest hatchling I have ever seen measured 25" after three weeks. Of course it was a Ruthveni. One clutch ranged from 18 3/4" (smallest) to 22 1/2" (longest). Very impressive to see.

dc

I've got some of Shannon's hatchling's. They are almost, but not quite, as long as my typical ruthveni. The Val Verde sayi are THIN and the ruthveni are VERY robust. That is the biggest difference. I was expecting a ruthveni-like sayi, butthey are just a little longer than the typical hatchling while about the same mass as some of the shorter, more robust sayi.

Well,Since I have never seen(hint hint)a hatchling ruthveni I am no help here comparing the two?I have hatched alot of bulls in my life and the 277 monsters are just that.
I will agree with kj that they are by no means girthy as far as a large pit goes.

shannon

on the third page of the Bull Snake Gallery on Kingsnake.
Here's the link: http://www.kingsnake.com/pituophis/images/bull-DOR-male-shannon-brown.jpg

That isn't the live 9' one people keep talking about. That was one he FOUND as a DOR. The DOR is a "small" one.

KJ

I've spoken to Shannon in person and got the story first-hand. Also saw the photo. It showed a very long snake that was at the time, not particularly heavy in build. I've seen several 7-foot plus West Texas bulls and all were fairly slender (even skinny). North Texas bulls seem heavier IMHO.

The heaviest, thickest bullsnakes I have personal field experience came from Kankakee in the 60's and 70's. Six-footers were the norm and I collected four or five measuring up to seven-and-a-half-feet, and very heavy. I grew up in Illinois and spent a lot of time on the Kankakee sand prairies. This poulation used to produce monsters but I don't think there's many big ones left. Lot's of bulls still in the remaining habitat but few big ones. TV

The ones there I have seen have all been lanky looking, too. The length is there, but they actually look less impressive that a 6.5' foot, robust, south Texas bull to me.

If it ain't a Texas locale, who cares about it, right? (Do I sound like a native Texan now? I keep trying....lol!)

Is there an actual pic of the snake on a ruler? I ask because while it is no doubt a huge snake 9 foot 3 seems off by a bit. Unless of course the guy in the pic is 7 feet tall. Granted the snake is a beast but the number sounds too big for what you see in the pic is all.

Phil

To put into perspective why I doubt the size for someone to reach 9 feet 3 in the air flat footed they would be able to touch the net on a regulation basketball goal. Not a feat many can pull off. There is some of the snake on the ground but it sure doesn't look like enough to make it that size.

Phil

Phillip,
Its very hard to measure a big snake.It let him crawl down my hall against the wall one night and when he was all the way strait I marked the front of his nose and his stubbed tail and it was 9"3.

The pic of him is kinda hard to make out cause my buddy is about 6"1 and has him up as far as he can go with quit a bit of rear end left over his hand and the snake was just trying to crawl into the box on the floor in front of him.The box was about three feet in front of my buddy.

Take it for what its worth but the snake was 9"3.
Also,He was just shy of ten pounds.

later shannon

Perhaps I'm thinking of another pic then as the one I'm referring to is the guy in the red shirt holding up the DOR 277 specimen.

Still a huge snake but didn't look nearly 9 feet from where I'm sitting.

Phil

Yeah that was a 7 foot plus female d.o.r. from hyw 377 acually.
John holmes(my nine foot male)was much bigger.

shannon

Kemper,
I just got a new computer today and I have been down for a bit,I will try and post the pic if I can figure out how to get it off my old one.

shannon

I hope Shannon doesn't mind that i posted it. Have fun..........

Hey Eimon!

Thanks for posting it!!!!!!!!!!

Great talking to you at the IRBA show. That was a very nice pair of graybands!

Billy
-----
Genesis 1:1