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Antonio Chavez said he was shaking to much to trust his aim so he fatally whipped this rattlesnake to death.

((Special to AL.com))

CHILTON COUNTY, Alabama - Antonio Chavez was looking forward to bow hunting on his Chilton County property but after nearly stepping on a huge rattlesnake earlier this week, he said he might wait for cooler weather.

"I've made up my mind that I will wait for rifle season,'' Chavez told AL. com.

Chavez, owner of San Marcos Mexican Restaurant in Clanton, said he was out on his hunting land Monday. He was preparing to strap a deer camera to a tree when his friend's wife started to scream. "I mean she hollered real bad,'' Chavez said.

"I guess we disturbed him,'' he said. "He was crawling and the head was up, ready to attack. The rattle was making a lot of noise."

Chavez was carrying a pistol, but said he was shaking too bad to shoot the snake. Instead, he grabbed a five-foot-long switch. "You cut one that is real flexible like a whip,'' he said. "I already knew what to do. I had killed rattlesnakes in Mexico. But this one was unreal."

"I hit it one time behind the head and it went down,'' Chavez said. "Then I shot in the head with my .45 pistol."

Chavez said he used another stick to pick up the dead snake so his friend could take a picture. Then he threw it in the back of his Gator to take home to show his wife. "About an hour later, I saw that the snake was wiggling'' he said. "It was a real bad feeling."

They didn't measure the snake. "I'm 5' 7'' and it was longer than me,'' Chavez said. There were 15 rattles. His friend skinned it, cut off the rattles and disposed of the rest.

As the photo made its rounds on Facebook, Chavez said he's been asked many times why he didn't have the snake mounted. "I'm scared of snakes. I didn't want to do nothing with it,'' he said. "Really, for the rest of the day I had a headache."