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I found this big fellow today...

Started by Kbeitz, September 07, 2017, 04:58:00 PM

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Kbeitz

Collector and builder of many things.
Love machine shop work
and Wood work shop work
And now a saw mill work

sandhills

Good grief I'm afraid I might've stepped on it before I saw it!  Cool looking little dude  :)

DelawhereJoe

Looks like a cute little baby snapping turtle, you gonna start feeding it to fatten it up for some snapper soup next year ?
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Kbeitz

Quote from: DelawhereJoe on September 08, 2017, 01:15:25 AM
Looks like a cute little baby snapping turtle, you gonna start feeding it to fatten it up for some snapper soup next year ?

If I thought it was a snapper I would have squashed it.
I looked it over real good and I'm sure it was a mud turtle.
A snapper will destroy a pond and all snappers I have seen are aggressive
and this little fellow did not even try to bite.



 



  
Collector and builder of many things.
Love machine shop work
and Wood work shop work
And now a saw mill work

WV Sawmiller

Kbeitz,

   Based on the length of the tail I'm thinking it is a common snapper too. Snappers are the only ones I know of with that long tail.

   I rescued a small mud turtle on the way to church near Albany Ga many years ago and I named him Spunky. He'd stretch out and swim the length of the aquarium chasing leftover crappie minnows and big crawfish and attack till he killed them. He worked on one crawfish for over an hour till he finally killed it. When he did my 3/4 lb bluegill came over and slurped it down. He was afraid of the live crawfish. Spunky got mad and swam up and bit a half moon out of the bluegill's tail. The bluegill swished his tail so hard he washed Spunky head of heels several loops. I made the mistake of putting some big river mussels in the aquarium and Spunky tried to eat them when they'd open and one closed on his head and drowned him. I was a sad day.

   My kids caught a small snapper in a drainage ditch behind our home in Jacksonville NC they played in and gave me one as a pet many years ago and I put it in my 55 gallon aquarium. I was real proud of it then I made the mistake of added a 1 lb bullfrog and he ate my turtle. He also at the 1/3 lb bullfrog we put in there too. Thought the smaller frog had escaped till we saw tips of his toes in the bigger frogs mouth.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

Dan_Shade

When I was a kid, I was riding my bike back from my grandmother's house with my little brother and saw your turtle's big brother, it was the size of a Volkswagen, and took up the whole road.

I was ahead of my brother, so I turned around for him and we took the long way home through the field, because I was afraid the turtle might eat him.  Today nobody really believes me when I say how big that turtle was. 

That's my turtle story and I'm sticking to it.
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There's a fine line between turning firewood into beautiful things and beautiful things into firewood.

WV Sawmiller

   While I was stationed at MCLB Albany Ga I lived 1/2 mile from Lake Worth on the Flint River. When we'd get low on meat I would put out trotlines with live bream or whole chicken gizzards for bait and catch big alligator snapping turtles and we'd eat them. I caught one 75 lb turtle once and when I was pulling him in the boat he turned and got the hook in his mouth and bit through an 8/0 stainless steel hook. I got him over in the boat and he got after me and I got up out of his way. Had one foot on the corner of the boat and one on the motor when he snapped at me. I way ready to give him the boat and just go in the lake. He bit the corner off my new upholstered pedestal seat. I finally got around him and got him behind the head and was able to control him till I got him home.

   Another time I had a 30 lb turtle debating whether to butcher him or throw him back as usually the ones I caught were 50-75 lbs. He had what looked like a .38 bullet hole in his head that had healed over. I hit a patch of choppy water on the way back and my cricket cage vibrated off the seat, hit him on the head, he snapped at it and knocked it in the lake and sunk. To top it off  when he bit at the crickets he missed and bit 2 of my fiberglass crappie poles and crushed them.

   If you ever butcher one be sure to cut the chunks of meat out of the skull on either side of the brainstem. Using a long bladed fillet knife works well. On a 75 turtle they will each be as big as a coke can. Cut them crossways into 1/2" steaks, flour and fry them.

   I once butchered a big female full of eggs and gave them to my wife. She used them in a batch of cookie dough and the kids took turtle egg brownies to school to all their friends and teachers.

   I still prefer softshell turtles. They are much easier to clean and fry up real good.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

coxy

that looks like a snapper it has the spikes (or what ever you call them)on the top his/her shell             SSS ;D

Ox

The big snappers around here smell so bad I couldn't imagine eating them unless I was starving.  I'd think that nasty smell from rotting whatever on their algae and moss covered shells would get in the meat and taste like an old billy goat.
K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple Stupid
Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without
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thecfarm

The snapper lays eggs down by the brook. They never last long,something digs them up. I have never seen a small turtle like that. Most I see are at least a foot long. Them things can move when they get up on their legs.
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WV Sawmiller

Ox,

   When you get one butchered and out of the shell it is just meat just like beef, pork or venison would be. I will say they are tough to skin. That hide is really thick. There is a ball joint at the "hip" so both hind legs and tail come off a one piece, another ball joint at the neck to get it then each front leg is free floating (No bone or joint to cut or disconnect). When butchered you have 4 pieces of meat - hindquarters, neck & 2 front legs.

   When making stew or soup as I remember the meat would fall off the bone before the carrots and potatoes were done. The pieces in the head make good steaks for frying if you save them. With softshells we just flowered and fried them.

    My wife used to debone, grind up the turtle and add cheap hamburger for fat and make burgers out of them.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

Ox

Taste like chicken?  Or a little fishy/muddy like crawdad meat?  Or do you season the heck out of it so you can't taste the meat's flavor?
K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple Stupid
Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without
1989 GMC 3500 4x4 diesel dump and plow truck, 1964 Oliver 1600 Industrial with Parsons loader and backhoe, 1986 Zetor 5211, Cat's Claw sharpener, single tooth setter, homemade Linn Lumber 1900 style mill, old tools

WV Sawmiller

   I don't remember us seasoning it any different than any other kind of meat or any other specific taste. Just a different kind of meat. Not what I'd call fishy or muddy. Haven't eaten enough crawfish to say it tasted like them or not. I would say the fried softshell turtle tasted very much like chicken but not the alligator snapping turtles.

   Sorry I can't describe it better. Sort of like the guy asking what a hawk tasted like and your tell him "About like owl." If he's never eaten either he doesn't have a baseline to measure against.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

Peter Drouin

I swear You guys in the south will eat anything.  :D :D :D :D :D :D
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45' of Wood Mizer, cutting since 1987.
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Ron Scott

Yes, to it being a baby snapper. A large one will make short work of a school of fish. 
~Ron

DelawhereJoe

Perhaps you found it so young/just from the egg it hasn't had a chance to get grumpy yet. You may have to give it some time before it tries to bite off your fingers, like a normal snapping turtle....or its the 1 in a 1,000,000,000 nice snapping turtle.
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samandothers

My daughter worked as an intern at the Kentucky reptile zoo. I have a picture somewhere of her holding an alligator snapping turtle and another employee holding a snapping turtle.  The girl holding the snapping turtle had to be more careful as their necks could bend around more to bite.

My dad would catch them out of our pond and give them away.  They were mean looking and grumpy.

ToddsPoint

We used to catch snappers on a trot line at night.  We'd put them in a horse watering tank for a couple of weeks with clean water before we butchered them.  They taste better after the mud is cleaned out of them.  Gary 
Logosol M7, Stihl 660 and 290, Kubota L3901.

Kbeitz

What surprises me that if this is a snapping turtle is how far away from any
body of water that I found it. 
Collector and builder of many things.
Love machine shop work
and Wood work shop work
And now a saw mill work

Chuck White

Anybody have an idea how long a Snapping Turtle will live in the wild if it is not killed, hurt, or otherwise disturbed?

Seems to me they should be over 100 years old!

Note; around here, no one eats them that I know of, and most who have fish ponds, SSS!
~Chuck~  Cooks Cat Claw sharpener and single tooth setter.  2018 Chevy Silverado and 2021 Subaru Ascent.
With basic mechanical skills and the ability to read you can maintain a Woodmizer  LT40!

grouch

Doesn't look prehistoric enough for a baby snapping turtle, to me.
Find something to do that interests you.

WV Sawmiller

   They are amazing animals even though they are often a pain. They will catch young  ducks and other waterbirds I have been told at times. They "fish" by laying in the water with their mouth open and have a little device on their tongue that wiggles and looks like a worm or grub as a lure. The fish sees it and swims right in, turtle snaps and sushi for dinner. I have caught big alligator snappers who were filled with big river mussels they had eaten. apparently just crush up shells and all. They can travel long distances overland so they inhabit even remote ponds and such.

   You have to be careful with any of them but I am told the common smaller (Smooth shelled version) is actually more aggressive than the alligator (Larger, 3 ridges on top of shell) version. From the ones I have handled that seems the case. I hooked 2-3 this year on catfish lines (Bushhooks/limblines) using live bream for bait. I don't think I ever got a hoof free from one and ended up just cutting the hook off and releasing them.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

sandhills

I came across (I'm guessing here) about a 25ish pounder a few years ago walking up a dirt road, at least a mile away from any water source, like Toddspoint stated I threw it in a stock tank to clean it out.  I ran out of time so it was let go to live another year, we were in the middle of harvest then but really did want to try turtle.  Oh, and yes they can jump, a lot further and faster than you'd think  :D.

WV Sawmiller

   ... said the man with 4 fingers and a nub. :D
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

sandhills

 :D :D :D Nope still got em all  ;D

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