I typically dont kill them either, but when they get close or "IN" the chicken coop they gotta go. Biggest one I have killed was a little over 6' and I got him as he came out of the coop full of eggs. He even regurgitated some of them when I went after him with the shovel.

I don't know how long they are, but we gotta a couple that live in the camphouse that the skins are 5 or 6 ft long they keep leaving in the kitchen. One night one of them is gonna slip in the sleeping bag with Skintback to warm up, and he's gonna level the place and then burn the remnants.

Why?

I got a picture of a three footer I killed about 3 weeks ago. A six foot copperhead, that seems far fetched? I kill about one a year and my neighbor killed 3 last year. Most are two foot long and they all are aggressive SOBs.

This one definitely measured right at 7. No pic because I didn't gave my phone. I was on the back deck and my wife went to close up the chicken coop for the night. She yelled snake! And came running. It was out by the shop so I grabbed the measuring tape because it was the biggest I had ever seen.
Killed one about 6 feel out there 2 years ago. Didn't actually measure that one but pretty confident in the size.

this is a copperhead i killed sept 21. 2017 crossing my driveway headed for my front door it measured 40" without the head but i figured it may be just a bit more when it wasnt still moving

I believe you. It’s just not nearly as common as some people think it is, when they actually put a tape to one.

Lol 6ft copperhead . Like I always say “ never let the truth get in the way of a good story “

I'm all about dead snakes, but I leave at snakes a s black racers alone.

Oh yeah. The tape doesn't lie. But when you're shocked by the snake, your eyes will trick you. And then the story grows.

I usually don't bother to measure. This one was just so obviously long that I had to check it.

I killed one at our chicken coup when we lived up near Locust Fork that was over 6’ for sure. My dad, brother and I were cleaning up some limbs on a couple of trees that my dad had cut down. My sister was probably 7 or 8 at the time and she went to get the eggs. The snake was coming out as she was going into the coup and it crawled across the tops of her feet. She came running to us with her face pale white and her lips purple. She nearly went into shock. Joker was as big around as my forearm at the time. He had been eating good.

My mom and I were shooting a bow tournament down around Alexander City one morning. We were on an alligator target. It was at 38 yards down a pretty steep hill and I was at full draw shooting a back tension release. For those of you that don’t know, a back tension release doesn’t have a trigger. You have to pull through for it to go off and it’s a surprise when it does. The particular model I was using had a clicker on it that clicked right before it goes off. I’m aiming like hell and the clicker had just clicked and my mom was standing just to my right watching the target through her binoculars. All the sudden she screams at the top of her lungs and I snatch the release sending my arrow sailing 3’ over the targets back. I turn to her and ask “Ok. Wear is it?” because I knew she had just seen a snake. There was a huge rat snake laying in front of the target. A McKenzie alligator target is 9’ long and this joker went from the neck of the gator all the way to its tail. So he was ever bit of 7’. It was as big around as the end of a baseball bat too. I placed 3rd in that tournament. If I had just stuck my arrow in that gator anywhere and gotten a 5, I would’ve won it. 😆 She felt bad about it, but me and the other guys laughed about that for years afterwards.

I had two that were mating fall from a tree less than 50’ from me while I was wading the Lux creek. The way I felt when I heard the splash and saw two big snakes swimming around I would have though they were 7’ too! They fell from the top of some grown oak trees prob 30-40’. Splash!