An interesting discussion, this. We have Northern Pacific rattlers in this area, a 5 foot one being really large. There's a picture I took of one at some winter dens on the following page:
http://www.angelfire.com/bc/canuck2/wildlife.html
The topic of snakes comes up every once in awhile on various hunting sites and I'm always amazed at the high percentage of people who really fear them or just plain don't like them. The reason for my surprise is that hunters are far and away more enlightened about wildlife than the general public but still seem to short circuit when snakes or spiders are involved. They do worlds of good and are very shy and retiring; not going to chase you down and gobble you up like a cougar or griz occasionally does.
I forget who it was several pages back, but someone said he killeda rattlermowing his lawn. Heck, if I had one mowing my lawn, I'd sit back with a beer andlet himfinish, maybe giving him advice once in awhile where he needed to trim better.
BTW 121553, Ialmost stepped on a rattler while antelope hunting in MT one year. I washiking through the sage brush and just happened to look down half a step before making contact; jumped about a mile. It was a young one withonly a button; shaking his tail as hard as he could but not making a sound. I'm sure he was happy as a clam when I went on my merry way, although I think there's lots of guys on here who would have made a pancake out of him. Would be a shame.