I'm headed out this morning to help my buddy work on his fence out in Copperhead territory. Having recently picked up a new/old .357, I figured I'd carry it while working.

At $25 per 10, not exactly the cheapest ammo I buy, but I figure these are for a very special purpose, so worth the money, right?

Eh, not so much. Wanting to see what the pattern was like....I shot a large grapefruit, with a cardboard backer. Judging from the spread, the shot was dead center of the fruit.
With a 4" barrel, fired at less than 4', I expected all pellets to be somewhere on that 6" fruit. What I got was 2 grazes to the skin, and 2 pellets in the fruit. The remaining pellets patterned outside, going out to about a 10' circle.

I figure at a safe 6' distance from a venomous snake, it could take the full cylinder just to hit it once or twice. Nah....think I'll just stick with my shovel.

A 10’ circle or a 10” circle? Ten feet is an awful lot at a range of four feet.

Ten inches seems reasonable to me, and there should enough pellets to be deadly to a snake.

If you have a .22 revolver, then .22 shotshells are also a viable option.