I would like to know the story behind the snake skin that hangs in the showroom. Was it a gift or was the snake harvested in Florida or somewhere else?
I remember this skin hanging in the show room all the way back in the early 70's. I would just like to know the back story.
RKS-Morris

I believe I read somewhere that Bo stepped out the shop door one day and there it was. I imagine he had a knife handy...

May have come from Ross Allen, a famous snake man in Florida that used Randall's.

Pap

Wow, that is one heck of a snakeskin. You could make several pairs of boots from that one and still have enough to make a wallet.

You can bet Greg Gutcher at Sullivan's Holster Shop could do some great work with this skin. Here is a tighter shot of the mount.
RKS-Morris

Ya know, I remember asking Gary about the snakeskin a long time ago. I honestly don't remember the story but it seems to me that someone called Bo and said he had killed a nice Eastern Diamondback and asked Bo if he wanted the snake. I could be wrong... it happens all the time... but I'll ask Gary next time we talk.

What I do recall is I asked about...as everybody do first time stepping inside the shop...and Tom Hamilton told me that skin was from a snake just found in the parking lot....under someone (Gary?) car!
I really didn't realized if he was just joking or...telling the truth...

OK... here's the skinny on the skin. The Eastern Diamondback skin that has been on display in the showroom since the mid 1980s was killed by Randall shop foreman Jed Peckham while hunting. However, before Jed's snake there was a much larger
Eastern Diamondback skin hanging in the shop. Bo ran across that monster rattler in the orange grove. He got his shotgun and surgically removed the snakes head with one well placed shot. Bo's skin had hung in the showroom for quite some time when Jed brought his snake to the shop. Though smaller, Jed's snake made a much nicer mount. Bo's skin was removed and Jed's replaced it once the mounting board was cut to size.
Neither skin is currently on display. Jed recently took his home and it will not be in the museum.