Western diamondback pics.

[jason_ladouceur]

As Crotalids pointed out already the op was trying to look "macho!" That's the only reason, you don't need to repeat this over and over. I've never handled hots, obviously you have a lot of experience with it. Maybe you can share your hot handling experience with the op instead of simply jumping on the anti pinning bandwagon which was never the intent of this thread in the first place.

I think that posts 16,19 and 24 clearly show what the response to offering unsolicited advice as to the proper way to do things would be. As far as band wagon jumping goes. This is not an opinion I just acquired today, and I would say 15 years of keeping hots and still haveing all 10 fingers is a testimate to doing things the safest way possible.