I've looked at this again and it seems like he was actually clearing the plot of potentially deadly snakes. Looks like the boots he is wearing are snake proof boots, not cowboy boots and he had the .44 on him exactly for the job of dispatching snakes in the area.
In late July, Conrad Greene, of Savannah, was working food plots with a couple buddies on their Screven County hunt club near Cooperville. They were checking some fruit trees when Travis Timms, of Savannah, almost stepped on this enormous eastern diamondback rattlesnake.
In the picture shown it's not actually our good ol boy Conrad that shot the snake though; 'Nick Kearns, of Savannah, displays the 6-foot, 6-inch Screven County rattlesnake.'
I know you're a specialist on this subject so if you reckon they're snake boots I'll believe you, but the ones I've seen go higher than that. I just figured he was out doing a bit of work on the land and happened across it. Unfortunately a lot of people have the attitude to shoot at anything they don't understand in some places...if it didn't rattle and was trying to get away from me I'd feel very lucky indeed to have witnessed such a majestic beast at a close range safely!
To be honest I didn't even read the title properly but I read the post. I'd have to agree with British Red there's nothing wrong with carrying a piece in the wilderness where it's allowed. It's common place and the gun can't be blamed, just the tit at the wrong end of it. Even if I had a gun and was bitten by a rattlesnake I doubt very much I'd shoot it, I'd be off to try and get antivenon as soon as possible. It's just one of the risks you take in the outdoors. I can remember pick up trucks with gun racks in the back window when I was a kid in Canada, in the days when nobody locked their house or cars. Imagine what would happen now if somebody tried that!