When I kept rattlesnakes for many years I found it fairly easy to tell from tail shape only. Once I was touring a zoo where they pointed out their breeding project of 3 rattlesnakes: I didn't want to say anything to embarrass them but they all appeared to be males to me; sure enough, the next year their newsletter mentioned they eventually reached that conclusion on their own. But it does take practice to do this visually, back then I lived with quite a few.
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