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We cut some lines in some 3 yr. old clear cuts a couple of weeks ago in Ga. Swung a machete for about 7 hours marking the lines for the heavy equipment, discer, etc. The closer we got to the creek, the nastier it got.

I wore my snake boots, but was on the lookout . I got to thinking that we have not seen a venomous snake in years, and not many snakes of any kind.

Anyone notice a decline in snake numbers? Now, I would not care if I never walked up on a cottonmouth again in my life, but its kind of neat to see a big rattler now and then.

Ric

No decline here, we might could ship ya some rattlers if you really want them.
The landowner of the place we just leased told me to stay on our toes during warm weather, three guys spent two days catching rattlers out of the draws this last spring. They caught nearly 800 pounds of them so looks like we have plenty to go around.

Drop

There are so many #%#$^ @!#$%^% @#$^@&%%@ @#@%^ rattlesnakes where I hunt that I'd be more than happy to box up a few dozen of those #%$#^%^%'s and send them to you.

Can you tell I like them?

I had three REALLY close run-ins with them just last year in the 6 week season. One I actually stepped on, it was by the grace of God that it was in thick brush and he couldn't get his head to me before I got the heck out of there.

The second, I was side-hilling on a really steep face. It was steep enough that I could reach out horizontaly and touch the ground. Anyhow, I was reaching over to help balance myself and almost put my hand on a rattler. He wwas a little guy this time, but big enough to scare the heck out of me.

The third incident happened when I was walking down to a spot I usually glass from. The darn thing slithered right in front of me, and off into the brush. I found another spot that day.

Another encounter was not quite so close. I was heading back to camp in the Jeep with another guy when a really big rattler scurried out off the road in front of us and dropped into crack in the earth. We hopped out to try and kill it, but couldn't see it. After a few minutes, my buddy must have noticed that something was wrong by the look on my face. Asked "It mut be gone, it's not rattling, is it?" I couldn't believe that he couldn't hear the rattling, it sounded like we had our heads inside a beehive.

I guess it's a feast or famine thing. I have no great love for the critters.

I grew up hunting in a place called Devil's Garden, on the edge of the Everglades. Flat, open country scattered with harwood/palm/palmetto "hammocks". Lots of snakes-when I was a boy of about 8, I killed a rattler that measured 6'10" long with no head.

Ric

Plenty of them arround my parts. I always carry my .38 diamondback with two - three rounds snake shot and the rest HPs with me in the woods. Killed a cotton mouth last august as we were crossing a creek. I would have never seen it if it hadn't been for the guy I was with that stopped me.

Can't say as I really dislike rattlers; they kinda fit my personality (see avatar). Cottonmouths and copperheads, on the other hand...there are two snake loads in the S&W 642 just for them.

You boys worry too much about little things. We only have copperheads, corals, moccassins and rattlers in this county. Have found every single one in my backyard. No one has to remind you to watch where you're walking... The rattler buyer makes his route once a month (must be alive). The moccassins are in every watershed bigger than a leaky faucet, often in "wads" or "balls" of dozens. I guess that trick makes it easier for all the gators South and East of here to find them.

we've had an abnormal year this year........plenty of rattlers......must be the weird weather and plenty of water.......don't really worry bout snakes.......actually I can't stand ground squirrels....any enemy of a ground squirrel is alright in my book.........unless a snake is in an area where there is a chance someone might get bit I leave them alone.....and will relocate any I find.....but have on occasion taken a nice rattler for a hat band and BBQ.

I remember Skeeter Skelton talking about "cleaning up his little piece of heaven" through the process of introducing snakes to pistol shooting. Sounds like the three of us would get along fine on this.

Last week I decided to trim the hedges in front of the house. Just as I finished the last hedge the dogs started barking. I looked over and saw a 3' long black snake crawling next to me. I saw a total of three black snakes in the front yard during the day. My neighbor over the hill introduced a timber rattler to a dose of lead the week before. I just hope my wife doesn't see anymore copperheads in the garage or we might be moving back to town.

Copperheads are the only snakes that I truly hate, I guess that could be because one of them struck me once when I was a teenager. Luckily it hit my boot and didn't get a fang in me but it still about scared me to death. I've killed every copperhead I've seen since that day.
When I'm at the lease during warm weather I always wear my Rocky Snake Boots.
Better safe than sorry!!!
Drop

Hey fellas. I live/hunt in the Adirondack Mts. of New York State. There is a small population of rattlesnakes here, but in all my years I have yet to see one. Let me ask those of you from parts elsewhere. If an average sized man is struck by a rattler/cottonmouth/coral snake of average size, how much real danger is he in? How long before things become life threatening, etc...???

Rattlers, copperheads and coral snakes are WAY different re: toxicity and danger.

Average man, average health hit by a copperhead needs treatment, but is in no serious, immediate danger. Pain, yes; sickness, yes, but no real immediate danger.

A rattler bite equals get to the hospital NOW! Pain - oh yeah; very sick, and very potentially life threatening. Bad, very bad. Read same, same for cottonmouths, but they are far more aggressive (nasty critters).

Corals don't have fangs like the other three, they kinda chew in the venom. But, once in, you're in a BIG WORLD of trouble; WAY toxic, very deadly - get help ASAP if not sooner.

BTW - I used to work in upstate NY, the 'dacks and VT around your rattlers. They are, on the whole, far less trouble as the short summer season and mild temperatures keep them at bay pretty well. I stepped over 2 and on 1 (different times - thankfully); no bites. Try that down here in VA and it's a very good way to wind up dead and fast. The further south and west you go, the worse/meaner they get.

I might be mistaken, but does'nt a coral snake's venom attack the nervous system?

Rattlers and cottonmouths' venom breaks down tissue/muscle very quickly. A fireman/paramedic told me about a man bitten by a cottonmouth in the thigh. As they attended him, he said the smell from the flesh around the bite smelled "rotten".

I believe the shock of being bitten has a lot to do with the outcome.

Ric

A buddy got bit on the foot by a rattler last year up near Clear Lake, CA. The closest hospital didn't have any anti-venom, so he got life-flighted to UCD Med Center in Sacramento and darn near died. Those things are nasty.

It was months before my buddy was back to normal.

Fried rattlesnake is pretty good eating, but like you there is something about mocassins that I don't want anything to do with them. Well maybe they are good as used in metaphors for describing ex- wives or something similar. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I've got 10lbs of #12 shot heading to my house. I'm curious just how many of those little fellas will fit in a 45 Colt case before I'm done. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

In high school the area I hunted had enough snakes my mother bought some "snake chaps" from Gander Mountain and insisted I wear them if I was going to keep hunting. The chaps were about knee high and had several layers of wire mesh inside. First day wearing them I was complaining about them all morning till about 11am.

At 11:01 I stepped on a decent size rattler (very heavy brush and never heard a rattle) and took a bite in the back of the calf. From that point on it was quite entertaining. Between the wire mesh and me dancing on the snake it was stuck in the chap and could not get off. I was trying to knock it off with the muzzle of my rifle while my buddy kept trying to get an angle for a shot with a .22 pistol full of snake shot. I never heard him shoot but he told me to hold still because he only had one shot left. He had peppered me five times with the snake shot and Im pretty sure the snake was the only thing he did not hit. Im not sure how, but the snake eventually got loose and decided to go sun himself somewhere else. When it was all said and done there were two small wet spots at the bite mark and a fang stuck in the chap. The .22 shot had patterns about 4-8" wide but had not even penetrated the heavy canvas covering the wire. I also had a shot load strike me on the top of the boot over the toes. It left little grey streaks on the boot leather but nothing penetrated. Glad he wasnt using the .38 shot or I would still be setting off metal detectors.

Another joy was harvesting beans. The cut and dried beans are picked up by a thrasher and dumped down a chute for processing. Everyone moves quite a bit faster when an irritated rattler comes flying down the chute.

A lack of rattlers and poison oak have lead me to hunting above 6000 feet.

Never found a snake to be too dead for me. I carry the new 45 colt loads in my vaquero or 38 if I'm hunting light, but with opportunity 12 gauge IS NOT OVERKILL for me. Too many close calls and a natural fear of them buggers. Kill em all, dont bother letting god sort em out, thats why he dumped em all down here.

I grew up in northern California, just south of the wine country. There were lots of Pacific rattlers in the hills if you knew where to look. My 6th Grade teacher, Mrs. Nelson, was a grand old lady. Knowing that she had a bunch of active, outdoorsy (and goofy) boys in her class, she brought in a large, empty terrarium one day and encouraged us to collect critters of various kinds to put in there temporarily for observation. During the course of the year, we had a perpetual heyday collecting all sorts of weird and wonderful animals: alligator lizards, black widow spiders, scorpions (I don't remember how we got one of those, because I don't think that they're found that far north), garter snakes, gopher snakes, and of course the prize catch - rattlers.

God Bless her, Mrs. Nelson never even batted an eye when we'd come in with the latest catch. My buddy Joe and I would roam the hills after school, turning over rocks, looking for snakes. When we found one, I would pin its head with a stick that had a "Y" at the end, and Joe would pick it up (I'd not be surprised to find that Joe and I were the impetus behind the terms, "young and foolish"). Then we'd head back to the school, where Mrs. Nelson would be in her room, marking our latest attempts to become civilized.

Through that one terrarium we learned a lot: we saw a battle between a scorpion and a black widow, watched a garter snake swallow a good-sized frog (took him 45 minutes), and saw a rattler attack and eat a house mouse.

I'm sure that Mrs. Nelson has gone on to her reward by now. If she's in charge of a Gr. 6 class in heaven, I hope that the boys treat her with the love and respect that she deserves.