Lower left third of the pic, midsection of the viper.

Found it.

runs from below the twin leaves in the center out 9 o'clock

Yep Colo Wolf got it right, dam you really have to look, I can see were you could step on one.

even worst is while Turkey hunting and sitting your ass down on one

This is one reason I hate snakes.

Same thing happened with this Mojave Green!



The hair on the back of my neck is up right now!

Heeesh!

Dang, took me a couple of minutes.

Sometimes they accidentally die in my driveway...

They say we don't have any poisonous snakes here. I never saw one... until I went to visit my Dad's side of the family in Oklahoma! My first day there I was fishing with my Uncle Ralph and a cottonmouth slithered between my legs down into the water A couple days later, I was fishing in a little cove on Table Rock Lake in Missouri with my Dad's Sister. A skier went by and flipped my canoe. I dragged it to shore and came up over the edge of a little berm to end up nose to nose with a little copperhead Those were the only two poisonous snakes I've seen. I have a hard time imagining them at every step in the woods down South and out West. Spiders too.

They do look different out in the open! Striking colors.

Man, those are a tough read - especially in the Fall. And, they seem too common there - encountered quite a few when we lived near the Potomac in MontCo, MD.

At least the rattlers out here are easier to see - and often, to hear.

They're very pretty....if a snake can be pretty. I just don't feel comfortable with them around the house. Three young kids and a five year old son that picks up every snake he sees....we can't coexist!

There were times when I was young that I might spend a half hour crossing a patch of fall leaves because I knew there was one in there somewhere.
Don't know how I knew but I almost always right.
Even when I was wrong I think I just failed to find it.

along the same lines, gaboon viper.....in leaves or dappled sunlight they will just disappear, against a plain background, very striking.....

Such great camo! I actually got it pretty quick - I liked that. Would rather not miss one while back in that country. Re that headless rattlesnake that is still trying to coil itself up while suspended from its tail. Isn't that a CREEPY feeling to have a DEAD snake pulsing around and still moving like that in your hand? It does tend to make one jangly. That is why a dead rattler is so dang dangerous if its head is still attached. The body can take a long time to get the message.

Puff Adders the same way Sheridan, I have never seen a snake rely so much on his own camo as a Puff adder...not even a copperhead and Ive been 'danger close' to too many of them...

Find da little water moccasin





Mike

No THOSE things have an attitude!

puff adders are also just plain lazy bastards that refuse to move unless stepped on if they think they are sitting next to a excellent prey trail.....they just hope you will go away and not scare their next meal and they damn sure aint gonna run away and leave their spot....

Reminds me of when my best friend and I were squirrel hunting when we were kids. Back then, the middle school actually had split shifts for the kids, due to the number of students, and Will was in the early shift. School started at 5:30 am for him.

Well, one afternoon we managed to get out and hunt some squirrels. We were sitting about 50 yrds apart and I noticed ol' Willy dozing off. About 15 mins into his afternoon nap under a hickory nut tree, I see him suddenly jump up, wildly kicking his leg around! Suddenly, he starts shooting in the ground right in front of him, as fast as he could load his single barrel 20 ga!!!

I take off running towards him. That's when I see a 2ft copperhead, cut in to 3 or 4 pcs from the loads of #6's
Will's as white as a ghost. He then tells me what happened. He's long into dreaming about large racked 8pt bucks, when he feels something on his upper thigh. He clears his head enough to know he wasn't daydreaming about a little blonde down the road, and his pants leg shouldn't be bulging and squirming around. At the same time, he sees just the tip of a small tail sticking out his pants leg, and wiggling like a worm!! He jumps up, kicks his leg, and out comes 2 feet of copperhead!!! Just like Will, I think the fella was just looking for a afternoon nap!
After that little adventure, it was a couple of weeks before we braved the woods behind our neighborhood again...

I guess the snow isn't so bad after all.

Man that was hard to find. Talking about camo!

Been there (not intentionally) boot on head. Hate that. It was a "little" prairie rattler rather than a coontail, But the biggest prairie rattler I have seen yet.

Damn Roger... You got that sucker trained pretty good.

Holy ship. Thats a big snake.

[quote=stxhunter]

Joking aside, that photograph is a prime example of the reason I just can't make myself comfortable with BIG dot express sights on a pistol. Man in your position has to take a FINE bead on that monster to keep from marking up his ostrich skin ropers.

Can't speak for RI, but in MA we do have Timber Rattlesnakes and copperheads. Super rare, but they're native. I've never seen one, and don't know any friends who have. There are sightings every year or so at the Blue Hills Reservation, however, just outside Boston.

Also the Rhino Viper - amazingly cryptic. Come to think of it, most species of Bitis use camouflage to their advantage. (Bitis peringueyi would be another example.)

I haven't seen a snake, poisonous or not since the dang wild hogs invaded this area.

My wife's uncle lived on Table Rock 'til he died and left it to one of his kids. I've been on Table Rock many times, dating back to when I was a kid. I've seen snakes in the water there, but don't recall seeing one on land. They've got several, including a Copperhead IIRC, at the Fish Hatchery right below the dam though. They are certainly around.

Across the state line from either of the states you mentioned, we've got almost anything you want. Massaguas, Prairie or Timber Rattler, if you prefer. Copperheads, Puff Adders. The Fish and Game say we don't have Cottonmouth's, but I'm pretty sure that's what I saw my Dad kill years back. A friend of mine said his dad had them on a place west of me that is now his. He chopped one open with a hoe down by their 'crick and all these baby snakes fell out. They had a hot little time killin' 'em all, but I think he said they did. They killed a Puff Adder at my Grandpa's a couple of miles north of here, back in the old days. I've never seen one though. Wicki says they're harmless but they look mean.

Hogs are supposed to be hell on snakes, but I saw a snake slither right through my cousin's boar pen years ago. He had like three Boars in there and they just ignored it.

They must have been well fed.

The Copper Head had found him a little buddy up the pant leg and was going to mate

Hog hunting in Georgia was the first time I ever saw one. Hope not to see any more of those copperheads pretty but deadly.

Actually I think STX would just reach down with his Pig Sticker and cut it's head off.....

Yeah, but he is tough, and I ain't. I'm scared.

RI has copperheads, as does CT & MA. Not going to be real common, as the upper range trails off there. Apparaently they dont make it as far north as ME. What with global warming and all, I'd figure MA will be over run with copperheads by the summer. ;-)

Lots of them in NJ, but whats even more remarkable is how many people mis identify the fiesty and very common but harmless northern water snake for a copperhead.

I didn't even have to look for it. It stands out like sore thumb to me...

Pretty neat thread!

That's the best kind of snake!

Had a copperhead in our trap house at the gun club a few months back! Would have liked to had video of the fellow going to turn it on :-)

Mike

I almost stepped on two of those little suckers while doing some midday scouting during bow season about fifteen years ago. It was in a little bottom where rain washed sand off of a dirt road and into a grove of white oaks.

As I was easing through the area with reddish sand scattered with white oak leaves trying to figure out the deer trails, I came to a screeching halt when a copperhead just appeared on one of the bare spots about two feet away. WHOA! Then out of the corner of my eye there's another one about a foot away from the other. DOUBLE WHOA!! They were trying to warm up in the sun and they were almost as hard to see as the one in the OP photo.

I started backing away but then stopped and VERY carefully scanned the route back away from them. Talk about the "willies"

I see the little bastard, grew up around them.

and it looks like the snake continues another foot to the right of where you marked.

Almost stepped on this dude. He never rattled............

neat color phase for a timber rattler...I've ever seen one that color before....

I like that taurus too....

+1

Excellent thread guys - thanks. A good reminder about how difficult it can be to see a nearby Copperhead. My Grandpa encouraged me to be out in the PA woods, but he always was worried about those and kinda lectured me on looking out for them. I had to do the same with our girls when we lived in MD for a while.

And that WD-Coontail is a nice big one - looks like many we would find near irrigation canal banks in AZ desert farmlands - especially during dove season.

That Timber is striking looking - just beautiful. Come to think of it, of the half-dozen or so I saw in the East as a young person, don't think I ever heard one rattle. Are they slow to rattle?

Thanks again for these pics.

depends on the individual, how willing they are to rattle is actually genetically ingrained.....couple hundred years of people killing every rattler they could find has artificially selected for genetics that make rattlers slow to rattle cause those that didnt rattle right away tended to be the ones that lived....

[quote=stxhunter]



Me and my brother just cracked up at this. Roger, you hot shyt you. lol!

See it. Great camouflage.

i remember back when i was 8, i caught a 3ft water moccasin, had my mom and aunt chasing me around the yard yelling at me to drop it so they could chop it up with a hoe. they never caught me or the snake.

I think a copperhead is about the most likely poisonous snake to get bit by in North America. Their camo, where they live and the fact they will not give you warning.

This one came cruising down the walk by the front door last summer:

Find the Cottonmouth....

Killed this little 5 footer last month hunting. He's alive still in this picture, though very pissed off with a severe back ache. He suffered an unfortunate skull fracture after I took the picture.

Damn a snake. (Regardless of the color).

Copperheads are pretty timid, to be honest. The PROBLEM is they'll lay still, hoping you'll pass by without noticing them, and that's when someone ends up stepping on one. Copperheads are VERY common around here, and most of the time I don't even bother killing them when I find them in the woods.
Now a cottonmouth is a whole nudder story!! That's one snake I do my best to avoid!! Every one I've ever encountered was VERY aggressive. I've been chased by more than one cottonmouth when fishing around the Edisto river when I was younger.

Yeah, the copperheads just lay there 'til you step on them. Stinkin' cottonmouths seem to live in a constant state of pissed'offed'ness .....they're tough too.... They are the reason I carry shot shells in the first 2 rounds...sometimes the second is needed...and needed quickly...

For a previous poster, I hope I never see a 5 footer. I've got lots of 3.5-4 foot that are super thick, but a 5 footer would be a big one around here...but I don't let them grow any longer than they are when I meet them.

Back in the middle sixties I had this cute little secretary that worked for me at the Florida National Group of Banks in Jacksonville, Florida. She grew up on a place in the country in Southern Georgia and her dad would capture live snakes and turn them loose on their back porch until he had captured enough of them to sell to medical laboratories for their venom and medical research. She said it was nothing to have at least half dozen to a dozen of those critters crawling around back there at any one time.

They do try to count on the camo, so it takes a fair beating to fire them up.

Cottonmouths are born mad at the world and only get worse as they age.

I firmly believe that they would crawl five miles out of their way if they thought they would get to bite something.

You sure got that right! I stepped on a rattlesnake and it didn't bite me. Stepped right over a Copperhead, no bite. Dang cottonmouth swam up to my boat, came right up over the side, and tried it's best to bite me! Nasty critters!
I'd still rather walk up on a snake than a hornets nest, or step on a yellow jacket hive.

the only good cottonmouth is a dead one

Thanks to 24HCF, I dreamed about snakes all night long. I hate snakes...

I like snakes and dont wanna kill them, but the Cottonmouth is different...wouldnt go out of my way to kill one but when I was around them they did seem to live in a state of pissed offedness as someone said.
Had a big one try mightily hard to kill me one day and he came close....I still have his hide hanging in the house....