Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire ALMOST Had A Bad Day

Ive not seen a venomous snake in the wild.
Turkey hunt where copperhead, rattler and cottonmouths are.

Buddy had a copperhead pop out when we went turkey hunting.

Fencepost lizards were cool

Keith,

So as not to misunderstand, I brought up the Gadsden/Culpeper slogan because someone mentioned rattlers. I can't blame you for removing the copperhead from your living area.

That said, she was a bute. Most copperheads aren't so colorful and distinctive. One of the best looking North American snakes. Shame its not going to be tanned for a special holster or hat band.

Tarantulas??? Come on.
What state are you in?

See a couple of copperheads or more every year here on this place.

Used to catch one in a minnow trap almost every time I threw one in the branch. Copperhead, not a banded water snake.

We have a couple a 5 ft king snakes that I see laying on our creosote bridge decking, from time to time, especially in the fall. I have no idea how long they live but they have been around about 4 yrs, they hunt copperheads so the family here knows not to run them over

Oh, I see now that the CH pic was Rockinbar's

I hate the fuggers with a passion. I’m a northerner since transplanted to NM. Never had to deal with any till I moved down here a couple years ago. Snakes don’t bother me in the least BTW. Even the venomous ones.

Hey, we hear on tha Far r mo better then nakes.

Being from Texas, and an outdoorsman, and dog man, I've dealt with a few snake bit dogs and have had some scarey close calls.

Just last night for some reason I remembered one. First time too, I thanked HIM for letting me make it home 2 miles away all those 48 years ago.

The ones a mile from a road or 30 miles from town are a lot more dangerous than ones around town, actually.

I do my best to keep people from having bad days.

Worst news than can befall a preteen girls’ slumber party.


Little brother.....”I have an announcement to make, my pet tarantula is missing....”

Lol...

What color are they?

Up in WV we even have a tarantula. Its a rare trap door variety that can tolerate our climate. Never saw one.
Have handled some Mexican ones.
They are scary for the size, but the venom is not likely very dangerous.
Black widows like there if I'm not mistaken. We have a bunch in our area. I've walked through their webs and nearly put my hand on them a few times. Door knobs, basketball...

I’ve told this story before. Back in the 80’s I was stationed at Ft. Hunter Liggett, in southern Monterey County. About 25 miles from King City, CA. I was doing a stint as the battalion commander’s driver. He didn’t get out of the office too often so most of the time I hung around with the Command Sergeant Major’s driver and would shoot the Schit with them in his office.

The CSM had a husky named Dusty that was sort of the battalion’s unofficial mascot. I had a lot of down time and to kill the boredom, I used to like to take him out for walks around the battalion HQ’s area. We were literally out in the middle of nowhere out there. A lot of wildlife, including rattlers. This one particular day, I was holding on to his leash as he was going about his business near some bushes. I heard a buzzing sound and as it caught our attention, he dove head first into the brush before I could pull him back.

I heard him yelp loudly, as he jumped back and began rubbing his face into the dirt. I got a hold of him and his face started to swell like a balloon. I looked toward the bush and heard and saw a small Pissed off rattler all coiled up and ready to strike again right where Dusty had stuck his head.

I killed the snake and brought Dusty back inside. By that time his head had swollen up like a cantaloupe. I was Schitting bricks when I told the Sergeant Major what had happened, but he barely even looked up from his paperwork and said “Don’t worry ‘bout it. He’ll be fine. It’s happened before.” I couldn’t believe it. I was freakin out but he barely seemed concerned at all. He assured me he’d be fine. Told the dog to lay down in his bed in a corner of the office and that was that. I thought for sure Dusty was a goner, but sure enough, in a couple days he was good as new and you couldn’t even tell he’d been bit.

I think that’s when I really lost a lot of my fear of being snake bit. I honestly was never really too concerned about it to begin with, but I think that experience really cemented the fact in my head that it’s not an automatic death sentence like a lot of people seem to think. Don’t get me wrong, I know they’re dangerous, and they’ll most likely make you sick as hell but it’s pretty rare to die from a snakebite. At least in North America.

Around here they’re brown to black. Have lots of widows and brown recluse as well. They are the real nasty fuggers. Know a lady that got bit by a recluse and she’s still having issues years later.

Funny story. True story.

I caught a harmless black snake one day. Threw together a terrarium for it until I could get something proper.

The next day, I got a knock on the door.
It was a couple of morman ladies.
That's the first time they came over to visit.

I went to get them something to drink and came back into the living room.

Guess who wanted to visit the nice morman ladies??

At their feet looking up at them was my new friend who somehow escaped from three rooms over and made his way to them while I was gone less.than 5 minutes.
Almost on their feet!
😂

I don't know why they never came back to visit?

Sorry to hear about that.

Ive been around two copperhead bites...both proved extremely painful to the victim. One was only a one fang in a finger, the other was a great deal more serious, but both victims lived with very little damage.


Ive hunted venemous snakes for 35+ years and a copperhead was the only one that got me, and he didn't get through the boot. He got me because I stepped on him BTW...

Where you at? What subspecies of copperhead is that? Almost looks Trans Pecos...

Pretty good chance of dying from an untreated rattler bite. Dogs seem to handle them better than humans. Horses and cows also.

Snake bites have caused a lot of permanent disability and I have seen some pretty big divots out of old ranchers which were deemed successful treatments.

I expect the husky had recieved and survived a previous bite it may have luckily survived which resulted in an immune response that helped it survive subsequent ones. Many men who work with snakes are also pretty resistant to severe reactions after having sustained a few bites.

A bite near the eye can easily result in loss of the eye and many bird dogs, significantly smaller than a huskie, have died from face bites or suffocation subsequent to swelling closing airways.

Leg bites from copperheads are much less serious.

Believe it or not, I've handled the orange variety.
They're one of the most common in the pet stores.

If you come across a blonde one, I'll take it off your hands.

Here's an article on the one that you described. Sounds like you're not the only one who thinks that they are creepy.

https://www.nationalparkstraveler.o...-tarantula-looks-big-hairy-and-scary7297



I got to get up early. I better hit the hay.
All this talk of spiders should make for some interesting dreams. LOL!

A lot of folks died on the Oregon trail from snake bites.

https://sites.google.com/site/oregontrailfirstaid/injury/snake-bites

He had been bit a couple times before. CSM said he was a hard headed sum bitch because despite that fact, he wouldn’t learn and kept screwing with them.