A lot of you need some type of bodyguard going in the scary woods by yourself if you are worried about a snake...
This ^^
Originally Posted by Theoldpinecricker
This is why the S&W Govenor is an amazing implement. This thread make me want to purchase one.
All you need for a snake is a stout switch about the same length as his body. Longer is better but not needed as they can only strike about 1/3 - 1/2 their body length. The bone structure in their head and spine (and anywhere else for that matter) is very delicate. One good whack on the noggin with a half inch stick and they're done.
I've heard that strike distance quoted many times - but have witnessed different.
I've always been a curmudgeon - now I'm an old curmudgeon. ~Molɔ̀ːn Labé Skýla~
Good fer nuthin. Move one, or give it a pass & it bites your kid next week.
My son was bitten by a very large one that got into his sandbox as a small child of 4 years old. After a grueling 40 minute ride to the emergency room, it was determined to be a dry bite. Young snakes are actually more dangerous I'm told because they don't give dry, venomless bites.
This is why the S&W Govenor is an amazing implement. This thread make me want to purchase one.
That's what I told my late wife when I bought my S&W Governor. "Hey Babe, it's the ultimate snake gun." She just rolled her eyes and said "Do you need a different gun for every animal on the planet." Yup.
Don't fire unless fired upon. But if they want a war let it begin here.
Captain John Parker, commander of the militiamen at Lexington, Massachusetts, on sighting British Troops (attributed), April 19, 1775
I have always had much respect for poisonous snakes and have been fascinated by them since growing up around them in the Golden, Co foothills. The most venomous snakes I have seen were in the spring time, the Florida swamps at Eglin and the hills of Pendleton. I caught a small rattler at Pendleton and jumped it back into Ft. Lewis in my ammo pouch! It regurgitated the mouse sometime during the adventure, but I kept it as a pet in the barracks .
I love them all. September and October is the best time to look as the young are being born right now. Pit vipers are born live, non-venomous species by egg. In October, I can find 15-20 baby cottonmouths an hour. Rattlesnakes were rarer here, so maybe a few per hour.
I'm neither delusional nor in a state of denial. I'm just not afraid of snakes. I've grown up walking and fishing where cottonmouths were thick. Never had a problem. I've squatted over and nearly stepped on cottonmouths I didn't see till I was 6 inches from them. Never a strike. The only time I've seen them strike is when they're getting fugged with. And I've seen the consequences of removing cottonmouths where they were close to people. A local business park here eradicated them from a ditch system cuz people were ascared of them. Not a single bite to anyone. Once they were gone the muskrat population exploded. You couldn't walk in the gardens near the water without falling thru up to your knee in a God damn muskrat tunnel. In the 55 years I've lived near cottonmouths, only two people here have been bitten. A drunk retard that picked one up, and the curator of reptiles at a nature park that was inserting chips in them so he could determine where they were hibernating, as part of his environmental thesis.
Same with Timber/Canebrake Rattlesnakes. I regularly walk thru pocosin forests and grassy areas in low shoes and socks knowing rattlesnakes are around. I gave up snake boots years ago. If you don't screw with them, they aren't a problem. The one I moved yesterday didn't strike or act aggressively in any way.
I've been bitten hundreds of times by nonvenous snakes. 100% of the time because I picked then up. I had a nearly blind (due to shedding) Black Rat snake bite me on the face and inside my lip when I posed it for a picture. Had to use a credit card once to get a King Snake off my finger. I still pick them up when I come across them. Snakes just aren't scary to me.
I'm neither delusional nor in a state of denial. I'm just not afraid of snakes. I've grown up walking and fishing where cottonmouths were thick. Never had a problem. I've squatted over and nearly stepped on cottonmouths I didn't see till I was 6 inches from them. Never a strike. The only time I've seen them strike is when they're getting fugged with. And I've seen the consequences of removing cottonmouths where they were close to people. A local business park here eradicated them from a ditch system cuz people were ascared of them. Not a single bite to anyone. Once they were gone the muskrat population exploded. You couldn't walk in the gardens near the water without falling thru up to your knee in a God damn muskrat tunnel. In the 55 years I've lived near cottonmouths, only two people here have been bitten. A drunk retard that picked one up, and the curator of reptiles at a nature park that was inserting chips in them so he could determine where they were hibernating, as part of his environmental thesis.
Same with Timber/Canebrake Rattlesnakes. I regularly walk thru pocosin forests and grassy areas in low shoes and socks knowing rattlesnakes are around. I gave up snake boots years ago. If you don't screw with them, they aren't a problem. The one I moved yesterday didn't strike or act aggressively in any way.
I've been bitten hundreds of times by nonvenous snakes. 100% of the time because I picked then up. I had a nearly blind (due to shedding) Black Rat snake bite me on the face and inside my lip when I posed it for a picture. Had to use a credit card once to get a King Snake off my finger. I still pick them up when I come across them. Snakes just aren't scary to me.
I'm neither delusional nor in a state of denial. I'm just not afraid of snakes. I've grown up walking and fishing where cottonmouths were thick. Never had a problem. I've squatted over and nearly stepped on cottonmouths I didn't see till I was 6 inches from them. Never a strike. The only time I've seen them strike is when they're getting fugged with. And I've seen the consequences of removing cottonmouths where they were close to people. A local business park here eradicated them from a ditch system cuz people were ascared of them. Not a single bite to anyone. Once they were gone the muskrat population exploded. You couldn't walk in the gardens near the water without falling thru up to your knee in a God damn muskrat tunnel. In the 55 years I've lived near cottonmouths, only two people here have been bitten. A drunk retard that picked one up, and the curator of reptiles at a nature park that was inserting chips in them so he could determine where they were hibernating, as part of his environmental thesis.
Same with Timber/Canebrake Rattlesnakes. I regularly walk thru pocosin forests and grassy areas in low shoes and socks knowing rattlesnakes are around. I gave up snake boots years ago. If you don't screw with them, they aren't a problem. The one I moved yesterday didn't strike or act aggressively in any way.
I've been bitten hundreds of times by nonvenous snakes. 100% of the time because I picked then up. I had a nearly blind (due to shedding) Black Rat snake bite me on the face and inside my lip when I posed it for a picture. Had to use a credit card once to get a King Snake off my finger. I still pick them up when I come across them. Snakes just aren't scary to me.
That's pretty much where I am with them. I don't like them near dogs, kids or wives. Otherwise I let them do their thing.
Only relocating I do with cottonmouths is to their final resting place.
As does any sane person, same for rattlers & copperheads too.
Vipers & humans do not co-habitat well together; anybody that thinks otherwise is delusional & in a state of serious denial.
MM
Absolutely!!!
They don’t get a pass ever on the Ranch. Kill every stinking one of them I encounter.
"Allways speak the truth and you will never have to remember what you said before..." Sam Houston Texans, "We say Grace, We Say Mam, If You Don't Like it, We Don't Give a Damn!"
ROCKINBBAR - " How about rattlebugs in all the trees around you?... LOL. ..."
Around here in s.w. and central Idaho, rattlesnakes will climb up into sagebrush bushes. Walk around in the sagebrush without watching carefully and you'll find your lower thigh being targeted by a rattler.
L.W.
"Always go straight forward, and if you meet the devil, cut him in two and go between the pieces." (William Sturgis, clipper ship captain, 1830s.)