Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Black Mamba Question.

depending on how many gates we have to mess with ive got no issue riding b!tch.....only problem is my long damn legs make it so im usually driving or opening the gates

Same here!

Ingwe

The question that springs to my mind is: WHY THE HE!! AM I READING THIS POST??!!!. Poisonious snakes make my skin crawl - I even get freaked out by our mini dachshund sometimes.

We had an old boy who lived on the edge of a small town just down the road. He was an "expert" herpetologist and an arachnoid affectionado. He lived in a trailer and kept hundreds of different venomous snakes and just about every kind of spider imaginable. He got bit by both on a regular basis - whereupon - he promptly called 911 and the EMT's had to rescue the kook. After the first few times they wouldn't pick him up at his home anymore. They made him walk up to the C-store on the highway and picked him up there. A friend of mine in the pharmacist at the local hospital. According to him, our little, local hospital had one of the largest and broadest pharmacopeias of antivenom in the country because of this guy.

The guy disappeared for a few days and one of his drinking buddies got brave enough to go look in the trailer. Sure enough the deadly pet lover was dead on the floor. Seems some venoms have a cumulative effect. They think that one of his cobras was the culprit.

The volunteer fire department used the trailer for a "training exercise" a short time later and burned it to the ground.

I am out of here!!

Black mambas have been recorded to well over 4 metres (I've often seen 4 metre ones) and they can raise the front two thirds or so of their body off the ground.

I'm told the green grows to about 3 1/2 metres or maybe a tad more.... but I've never seen one over about 2 1/2 metres.

and they can move like greased lightning.

unfortunatly its morons like that why im not allowed to legally keep venomous snakes anymore.....the majority of keepers are smart and rarely if ever get bit.....few [bleep] morons screw it up for every one else.....course im also the guy that thinks its idiotic when someone around here catches a bullsnake and lets it wrap around their neck.....morons have no clue just how strong that snake is.....had a 6 footer tie me up like a pair of handcuffs once and i had to wait him out to do anything....he may not have been venomous but the SOB was stronger than me....wrapped around a guys neck and startled any of them over 4 foot could cause you to loose consciousness and in theory kill yah......i do not let any constrictor over four foot get anywhere near to around my neck......no big deal though for them to squeeze the hell out of your arms

ive never seen an official record of one over 14 foot, but dont doubt its possible.....however one problem is unless yah got a snake in your hands to measure....its awful hard to judge length of a live snake on the ground, im very familiar with snakes and have a hell of a time at it.....

4.3 metres = 14 foot...... so then I checked wiki.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_mamba

sorry, backs hurting today and im on pain meds......quick math in my head gave me the wrong answer.....glad i got my writing done yesterday or the proofreader would be thinking im drinking on the job.....not that i care, she dont like me anyways....damn mother in law

Consider that the shock of a cattle prod might cause your muscles to spasm and push blood and venom farther into your vascular system...

The shock might also bring about a rise in your pulse rate and blood pressure as well....

ever been bit by a snake? even a nonvenomous one?........snakes dont bug me and ive been bitten dozens of times.....still, every time i get hit my pulse and im sure my BP sky rocket.....course bout every time i get hit now i get flash backs to the 15 minute battle to try and remove a 6 foot carpet python from my arm without hurting it to bad....however i musta lost a half pint of blood.....long teeth on those bastards

in all reality, im not worried to much bout the side effects you refer to, to much, venom travels as fast as its gonna travel unless you put a hell of a tourniquet on in which case your going to loose anything below that tourniquet anyways....your heart is gonna be racing after a bite regardless....a real experianced person could prolly calm themselves down....i prolly could after some work but at that point its not going to matter much anyway....

I once spent 7 days on the ground in what was then Zaire... We moved only at night, and as quietly as possible then... we saw no snakes and very little wildlife of any kind...

We were briefed by some brits, at an airbase in scotland, one of whom had lost most of a leg due to a bite from a gaboon viper...

One evening while enjoying a sundowner by the campfire after a long day hunting cats in Kansoso Busanga GMA Zambia my PH and I heard a huge clatter followed by several loud african screams coming from the camp kitchen. We ran with our rifles and flashlights. I was thinking hyena or other raider at this point but in africa who knows? Screams, shouts, and ruckus continued and then suddenly 10 staff emerged from the dark holding a large recently expired snake smiling broadly. It was a boa. The PH was very mad at them for killing a good snake. They went from elated to deflated in one second. A funny and memorable night.

I truely wish I had been there to watch Cyril doing his Usain Bolt impression when they stumbled onto those mambas!

Given the genral lack of sun here in the UK, us Brit are not known for our tans, but Chris and Cyril being Canadians turned up in RSA even whiter if thats possible. Now to see Cyral back at the Lodge an even paler shade of white from his snake encounter was quite something!

I don't recall the gemsbok horns, but I do recall the *long* drive from the airport to the Lodge, and just as we were nearing the end of it Cyril being told that due to a last minute change of plans, we were going to hunt another location which was a further 6 hours drive!

Talk about deflated!

Mind you, I think him and Chris had been playing "planes, trains and automobiles" for the previous 48 hours as they made their way from the Canadian outback to RSA!

While in Botswana this past August/September I encountered one. The PH warned me to keep the windows, etc., closed because the mambas were out due to unseasonably warm weather.

This first day in the field we pulled under one of the few relatively tall trees to park the bakkie in the shade during lunch. After gourging ourselfs, we slept on the benches on the bakkie.

After an hour of snoozing I got up to take a leak behind a nearby bush. Suddenly there was a loud cry, followed by raucus laughter from the trackers. Seemed that a mamba had been on a branch not more than three feet above our heads as we slept. The PH freaked, grabbed his rifle, and shot the sucker in half.

In the ensuing days the tracker jumped to the side of brush piles a couple times, as he could see mamba tracks entering, but not exiting, the nearby pile.

Only about 3' long, but enough to make a guy pretty sick, if not dead. These guys face leopards, rhinos, etc., but nothing scares them like a mamba.

Check this out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am3ZY6_F91Q

You guys are giving me the heebie jeebies. I didn't even want to READ this thread... I HATE snakes.

That dude is insane.

Although that's a somewhat radical example, it''s a good example of why so many people get bitten by snakes....... Generally speaking, if you leave them alone and don't hassle them, even in a face to face confrontation, if you freeze and don't threaten them, they'll leave you alone.

9 times out of 10, it's the stupid plonkers who chase them or try to kill them for no reason other than they're a snake or because they want to impress someone with how tough and gung ho they are, that get bitten.

A snake tale from another country. For many years we had a nanny from Peru whose family were political refuges. Her father was in charge of the military until another regime came into power. Her brother was a scientist in the Amazon studying plants that had medicinal properties under a Smithsonian grant. There is some sort of giant snake in a part of the Amazon that natives contend grow up to 30' & can bite like a dog. Reportedly, the snake fed on small animals including wild pigs. This scientist visited Wash.,D.C. every year or so to report on his research to the Smithsonian. I had the opportunity to meet him numerous times & discuss flora & fauna in the Amazon. This snake,(can't pronounce name) was very rare & extremely nocturnal & was rarely seen except during the mating season. At this time the giant snake would stalk & attack anything at night. The Smithsonian desperately wanted a sample so they sent someone to assist this scientist in a live capture. With the assistance of the natives they did indeed capture one only to have the snake kill itself. This was a small snake only about 18'. A couple of years later another team was sent in to capture a live specimen. This time a tranquilizer drug was to be used to prevent the snake from killing itself. Another specimen was captured this one about 19 1/2' & was tranquilized. Obviously, this was a very remote area accessible only by foot or canoe. Some where along the return the snake revived enough to kill itself. I was told the snake was non-venomous but the bites were vicious & resulted in an infection usually killing the victim. The natives in the area knew when the snakes were breading & avoided the jungle at night so attacks were very rare.