Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Got home to a surprize today

Picked the wife up from work today and on arriving home found Jr out of breath and tears down his face. Immediately I was ready for any threat and then saw he was laughing like a hyena at an elephant carcass.

He got home about 10 minutes before we did and found the following: the Jack Russell terrier was hyterical at a snake on the porch with the husband of our maid standing armed with a spade trying to get the snake. Every time the snake struck, the dog and the husband took 3 quick paces in succession to get away from the serpant. Then the snake, the dog and the husband would approach each other again with the same result. It was almost like the one shoving the other out the way to see who could get as far away as quickly as possible. The real funny part were the 3 onlookers who also made giant leaps of faith to get away from any possible snake and they were at least 10 yards away from the action. Wish I had a video camera then.

By the time Jr parked his car the spade made deep grooves into the rinkhals and it was rather dead in a few seconds. They severed the head to make very sure no amount of CPR would revive it.

A quick conversion showed the rinkhals to be 62" from tip to toe. The rinkhals is a highly venomous cobra type snake with neuro-toxin venom.

I do not like to kill, or to have snakes killed and would probably have tried to catch this one rather than kill it if I were at home.


The head that was separated from the body.


This is how thick it used to be.


Jr with the rinkhals


The rinkhals cremation

Catch I like the way it got caught myself Pieter!

They can go through the branches of a tree about like a fish swims through the water.

I do not automatically kill every snake either. Although some end up with Elvis for bad behaviour. It's really up to the snake most of the time.

I had a business Partner for many years, (MW) who's son was bitten in the face by a cobra in his bed under the blankets when he was only 4 years old. Poor little boy was taken by helicopter and nearly died. However the Anti Venom works and he was fine only a few days later. This species was both Neuro and Cytotoxic toxic the venom did destroy some of tissue of his upper lip.

That one was also dispatched for bad behaviour. It was quite difficult to find in the house as well. We were on pins and needles trying to find it to identify species and of course to make the house safe. Is was found up inside the curtains of a window eventually. Freddies Parents went to the hospital with him, while myself and a couple of the staff scoured the home in search of the serpent!

During the search we let in the pet Cheetah and the two little Jack Russell's to help and I guess become sacrificial to the effort. The Cheetah went to the kitchen and laid down to sleep, worthless cat. We led it into the rooms to be searched and closed the door to keep it inside.

We figured there would be a big commotion inside as a give away once the snake was found. I have never heard of a Jack Russell being bit by a snake. I think they are faster then the strike. I have seen them corner and taunt snakes plenty of times. Funny dogs they are. They truly believe they are 10 feet tall and weigh 2000lbs.

cobras, when they rear up atleast, are horribly slow strikers.....hell a person is faster then them let alone a JRT....its part of the reason they were a favorite of snake charmers....on top of "standing up" and being impressive looking so long as your full attention was on them it was near impossible to get bit even though it looks like your in danger....

Yep, Jack Russell's do think of themselves like that.

Of course, so did I in my earlier years - when I had a snootfull of tequila.

John

Don't get me wrong gents I don't kill every snake I see but the venomous kind around the house get dispatched...and all we have are prairie rattlers here

im not a snake killer but if yah dont know what your doing with moving them it is just best to kill the venomous kind that are near the house.....were one of those prairie rattlers to tag you Keith you can rack up $70k in hospital bills real quick even if things go ok.....if yah have a bad reaction to the antivenin then costs really start to climb

I live where there are only garter and ribbon snakes. I dont like them and smile every time one gets hit by the tractor mower. There is one in my pool house that three years ago was only 2.5ft and is now 6ft. That sends the shivers up and down me every time I see it. I dont know how you fellows deal with the poisonous kinds so calmly. My hat's off to you all.

Interesting. Those snakes common across RSA? All year? I'm going to Cathcart and Morgan Bay in mid May 2014. Any snakes out at that time?

snakes are common in South Africa, however most people hunt down ther during their winter which actually gets cold enough at night that the snakes do more or less go dormant so most hunters from the US rarely see any.....

Same here. If it's venomous, it dies, period.

I hate snakes...

Pretty much so but you are more prone to find black mamba's, green mamba's, puff adders, Cape cobra's, Gaboon adders, berg adders, many-horned adders, horned adders, Eastern bark snakes, Peringuey's adder, Southwestern shovel snout, common night adder and spotted house snakes.

They are of course all edible but it is advised not to eat the head or to stand on one of those. When startled the Peringuey adder actually bites onto it's tail and rolls down a hillside like a bicycle wheel in pursuit of the cause of it's disturbance. Hope you are going to hunt the flats in Cathcart.

Have fun

I knew this thread was bad juju...we had a freakin blizzard with 28" of snow on Oct 3 PM thru Oct 5 AM. I go out antelope hunting today and I encounter 2 of the freakin prairie rattlers...they have gone to better place...

those guys are pretty:

Not sure what you mean about the Cathcart flats. Will be hunting a property near Cathcart, and a property near Adelaide. Kudu, gemsbok, blue wildebeest, impala, and springbok, mountain reedbuck, blesbok and zebra. Or whatever combination fits the budget, presents itself and turns a fancy.

I truly believe the statement in the Bible about the serpent trying to bite my heel and me trying to bruise his head. It says 'serpent' not poisonous or non-poisonous snakes and all snakes are serpents to me. Don't like them, scared of them so I kill all of them I come in contact with if I possibly can.

My dog Luger got spit in the eyes by mozambique spitting cobras 3 times to date. We find them around the farm house on a regular basis. They are extremely venomous. I do not like to kill any snake but one stayed in a hole right next to the back door and I would rather kill the snake than waiting for a child, dog or client to get bit and it ending up in an emergency 100km from the closest hospital. It is quite special to see any of the venomous snakes in the veld and after all they have more right to be there than we do

Here is a pic of my dog that thinks he can take on the Mozam spitting cobras


Pieter

My Son and I were up near Messina this past June on an 11 day hunting trip (great time had by all) The PH said that the weather should be cool enough to keep the snake sightings at a minimum (fine by us) Well thanks to the earlier rains there was still lots of vegetation and it was still pretty warm. Well that combination led us to 4 run ins with snakes, 3 Black Mamba's and a Puff Adder. I always thought that if I had to I could just out run a snake, that was until I saw the 12 foot Black Mamba cruising about 10 miles per hour with his head 3 feet off the ground, luckily away from us. I learned very early in the hunt to LISTEN TO OUR PH!!!

Luger is a cute dog!