Watch your step

[Wayne/Al]

My hunting buddy Joe and I were doing a little pre season turkey scouting a couple days ago. We had parked our ATVs and was looking for scratching in a area that was covered in oak leafs. We found there was a area tore up real good with turkey sign and headed back to the ATVs.I was walking a few steps in front of Joe when I heard him yell. I looked back and there lay this dang rattler cocked and ready. Joe said he saw him when he struck at me as I walked over him.If Joe would have took another step he would have been on him. Made my knees weak!
We killed the old boy and he measured 48" 7 or 8 rattlers. He never rattled untill I shot him.

Be carefull boys and watch where you step!!

Wayne/Al Sorry about the picture..used my phone camera.

 

[Bill Hall]

Makes you mad and scares you at the same time, doesn't it? Had many close calls myself. I don't know if it's been luck, or if I have some kind of special rattle snake alert system in my bones. I can remember a few times suddenly jumping back out of the way before I consciously saw the snake.

No, they don't rattle every time.

I'm not one of those guys who considers it his duty to kill every rattler I see. If I see one way out in the boonies where I don't think another human will be for a while, I just say howdy and walk on by. If it's by a trail, sidewalk, or just in my neighborhood, he's toast. If he scares me, like that one that almost got you, he will meet his demise by however many rocks it takes to turn him into "finely ground snake pulp". Bill

 

[crockett]

If it is daytime I never bother with snake boots but at night I wear them most times unless I'll be wading deeep water were I could get stuck. Then I wear tennis shoes/sneakers. As a general rule if I can't see the ground I wear snake boots. I've thought about making something that would be more pc looking- maybe rawhide cuffs around the shins.

 

[wattlebuster]

I know what ya mean. I've already killed 2 good sized cottonmouthes so far an the season is only 2 weekes old. I always wear snake boots but they cant protect everywhere specially when ya sit down. :cursing:

 

[George]

I've thought about making something that would be more pc looking- maybe rawhide cuffs around the shins.

Here you go, Crockett.

Essay by Moore, Francis, in A Voyage to Georgia, Begun in the Year 1735. London: Jacob Robinson, 1744.

Discussing the rattlesnakes they found there:

“They are not so nimble as some Snakes are, therefore do not remove out of the Way, which is generally the Occasion of Bites when they happen; for they naturally in their own Defence snap at what treads near them.  To prevent this, those who walk the Woods much, wear what they call Indian Boots, which are made of coarse woolen Cloths, much too large for the Legs, tied upon their Thighs and hang loose to their Shoes.”

And, 50 years later, on the Kentucky frontier, as described by John Cuppy in an interview with Lyman Draper:

"Spy dress- a handkercheif around the spies head of any color... and thick loose woollen leggings reaching above the knee, so thick that a rattlesnake could not penetrate through with their fangs." (Draper 9 S 36 )

1775 on the Ohio river, Nicholas Cresswell journal:

"Gave my boots and spurs to the care of Mr. Gibbs till my return. Must wear leggings. These are pieces of coarse woollen cloth wrapped round the leg and tied below the knee with a string to prevent the snakes biting you."

Spence

 

[hoochiepapa]

Two stories:
Back when I was bowhunting, I got permission from a rancher out by Hudson to hunt the pronghorns I saw on his property. I parked on the road, and when the goats put their heads down, I would make my move toward them, mostly just crouched down. When I got closer, I belly crawled toward a fatdoe on a hilltop. As I was crawling, I would watch the doe, and when she put her head down to feed, I would crawl a few feet. As I was crawling, I heard this tic, tic, tic, and I thought it was those cicadas, they were everywhere that fall. It would stop when I stopped, and begin again as I moved. Finally I looked over, and there was a prairie rattler about 5 feet from my face, coiled up ready to strike. I took the arrow out of my bow, and whacked him one, real hard, and glory be, I almost cut his head off. By that time I was about 50 yards from the doe, and raised up and took a shot. Missed, right under her belly. I picked the rattler up with my arrow, and carried it back to the Bronco, and there was another right under the driver's door! He also was coiled up, and I just stuck the arrow point into his middle, and stuffed him into a burlap bag I had in the back.I sold the rattler skins for $25 each.
My wife and I used to like prowling the desert around Pueblo when we lived there, looking for artifacts. One day we were near this creek, and she was about 20 yards ahead of me. She let out a shriek and ran towards me, and jumped into my arms, screaming, "rattlesnake!" We didn't kill him though, like snowdragon, noone else would come upon it.

 

[roundball]

I am a 100% dedicated Flintlock hunter...BUT...I when it comes to safety gear, I go with the best I can afford. I like snake gaiters instead of boots...easy on & off at the truck...these are the best level of protection I've owned in my life...have hard bite-proof panels inside.
2 years ago I killed a copper-head 5 feet from a ground blind I sit down in...so now, before I sit down anywhere I kick/sweep my feet all around the area.

 

[Bill Hall]

Hey Mike, your story sounds similar to what happened here about 8 years ago. It was on the local news, and happened about 40 miles from my house. A doctor was bow hunting for antelope, sneaking up on his belly toward a herd. Crawled face first into a rattler, and got bit right in the face. Made it back to town and seemed to recover ok, as he was interviewed on the news and seemed fine.

They asked if his medical training was the reason he survived. He said no, there wasn't much he could do but beat feet to hospital. Bill

 

[capt_turk]

I got bit twice in a two week period by cotton mouths. Was surveying in the swamps in Louisiana. the first snake was about 18' long and got me in the wrist. The second one was about 3' and got me in the wallet. Luckily I had forgotten to take it out of my pocket that morning and it didn't break the skin. Scared the manure out of me.

I spent a week in the hospital from the first one, and another week off work before the doctor would release me to go back to work. the antivenum and treatment were far worse than the bite.

The second bite happened the first day back at work. Needless to say, it was also my last day on that job. Figured I would go get a safer job, like changing light bulbs on the tops of radio towers, or disarming explosives. :rotf:

 

[spudnut]

Thats about the only good thing about living in Michigan,Ive only seen two rattlesnakes in my life.Massasuagas are pretty shy and rare in these parts.

 

[hanshi]

I grew up in Ga around and amongst canebreaks and diamondbacks. I never worried about them even though they came up on the porch, crawled all over the yard and lived in the barn and around my backyard range. Snakes don't bother me and I like them all. Been bitten dozens of times but never by a venomous one. I remember stepping over a log several times until I discovered a huge diamondback lying along side it. Eastern diamondbacks, unlike canebreaks, are rather docile though much more dangerous. A man hunting near us was bitten by a canebreak as he climbed down out of his deer stand. Though his son and nephew got him to the paramedics who'd been called, he died in that 15 minute span.

 

[USMA65]

Two prairie rattlers from SD:

Link

Link

 

Did you ever wonder”¦”¦..?

If your wallet hadn’t been there”¦
Where would they have put the tourniquet?

 

[capt_turk]

And with that crew, I figure I would have probably been dead meat. I don't think any of them would have sucked the poison out for me.... :rotf:

 

[Bill Hall]

Sounds like the punch line to a joke that most of us will recognize. "WELL, The doctor said... Uh, he told me to... Uh...THE DOCTOR SAID YOU'RE GONNA DIE!!" :redface: Bill

 

[Kapow]

Nothing funnier than watching someone do the 'snake dance' when they nearly tread on a snake, just like a cartoon with spinning legs. Do rattlers have long teeth like a viper? All our snakes have short teeth so even though they are very toxic they will struggle to deliver that toxin through thick long pants. So we hunt in shorts and flip flops. :youcrazy:

 

[BillinOregon]

Kapow: Yeah, why is that? And you have so many fine Aussie beers to live for!
:rotf:

We have a few rattlers here in southern Oregon -- the Northern Pacific rattlesnake, Crotalus viridis oreganus -- but enough to warrant caution, especially along rocky streambeds.

 

[Robert Egler]

Yes, Rattlers are pit vipers and have long fangs.

The only venomous snake in the US with short fangs is the Eastern Coral snake, which has small cobra-like fangs, and neurotoxic venom like a cobra. A very rare and endangered snake now. Very venomous, but they have to chew to inject venom. (There are no 'poisonous' snakes; the're all edible :grin: )

I run into Copperheads (another pit viper, and the species responsible for the majority for venomous snakebites in the US, rarely fatal) all the time out hiking to my fishing spot. Had one come past me by about 3 feet a couple years ago while I was sitting on the lake bank fishing.

I personally have never intentionally killed any snake (ran over one with a lawnmower once by accident). I don't understand why some people have such a hatred of snakes that they kill them just because they see them. I mean no one here would kill a deer just cause they saw it, but for some reason people think they have to kill all the snakes they find. :shake: I even got bit by a rattler once (I stepped on it by accident, not the snake's fault) and I still like snakes. And no, I didn't kill the one that bit me either.

 

[Kapow]

It is so darned hot in summer that you hunt in shorts or stay home. Mostly I stay home. We have too many deadly snakes to take the risk. Our second most common snake is also the world's second most venemous. I don't hate snakes but I do hate rodents so I dont kill snakes for the sake of it.

Mosquitoes are the dealiest animal in the world by far.

 

[KHickam]