Big Snake

david s

Well-Known Member
It's funny, even if you have never had a snake rattle at you when one does you know exactly what it is and what it means, then you just have to find a good landing spot.
 

Hawk

North Central Texas
We hunted Goldwaite, Texas in the 1980s.
North of Ian.
Decided we wanted to try rattlesnake for dinner one evening.
Only took us about 20 minutes to find a 5 footer on the lease.
They were everywhere. We'd kill 15 or 20 each deer season before they went underground for the winter.
The thing is, they never went completely dormant. On warm days they would come out and sun on big rocks.
Mean, but nothing like water moccasins!
 

RBHarter

West Central AR
Spent my whole life with western diamond backs , and great basins with occasional ventures into Mojave green country . In 52 years I don't recall having encountered an aggressive snake . If you were bit it was better to be bitten by a big one than a little one .
We had a few big bull , and King snakes too .
 

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
Where I am located we are at the base of the Moosic Mountains ( Appalachian chain) Rattlers are a common sight! Townships even hold Annual Rattle snake round ups in these parts!
However we also have our share copperheads which seem to populate the base of these mountains! ( read Back yard for me!)
Just got to watch your step in the bordering woods!
 

Bruce Drake

Active Member
I got hit by a Water Moccasin in April of 1990 when I was going through the Marine's School of Infantry at their Camp Geiger (a small sub-camp of Camp Lejeune. We were doing a 10km patrol op and we got the signal to take a break from the Sergeant and So, being the young 18-year old Marine private from the state of Maine...which has no poisonous snakes...that I was...tossed my ruck down on the ground and then I flopped down right behind it to provide "security" during the break.

Well. it seems in the semi-dark of the early morning and my Yankee inexperience with southern North Carolina swamps and poisonous snake territory...I had tossed my loaded Alice Pack with its metal frame right on top of a formerly sleeping and now quite angry snake. Well, thankfully, between the weight of the ruck and my own weight as well, most of his body was trapped, but he was able to whip his head around and nailed me on the right shoulder. One fang was stopped by my collarbone...one fang got stopped by the edge of the Y-Harness of my field gear. I yelled "snake!" and rolled to my left and the sergeant who saw what happened killed the snake with his K-bar knife so the doc would know what snake it was.

But that one fang pumped enough venom into my shoulder that even with the proper anti-toxin administered, i was no-duty and light-duty for several weeks at the base hospital while the poison worked its damage on my pectoral muscle. Cottonmouth venom is a hemotoxin. It destroys red blood cells. So basically, the poison dissolved a good portion of my right pectoral and I was thankful it just missed the major artery that feeds the arm or the damage would have spread much farther. So now, I don't often run around without a t-shirt to cover that shoulder as the skin there has been very sensitive to the sun ever since despite the scarring from the poison.

But in the long run, I think I should thank that dead snake as without that bite, I would have probably gone on to serve with my high school friend with one of the regiments at Camp Lejeune versus getting assigned to the Marine Barracks in Hawaii when a levy order came through in August as I was finally finishing up my interrupted training. Because, getting assigned to Hawaii also gave me time to work on some college classes in the spare time and eventually to finishing the degree and serving in the Army.....

Nope, I'm glad that snake is dead. I almost lost a career to it. And damn did that poison hurt.
 

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
I have not met many folks who have been snake-bit, as common as they are where I have lived and worked. That sounds like like one nasty bite location.

Myself and other deputies have encountered herpetologists from local universities collecting specimens under permit in the farm areas or adjacent open deserts in the Coachella Valley from time to time. They are a little different, but nice enough in their own way.

Cool snake story time--on one of the few times I was allowed to work day shift patrol, I was driving north on Beaumont Avenue just south of Cherry Valley Boulevard. This was open brushlands on both sides of the road in the mid-1980s, and was lined with tall cypress trees that gave large spots of shade along this route. I saw a rosy boa slither quickly to the west roadway edge--stop abruptly--and, I swear to Merguetroid--look both ways before crossing the road--then slither as fast as can be across the shaded blacktop and into the brushy cover on the road's east side. If I had 10 bucks for every rosy boa I removed from someone's back yard or patio, I could have retired 2 years earlier. Nice critters, and they didn't mind being moved. Just use welder's gloves to handle them, they can be a little nippy and will defecate on your arms as they wrap around you. To paraphrase Huck Finn in the book by that name--"There ain't no harm in a million of them."
 

Uncle Grinch

Active Member
I’m sure there are others around, but we have a rattlesnake roundup in Whigham, GA that is quite the festival. I don’t plan on attending!
 

35 shooter

Well-Known Member
Looking at that pic of that big rattler gave me chills for the “second” time this week.
Not 2 days ago I was Using a weed eater and thought I had stepped on a stick, but felt it give a bit. I looked down and did’nt see a thing, took a step and started weed eating again, and saw something moving ahead of the weed eater.... it was a young 2 ft. Long copperhead just very slowly crawling away..... can’t prove it, but that had to be what I felt I had stepped on.

He never acted like he wanted to bite or anything... just very slowly crawled away toward a pasture.
Since my nerves were a bit fried at that point lol, and he had’nt bit me when I stepped on him, I let this one go.
Normally I kill the poison ones, but since he had mercy on me, I just watched him go this time.

I’ve been walking more with my head down than up for the last couple days though.... whew!!
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
I'm pretty OK with snakes. Haven't killed a poisonous one in at least 45 years, haven't needed to, and the ones
I ran across could be easily avoided. The most recent "adventure" was moving down a steep, broken slope
up in the Cali mtns near Palomar, and doing one of those moves of a leading foot towards a good foothold
as you move a hand to a good handhold. Half way through.....I see a coiled rattler enjoying the sun on the
"handhold" rock, about 1.5 sec from my right hand landing there. I did a semi-impossible twist and weight shift
in mid air, and rebounded up about 8 ft back and up. My friend, right behind me said, "What in the heck was THAT?"
"Well, I decided NOT to put my right hand on top of a coiled rattler at the last second, and instead decided to move
back up here, quickly."..... We went around a different way, and more carefully. That was probably in the late 80s or
early 90s.

Bill
 
Last edited:

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
More like bass, layered flakey, like fish but firmer, different taste. I have eaten several rattlers.
Not at all bad, but watch for fine bones, like fish.

Bill
 
Last edited:

Missionary

Well-Known Member
Besides big rattlers Ft Hood was full of skunks ! Out back of the tank parks (3-66 Armor) was no mans land during the summer. Maybe that is why there were so many big rattlers ??
 

Rally

NC Minnesota
Missionary,

In Lake Belton and Cowhouse Creek, there on Ft Hood, there was a small snake that lived in the water. They hardly ever surfaced and would eat a stringer of fish as fast as you could put them in the water. Nobody seemed to know the name of them. We night fished mainly and had to put any fish we caught in a cooler or there would be nothing but heads left of them. We used Coleman lanterns for light, and would see just their heads poke up out of the water, just outside the light. They looked like baby Black snakes, and about a foot long was the largest I ever saw. Never encountered them anywhere but there.

Rick,
My piece of ground is the highest in elevation in the immediate area. We have tons of toads here and they are fat as can be. If we leave our outside porch light on there will be a dozen toads munching on bugs attracted by the light. I have fans for my dogs in each kennel and they get a lot of bugs and spit them out on the concrete of the dog kennels. There will be quite a few at the end of the day, but gone in the morning! Dogs seem to enjoy their company. LOL

Brad,
A couple summers ago I put up a retaining wall along one side of my driveway. I shoveled 16 yards of crushed rock into and under them for a footing, with drain pipe. Went 24" below grade because it was all sand below it, or I would have had to go 52" to get below frost line. Lay a row, fill the block, flip the fabric back and forth to lay another row. Hasn't moved in two winters so it should be here awhile. Wife likes the look and wanting raised flower beds to match! And that's how the fight started!! LOL

Lamar,
The washing of the hulls worked great. Did the last of them today, and they dried well. Should have been done yesterday but I left the last batch outside last night and it rained a bit. I ended up putting about 300 in a tall six gallon bucket with dishwashing liquid and "tumbling them in the bucket with my blaster garden hose. It actually tumbled the hulls in a circular motion from top to bottom. Held the hose about 18" above the bucket and pointed at one side of the bucket. It injected enough air into the water to float the de-primed hulls and foamed like crazy. Let the water run until it was clear. Poured them on a towel and tossed them a few times. Then just let them sit in the sun a few hours. No dust or spider nests.
Kind of in a shotgun mood lately. Loaded 20 boxes of trap loads and 6 boxes of beaver rollers (1 1/2 oz. lead BB's at 1260 Fps), should do a respectable job on Fox and Coyotes inside 40 also. Need to cast a bunch of slugs also.
 
Last edited:

Kevin Stenberg

Well-Known Member
The oldest daughter just moved to the Tampa suburbs. SIL an her live next to a park resurve area. I made her promise that when they go walking on designated paths that she ALWAYS caries an old golf club. That way they have some form of protection from snakes and lizards. I told her if she doesn't carry atleast a 9 iron her guide fees will triple during next deer season.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Kevin,
She should have a revolver with at least one cylinder with shot. The other five for "other predators".

Bill