My father and uncle were very clear with me: snakes do a better job than us controlling the rodent population. Learn snake avoidance.If you're not hunting, walk noisy. Firm footsteps that vibrate the ground make snakes slither away more often than not. If you are hunting, you don't wanna be noisy, so that's a dilemma.
Don't kill venomous snakes unless they in a playarea, workarea or residence. Live and let live with snakes, unless you're gonna come back and kill off the rodents after you kill off the snakes.Kill a snake only if it is kill or get killed. In the fields and woods, wear boots that come well above the ankles and loose jeans over the boots so a striking snake usually would get a mouthful of denim.
My late mother-in-law often had snakes in her house in the middle of 16 acres. I live captured a blacksnake in her kitchen and hand carried it far out into the woods to release it. Both my sister-in-law and I had to kill copperheads in the house. She also often had snakes outside her house, but they went away when there were no more field mice left to eat, which was a win-win situation.