Surviving a rattlesnake bite

Having spent 37 years in the forest service I ran into all of the bad snakes in Florida. Only snakes that about got me were diamondback rattle snakes. Step on them on two occasions. First time I step on one I jumped backwards over the hood of my truck. Second time it scared me so bad I just stared stomping and stomped it to death. I wore high cowboy boots and the one in the first incident hit me low cause I penned him between the heel and boot sole. Have seen many of all kinds. Kill them if I can so someone else won’t get bit. One afternoon we had a wildfire in a big swamp in the Green Swamp of central Florida. My partner was operating the dozer putting a fire line around the swamp so we could burn it out that night. I was walking behind him about 50 feet when he turned up two water moccasins in the fire line in front of me. I threw a dirt clod at him to get attention. I wanted him to stop so I could the shovel off his plow and dispatch those snakes. He kept going and I walked around them thru the cypress trees. Later that night we burned that swamp out by walking that fire line with our backfire pots. I was “snake hunting” all night long. I think that was the incident that convinced me to kill poisonous snakes. Alligator stories will be for another time!

We have all the nasty bastards here in the southern tip of Illinois Timber Rattlers, Cotton Mouths and Copperheads. These pics are all taken about a mile from our house.

.308 Norma said:

You folks down south have Coral snakes too, don't you? What are they like to deal with?

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I have never seen on in the wild. They are small with small mouths and small teeth and they don't inject venom like pitvipers. They literally have to chew on you to get the venom into the pierced holes. Comparatively speaking, they have a very poor system for envenomation as compared to pitvipers. Because of the small teeth, their bite efforts are much more easily defeated by regular boots or heavy clothing that would pose not problem for an adult pitviper.

What’d you do to torque off that cottonmouth. He ain’t happy.

I got within about 4 feet from him. I guess he hadn’t eaten all winter. This was during the big spring migration from the bluffs to the swamp. They cross “Snake Road” during the spring and again in the fall. People come from all over (even England) to see the snake migration. Google Snake Road Southern Illinois if you’re ever bored.

First off thanks for sharing as a reminder, especially this time of year, and also glad you recovered.

My dad tells a story about a great uncle of his that got that got bit by a rattlesnake and never even went to a hospital. He said after he finally healed up, which was quite a while, he had a healed over hole in his calf nearly the size of a baseball.

I know a guy that got bit on his calf and put .45 cal hole through his leg trying to get the snake to let go, not exactly sure how all that happened, and it turned out to be a dry bite.

live encountered more rattlesnakes than I could ever remember, when I moved out of my parents house I put a mobile home in a pasture and that summer I killed 13 rattlers in the yard and driveway. I’ve never seen a coral snake in the wild but a guy that worked with us at on time got bitten by one and it dang near killed him. Here’s a news story about him. https://www.foxnews.com/health/alab...r-his-life-after-coral-snake-bite-family-says


I’m still amazed I never got bit as teenager, we used to catch rattle snakes and play with them like they were nothing, really stupid. But I was never scared of snakes. One of my earliest memories is following behind a tractor bush hogging kudzu catching green snakes and playing with them, letting the big my ear lobes and hang like earrings. I never did that with a rattler (obviously) but I did do really stupid things, now I just shoot them.

PS they do taste good.

Hunted a ranch for 27 years that had lots of big rattlers. Largest one I killed hung off both sides of the tail gate on my fleetside 1965 full size chevy pickup (would have made him well over 5' long). We killed lots more rattlers in camp than out in the pastures due to the old storage buildings around our camp (an old homestead) with the usual assortment of rats and mice providing a plentiful buffet for the snakes.

A caliche road ran through our camp and one day I stepped out of the trailer after lunch and saw a 4' rattler crawling across the road in front of my pickup, heading for an old trailer. My pistol was on the seat of my truck, so I ran (toward the snake) to retrieve it. The snake saw or sensed me and I guess felt threatened as it turned in my direction as he sped up. Fortunately, I got to the gun in time, but not before that snake struck (thankfully about 3 ft. too soon) as he sped in my direction.

I had always figured a rattler could probably strike 1/3.....m a y b e 1/2 their length from a coiled position, but if that snake's body did not completely leave the ground, it came close enough to fool me! I'll never forget the hollow sound it made when it fell to the ground. That's the only rattler I've ever encountered that demonstrated aggressive behavior prior to actually being hit first.

The ranches I hunt now, have some pretty
good sized rattlers, as well.VVVV

Followed this snake track from lake until it disappeared into a big brush pile where I lost interest.^^^

I wear 9EEE boot for size comparison.

Regards,
hps

.308 Norma said:

You folks down south have Coral snakes too, don't you?

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Yes, some perhaps not all, southern states have Coral snakes. My state of N.C. has them but I've never seen one in the wild. There are several sayings to help you avoid one like: black on yellow deadly fellow, black on red lucky Fred. The reason for the sayings is that we also have a harmless snake that closely resembles the Coral with the exception that the banded colors are different.

<<<<Texas Milk Snake.....Coral Snake VVVVV

Red and yellow, kill a fellow,
Red and black, friend of Jack.

Walked into the mess hall at the ranch one mid-summer night and flipped the light switch just in time to see a red/black/yellow snake crawl under the refrigerator! Camp was shut down, but grandson and I were helping land owner w/some coyote control. All the folding chairs were leaning against the wall next to refrigerator making it almost impossible to get to the snake and I had figured I needed to get the snake out to get any decent sleep. (Bunk room connected and adjacent to mess hall.)

Gave grandson a short 2x4 and told him to clout the snake when I tilted the refrigerator. I tilted, he swung and missed, snake got under chairs and managed to get back under refrigerator as I let it back down, fortunately trapping him under the weight of the refrigerator. For the life of me, neither of us cold remember the ditty above. As it turned out, unfortunately this one was a milk snake, but I slept like a baby.

Have only seen one coral snake in all my years afield. Sat on a tarp lying on the ground and felt a lump which turned out to be a coral snake. I was in no danger due to their very short fangs making them incapable of biting through the tarp.

Regards,
hps

cslinger said:

What’d you do to torque off that cottonmouth. He ain’t happy.

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Cottonmouth's are never "happy"...

Shanghai McCoy said:

Cottonmouth's are never "happy"...

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Yeah, between copperheads and cottonmouths, the copperheads are the calm, cool, and collected type. Cottonmouths are the agitated, angry, and aggressive type. That is a gross generalization, but fits my experience pretty well. Rattlesnakes seem to span a wide range of behaviors between the two.

.308 Norma said:

You folks down south have Coral snakes too, don't you? What are they like to deal with?

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Yes we do but they are very rare. I only know one person who’s even seen one. He caught it live in his back yard and sent pictures to the local zoo to get positive ID. They we so excited that they asked him if he would donate it to them, which he did

H&Hhunter said:

K-9 rattlesnake vaccine is pretty much unproven and has a high risk factor for the dog. Which is why you don’t see it in the human market.

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Our walker hounds would get bit on a fairly frequent basis (water moccasins usually) They’d be sore and swell up a bit but usually a week or so they’d be back to normal with no treatment

Double Naught Spy said:

Dibbs, that is a perception issue. The snakes are not out of habitat. What you call out of habitat near buildings and on the driveway/road is what the snake considers to be on/around nice warm rocks, which IS habitat for them. They don't know the difference between artificial and natural rocks and don't care. Houses are not out of habitat either. If you have any mice or rats that live with in 100 yards of your house, you are in habitat because they are a food source for the snakes. Your house may not be preferred habitat, but is still habitat.

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I got a couple of Barn Cats. Game Over, at least near the house. I would highly recommend having a cat, living under the porch, to anybody living out in the sticks. Snakes are a favorite form of recreation, to cats.

.308 Norma said:

You folks down south have Coral snakes too, don't you? What are they like to deal with?
A guy I used to work with was from Alabama, and he told me there was a saying about them - something like, "Red on black, put him back. Red on yellow, kill a fellow."
I'm kinda glad we don't have anything other than Western rattlers here in Idaho - even though in some parts of Idaho (like around here) we have a lot of them. That's why I clear brush and mow weeds on the back part of our property. I not all that afraid of rattlers IF I see them, but I'd sure hate to step in the middle of one because I didn't see it.

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Coral Snakes and King snakes are the same colors, but entirely different markings, if you are familiar with them. King snakes (non venomous) are far brighter, and rarer, IME. Coral Snakes, the Black is far more prominent, and the yellow and red stripes are thinner bands. Generally, you will see a higher proportion of the far more dangerous Coral Snakes. So it's a safer assumption to err on the side of caution, and assume it's the deadly Coral Snake, if you are not sure. They are not overly aggressive, so if you give them a little distance, they should also run, whenever given the chance.

We've been lucky, none of my family or friends have ever been bitten, but we've had some encounters.
My nephew was bow hunting my ground blind and looked down to see a copperhead slithering across his boot. He stuck it with an arrow and texted us all pictures.

A cousin and I used to fish a lake in Mississippi that was always crawling with cottonmouths. We've taken a pellet rifle fishing and killed several in one outing.

I'm going to start getting more serious into bow hunting, and with that occurring in warmer weather, I need to invest in some snake boots.

Man, me and the wife are contemplating a move to AZ from OH where we only get a garden snake in the yard a few times a year. Y'all making me nervous about it.

Hannah42 said:

While on a bow hunt in 2013 i was struck by a Timber rattlesnake. I laid my stand on the snake and when I went to pick up the stand there he was it happened so fast nothing I could do. Yes he went to rattling like crazy but I tried to snatching my arm away but lost. HE stuck my forearm it happened that fast. Luckily I was only 300 yards from my truck and 2 miles from home 15 min from the hospital. Yes dumb me killed the snake and went home to get my wife. I thought for some reason I needed the snake for anti venom. Moving ahead I started not being able to swallow. Vision was getting worse my throat was closing. At the hospital now 25 min later they rushed me back and started doing test when I started having panic attack hit me. I couldn't breathe I was fighting the nurses until the gave me something to knock me out. I woke up in ICU my hand an arm big as a basket ball. I was lucky. They had me on 5 different antibiotics through IV. Also had Anti venom going. I took 13 vials of antivenom for each vial was $6500 a bag.
I was in ICU for 3 weeks 6 weeks in the hospital 2 months after getting home i felt like I had the flu.
I had to go every 6 months for a EKG on my heart.
This is the short story as best i can say. Hunters be careful. Hopefully you will take one more look after reading this. Stay safe keep your eyes open.
I've made a full recovery.

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Thank you for sharing your story. I read this to my wife. We love to hike together in all parts of the country and we pick up roadside garbage in the ditches near our home. Snakes and bees/wasps are our biggest threats.

Thanks again and safe hunting!!

gotboostvr said:

Man, me and the wife are contemplating a move to AZ from OH where we only get a garden snake in the yard a few times a year. Y'all making me nervous about it.

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Nervous is good! Just check with your realtor regarding the snake issue. AZ is probably like a lot of other states where the concentration of poisonous snakes is higher in certain areas of the state. I noticed your dogs in your Avatar and you certainly don't want them to get bitten.