another thing to watch out for while hunting, snakes.

https://www.songfacts.com/lyrics/al-wilson/the-snake

 

I have only seen 3-4 copperheads in my life, and only killed one. That one was in the back yard of a friends house, he ate a load of 6 shot for his trespass.

water moccasins get killed without hesitation if they are near me or my family. The largest cottonmouth I have seen was about 6 feet long and about 9 inches around, he was wrapped around a cypress stump in the swamp behind my parents house. I usually leave them alone if I am fishing or around the water.

Rattle snakes of all types get left alone if possible, but I have killed a few and they taste like chicken. Diamondback rattlesnakes are the most common and least threatening, the timber rattlers and pygmy rattlers are less common and more awe inspiring when seen. If you see them before they slip away.

A former coworker killed a timber rattler that was about 6 feet long, and I ran over one in the road that was about 8 feet long. I have heard stories of even larger ones but I have never seen them.

 

"Especially in the wild." Gets me thinking - I go thru the woods and swamps here, once or twice a day, don't see many snakes. My cat cornered a Coral Snake, in the driveway, we killed a Canebrake five feet from my porch, shot a rattler, on the road, and we've seen a few Mocs in the road. But I've yet to see a venomous snake, out in the sticks...

 

Any venomous snake in my State of IL?

 

In my younger years people would call me to clean out mocs from stock tanks their animals stopped going to. Some of them were monsters. I shot them with my 45 Hawken. They would sink and after an hour or so they floated back up. I lost count of how many we dragged out. Several places not only had monsters but also had enormous amount of babies. Was nothing to burn up a brick of 22s getting them. It was one of those things where you literally got tired of shooting.

 

Shooting snakes would be the reason I would own a .45 Colt gun. Load it up with snake shot to keep from getting bitten...

 

I think I’ll leave them be haha.

I believe all snakes are protected in MO. In the early summer copperheads are everywhere and Ive seen them sunning all the way up to duck opener. Personally I have no fear but I would feel terrible if my old dog got bit.

I had a buddy get bit while mowing his lawn. He is a really small/skinny dude and his calf was about the size of fat mans.

 

we don,t realy bad snakes here, africa- india- australia have the heavy hitters and lose many people a year to them. i think bee stings kill more people here than snakes.

 

Even Australia has a pretty low death rate from snake bites, relatively speaking. They have numerous public service programs that teach snake ID and first aid countermeasures. Plus they have a well supplied and nationwide antivenin availability presumably at even small remote clinics.

 

I do a lot of turkey hunting sitting on the ground in April and deer hunting sitting on the ground in October and I am always looking out for the prairie rattler. Many times I have walked by a sagebrush only to be warned that a prairie rattler was under the branches. I just shy away when I hear one but it makes me a little nervous to sit down with my back in a sagebrush. It makes me even more nervous to sit against a bank with tall brush close by my neck. I think about them but it doesn't stop me from hunting.

 

The last copperhead I saw was while I was working on a tractor that broke down while mowing a field. The snake slithered wishing a couple feet of me and did not even give me a second look.
Other than that, I see a lot of rat snakes. Mostly in with my chickens, stealing eggs.
I just catch and relocate them.

 

We're ate up with cottonmouths, a species I have no use for. Spring is pretty bad, put on my snake boots whenever I go outside. Snake boots do work. I got hit by a large rattler near the ankle and the boot repelled it. If you're going into snake country, I would suggest them. They work far better than a gun.

I worry most about my dog. She can be stupid sometimes. Hasn't been snakebit.....YET.

 

Hope you're good at shooting them. Because soon after you'll be shooting at these:

 

Plenty of snakes here as well. I like to let them live most of the time too. All but the cotton mouths.

 

I have no love for a cottonmouth, the rest of them, if they don't bother me I don't bother them. We were sitting on my back patio two days ago and a snake came dropping out to the air. My wife said there was a snake on the roof and it fell off.
I'd like to see a snake climb a vertical pole or post. That would be a neat trick.
Anyways, a bird must have had it and dropped it. I picked it up and put it in the tall grass so it could hide. It was some kind of skinny, all green snake.

 

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.

 

Snakes are the very best bar none controller of small rodents. If you have a rat problem, even one snake will sort that problem out in as little as a few weeks. On the other side of things, if you want to keep snakes away, the best method is to control the rodent population yourself first.

Like I said earlier, and if there is an ecologist here, I would love to hear their take on this, but I really don't know what venomous snakes do that kingsnakes cannot.

I don't kill venomous snakes indiscriminately but I never kill non venomous ones. The problem is there are so many ignorant hystericals out there who will just kill any they see regardless of species. If it slithers it dies so to speak.

 

toby brings them to me as a gift, i think. if they are in good shape i let them go.

 

If you like frog legs, you'd like rattlesnake. Tasty.

Abundant supply of rattlers in S. Texas. I have to wade through knee high grass often, sorry I don't give them a pass. Never worried too much about being bitten by a rodent and mothballs under hood of my jeep keeps rats and mice at bay that the indigo's and rat snakes miss.


Lots more rattlers than indigo & other good snakes, which do get a pass.


Regards,
hps

 

Ol Cooter and I were out checkin' critters one day about this time of year, several years ago.
Cooter, that's the horse in the picture up in the corner, stepped off into this mess. Fortunately, they were just coming out of the den from winter and were pretty lethargic.

That ol pony 'bout turned hisself inside out gittin' out of the gully.
He had never bucked with me, but he turned it on that morning.
I told him, "Go ahead and buck. Ain't no way I'm coming off today."

Best saddle bronc ride I ever made and nobody there to see it.. I could have won a rodeo with that ride.

 

You need a taller horse, Iggy!

Regards,
hps

 

Snake can still bite the Horse...

 

I killed a snake once in Tennessee back when I was 18 to 22 with an Axe... My dad insisted on me doing that...

 

Yeah, good thing it was cold or Cooter might have been bitten.

They don't make shovels or axes w/long enough handle to suit me in snake country, some 7 1/2 shot in either the New England youth 20 ga or one of the Smiths are a much better fit:


Regards,
hps