Question about snake protection...

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shootniron

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What do you guys use for protection from snake bite? Do you use boots or gaiters. I live in the south and we have snakes aplenty seemingly all year long. I have always used boots, but now it is time to replace them or try some gaiters and I would like some feedback as to which most of you prefer. Thanks
 
.410?
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Gotta be able to see them for the .410 to do any good. These diamondbacks, copperheads and cottonmouths are hard to see when walking into a stand before daylight and out after dark.
 
Either work fine if you're worried about it. Most of the time they feel you coming and get out of the way, but those bite-proof materials are nice insurance.

I never understood the whole "shoot snakes for protection" thing. A venomous snake on my property with kids around, maybe, but in the woods? I've never met a snake I couldn't just walk around (they don't have legs, after all).

Sorry. Herpetologist here. I'll leave now. ;)
 
I've always just worn jeans and boots......that snakeproof stuff sure would be nice insurance. I just walked out to my shop in sandals tonite, everytime I do that gettin snake bit is always in the back of my mind.

Busting brush makes me nervous, if I had the gators i'd wear em for that.
 
I wear snake boots in the field always. Not so much snakes I'm fearing, it's the cactus and mesquite and all the other thorns. I wear King Ranch Hunting shoe/boots and some Chipewa.
 
If you use gaiters or "leggings" we call them, you still have to have good footwear underneath to prevent "low bites", so you might as well use a good, tall, boot IMO.

The exception being...if you do not intend to be afield for very long or make frequent, short forays into snake habitat....then something easily removed makes more sense.

Nearly anything will work against copperheads, pygmy rattlers, small/young moccasins and certainly Coral's, but large Moccasins, mature Eastern and Western Rattlers can strike pretty hard...so make sure you've got good protection (and not just above the ankle).
 
I used to use these plastic zip up leggings that were cheap. I prefer my snake boots, more comfy, water proof footwear. They're Magellan brand, bought 'em at Academy for about 80 bucks.

Oh, I've tested mine against a little 3 ft rattler, worked great. :D Felt like a piece of brush or something. Didn't realize it was a snake until I heard my buddy walking behind me scream like a girl. Turned around to see him 3 feet in the air. Didn't know a fat 60 year old could jump so high. :D The snake missed him, fortunately, because he was wearing normal shoes.
 
Snake chaps. I have some that zip up the sides and have snaps to connect to my belt. They give protection (so I've been told) to just above the knees and are easily removed without taking my boots off. I wised up and quit coon hunting, so I just use them for weedeating fence lines now. They’re briar proof too. ;)
 
I have a pair of chaps that I picked up at a mom and pop gas station 10 years ago for $20 on closeout. They are great. Never tested them that I know of. I too used bought them for coon hunting and briar protection more than anything. In warmer weather they are hot. They work great in the winter for throwing on over a pair of jeans and rabbit hunting but I really can't recommend them for summer time use in hot climates.
 
i have a pair of Chippewa 17" snake boots that I have been using the same pair of for 6 years, great comfortable boot, no strikes, but seen alot of snakes in the swamps I hunt.
 
I've seen plastic wrap-around leggings which rest on the boots. Looks noisy if worn outside one's pants, but a bit of padding on the top edge and wearing them inside would cut down on rattle-noise against weeds or brush.

My joke about my own wandering is that my feet just won't go where snakes are. I was taught to not walk where I can't see my feet; generally more open country than river bottoms, of course. I don't step beyond a log, nor step downhill past a small ledge in rock.
 
Problem with walking where you can see your feet is that, on my place, that doesn't let you go many places, ROFL! I've owned it 25 years and never shredded, just keep it natural. It's burned a few times, but other than that, grass is waist high in places and the scrub oak takes over on the motts. I'm fishing doves out of that scrub oak a lot in the fall. I've been into brush like that and heard multiple rattles. That'll get ya high steppin' outta there! Ain't no dove worth THAT. :D
 
I grew up in south florida and went barefoot or converse high tops if around palmetto patchs. Never walked looking for snakes. Hunted that way for 30 years. Had a few to avoid but only got twitchy one time when day light came up and I was in 2 feet of water inside a moccasins nesting area. Must have been 20 snakes around me. Backed out and went another way. You grow up around them its just different. We use to kill, clean and fry up rattlers at fish frys.
 
Well, I never had snake boots, either, then I bought land in coastal south Texas. Some places just seem to be where the snakes wanna be. Western diamondbacks are everywhere down here. I've killed 'em out of my back yard that went 6 feet. There were copperheads and moccasins up the coast where I grew up in the live oak woods, but down here, it's a rattler haven. One ignores the possibility at one's peril, especially this time of year in the spring.
 
Never got hit but I remember one dark night down in MCgunner's neck of the woods lacing up air hoses back in the tall grass and weeds in a customer's facility and praying, "Oh Lord, please don't let there be any rattlers back here tonight." Boots don't do much good when you're bent over working between cars, and if a train were going by on the main I'd never hear a rattle.
 
I have a pair of Redwing 17" boots that I have worn for the last 20yrs(they almost drowned me in a river about 15yrs ago), but they have just about had it. The tops are still great, the bottoms are completely shot. I think that I will order a pair of the Chippewa boots and keep going. It is just too thick and there are too many snakes for me to be comfortable walking about in the area that I live without boots or leggings (used leggings exclusively many years ago and before they were "gaiters").
 
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I have been very lucky, hunting in ne fl for 45 years. I had 2 close calls. Once with an eastern diamondback and the other a mocasin. My oldest son about 12 at the time killed the mocasin that I did not see. By the way, I am careful where I step and do my best to look, but I really should invest in some good boots.
 
I wear decent boots and tuck my jeans inside when working/walking in tall grass. I have owned snake boots and gaiters and leggings and they are all WAY too hot for Alabama after May 1st and before October. Most snakes you run across cannot bite through average boots or jeans. That is totally incorrect if you are dealing with mature rattlers or moc's as their fangs are long enough to penetrate jeans or lightweight boots.

I shoot any poisionous snake I see on my property because we do walk a lot as well as hunt and have dogs running around. My Lab is the best snake deterrent as he always finds snakes when we go out. Mostly Easterns here with the occasional moc around water. I seldom see copperheads although I know they are around.

I believe the theory that "a snake will make you hurt yourself worse than he will hurt you". I have seen people nearly kill themselves trying to run 100 yards away from a black runner. I am still looking for Jeff Foxworthy's Copperheadedwaterrattler.
 
jrdolall


Most snakes you run across cannot bite through average boots or jeans. That is totally incorrect if you are dealing with mature rattlers or moc's as their fangs are long enough to penetrate jeans or lightweight boots.
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How do you know which you may encounter?
 
Never understood the "blast a snake if you see one" thing. Like mentioned above....a pit viper of some kind close to my house....then yes. Everything else gets a pass. Killed most of the snake I sent to snake heaven with a rock or stick.

Lived in the south my whole life....just don't walk through snakey looking places with low visibilty of where your foot falls. You will avoid most Rattlers minding that. The only species that concern me are Copperheads and Moccosins. Copperheads are incredibly hard to spot in leaf duff. Moccosins are fast and often aggressive. In areas where I may stumble into one of those I might strap on some gaiters (Rattler brand).
 
In the 60s, I was working as a surveyor and timber cruiser. When working the 'bottoms' in East Arkansas, some of our folks wore the then state of the art aluminum leggings with suede trimmings at top and bottom.

Our crew chief was wearing a pair of these when he got struck by a Diamondback. The snake was over 6 feet long and hit him so hard that it left a big dent in his legging. He said it felt like getting hit with a baseball bat.

I skinned the snake out with the intent of making a belt of the the hide. However, it stunk so bad that I threw it away before the day was over.

Another time, we were cruising timber in the Black River bottoms while the area was still spring flooded. The same crew chief was knee deep in water when he got up on a moccasin on a branch sticking out of the water. His only weapon was a timber scaling rule (Biltmore scale) about 18 inches long. He killed the snake by hitting it 214 times in 1.9 seconds with his 18 inch stick. The accompanying dance and sound effects were quite theatrical too!
 
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