shootniron
Member
WHO counted the blows? lol
Question about snake protection...
- Thread starter shootniron
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WHO counted the blows? lol
My son in law wears the boots, but guess what, he got bit in the hand this year while turkey hunting. He is OK, a copperhead got him in the finger while he was setting and calling. It was a glansing hit so he didn't get the full charge of venom. Evendently the snake was just under the leaves where he had laid his call down at. Murphy's law I guess.
dogrunner
Member
We had a local deputy badly bitten while on a training exercise last year......dog handler as I recall, wading thru heavy palmetto/sandy oak ridge terrain......impossible to see ones feet..........as I recall neither he nor any with him saw the snake. Spent a few days in the hospital tho.
Friend lost a beagle to a large diamondback last year.....dog bled out before he could be gotten to a vet, fang marks were over 2 1/2 inches apart. Mostly tho, in my experience, these Florida diamondbacks will try to avoid you if they can.....now moccasins are a different proposition, they'll not move, can and will bite underwater, and if irritated sufficiently WILL come at you.
Some doubt that last, but I personally witnessed a friend try to kill one about a foot long on a sandy road by stomping it...he failed and when he removed his boot it literally ran him back about ten feet against the back of his truck whereon he stomped on it again.....he looked at me and asked what he ought to do & I handed him my pocket knife suggesting he cut off the loose end before he moved again.
Far as biting underwater goes, I had an acquaintance that used to stand hunt on a dog lease we had. He would wade thru a swamp to a high pine island to his setup & stepped on a moccasin underwater. The bite penetrated his knee high rubber boots and caused extreme tissue damage. When I saw him again the next season he was STILL limping, his foot was emaciated and the skin look almost translucent!.....
Best protection is probably a good set of knee high boots and considered caution as to where one sits or places ones hands....My understanding is that most of the bites in this part of the country involve folks gardening.
Regardless of what the snake lovers say, my take is that if the animal is close enought to damage me or mine, then it's history!
Friend lost a beagle to a large diamondback last year.....dog bled out before he could be gotten to a vet, fang marks were over 2 1/2 inches apart. Mostly tho, in my experience, these Florida diamondbacks will try to avoid you if they can.....now moccasins are a different proposition, they'll not move, can and will bite underwater, and if irritated sufficiently WILL come at you.
Some doubt that last, but I personally witnessed a friend try to kill one about a foot long on a sandy road by stomping it...he failed and when he removed his boot it literally ran him back about ten feet against the back of his truck whereon he stomped on it again.....he looked at me and asked what he ought to do & I handed him my pocket knife suggesting he cut off the loose end before he moved again.
Far as biting underwater goes, I had an acquaintance that used to stand hunt on a dog lease we had. He would wade thru a swamp to a high pine island to his setup & stepped on a moccasin underwater. The bite penetrated his knee high rubber boots and caused extreme tissue damage. When I saw him again the next season he was STILL limping, his foot was emaciated and the skin look almost translucent!.....
Best protection is probably a good set of knee high boots and considered caution as to where one sits or places ones hands....My understanding is that most of the bites in this part of the country involve folks gardening.
Regardless of what the snake lovers say, my take is that if the animal is close enought to damage me or mine, then it's history!
jaysouth
Member
I go out of my way to avoid water moccasins. We had this yuppie kayaker get bitten on a finger over on the Buffalo River last summer. He spent a week in Vanderbilt with multiple surgeries. They managed to save his hand. He had two doses of anti-venom at $12,000 each.
As far as I know, that is the only water moccasin bite in Tennessee in serveral years.
Wonder if he was wearing one of those $700 spandex yuppie kayaker costumes I see more and more of on the rivers?
As far as I know, that is the only water moccasin bite in Tennessee in serveral years.
Wonder if he was wearing one of those $700 spandex yuppie kayaker costumes I see more and more of on the rivers?
Sergei Mosin
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The day before I graduated high school, one of my classmates - someone I'd grown up with, gone to school with all the way through, played ball with - went swimming in the local lake. He swam into a group of water moccasins and they killed him.
Ours had been the only class in years not to lose someone along the way. We thought we'd made it through. We were wrong.
Ours had been the only class in years not to lose someone along the way. We thought we'd made it through. We were wrong.
langenc
Member
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").
Check with Redwing as they may have a 'boot rebuild' program. You would get them rebuilt for about 1/2 what new one cost.
Check with Redwing as they may have a 'boot rebuild' program. You would get them rebuilt for about 1/2 what new one cost.
MCgunner
Member
Moccasins....reminds me of "Lonesome Dove".
I got hit by a copperhead once, it felt like being swatted in the calf by a grown man swinging a broom-handle as hard as he could muster. I was wearing jeans and ankle-high leather boots. I had two fang punctures, but it injected no venom. Just hurt mildly for a couple days.
This is why I don't like copperheads: They're cranky, typically stand their ground rather than fleeing immediately, and have no rattle to warn with, so their first "warning" is usually a strike. The good news is that adult copperheads often don't waste venom on a "warning" strike. 50/50 chance, or so I've read.
This is why I don't like copperheads: They're cranky, typically stand their ground rather than fleeing immediately, and have no rattle to warn with, so their first "warning" is usually a strike. The good news is that adult copperheads often don't waste venom on a "warning" strike. 50/50 chance, or so I've read.
a-sheepdog
Member
I like snake boots as they cover my foot area as well as above the foot. Gaiters are okay, but I feel better with a complete boot. I have a pair of Rocky Snake Boots, very comfortable, but extremely warm in the summer.
I have a buddy that tried to hit a copperhead with a hard rake a few years back. The rake hit a rock which shot back and hit the guy in the shin knocking him to the ground. When he looked up and could get the tears out of his eyes he saw the snake curled around the rake and coming toward him. He threw the rake in the woods and had to half crawl up the trail to his house where he lay on the couch for several days with a severely bruised shin bone. He leaves the rake where it fell to remind him to leave snakes alone unless they are a menace and he never did see where the snake went.
I have been wearing my Rocky snake boots that reach up just a little below my kneefor 10 years.
Around Oct. last year, I was walking along a small river coyote hunting, when I stepped on something that felt like wet mud. I ignored it and took a few steps forward. But then I heard the rattle and looked back. A rattlesnale
! My body turned cold when I realized what it was. Though it never took a bite at me, I was glad I was wearing these boots.
Around Oct. last year, I was walking along a small river coyote hunting, when I stepped on something that felt like wet mud. I ignored it and took a few steps forward. But then I heard the rattle and looked back. A rattlesnale
! My body turned cold when I realized what it was. Though it never took a bite at me, I was glad I was wearing these boots.Readyrod
Member
Don't rubber boots work against snakes? I've heard that that's what they wear in Latin America. I always thought that my farm boots would work well.
Here in Japan they have a lot of snakes, it's the most common roadkill I've seen while cycling.
Here in Japan they have a lot of snakes, it's the most common roadkill I've seen while cycling.
ApacheCoTodd
member
I've been bitten several times with skin punctures and had not one significant envenomation to date though one incident lead to a very hairy infection.
Most recently, my Daisy (who last appeared in a thread about shotguns where I touched on her almost (mere feet) getting taken down by Mexican Greys) was tagged 4+ times by a sidewinder that had let my two other dogs and my wife step right over it. We were stepping through a narrow wash on a single track and I had called Daisy to stop as I saw she was molesting some burrs up around her ears. As it happens, she stopped dead in the bottom of this very narrow and very shallow wash and directly on top of a partially buried sidewinder.
The buzz-worm started striking her just as I bent to her ears and she part leaped and part got tossed outa the wash but I wanted to kill the snake to take it to the vet in case I couldn't ID it - it hadn't moved in a sidewinder's very specific way yet - and also, I knew from experience that it is ironically very difficult to move successfully out of a rattlesnake's strike zone with out getting hit. They are remarkably forgiving if you don't get in that zone but once there, well, they hold a grudge.
So anyhow, I'm trying to get the stomp on this rascal while simultaneously not fall on the edges of the wash or have my luck run out in the envenomation department and watched this beast repeatedly hammer my Army desert boots with no (later determined) punctures and no apparent attempts to strike higher up my leg. The strike marks on the boot and the venom discoloration (will actually start to break down the leather) were an eye opener! When the snake finally sidled off at afterburner speed, identifying it by movement and an urgency to scoop Daisy off to the vet changed my priorities.
So, there's a quick run down on my having been bit from the Pacific coast to central Texas and having had lots of luck but seeing no particular need to over dress. Although, had I suffered Daisy's wounds and having seen the relative treatments of doctors, veterinarians and my own SF medics... Were I to get envenomated and don't have an SF medic around - I'd sure be wanting a vet.
Others have had very different and horrendous experiences on their one and only encounter but I just thought I'd throw this out there.
Now, Coral Snakes, Moccasins, Timber Rattlers... They're a whole other degree of squiggly Hell!
Most recently, my Daisy (who last appeared in a thread about shotguns where I touched on her almost (mere feet) getting taken down by Mexican Greys) was tagged 4+ times by a sidewinder that had let my two other dogs and my wife step right over it. We were stepping through a narrow wash on a single track and I had called Daisy to stop as I saw she was molesting some burrs up around her ears. As it happens, she stopped dead in the bottom of this very narrow and very shallow wash and directly on top of a partially buried sidewinder.
The buzz-worm started striking her just as I bent to her ears and she part leaped and part got tossed outa the wash but I wanted to kill the snake to take it to the vet in case I couldn't ID it - it hadn't moved in a sidewinder's very specific way yet - and also, I knew from experience that it is ironically very difficult to move successfully out of a rattlesnake's strike zone with out getting hit. They are remarkably forgiving if you don't get in that zone but once there, well, they hold a grudge.
So anyhow, I'm trying to get the stomp on this rascal while simultaneously not fall on the edges of the wash or have my luck run out in the envenomation department and watched this beast repeatedly hammer my Army desert boots with no (later determined) punctures and no apparent attempts to strike higher up my leg. The strike marks on the boot and the venom discoloration (will actually start to break down the leather) were an eye opener! When the snake finally sidled off at afterburner speed, identifying it by movement and an urgency to scoop Daisy off to the vet changed my priorities.
So, there's a quick run down on my having been bit from the Pacific coast to central Texas and having had lots of luck but seeing no particular need to over dress. Although, had I suffered Daisy's wounds and having seen the relative treatments of doctors, veterinarians and my own SF medics... Were I to get envenomated and don't have an SF medic around - I'd sure be wanting a vet.
Others have had very different and horrendous experiences on their one and only encounter but I just thought I'd throw this out there.
Now, Coral Snakes, Moccasins, Timber Rattlers... They're a whole other degree of squiggly Hell!
MCgunner
Member
The bigger rattlers and moccasins I've killed had hypo needle fangs that would go through rubber like a hot knife through butter. Get some kevlar. I don't even trust heavy leather.
I have done a lot of wade fishing here on the gulf coast. Stingray's are a hazard. They make zip on kevlar leggings for this, too, that cover the top of the boot as well as up the leg. This could work for snakes, but if I get some, it'd be for wade fishing. I just do the fisherman's shuffle and have never been hit. But, it could still happen even shuffling. I could shuffle right in to a stinger. That would not be fun. I'll keep my kevlar lined snake boots for snakes.
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