It's that time of year again! I made doubley sure to grab my sneaky snake boots today while out scouting for turkeys and pigs. This happened about an hour from my house the other day.
http://okcfox.com/news/local/man-catches-48-inch-long-rattlesnake-before-having-a-heart-attack
And the small community 10min south of me has their festival soon also. And while I said "that time of year", a Ft. Sill soldier was on a land nav course a couple years back in JANUARY and was hit on the leg by a +6ft snake and he lost his leg. In January!!!
Just be careful guys and gals!
Would a snake that large hit you above your snake boot? That's just plain scary. Taller snake leggings might be better for those guys.
OMG...
Man I would have had a heart attack as well if I ran into that thing!
Oh my
I know one person I know him personally that got bit by a snake he was a kid he was playing basketball within a quarter of a mile of the courthouse of my town and I've played in the woods all my life....
I don't wear any snake protection and I'm not going to I don't see the purpose half the time I'm crawling around kneeling whatever I'll take my chances as it's very rare that people get snake bit....
no reason to get petrified over snakes but if it makes you feel better to Shield yourself to whatever degree go right ahead...
Like I stated in the thread earlier I have a friend of mine who hunts in south Georgia where it's snake rampant at times in the swamps of South Georgia he wears tennis shoes hunting and has for years.
Quote from: Sam McMichael on March 30, 2018, 07:29:51 PM
Would a snake that large hit you above your snake boot? That's just plain scary. Taller snake leggings might be better for those guys.
Scientists say they can only hit 1/3 of their body length so my short 5'6" doesn't like hearing about something that big. My Danner snake boots are 18". I do have a pair of chaps but they are loud! I've only seen one rattler while hunting and that was a timber rattler out in Eastern OK during muzzle loader season. Nearly stepped on his head while walking down a logging/oilfield lease road.
Wow!!!
I hope Mr. Crow will be okay!
The size of that snake, and the fact that they're even out in this cold weather amazes me. I think its colder here in Broken Arrow than it is back at my home in western OR........
Terry, honestly a big reason I wear them is for the protection from all the stickers, rose bushes & other prickly veggies we have here. Actually had a cactus needle almost make it through my boots at a seem, enough for me to know it was there but not prick me.
JNewton. I was visiting Beavers Bend 4yrs ago in the middle of June and remember having to wear a hoodie at noontime. Granted it had been foggy and misted off and on for several days also.
Yikes!!! Don't know if I'd had a heart attack, but would have needed a clean pair of under ware. Glad to see the guy is going to be alright.
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I hope this turns out upright.
Some things just don't belong under the water bucket during a big trad shoot.
Last May at Memphis, Tx.
A couple of us nearly had a kitten whilst drinking water.
Kinda hard on a guy, snake or not :goldtooth:
I have run into quite a few in Texas while hunting hogs, none at night while blood trailing thank god . Some of those Texas rattlers are huge we've killed some 6 footers that were almost as big around as your fore arm . I've also got 4 in the ND Badlands they are smaller and more greenish and not as plentiful .
I don't like em and I cant hear the rattles. I have snake gaiters but I always forget to put them on .
A few summers ago I was helping a buddy put new heads on his sprinkler it was a hot day and the corn was tall which made it hard to see your feet. I felt something soft underfoot and looked down to see I was stepping right on a big fat rattler. I tried to crush him beneath my boot but the soft wet soil made it impossible. I gave up on crushing him and jumped as far as I could and made a mad dash. Later that night I bought the tallest pull on Ariat work. It's I could find
A few years back on Camp Pendleton my wife was in the kitchen and my infant son was playing on the living room floor. Our spaniel went nuts and my wife saw a rattler coiled up-dog got between our son and the snake. Spaniel had been bitten on the ear. Doc saved him. Never can tell where they'll turn up. There are lots of them here in Nevada but not encountered often.
Speaking of Camp Pendleton, many, many moons ago (1996ish) when in ITR at Camp Onofre (sp?) we killed 5 rattlers under the bleachers during night compass training then proceeded to take off on a night compass course gig.
Needless to say concentration was not totally on the compass.
Semper Fi
Was stationed at Corey Field in 1966 for school and when we got to run the obstacle the Marines had to clear the rattle snakes out of the old tires before we got to play. There was always at least one per tire
This is what I do to those critters.
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I do not see many snakes and never know how to react. I was told of prairie rattlers not far from here, an area that even has a type of cactus. I found one by a firewood pile, it tried a strike, but I was out of range. Some students and a college prof found more on a brushy hillside. They reported that some of the snakes were well off the ground in the woody cover, no snake boots would help, they panicked and got off the hill side. I have not heard any reports for some time about the freak rattler hill. Once along the the Mississippi on a deer scouting/ motorcycle run, I stepped on a fallen tree trunk, my foot broke through and a hoard of bumble bees came out and attacked me. I ran around a rock bluff and was rubbing off the bees that were trying to bite through my leather jacket. I was rubbing my back on the rock and turned to find me about 6 inches face to face of a very large timber rattler sunning himself on a rock ledge. He stuck his tongue out a couple of times and that was all. I am not sure what would be worse, get bitten the neck by bumble bees or bit in the face by a snake. The bee bites in the neck were bad enough.
Oh yes, I forgot. the area that has the rare chance of seeing an Iowa prairie rattler, also has one of the most wonderful things in all of nature, wild strawberries, lots of wild strawberries. Trust me, they are worth the risk.
Quote from: Soonerlongbow on April 02, 2018, 10:10:56 PM
Terry, honestly a big reason I wear them is for the protection from all the stickers, rose bushes & other prickly veggies we have here. Actually had a cactus needle almost make it through my boots at a seem, enough for me to know it was there but not prick me.
JNewton. I was visiting Beavers Bend 4yrs ago in the middle of June and remember having to wear a hoodie at noontime. Granted it had been foggy and misted off and on for several days also.
I hear you on Thorn protection because I've been to Texas quite a few times and I brought back quite a few stickers that came out one or two weeks later but never saw a snake which reminds me I think I'll start a thread
Recovering from a poisonous snake bite can be very expensive. Snake gaiters are cheap by comparison. When the weather turns warm and the snakes get active I wear the gaiters -- cheap insurance.
Gotta figure out how to post pics; encountered a rare "GA cobra" several years ago at Ft Stewart that put on a good show...
TTT For GA. :bigsmyl:
A few years ago, like 1964, I was attending artillery training at Ft Sill, OK. A few of us decided we were going to climb up Mt Scott. There was a road to a parking lot on top on one side of the mountain (really large hill) but we walked up the other side. We got to the top and an old guy (he seemed old to me at that time:-)) Said "You city boys never cease to amaze me". I didn't consider myself a city boy as I grew up on a small farm in Michigan and said so. He took us back down the way we had climbed up and showed us half a dozen rattlers sunning themselves. Survival of the innocents?
Ft. Sill and the Wichita Mts have a metric crap ton of snakes. When I was a cop on Ft. Sill the only snake bite case I personally worked (was also assigned to a police medic duties) was actually from the Refuge. A little girl stepped over a rock and the snake bit her calf. The man hiking with them tossed her over his shoulder and ran all the way back to the trailhead. She kept her leg. The young LT that was bitten while I was there didn't.
My grandfather went through OCS on Ft. Sill back then also.
Some of those snakes pictured are huge. I still break out in a cold sweat when I think of the two rattlers in almost the same area two years in a row that I nearly stepped on!
When hunting in Texas I have encountered about 6 of the blue indigo snakes some of them are huge also 7 to 9 feet the biggest I have seen is about 7 feet . They come in a color of like grape bubble gum to almost black. One I was after changed colors from dark blue to almost black . I understand they kill rattle snakes .
On the bigger snakes I wonder if snake boots and gaiters are tall enough .
My dog Mickey and I have one thing in common, we have both been bitten by Copperheads. I made my living as a nuisance trapper and Mickey was in training at the time to locate snakes. I trained him to find them but they were always in a pillow case. Hadn't gotten around to teach him they bite. Usually use a black snake to teach them. Was at a job for a copperhead under the front stoop and was putting him on a cable but the owner came out and distracted me. Too late he smelled the snake and got bit on the snout. I thought if I get any venom out it will help so I sucked out blood and venom 3 times by the last one he was yelping pretty good. Vet in 10 minutes, antibiotics and anti inflammatory and he was good to go in 2 days. Here's a before and after pic.
Been bit at least 15 times since moving to the deep south. I wish i was a PC guy. I've stacks of pics & vids of 6' vipers! I'll figure it out. Took a bite to the right elbow a month ago. Down to almost no effect! Shucks!!
Last summer I found this guy in the yard next to the house as I was running out back to fling some arrows. Had not seen one in 7 years since we moved here, but had been expecting to that summer because how dry/hot it was, figuring they would come into the garage for cool and water.
Anyway, I didn't trust my bow skills to get him before he got away, so I whacked him with a shovel
(https://i.imgur.com/ZioxGtL.jpg)
Quote from: SnakebitYank on April 14, 2018, 03:51:27 PM
Been bit at least 15 times since moving to the deep south. I wish i was a PC guy. I've stacks of pics & vids of 6' vipers! I'll figure it out. Took a bite to the right elbow a month ago. Down to almost no effect! Shucks!!
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What kind of vipers?
Snakebityank, do you belly crawl to your stand.....lol....wowzer.