Snakes

[JustinNC]

I have never come across an aggressive copperhead. The only snake I've had strike at readily was a black racer and an irritated rattler that I poked at with a stick (I know, the number one reason people get bit, messing with them......my stick was 8ft long though  :D ). Ive tried the same with copperheads and all they wanted was to try to escape. Never had them strike even provoked. Well one exception was a small cottonmouth (could tell by the sulfer yellow tail as a juvie) that didn't want me within 10ft of it, even unprovoked, on ramp 49 at the OBX.

Ive stepped on two copperheads litterally, and watched my boss step across one at a perpandicular angle, and Ive had one between my legs at a parallel angle to where I was walking...none offered to bite.

I have seen rather agressive (DEFFENSIVE)cottonmouths that got a little irrate when I got too close.

The one rattler I have come across was mad as a hornet that I was anywhere near him, already coiled and rattling. Luckily I saw him at the last minute, but couldnt hear him due to the creek he was laying by.

 

[mrjsl]

Originally posted by Bud B.:

The only poisonous snake I haven't seen this year in NC is a coral snake. Never have seen one in the wild.

 

I live in Louisiana, so I am used to wading around with snakes of all kinds, and I keep a close eye on where I step at all times.

I too, have never seen a coral snake in the wild, BUT I was fishing in a swamp one day and wading around flooded ponds in shorts and old tennis shoes. I was cutting through some flooded woods between two ponds and I stepped up on a dry knoll, and happened to look down, and I had stepped right on a freshly shed coral snake skin. Red on yellow will kill a fellow - or at least make a fellow go home and change underwear.

[Russ Clagett]

Found a sleeping rattler once, out in the evening when i guess he was out and it got cold, so he was all curled up on top of a rock. Poked at him with a stick and got no response, so.....

being young and stupid....I peed on him.

It seemed like the thing to do......problem is they wake up immediately......pissed off.

I ran back to the truck with only the very tips of my toes ever touching the ground. High speed.

It took me a couple hours to convince myself that it didn't scare me............

[BWD]

Never run across an agressive copperhead. Have come real close to a few cottonmouths that I saw because they were coiled, head slightly swaying side to side, with their mouth open. Can't say they were agressive, but they made no attempt to get out of the way either. If you are down wind, and know what you are smelling, its not hard to sniff out them nasty things either.

[toppredator]

In the part of Missouri where I hunt we have copperheads but I have only seen a few(thankfully-those things give me a full-blown case of the creeps)and only know of 1 person who ever actually got bit by 1(young fella fell on 1 at a 3D shoot and it bit him in the small of the back-he was sick for a few days but ultimately he was fine, thankfully).
I am on the look-out for them but it would take more than a snake to keep from the woods in the early season.

[longbowben]

Headed to SC in two weeks to hog hunt glad my chaps came today.Im not wanting to get bit.Snakes spook me.  

[Pete Arthur]

Wow. That is why I live up here in the Great White North!
I'll take my skeeters, black flies, and -20 weather over poisonous things any day! I just hate the thought of them, let alone encountering one.

[bolong]

I respect snakes but dont think too much about them. I've been lucky I guess because in the last 50 years copperheads and cottonmouths have had plenty of oppurtunities to bite me. I have had 3 friends get bitten by a copperhead and believe me it caused some damage. My neighbor got bit on a finger and it shriveled up to not more than the bone.

[straitera]

Snakes can make you hurt yourself. Leave them alone & you're good. Don't be askeered. They're far better at rodent control than not.

[Red4arm]

This topic must have had something to do with it! I was bush hogging my dove field yesterday and ran a 38 inch copperhead out. Right next to the garden. I killed it because my 2 year old "helps" in the garden. And I do know the difference between banded water snakes and a copperhead. One more and i will have skins for a bow!

[SELFBOW19953]

I was born and raised in Florida and have seen numerous coral snakes in the wild.  I've seen lots of other venomous snakes there, too.  In over 50 years, I've personally known 4 people that were bitten by venomous snakes.  One was a forester for what is now Georgia Pacific that was bitten while hacking his way thru palmettos.  One was Ross Allen, of Silver Springs fame, who was bitten milking a rattler.  Another was a snake handler at Silver Springs that had a rattler bite him above his snakeproof boots.  The last guy was trying to take a coral snake away from his dog, dog was fine, man was bitten.  In the Boy Scouts we used to run and carry on in the underbrush all hours of the day and night.  I guess we made so much noise, everything got out of our way.  Here in Delaware we only have a few copperhead.  In the 35 years I've been here, I've never seen one.

[Froggy]

JustinNC,
 Looks like from the pic that the Rattler is about to shed. The eyes have a milky look to them, also between the scales as well. It's a given that when snakes are about to , or in the process of shedding, that they are pretty nervous and jumpy, and are prone to strike at any movement that gets in the zone. Lucky you saw it !! Nice pic by the way.

Froggy

[WRV]

See a copperhead or so every year while bowhunting. I generally don't mess with them. Just let them go about their business while I go about mine. Have seen a couple of cottonmouths down east and they tend to have an attitude. Leave them alone too as long as do the same for me......Randy

[seabass]

j-dog,just because i'm not scared of them doesn't mean i'm not cautious.i wouldn't let them around kids either.i agree with you totally.btw good luck this season,steve

[arky714]

I was bit by a cottenmouth 5 years ago it had dry sockets,my luckly day,I seen 5 try to bite me over the years,had a copperhead hit my boots he got stomped to death,had a 6 ft rattler strike at me,landed at my feet,I had to stand on his head while he wraped around my leg got out my old timer pocketknife and cut his head off...his hide was 10 inches across..I RESPECT ALL SNAKES...

[Sam McMichael]

I don't like any of the venomous snakes, but I agree with nc recurveman - copperheads are just "plain ass mean". My propery has both rattlers and copperheads in abundance, so I worry about them equally.  My biggest fear is a rattlesnake big enough that it would bite higher than my snake boots cover. How likely is that to happen?

[knife river]

Good thread!  Like several others, I've been fascinated by snakes (and just about everything else) as long as I can remember.  We're blessed to live in a world with such an amazing variety of life.  And if it occasionally scares the bejeebers out of us, well that's part of the fun, isn't it?

I got hit by a copperhead once, but it was a dry bite.  Couldn't blame him -- I'd inadvertently raked him up in a big pile of leaves with a steel tine rake.  And I rake like it's a competitive sport.  When I started picking up the leaves and stuffing them into bags, he hit me on the ball of the thumb.  All I got from it was seriously puckered (and not in the thumb area).  

We just moved away from the Texas hill country where I often looked for snakes.  Found quite a few in the last three years, but not one single rattler.  To hear folks talk, there's a 8 foot diamondback under every bush in Texas.  Is there a connection between snake oil peddlers and snake boot salesmen?        

The first snake we saw here in coastal Georgia was this handsome little fella.  I've never seen a coral snake in the wild, but this scarlet kingsnake can't be any less beautiful.  That's my 13 year old daughter's hand.  I'm very glad she has a sense of wonder about it all, too.

   

[ishoot4thrills]

knife river, that's one beautiful scarlet king snake! I've always wanted one of those ever since I was a kid. I have looked for them all my life here in KY, but have never seen one in the wild. They're not common at all here but there's supposed to be some here somewhere.

[longbowben]

This is why i bought chaps.Our first hunt in Texas this is what leatherneck and myself ran into.

[nc recurveman]

My wife was lookin at some of the pics on the thread here. She ask did I tell my now what story, I didn't so I'll tell it now. This was a couple years after we were married. Her uncle gave me permission to hunt the farm he tended, which nearly impossible to get. I helped during cabbage season for 2 years  before I got permission. Anyway I was sitting in the stand, it was a real nasty 3-4 year old cutover next to the field. The only choice was a big oak spared by the logging company right over a fairly deep "mostly" dry ditch. I never took notice before, it had been a dry year and the bottom of the ditch had 2-3 inches of water in it. well I'm sittin in the tree doin may best coon impersonation, I start noticing ripples in the ditch......lots of ripples! By 7 O'clock there 6-8 cottonmouths having a party under me, 1 was truely massive. I called the wife told her how cool it was to watch all the activatey told her I'd be home for dinner blah blah and hungup. Phone vibrates minutes later, "Cleve if all those snakes are under you, how are you going to get down". Yea that was a good question. she called her uncle he brought the tractor out with the ditch mower and plucked me from half way up the tree. LOL.........the in-laws never get tired of telling that story at thanksgiving.........lol