Rare encouter

[Boomerang]

I took my bow to some public land to hunt squirrels and scout. I signed in at the sign-in station and noticed that there wasn't anybody else signed in for that day. So I thought cool, I have it all to myself! Well I proceeded to pull out of the parking lot to go down to the section I like to go and I saw a snake slowly crossing the road. So I got out of the car to check it out and low and behold it was a massasauga rattle snake.  :eek:   I held it's head down with an arrow and picked it up at the back of its head. That's when it through a fit and started whipping arround and rattling. I stuck my arrow up to it's mouth and it started nashing at it like a rabbid dog excreeting venom on my arrow. I let it go in the ditch. They are endangerd in Indiana. I have never seen one in my whole life up here.

[Barry Rowland]

Brother you are a braver man than me!!  Great post!

[Keith Zimmerman]

Thats awesome what you did!  Very cool not killing it.

[Alexander Traditional]

I googled it,it has a very distinct pattern,pretty neat.

[TxAg]

Cool.  I wasn't aware they lived up there. You're braver than me  

[Bladepeek]

That's the only venomous snake in Michigan and they're protected here too. Never saw one and kinda hoping I don't. I wouldn't kill it unless it was in my yard, but I REALLY don't like snakes. A lake about 10 miles from my home is supposed to be the rattlesnake capital of Michigan, but haven't seen any there either. Maybe I'm blind.

[joe ashton]

I believe I heard that one reason people get bit by snakes is that they mess with them. For example,  picking them up!!!!
Anti-snake venom is some thing like $50,000 a dose.

[Boomerang]

Originally posted by joe ashton:
I believe I heard that one reason people get bit by snakes is that they mess with them. For example,  picking them up!!!!
Anti-snake venom is some thing like $50,000 a dose.

Heh Heh, I've had so many reptiles as pets since I was a kid I lost count. You just have to know how to pick them up. Although this is the first poisonous one I have ever picked up.  

[landman]

An "exciting experience" like that can turn on less than a dime and you're fortunate to have walked away unscathed.   I'd recommend that you view a few Youtube videos on snake bite before you get the idea that reckless behavior can go unrewarded.

I don't hurt the snakes I come across either.  The eastern woods snakes are not as quick to react as the prairie rattlers that we have in the west. I have accidentally pushed my luck with them, twice. Massasaugas are extremely rare in Iowa, I have never seen one, but they are here.

[Bladepeek]

At Fort Sill OK back in the early 60's, we decided to climb Mt Scott just for grins. We got to the top and an old guy (my current age) said "You city boys must be crazy climbing up through all those snakes". I'm not a city boy, at least not originally, as I was raised on a small farm, but I really had not seen any. The old boy took us back down the path we came up and showed us three within about 5 minutes. They were just lying there enjoying the sun. At Ft Hood, TX, I had one protest my presence when I got out to change a flat. I drove 25 yds farther down the road, flat tire and all, before I got out again.

On a field training exercise, the 1Sgt told us to set up an M-60 in the ditch at a fork in the road. We found about a dozen little baby copperheads and figured Momma was around somewhere. The M-60, despite "Top's" disapproval, was set up elsewhere. I REALLY DO NOT like snakes  

[jwhitetail]

Really cool!  A Snake Handler... LOL.  Well as others have said you are braver than me.  Really great when you get to see rare wildlife.

But I really do actually like the rattlers we have around here.  There are lots of them and they are always fighting turf wars with the non-venomous Bull snakes that we also have in these parts.  Both types are excellent rodent killers!  Here is a picture of a big boy that we ran across on an outing a few years back (we gave him a wide berth)- thanks for posting your encounter.
 

[TraditionalGuy]

I've never heard of that kind of snake, so I had to google it. Based on the images, I would have had a hard time not envisioning his skin on the back of one of my bows. You are definitely braver and a kinder man than I

[nineworlds9]

What a neat encounter!  Growing up here in FL I've encountered all kinds of snakes- rat snakes, coachwhips, racers, water snakes, cottonmouths, rattlers.  I give em their space, I also agree they are superior rodent control.  If a nasty gets in my yard though its gonna be grilled snake on a stick for sure though.  Yum!!

[juneaulongbow]

Cool experience    

[Boomerang]

Originally posted by juneaulongbow:
Cool experience      

Ya, I was bummed I didn't have a camera with me!  

[AKP]

My son and I were visiting the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in NE Oklahoma last month and almost stepped on a Western Massasauga that was coiled up in the hiking trail.  It was a juvenile.  Took some cool pics of him.  It is the only one I've ever seen in my entire life and I don't know anyone else who has ever encountered this type of snake.  Very cool.

[Chortdraw]

We encountered a very large Mohave Green at one of our archery shoots here in Prescott.They can be a little aggressive and are quite potent venom wise.
  He was about 3.5 feet long and almost the size of my wrist. We see western diamond backs quite often out here but this is their home too.

[rodwha]

Down here in Texas there are plenty of rattlers so I don't feel badly eating the ones I come across.

[Sam McMichael]

Some of Mother Nature's beauty is best appreciated from a distance.