Best knife for killing a Black Mamba

U

Uncle Bill

Joined
Aug 24, 1999
Messages
434
This is a real question.

One night when I was a boy in Nigeria my dad encountered a ten-foot black mamba on a path about twenty feet from our house.

"Bring machete!!! Bring machete!!!!"

40 years later I can still hear him shouting, and I can still see the dead snake a Nigerian friend killed with the blade he kept under his pillow (as was the sensible custom of all Nigerian men at the time).

So what do you kill mambas with?

(BTW The snake was dead by the time my dad yelled three times.)



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Bill

Unfortunate but Increasingly Necessary Disclaimer:

While this post likely contains incorrect information, fuzzy logic, poor grammar and misspelled words, what it does not contain is intentional malevolence toward anyone.


 
Easy. Cold Steel Bushmaster socketed tightly on the end of a 10ft pole. Also known as a "homebrew redneck Naginata".

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Jim
 
Hand gernades, shot guns, I wouldnt want to get close enough to a Mamba to kill it. I would run away so fast all you would see would be a dust trail.

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Shawn R Sullivan
~San Diego, Ca~
 
A black Mamba is an awsome sight,being able to raise most of its body off the ground and it's lightning quick (and last but not least deadly) - I would say encountering it at close range in the bush, nothing less than a Remington 870.
 
For a poisonous snake near where people live, and with a choice of garden tools for the job, I think I'd reach for a long-handled shovel or hoe rather than a machete.

For a poisonous snake out in the bush, if I see it before it bit me, I'd back off and walk around it.

One "war story" from California was a guy who told me he had been out dove hunting, sitting in a chair with his shotgun, waiting for a snack to fly overhead, when he noticed a movement at his feet and saw a Mojave Green rattlesnake (unusually nasty bite for a North American snake) between his legs and slithering away. Since the snake had slithered up to him and hadn't bitten him, and was now moving away from him, he decided that the proper thing to do was let it keep going.

And an administrative note - if we get another run of "What knife for slaying such and such a critter?" threads, they all get sent over to Jim March's jurisdiction again.
smile.gif



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- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
AKTI Member # SA00001
 
IMO, if you have time to call out (or go get) a weapon, you have time to vacate the snake's vicinity.
Of course, if the snake invades my comfort zone (close to my house ) I could become defensive enough to find a long handled chopping tool. Last resort, only.

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BrianWE
ICQ #21525343


 
I'd introduce the snake to Vampire Gerbil and make my escape while they were forging their relationship.
smile.gif
 
And now a follow up question:

What did my dad's friend do that night? How did he approach the snake (obviously an extreme threat in a highly populated village) and deftly snick its head off?

(Maybe I should ask this on the tactical forum.)

BTW I killed a big rattler once in an LA suburb out on the edge of the desert (on the back porch). No way would I have used a matchete, even with this much slower snake; I used a hoe. I can't imagine what happened that night years ago. Must have taken some courage and skill.
 
I would use the same thing I use to kill Rattleheaded Coppermoccasin's here in Missouri, a Remington 870...
 
James Mattis,
Thank you! Thank you very much for the administrative note!

As for the question at hand:
If the snake isn't chasing you, or has not taken up residence in your house, leave the thing alone. Good Grief...
I have to seemingly continually harp this mantra to my family, friends and neighbors all seeming to be hell bent on the elimination of any and all snakes, venomous or not.
Contrary to popular belief, snakes are not the evil perveyor's of death that people make them out to be.
They just wanna be left alone.
I've crossed path's with many Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnakes and Water Moccasins and Timber Rattlers and the occasional Coral Snake and never got in trouble with any of'em.
Leave them alone and they'll leave you alone. It's called mutual respect, and it's a good thing to have. Rant mode off...

Okay, granted, there are the rather aggresive species which the Black Mamba happens to be one of, so I guess what I would do is hope I had a nice 24" blade machete to whack him into two or more less dangerous pieces. Given another option, I would rather leave the area and leave the Mamba alone.

Ok, you snake haters.
Flame Away!


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So, what IS the speed of dark?

 
I seem to remember a special on one of the learning channels, TLC, Discovery, Animal Planet, etc. regarding a doctor from England trying to track and capture Black Mamba's in order to produce anti-nenom is some for African country. He stated that the Black Mamba is one of the few snakes that when threatened, will actually CHASE after someone or something that has encountered it.
Is that ture? Seems to me running away may not be the best option. Maybe slowly backing away so as not to frighten the animal.
 
Definitely a light saber!
Seriousely, if I had to have a blade and not the trusty old 12guage, I'd want 2 different knives. 1 would be about a 24" machete as sharp as possible in case the thing lunges(yeah right I'd never be fast enough)and the other would be some kind of redneck contraption on a pole that I could stay way back with.
Or maybe just a half dozen throwing knives.

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Fix it right the first time, use Baling Wire !
 
Misque,

I agree, and I disagree.

1. If you encounter a venomous snake out in the boonies, just leave it alone (unless it's a mamba chasing you; then run like you've never run).

2. If you encounter it in town, in your own residential neighborhood, the situation changes, and not necessarily because you're a snake hater. The big rattler I mentioned before had just lost his territory to a housing project on the very edge of the LA sprawl. Where once only coyotes and desert rodents lit up his infra-red equipment, neighborhood tricyclists in pampers now competed for his attention. After I killed it and the story got circulated, four families on my block finally had the answer to why there had been a rash of dogs dying that week.

I'm not a snake hater, but I don't like six foot diamondbacks left alone to wander the neighborhood.

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Bill

Unfortunate but Increasingly Necessary Disclaimer:

While this post likely contains incorrect information, fuzzy logic, poor grammar and misspelled words, what it does not contain is intentional malevolence toward anyone.


 
Sorry, I let myself get sucked in. Shouldn't have done that. I really have no interest in the "whether to kill them" debate.

All I wanted, really, was a discussion of what to do, and with what blade, given the necessity of killing a dangerous snake.

I still find it almost incredible that my dad's friend killed that mamba with a machete.

 
You should have released that diamondback into its natural environment, say, a lawyers convention, or maybe a convenient legislature.
 
I'm sure you all know this alredy but...

whichever blade/firearm/space weapon you use to dispatch your snake, you should be extremely cautious in handling the carcass, as a significant proportion of snake bites arise from dead snakes. Apparently, in some species the biting is a reflex action and handling the carcass too soon can touch off some muscular reflexes.

The best defence is obviously the one used in Ireland where Saint Patrick expelled all the snakes!!

Gerry
 
With my 3 yr. old son I think . Last summer at my parents home we were in the garden I told both of my boys that to watch for snakes . We were in there for 30 min.or so and my oldest started to scream (Wyatt he is 4) and jumped in my mothers arms and before I could do anything my 3yr old Connor had the hoe and cut the rat snake's head off .
He is the snake killer in the family.
Steve45
 
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