Snake worries

In my experience water moccasins can be very aggressive. As a side note I recently read of a woman here in TX that got bit by a copperhead. She went to the ER was admitted for observation overnight after receiving anti-venom. Her hospital bill was $45,000. $35,000 for the anti-venom. If I saw that one again I might shoot him. :D

Jack
 
Mete timber rattlers are rare in the wood surrounding my area I've only seen one in the past few years (but that doesn't mean that they aren't there) and I don't ever recall seeing them when I was a kid growing up in Schoharie county. but THere is certainly no shrtage of copperheads...I believe (though not sure) that rattlers are listed as an endangered species in NY but copperheads are not.
 
If you feel you have to kill a snake just because you encounter it while you are blundering through the area where it lives, then you probably have no business being there in the first place. I deal with them just like I deal with all wildlife: I try to disturb them as little as possible as I walk around or away from them. You will only truly understand and appreciate nature when you operate within and in cooperation with it while making as little impact on it as you possibly can.

Killing wildlife is only justifiable when you are doing it for food or are under attack. If you want target practice go to the range.
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Exactly.

If you get bit by a snake, you either were messing with it or never saw it at all. The first situation is easy to avoid. In the second, there's nothing that a .22 could have helped with.

I heard a lecture once from Dr. William Forgey, an expert in outdoor medicine. He receommended the Sawyer Extractor as a first aid tool. You might want to pick one up if you work or live outdoors in snake habitat.
http://domsoutdoor.com/product.asp?pn=1-016554&bhcd2=1179768019

Like the series of black bear phobia posts from a while back, it's really a non-issue. I lived and worked outdoors full time for years as a professional archaeologist, both in the desert and the Southern forests. Saw plenty of snakes, thousands and thousands of them, it seems the majority were poisonous. In all of that time, no one was ever bit.

-Bob
 
A report from the PA officials a few years ago showed that most rattlesnake bites occur in young males under the influence and the bites were usually on the hands and arms , but the numbers are still low !!!
 
A report from the PA officials a few years ago showed that most rattlesnake bites occur in young males under the influence and the bites were usually on the hands and arms , but the numbers are still low !!!
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I don't have the inclination or resources or skills to put the numbers into a scientific statistic, but considering the number of man-hours that the archaeological crews spent outdoors each year (thousands), the number of snakes seen (thousands), and the number of people bitten (none), I'd say that the likelihood is very close to 0%.

Despite that though, I have known two people who were bitten by rattlesnakes. Neither of them saw the snake until being bitten.

I'd also like to point out that the survival rate for snakebite victems is 499 out of 500.

-Bob
 
I've dealt with Copperheads and Rattlers. I have a complex specialized system of dealing with them, or any other poisonous snake.
1. Avoid them.
2. If you encounter one, leave.
3. if it's in your camp, move it.

If you really want to be all Rambo in the woods then bring the guns for tree-dwelling zombies or cave trolls.
 
I always tell people that we are not there normal food. They wont attack unless for self defence. I never heard of a snake chasing a person down the trail.
So now as i said all that. The best way to handle a snake is walk away. most of the time one step back is enough. If you dont want to take a chance then take two steps back. Thats it you are safe now. If you feel that you are too close to the snake to get away from him. Then you are too close to the snake to pull your gun out and shoot it. Most people that do get a snake bite were playing with the snake in the first place. I just walk around them or with my walking stick push them out of the way.
life is as complicated as you want to make it.

Sasha
 
I have never particularily enjoyed tramping around in the fields and thick areas in Texas. It is not the snakes that kept me from doing it, but the dang ticks. I've seen plenty of rattle bugs and water moccasins, and the occasional copperhead to ALWAYS pay attention to where I am walking. If I can't watch my feet and where they are stepping, I am probably not going to be walking there for very long. I've run into rattlesnakes in areas that you would not expect them in Texas, fields or partially grown up fields. It is very hard to watch your feet in those kinds of places. On trails, I generally had a walking stick with me that allows me to poke and, if necessary, screen areas in front of me. There are no guarantees, but paying attention is all that is usually necessary. You don't need to kill them just because they are there. The handgun is un-necessary. A walking stick IS necessary.
 
Snakes shouldn't be much of a problem anywhere outside the tropic, but if you find yourself in a real non-urban jungle, you'd better be ready for some big-time large snakes. A machete or any other really large knife would work for those, although nothing beats a good shotgun blast. :) For those outside the tropic, just wear decently strong boots, so no wayward snake is likely to bite your ankle or anything.

Blais said:
If you really want to be all Rambo in the woods then bring the guns for tree-dwelling zombies or cave trolls.
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Seriously, don't even get me started with the damn cave trolls! :mad: Those guys are a real, major pain in the butt. It's like stuff just bounces right off their hides, unless you get in a lucky shot in their ugly mouths. What I do is I avoid caves and other dark places unreachable by sunlight and large enough for 10' tall trolls to roam. That usually works.
 
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