I agree with Howard, and some of these yarns are making me wonder about the honesty of some of you guys! Although I _suppose_ you could be telling the truth, but I would think a 40" AK might be a little undersized for some of the stunts described.
However, Howard's story about those frozen snakes makes sense to me, and I could tell you a few things about rattlers. Ferinstance, one time I was hiking through a prairie dog town, and anyone will tell you there are lots of rattlers around those places. Well, when I am out and about I usually carry a couple of my favorite khuks, 'cause you never can tell what you'll run into. On this particular occasion I had my favorite 18" WWII Villager (razor sharp of course), and a well loved BGRS for good measure.
I wore my best pair of custom Nocona Bullhide boots this time out, made to cover clear up the calf of my leg because I knew those danged snakes would be out. Sure enough, I hadn't gone a hundred feet when "Wham!", a big rattler hits my boot hard enough to knock me back a step. Well, not one to waste any time, I just swung the old WWII and lopped his head clean off, and kept on walking. Not 20 feet later, without so much as a buzz, his bigger cousin hits my other side, so I reached down with the BGRS in my left hand and take care of him the same way. This kept on and on, so, I finally got into the rhythm of walking a few steps and swinging those khuks along my side to clear away any new hangers on as they struck.
After a mile or so I started to get real tired. I wasn't sure what was up, but my legs were just wore out completely, and I was dead tired of slogging along, which isn't much like me, as I am usually good for 70 or 80 miles or so before stopping to take a quick breather.
Anyway, I happened to look down about that time, and couldn't believe my eyes! There was so many snake heads hanging off my boots, all victims of my razor sharp khuks and natural khuk swingin' ability, that there wasn't a single square inch of bullhide that didn't have a pair of fangs in it! The weight of all those heads just slowed me to a crawl, I'll tell you.
Anyway, to make a long story short, I sat down on a big safe rock, and spent the next hour prying all those fangs out of my boots, so that I could get back up to speed! My prized boots looked like a sieve I'll tell you, but I was never happier to have had 'em on, believe me.
The best part of it was, when I got back to town I took my socks off and wrung 'em out, and squeezed a fair gallon of snake pizen outta them. I sold it for a pretty penny to the local Doc, who makes up batches of anti-venom with it, or something. (Although I'm not sure, but last week his old nag of a wife died of massive snake bite, but there wasn't a mark on her! Go figure...)
Anyway, that's the Truth, cross my heart, so help me!
And if I'm making one single bit of it up, may God strike me de