speaking of snakes...

as was just recently mentioned in the footwear thread:

Who has ACTUALLY BEEN STRUCK AT by a snake (1) while detecting or, (2) any other time?

Were you hit? Were you wearing protection against snakebite?

Just wanting to get some idea about how often snake boots or leggings actually prevent snakebite.

Wayne

Pleasant Garden, NC
AT Max, Nokta Impact, MX Sport, Nokta FORS Relic, GPX 4800, Infinium, Racer, Deus, F75SE, Nautilus DMC II (order of acquisition, last to first)

Does an archeologist argue with a plow? A bureaucrat with a bulldozer?

Me. Got bit on the hand by a garter snake and thumped on the pants leg by a copperhead. Garter snake was my fault for picking it up. Copperhead got me crossing a dead tree/log. I stepped across it and got tagged. Just got my pants and streaked my underwear. I am extremely cautious when crossing logs now. I will usually get on top of them and stand there scanning the ground for a few seconds before putting my foot down. Reached into a nail box in the workshed once and a Lil chicken snake was in there. He didn't get me but I had lightning reflexes on getting my hand out of there.

Coming from OZ I have had some very Close Encounters with the worst Snakes on the Planet, Never got Tagged but I came so close I am lucky to be Alive.

In the US I think the symptoms of Rattler Bites are quite horrific, where as Aussie Snake just wipe you out, I have seen a picture of an 11 foot Rattler and it was about as fat as your leg,, I think they are one of the most bad tempered Snakes on the Planet,

John.

65 years of stomping through the Western deserts and I've never been bumped by a rattler. They do you give you warning out here and unlike the brushy country , we usually see them first out here. After hunting , fishing , prospecting , biking , atv-ing and generally camping over that time the closest I came was when beaching my float tube next to a bush on the shore I came shoulder to face with fat 6 footer in the bush. It could barely move because it had just swallowed an unlucky cottontail and could've only struck a few inches if it tried. I re-beached and dispatched of it,,,,made three nice hat bands

I've gathered up steers that have been out for months and occasionally have one come in with an abscess the size of a basketball hanging off their jaw or neck somewhere. They seldom get hit in the legs or the snakes dry bite them there sensing it's a waste of venom.

I figure swinging a detector out here if you don't see them first you sort of deserve to get bit.

I have spent most of my life tromping around in some of the most dense woods and mountains in South east Ky looking for ginseng and hunting relics...and have never walked up on a Copperhead or rattler. Was hunting ginseng with my cousin when he stepped over a log and a Copperhead tagged him....the ONE time he was wearing snake chaps though! All the poisonous snakes I have ever encountered have been while whitewater kayaking! Was sitting in an eddy on the Pigeon river near the Smoky Mtns and watched a copperhead swim right over the bow of my kayak. Another time on the Ocoee river was walking down to near the river to video some of my friends come through a rapid and almost stepped on a Copperhead, and a Rattler on the Gauley river in WV...moral of story...they LOVE water

I was out training in the White Sands area of NM when I was in the army. We encountered quite a few rattlesnakes during our time there. I was messing with a little one pushing it with my foot. The little guy struck my boot and left a big glob of venom on my shined boot. A lesson learned. The little ones are nothing to mess with either. I was into rail trail riding on my bicycle for a few years. I would see snakes all the time. I would stop and watch them, but I never messed with them.

Had a copper head strike my boot out hunting a few years back...hit the sole...

OFF WITH ITS HEAD!!!

Keith

“I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own”
-Nikola Tesla

Never have been bitten by a rattler--but it's a wonder I haven't though.-----Got "thumped" on the boot by a big ole garter snake once while I was merrily swinging my detector.------Here's a true story someone might get a grin out of.----My father-in-law was a boxer in the old days--almost 300 amateur fights with only one loss before he turned pro.-----Fought Pro mostly out of ID & he did the fights so he could eat--money was tight.------He also gathered up rattlesnakes & milked them & sold the venom.-----Well, he had some rattlesnakes in a gunny sack with the top of the sack tied shut & laying on the floor board of the car.-----One of 'em somehow got out of the sack & crawled up in the wiring behind the dash.----He finally got it out of the wiring but my mother-in-law wouldn't drive that car for two weeks.-----She was of the idea----"there might still be another one of them things behind that dash board"!-----One was all that got out of the sack.--------------Del

Really can be deadly as digging a target leaves one open to get bit on an area close to heart....making bite more deadly...High boots are nice but won't protect other areas.

My thread has devolved, somewhat, into snake stories, but who doesn't love a good snake story? From the replies, so far, seems one strike was diverted by snake chaps and anothr by the sole of Keith's boots. I figure the sole of most footwear would work for that. So, one save, so far, for all the high top boots and snake leggings worn?

I fly fished for mountain trout in western NC, eastern TN and central VA quite often and year-round for about 20 years. Except for deep winter, most of my fishing was done in shorts and wading boots. Bare legged. I fished in the Smokey Mountains and everywhere else and did a lot of brush busting or bushwhacking into and along many streams. Only saw two poisonous snakes during that time. Wife and I were walking in lockstep down a path along a creek and a small copperhead launched itself out of the tall grass between us, headed for the cover of a nearby stump it cowered under. Another time, I saw a copperhead that was nearly 5 feet long - huge for a copperhead - stretched out across a mid-stream rock outcropping. I fished upstream to it, and carefully, past it. It never left its lie.

My wife used to work nightshift at the hospital. I watched her bound down the couple of steps off our front stoop on her way to her car. She was running a little late and hurrying. I watched from the front door as a copperhead (only snake it could have been where we live) reared and struck at her as she hurried down the steps. She never knew it until I yelled out to her just afterwards. If she had been walking at her usual pace, she might have been headed for the hospital under very different circumstances.

As said before, the best insurance against snakebite is not high boots or leggings. It is very careful attention to one's surroundings. Especially where one places one's hands and feet and face. And like detecting, a little good luck always helps, too!

Wayne

Pleasant Garden, NC
AT Max, Nokta Impact, MX Sport, Nokta FORS Relic, GPX 4800, Infinium, Racer, Deus, F75SE, Nautilus DMC II (order of acquisition, last to first)

Does an archeologist argue with a plow? A bureaucrat with a bulldozer?

goodmore Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I was out training in the White Sands area of NM
> when I was in the army. We encountered quite a few
> rattlesnakes during our time there. I was messing
> with a little one pushing it with my foot. The
> little guy struck my boot and left a big glob of
> venom on my shined boot. A lesson learned. The
> little ones are nothing to mess with either. I was
> into rail trail riding on my bicycle for a few
> years. I would see snakes all the time. I would
> stop and watch them, but I never messed with them.

Were you a medic or something?

No I was actually a mechanic. I was stationed at Ft Polk LA and we were there for desert training. The desert there was incredible. All the little dunes were full of thorn bushes. I saw rabbits, lizards, and snakes. That's it. We learned real quick to check everything for snakes. Boots in the morning, Sleeping quarters. Myself, I'm not afraid of snakes. So when someone started screaming snake I would go help out. Not to sound prejudice, but the black guys were all afraid of snakes. Most were from cities so I guess they never dealt with them. Anyways there was one in a guys tent, and I tried to get it moving. Rather than kill it I tried to make it leave. The little guy got worked up and decided to fight instead. One last little story: We flew out of a military base in Texas. It was an Airforce flight. We get up and develop plane trouble so we turn around and go back to where we just left from. The pilot had trouble with the landing gear. He wasn't sure it was locked into place. Now that was scary!

Correct! I was installing an underground electric dog fence around my property here in West Virginia. All 5 acres of it. I was using a lawn edger to cut the groove for the wire, then getting on my knees with a paint stirring stick to tuck the wire into the groove. All of this was at the edge of the property I keep mowed and the wooded area. As I was tucking some wire into the ground while on my hands and knees, I bumped a Copper Head I didn't see with the paint stirrer stick. It bit the stick about 4 inches from my hand. Hate those damn snakes!

I was stuck by a Diamondback on my right hand while doing yard work in my back yard. Put me in ICU for four days. Not an experience I care to repeat. Funny, I detect, hunt, fish a lot in the Arizona wilds and have had a few close encounters out in the boonies but end up getting bit in my own back yard. Go figure. For me, a good boot that covers the ankle is a must. BUT...watch where you stick your hands! They don't always rattle.

Dean

About 25 yrs ago l was nugget hunting, and knelt down on one knee to swing the detector under a Palo Verde tree, looked down, and a coiled coon tail diamond back was just in front of fmy knee. He never moved but l sure did. I rarely even think about snakes while detecting

Wasn't detecting,but playing in a puddle of water, was squatting down and noticed a snake coiled behind me--well I can outjump him--Wrong nailed me in mid air--coiled around my leg,kicked him off,fell down and he coiled in my face--can STILL see him 6" from my face--rolled on ground screaming "DADDY". Lower leg was bigger than top--took weeks to get over it. 70 years ago.

I haven't run across any that I've seen but I am very carful when in the woods or tall grass. Have had a Moccasin fall off a branch and onto the rear deck of my bass boat on Lake Wateree SC. I spun the back end around to change directions and hit the branch with my outboard. I went by that branch first and didn't see it. It was the same dark shade as the branch. It slithered itself out over the side and swam away. My friend fishing the back didn't think it was as funny as I did. He also went over the other side.

Funny to find this thread today; my Labrador Retriever just got tagged on the nose by a Pygmy Rattlesnake just a week ago, outside late evening in our back yard. She was obviously smelling it, and it tagged her. Once inside, I noticed the side of her face all swollen, and then in trying to figure out what was going on, I found the fang marks, and knew it was a Pygmy. On the way to take her to the emergency vet, I found the snake on the driveway and "disposed" of it.

Steve

Anybody here remember Dorian Cook? He is a relic hunter that wrote articles for the treasure mags and worked for Garrett. He tells a story of hunting CW relics at Port Hudson and had knelt down and just dug a large shell fragment when he looked up to see a big cotton mouth coming at him...said he heaved the shell frag at it to save himself.

Have had hundreds of encounters with timber rattlers here in middle TN - the farm I grew up on was loaded with them, killed over 40 between my family and the neighbors in one really bad year, just in the immediate areas around our homes. We generally left them alone if they weren't a threat to anyone or the animals. Never got bitten, but, had some very close calls that left me feeling pretty lucky. Have taken a few to the boot, rubber muck boots stopped them fine. Had one hit my jeans - they say wearing somewhat loose pants can prevent a snake bite pretty well.

Seen a few detecting, coppers and rattlers, doesn't really bother me - they generally go unseen if you don't threaten or surprise them they will be on their way. We learned from a young age here to really watch the ground and not to cross logs or rocks without checking, kicking the logs, stomping around good - and always wear tall boots.

Scariest snake encounters are always around water for me, cottonmouths are some scary aggressive snakes sometimes.

In Texas back in the 70's I saw a cottonmouth in the road, holding his ground and biting at a car tire. The person had stopped to look at the thick snake....the snake didn't like that. Those cottonmouths just look angry and pissed off all the time.

A co-worker of mine stepped on a diamondback right after dark Wednesday night in his backyard while going to check his deer feeder. He was wearing shorts and flip-flops and supposedly the venom went into a main vein which carried it back to his internal organs quicker and more potently. He has heart and kidney damage but has been kept in a coma the whole time. He was so swollen that he had blood coming from eyes, ears etc. Please be careful out there! They are crawling in southeastern US.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/2016 11:48AM by Fletch88.

Very sorry to hear about your co-worker. Certainly wish him well and hope he recovers from his ordeal.
1st impulse was to question if he was using a light and watching where he stepped, but then don't we all take our safety for granted most times? And don't we all walk around in the dark, especially around our homes?
I do it all the time; we don't have rattlers at home but we do have copperheads. Gives one pause to think, doesn't it?

Wayne

Pleasant Garden, NC
AT Max, Nokta Impact, MX Sport, Nokta FORS Relic, GPX 4800, Infinium, Racer, Deus, F75SE, Nautilus DMC II (order of acquisition, last to first)

Does an archeologist argue with a plow? A bureaucrat with a bulldozer?

Remembered I had this picture on my phone - The reason to not step over logs without looking.
This fella didn't bother rattling til after I disturbed him by kicking the log - he was laying up against it and I would not have seen him if I hadn't checked and made him come out ready to strike!


Timber Rattlesnake