OT, Had to put down a Nasty Cottonmouth yesterday

When it gets hot and dry, I put down the detector and take out the kayak. I kayak on a 2 mile lake frequently. I usually see one cottonmouth,( venemous water moccasin snake) every other year. The last one I saw was 2 years ago. I was due. I was kayaking and decided to stop and get out on shore and stretch my legs awhile. I beached in a shallow water area, that had some sparse vegetation on my left. I climbed out the right side of the kayak, using the paddle as a cane . I no sooner was standing and here comes a large cottonmouth thru the weeds on the other side of the kayak. He was on a mission, and it was not good. Mouth open, and hissing. I put the tip of the paddle in his face, and he stopped, coiled up , and started hammering on the tip of the paddle.Im glad the kayak was between us! After a but I started hammering on him using the paddle as a spear. I was hoping the plastic tip did not break, and it did not. I stopped after about 50 jabs. Adreneline can be a good thing! He was stunned and just laid there. I flipped him up on a large rock, then smashed his head with a 20 lb rock. Turned him into buzzard spagetti. Just could not take a chance of that critter staying in the land of the living. It was over 4 foot long. I never seen one get that aggressive, unprovoked. Thankfully I climbed out of the right side of the yak, instead of the left! Whew!

Had a similar experience in the pool area in my house on Longboat Key.
Snake actually tried to get out a crack in the wall but couldn't find it.
What did he do but jumped into the pool and crossed it by swimming and having never seen that
before it freaked me out!
Anyway he was cornered and did just what your snake did raised himself up and.was about
to lunge forward and I whacked him with the pool cleaner net...it sure was long enough!

It is like the show the walking dead

LowBoy

TAKE A LITTLE TIME KICKBACK AND WATCH SOME OF MY DETECTING VIDEO'S BELOW ON YouTube

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If you don’t dig it, then how are you going to know what you’re missing!
How can you have your pudding if you don’t eat your meat!

Most aggresive,right there with a Mohave Green.

Had my first rattler encounter this year, was hiking back from scouting out a detecting site, and almost back to the FJ, on a weeded in rocky hillside, it sounds off loudly about 8-10 feet in front of me for a few seconds and then stops, but I can hear it moving around. Great where the heck did it go, I went to higher ground and tossed some rocks it's way and it sounded off loud and clear, I high tailed it back to the FJ and the darn thing was still going off ten minutes later!

You water moccasins sound more agressive then our rattlers! As long as the rattlers warn you, I'll leave them alone, it's the ones that don't that're dangerous out here.

When it comes to something that can hurt you, take no chances. In the wild, it will always be, kill or be killed. Glad you r safe.

Bey

They get real aggressive when t is mating time. We were fishing in a slough many years ago and we saw to cotton mouths "dancing in the water with each other". Their bodies were out of the water higher than the little flat bottom boat we were in. We must have got a little to close and they didn't like because they came right at us. I thought we were both gonna get bit but luckily we were ready for them with some artillery fire. It s the copperheads that really bother me though, they seem a little more aggressive year round. The snakes you be gotta worry about is the ones you don't see

We only have banded water snakes in my part of the state, but people often misidentify them for cottonmouths. There are those tales from all our local lakes of that person that was swimming and got into a "nest" of cottonmouths. Thankfully they aint here. I feel for you guys that gotta deal with them. They are very aggressive snakes from what I hear.

Thankfully...we just have copperheads and the occasional rattler to deal with. I have only seen maybe 4 rattlers here my whole life. But copperheads on the other hand...lets just say I have encountered a "nest" or two of those and I couldnt tell you how many I've seen by themselves. I usually let them go. But I always have a sidearm on me in the woods. In case I walk up on a nest of em again. Its happened twice. The first time, nobody believed me. The second time...technology caught up and now we have cameras with us on our phones.

That 410 ga. pistol would be perfect to carry for poisonous snakes.

Cottonmouths have a bad disposition. I have seen them on Texas back roads striking at car tires.

I can attest to this. I've been an avid outdoors man my whole life. Copperheads like old buildings, piles of wood, anything where a mouse/rat would live/operate. And copperheads on hot days especially like to start moving just before sunset. So beware. This is when I've killed around 90 percent of the ones I've encountered. They also like pine trees/needles too. No warning to their bite . I actually had a cousin a few years back who was digging gingseng, he stepped over a small bluff and felt a sting. He thought he had been stung by a bee/wasp/hornet. Well he didn't really pay any more attention, 3 days laters he had fever and uncontrolled urination. Doctor said he had been bitten by a copperhead. He survived. He was hospitalized though.

A good rule of thumb to follow. If you get to say a site. You might try walking around it and through it a few times examining it (without your detector). Snakes are generally pretty afraid of humans. I realize for say open field hunting this won't work. But for camp sites/house sites it will. And the few minutes you take could save you a trip to the hospital and a lot of pain.

Many times after rattler bites, tissue has to be removed or is lost. And a bite to the upper body/arms is/can be deadly no matter how close one is to a hospital. So when you make a find, look twice or 3 times before kneeling down to dig or retrieve your find.

Rattlers are far easier to see than the ole copperhead. And rattlers don't always rattle before biting either.

Steeping into blind spots like over logs, big rocks, brush, this is generally where folks tend to get bitten. A coiled up hungry snake doesn't take up much room in the weeds/grass/woods. And sometimes when you find one, don't get in too big a hurry trying to evacuate the area, you may step on another snake.

I have had many encounters with rattlers and copperheads. And close calls too.

One other tip, courtesy of the old times that use to gas the snake dens during roundups. Before going into old abandoned buildings, toss in a half oz or so of gasoline. The vapor displaces the oxygen for snakes and they exit the area immediately.

This is the scariest post I've ever read on this forum. It kind of freaked me out haha. Good one Possum.

Yes cottonmouths are just flat out mean...

Cant stand them things...they will come after you..

Heres a good size rattler GA Power pulled out of a Electrical Box down here where I work..

they cut the head off..


Keith

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

I'd be carrying a Flame Thrower if I lived where those things do

The little snakes look like juvenile rattlers, rather than copperheads. The big ones are classic adult copperheads.

I'll take a snake nest any day over a yellow jacket nest.

Looks like when I'm detecting I've gotta stop the habit of dropping baby copperheads in every hole I dig.

Cal_cobra Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Had my first rattler encounter this year, was
> hiking back from scouting out a detecting site,
> and almost back to the FJ, on a weeded in rocky
> hillside, it sounds off loudly about 8-10 feet in
> front of me for a few seconds and then stops, but
> I can hear it moving around. Great where the heck
> did it go, I went to higher ground and tossed some
> rocks it's way and it sounded off loud and clear,
> I high tailed it back to the FJ and the darn thing
> was still going off ten minutes later!
>
> You water moccasins sound more agressive then our
> rattlers! As long as the rattlers warn you, I'll
> leave them alone, it's the ones that don't that're
> dangerous out here.
First Brian??? Wow, thats amazing! I aee them almost everytime out...but Im looking hard for them too. Yeah, moccasins suck...used to mess with them as a kid.

I hate snakes, thanks guys, I won't sleep to nite, I'm lucky, up here the ground is frozen for 6 month , and we have no posionous snakes, I did see a timber rattler bottle hunting in a dump a few years ago, I shook for a hour, I see them when I hunt but I know they are harmless up here so I just jump and walk away, and cluck like a chicken haha

deathray Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Cal_cobra Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Had my first rattler encounter this year, was
> > hiking back from scouting out a detecting site,
> > and almost back to the FJ, on a weeded in rocky
> > hillside, it sounds off loudly about 8-10 feet
> in
> > front of me for a few seconds and then stops,
> but
> > I can hear it moving around. Great where the
> heck
> > did it go, I went to higher ground and tossed
> some
> > rocks it's way and it sounded off loud and
> clear,
> > I high tailed it back to the FJ and the darn
> thing
> > was still going off ten minutes later!
> >
> > You water moccasins sound more agressive then
> our
> > rattlers! As long as the rattlers warn you,
> I'll
> > leave them alone, it's the ones that don't
> that're
> > dangerous out here.
> First Brian??? Wow, thats amazing! I aee them
> almost everytime out...but Im looking hard for
> them too. Yeah, moccasins suck...used to mess with
> them as a kid.

First rattler of the year (that was in April too!). Nope I've seen many, many rattlers. Where I grew up they're common place. I couple of summers ago I saw one that was a good six feel long, and at it's widest point the damn thing was as big around as my leg....luckily someone put it down, but that's one hell of a big snake!

Funny, just a couple hours ago my wife yelled up from the basement as she was doing laundry... "there's a snake down here". What? that's one for the record books.
I yelled back "is it a garter" she said I don't know, its little.
I went down and into the laundryroom and there on the throw rug was a 6" garter snake, hmmm wheres mama and the rest of them, I wondered.
This is a finished basement and sealed pretty good, how the heck did this thing get down here. Got my flashlight and looked in all the nooks and crannies,,nothing....good.

Cal_cobra Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> deathray Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Cal_cobra Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Had my first rattler encounter this year, was
> > > hiking back from scouting out a detecting
> site,
> > > and almost back to the FJ, on a weeded in
> rocky
> > > hillside, it sounds off loudly about 8-10
> feet
> > in
> > > front of me for a few seconds and then stops,
> > but
> > > I can hear it moving around. Great where the
> > heck
> > > did it go, I went to higher ground and tossed
> > some
> > > rocks it's way and it sounded off loud and
> > clear,
> > > I high tailed it back to the FJ and the darn
> > thing
> > > was still going off ten minutes later!
> > >
> > > You water moccasins sound more agressive then
> > our
> > > rattlers! As long as the rattlers warn you,
> > I'll
> > > leave them alone, it's the ones that don't
> > that're
> > > dangerous out here.
> > First Brian??? Wow, thats amazing! I aee them
> > almost everytime out...but Im looking hard for
> > them too. Yeah, moccasins suck...used to mess
> with
> > them as a kid.
>
> First rattler of the year (that was in April
> too!). Nope I've seen many, many rattlers. Where
> I grew up they're common place. I couple of
> summers ago I saw one that was a good six feel
> long, and at it's widest point the damn thing was
> as big around as my leg....luckily someone put it
> down, but that's one hell of a big snake!


Ha, ok, that makes sense!

Snake bites are on the rise here in texas due to recent flood waters that displaced a bunch of snakes in urban environments.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/17/2015 01:51AM by aguerrero56.

Snake Joys.

When I was young in central Texas I would walk down the creek bottoms and the snakes would start falling out of the trees into the water like some one was throwing spears. I always thought that was pretty cool.

I remember fishing Oak Creek and Phantom Lakes around Abilene and having to fight the snakes off the fish on my stringer.

I waded out to a sand bar island one time on Proctor Lake when fishing, got to the middle of it before I saw a snake. Looked around and the place was crawling with snakes everywhere. Had to retrace my steps to get out of there.

Hiking the Grand Canyon at night, I've stepped right over snakes and never even knew it. They curl up real tight to the rocks to get out of your way as you walk along bouncing your walking stave on the ground.

When younger my and my friends used to play with the rattle snakes quit a bit.

Last one I saw local was last year near a trail in the mountains. Loudest buzzing I ever heard. Took me a while to figure out what it was and where it was. I left it alone and went on my way.

HH
Mike

Ozzie, send the dog down there...

He'd just kill it.
I take the snakes I find in the window wells and put them in the veggie garden to keep down the vole and mice population.