So I narrowly escaped getting tagged by a Pygmy 2 days ago, in my neck of the woods, rattlers do,not rattle any more, nobody knows why but some suspect it's due to predation by hogs, and I'm inclined to believe it.
This mofo sat completely still, no warning until I noticed him about 4 or 5 inched from my hand.

Be vigilant out there folks, a Pygmy would have ruined my weekend, a big timber or diamondback might have cost me much more. Look before you step and invest in some boots and chaps.

still scared like a child of snakes.

I had a five foot diamond back in the driveway behind the barn last week that fortunately rattled his presence, since I have five dogs and horses went into the house to get a shotgun but could not find him when I came back out. Got a nice pic of him but it's on the cell phone.

We have allot of gopher tortoise and armadillo holes around and you can bet there is a rattler in each one their nest holes....getting bit on the legs is bad enough, be super careful if you bend over to pick something up or sit down as a bite anywhere on the upper extremities closers to heart/brain level is much worse.

I had a close call with a copperhead several weeks ago, I went to cross a ditch full of water after shooting a pig. I reached down to pick up a stick to check the depth of the water to make sure it wasn't too hIgh for my boots, right next to the stick was Copperhead.
it is very hard to see them in the dark.

Yet another good reason to live in the frigid north...

Rattlers are meeting evolution....those rattles have turned into a Come and Kill me call. Only the stealthy ones are surviving...

Heat sucks down here. Snakes are out. Humidity is increasing. Time to put your camping equipment away and hibernate until winter comes back down.

Stepped on one while wearing nothing but socks a year or two ago.  Went from being a heavily armed badass intent on death and destruction of pigs to silly girly man doing a sissy dance.
Luckily I stepped right on his head and drove it into the mud so he couldn't bite.  :D


Lopped his head off with the K-Bar after I composed myself and proceeded to wack the pigs a hundred yards away.  

damn it man, I have to try to sleep tonight after reading this!!!!!!!!!!!1!!

You don't want to kiss one do you?


I would miss your thermal stories and updates

Due to job requirements, my last hog hunt was this past Fall. A friend had shot a small sow and I put my AR carbine on the ground to get some pics of him with the pig. A minute or two later I reached for the rifle and there was a very nicely camouflaged copperhead stretched out lengthwise beside it. My hand probably wasn't more than 12 inches from the snake before I saw it. Getting bit would always suck, but the fact that we were a healthy walk into a wilderness area would have made it worse. Y'all keep your eyes open out there.

Almost to the day 2 years ago my hunting partner was bitten on the hand by a copperhead.  It was just before sunrise and we were getting into position along a ditch line with a raised bank on one side. I had cleared out a spot at the base of a tree and sat down. My buddy was having trouble finding a spot he found suitable for him to sit so I got up and moved over. He sat down in the spot I moved from and I moved over and down the edge of the  bank against some brush but quickly realized it wasn't going to work. I moved up to a tree at the top of the bank just left and above my buddy.
I'm speculating but I believe the snake was sitting at the top of the bank because that is the first spot the sun hits in the morning time. When I moved up the bank I think I pushed the snake around the edge of the tree where my buddy had just been standing before he sat down in the spot I moved from.  We had only been seated for a couple of minutes when he reached for his hoot owl call he had placed just to the right of him at the base of the tree and SMACK right on hand. He jumped up quickly saying that he had been bitten, my first thought is that he had been bitten by an ant or stung by a bee or something of that nature.
When it was clear that he had been bitten by a snake I looked for the snake to kill it and to verify what kind of snake it was but it already disappeared somewhere. I told him to sit down while I went for the truck but he wasn't too comfortable sitting on the ground again as it was still dark. I made a mad dash for the truck which was about three quarters of a mile away and I quickly realized how bad of shape I was in. As I was running for the truck he was calling 911 to get EMS to meet us. It took about 30 minutes in total to get to the truck, pick him up and meet EMS at the highway.
It was then off to the hospital. luckily he had gotten a good enough look that he was 99 percent sure it was a copperhead. He spent two days in the hospital and they used two bags anti-venom but unfortunately his right hand will never be the same. He had some permanent muscle damage in his hand and doesn't have full movement of his fingers.

Dupe

Well that sucks.

They are out and about. Have a deer lease on the Nueces river which is close to flood stage it is chasing all the moccasins up to drier land. lucky we have few Rattlers because my place is a haven for Indigos. Wish the bastards would develop a taste for Cottonmouths.

Damn.



Reminds me a little of the time my brother and his friend were skiing wayyyyy back in a ungroomed trail area of a big resort.  Friend broke leg.  Brother had to leave him there and ski back to the lodge, which was an hour away.  No cell phones, no GPS back then - they didn't even have a compass (although they did have a crude map of the resort.



I think he was lucky to find him on the return trip with the rescue skiers.



 

I thought indigos ate cottonmouths...



Too bad.  They are bad ass snakes.



 

Indigos do eat rattlers and cottonmouths!

I have seen a few on the roads around here lately.

Saw a hawk fly by with a pretty big snake today. Looked almost too big for it to carry.

Indeed, but no pigs, which isnt a bad thing.

My buddy had the tip of his index finger bitten by a pygmy rattler and went right to the hospital and had many doses of anti-venom.

Six months later his hand looks like the hand on an Egyptian mummy that has been rotting for 4,000 years, you can see right through the bones in his wrist and his thumb is just barely attached, looks like he should have gangrene, all the fascia is gone.

Hope he does not lose his hand but it basically looks worse than a rotten maggot infested hamburger.