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juggernot

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Followed the dog to the backyard to rub some shedding fur off her and spied this viper 15' from the bottom of the deck steps and 5' from where she squatted to pee as I stood there barefoot wearing shorts!!. It was a little more than 2' long. I caught it by holding it's head down w the flat side of a hoe and grabbing it's head/neck and relocated it a mile from the backyard after showing it to the neighborhood kids and telling them to not mess w these and holler for their parents if they see one.

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[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=351937#p351937 said:
earl60446 » Sat May 10, 2014 11:19 pm[/url]"]I guess it is a copperhead. Your braver than I am.
Tim


x2. woulda been a dead snake if I had seen it. :LOL2:
 
My Dad taught me to hunt and fish and a lot about nature and wildlife. He told me to leave snakes alone and they'll leave you alone and not to kill them. I grew up w a creek in the backyard and I and my childhood friends spent many summers catching all kinds of critters as we hiked the creek, fishing, wading etc.
 
It's a copperhead. They are very docile and would likely rather run from you. Not good for dogs to play with. Find some black king snakes and relocate them to your yard. They will keep the copperheads away.
 
I grew up on a farm and we we had all kinds of snakes in our area. As for the venomous ones it would include The Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake which was very rarely spotted. I may have seen 5 on our property in the 20 years I was there. The Timber Rattlesnake which was by far the most prevalent Rattlesnake in our area. I have probably seen about 50 in my twenty years there. We also had the Pygmy Rattlesnake which I have only seen 2 that I recall. We had the Cottonmouth Water Moccasin which was very common since we were bordered by a swamp. I have probably seen about 150 of those on our property. The Coral Snake was supposedly in our area also but I never came across one myself. I have heard you actually have to go turning over old logs and digging under piles of brush to find them. As for the Copperhead that was the most common venomous snake we had. I have probably seen 500 in the twenty years there. It would be very easy to go "Snake Hunting" and find 4 or 5 in a day. I call it snake hunting but I never would kill the snake just for being a snake. The snakes were a natural part of the forest to me. The only snakes I would capture if I came across them were the King Snakes and Rat Snakes. I would bring them home and turn them loose under the house or in the corn crib. If there were any rats around they could eat all they wanted. If there were no rats to be had they could leave.
 
[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=351965#p351965 said:
KMixson » 21 minutes ago[/url]"]I grew up on a farm and we we had all kinds of snakes in our area. As for the venomous ones it would include The Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake which was very rarely spotted. I may have seen 5 on our property in the 20 years I was there. The Timber Rattlesnake which was by far the most prevalent Rattlesnake in our area. I have probably seen about 50 in my twenty years there. We also had the Pygmy Rattlesnake which I have only seen 2 that I recall. We had the Cottonmouth Water Moccasin which was very common since we were bordered by a swamp. I have probably seen about 150 of those on our property. The Coral Snake was supposedly in our area also but I never came across one myself. I have heard you actually have to go turning over old logs and digging under piles of brush to find them. As for the Copperhead that was the most common venomous snake we had. I have probably seen 500 in the twenty years there. It would be very easy to go "Snake Hunting" and find 4 or 5 in a day. I call it snake hunting but I never would kill the snake just for being a snake. The snakes were a natural part of the forest to me. The only snakes I would capture if I came across them were the King Snakes and Rat Snakes. I would bring them home and turn them loose under the house or in the corn crib. If there were any rats around they could eat all they wanted. If there were no rats to be had they could leave.

I WOULD MOVE!

(yes, I was yelling)
Tim
 
[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=351965#p351965 said:
KMixson » Today, 10:27[/url]"]I grew up on a farm and we we had all kinds of snakes in our area. As for the venomous ones it would include The Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake which was very rarely spotted. I may have seen 5 on our property in the 20 years I was there. The Timber Rattlesnake which was by far the most prevalent Rattlesnake in our area. I have probably seen about 50 in my twenty years there. We also had the Pygmy Rattlesnake which I have only seen 2 that I recall. We had the Cottonmouth Water Moccasin which was very common since we were bordered by a swamp. I have probably seen about 150 of those on our property. The Coral Snake was supposedly in our area also but I never came across one myself. I have heard you actually have to go turning over old logs and digging under piles of brush to find them. As for the Copperhead that was the most common venomous snake we had. I have probably seen 500 in the twenty years there. It would be very easy to go "Snake Hunting" and find 4 or 5 in a day. I call it snake hunting but I never would kill the snake just for being a snake. The snakes were a natural part of the forest to me. The only snakes I would capture if I came across them were the King Snakes and Rat Snakes. I would bring them home and turn them loose under the house or in the corn crib. If there were any rats around they could eat all they wanted. If there were no rats to be had they could leave.

I did some surveying work near Columbia last summer and a farmer came and told me to watch out for the Timber rattlers that were thick in the area we were working and they were also very aggressive/prone to bite. He himself had been bitten years before. He told me recently he had seen a five footer right where we were standing. We fortunately never encountered any but saw several other snakes in the 3 days we were there. I saw a large Diamondback in Eastern N.C. and it's head was larger than my fist. It was very intimidating in it's manner and not afraid of me. I also had a friend from Florida who had an 11' long Diamondback skin on his wall. He killed it w a 16' piece of PVC pipe. I would never try to catch any large venomous snake. I did catch a 4-5' Cottonmouth w a forked stick when I was 18, (young and dumb) and will never hold another one. It was very strong and wrapped around my arm and squeezed it like vise and almost pulled it's head through my grasp. It's fangs were long and I was afraid it was going to bite me through it's bottom jaw as venom oozed from them!! It was hard to unwrap it to release it. It left a terrible stinking smell on my arm/hands that took 3 or 4 days of scrubbing to remove !!
 
Fwiw, I caught & relocated MANY a copperhead (to a remote area of our scout camp) during the years that I was a BSA council employee in AR. = Scouts are curious & all too many of "the 11-16YO set" WILL "play with" a snake if there is one nearby.

Copperheads are generally shy, will leave you alone if you leave them alone and there are NO records of a copperhead bite EVER killing any adult. - That said, I would have relocated that "little brown fellow" IF there were children in the same area.
(Most dogs will avoid a copperhead BUT most cats will quickly catch, kill & eat them!)

yours, satx
 
I was bitten by a copperhead when I was 13 or 14. My father and I were in the woods when we came across a copperhead. He found a stick and was supposedly holding the snakes head down when I tried to pick it up. As I reached down the snake got free and struck at my hand. I snatched my hand back as fast as I could but was not quick enough. It caught the tip of my middle finger and scratched it. It did not get a good solid bite, thank goodness. When we returned home we called the doctor on the phone and he told us to just keep an eye on it and that copperheads are known not to necessarily inject venom when they bite.

Rattlesnakes have a musk that smells like a cow to me. I tell people that if you are walking in the woods and start smelling a cow and are not in a cow pasture to start looking close at where they are walking. I have found many rattlesnakes that way.

If you think a cottonmouth has strong muscles to constrict your arm you need to have a good sized rat snake or king snake wrap around your arm. The power is impressive. They are very strong.

As for the 11' snake skin, It was stretched to 11' feet. There are no legitimate records of a live diamondback ever reaching that length. I have heard that there is a reward for any diamondback that reaches over a certain length like 8' but that it has never been claimed.
 
KMixon,

Fyi, I have seen a LIVE velvet-tail that was >8 feet. = She was in a "snake show", put on by a state PWLD, by a game warden.
(The biggest rattletail that I've ever seen in TX was a little over 6 foot long & "dressed out" at about 18#. = TASTY that fellow was, fried with cream gravy, biscuits, fried potatoes & ranch-style beans.)

yours, satx
 
[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=351987#p351987 said:
KMixson » Today, 14:02[/url]"]I was bitten by a copperhead when I was 13 or 14. My father and I were in the woods when we came across a copperhead. He found a stick and was supposedly holding the snakes head down when I tried to pick it up. As I reached down the snake got free and struck at my hand. I snatched my hand back as fast as I could but was not quick enough. It caught the tip of my middle finger and scratched it. It did not get a good solid bite, thank goodness. When we returned home we called the doctor on the phone and he told us to just keep an eye on it and that copperheads are known not to necessarily inject venom when they bite.

Rattlesnakes have a musk that smells like a cow to me. I tell people that if you are walking in the woods and start smelling a cow and are not in a cow pasture to start looking close at where they are walking. I have found many rattlesnakes that way.

If you think a cottonmouth has strong muscles to constrict your arm you need to have a good sized rat snake or king snake wrap around your arm. The power is impressive. They are very strong.

As for the 11' snake skin, It was stretched to 11' feet. There are no legitimate records of a live diamondback ever reaching that length. I have heard that there is a reward for any diamondback that reaches over a certain length like 8' but that it has never been claimed.


I have caught/held many docile King and Rat snakes some over 6' and yes they are strong but they don't squeeze real hard if your not holding their heads it just takes time to unwind all that snake from your arm if they wrap it 3 or so times. This Moccasin was much thicker powerful in the mid section than those snakes and squeezed my arm till my hand was red and tingling. It would squeeze and tighten, and repeat getting tighter each time and was harder to unwrap more than any other snake I've held besides larger, non native constrictors . I once caught a Green tree snake that was over 3' long! I was chopping line w a Machete and almost chopped it in half before I saw it in the leaves and vines of a thicket. It was very pretty and docile and I contemplated making it a pet but ended up releasing it.
 
juggernot,

Speaking of "pretty snakes", I once long ago (while a student at USAIS at Ft Benning, GA) "collected" (while on a "field problem") an about 4-foot long SCARLET KINGSNAKE that was "just downright purty".
(That is the snake mentioned in the old rhyme as, "red & black, friend of Jack")

As we were "having a problem with" numerous LARGE Palmetto Bugs, roaches, venomous spiders & mice at that juncture, I put him in a sandbag & took him to my rented house & "invited him to move in to stay".
(We named him "Bobby" after a "rather snaky sort of fellow", who was NOT our favorite IOBC classmate.)
Soon, we no longer had "the vermin problem", as Kingsnakes are the opposite of "picky eaters".

As the Kingsnakes are "easily tamed" & like to "snuggle right up to" warm bodies, "Bobby" was sometimes good for an excellent quality SQUEAL out of unsuspecting visitors.

yours, satx
 

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