There is a fine line between hardcore and stupid. Sarge

Not hardcore, a realist. I've had run in with snakes. A cocked and locked pygmy six inches from my tennis shoe clad foot, a five foot coachwhip a foot from my sleeping face, a moccasin gaping under a rock I just bare handed flipped, a juvie copperhead tapping the toe of my lacrosse grange boots, another moccasin brushing my leg as it swam past. All this and the only bites received were from rats I've purposely handled and I've caught hundreds including all but one of our six hots and still don't consider snakes enough of a threat to take precautions beyond that of common sense.

But if it makes you feel better go ahead and armor up.

A big cottonmouth struck me on the calf area while I had on Lacrosse hip boots. I was standing by a beaver dam in weeds about half knee high. He hit me so hard , he almost knocked my foot out from under me but he did not penetrate the boot.

There were a lot fewer poison snakes when I was a kid. That's because folks who lived in the country killed every poison snake they ran across. The idea was to keep somebody from getting bit. As a kid in the 50's, It was pretty rare to see a rattler or copperhead. There were still plenty of cottenmouth.
All snakes are protected now in this state. I see more rattlers in S. Ill. now than when I was kid.
As a kid, I hunted squirrels in August wearing blue jeans and tennis shoes. I carried a Cutter brand snake bite kit. I seriously doubt that I would have ever used it.

Up to three so far. All in one day. CCI Rat shot