… or direct hits

… put them in here if you got them

my youngest used to grab every snake he saw. Got bit on the web of his hand by one non venomous one didn't slow him down on it. He was about 8 and going to grab a snake that he found in the yard when moving a corn hole board. luckily his brother about 10 at the time stopped him and said I think that's a bad on better ask mom. It was a copperhead. Wife and daughter killed it and put it in the outdoor wood burner since it continued moving it's mouth after head was removed and she didn't want the kids geting bit by a dead snake if they messed with it.

Only Snake story I have where I was l seriously concerned

…. Know several that’s been bit by copperheads … usually on the hands or feet/ankle if not wearing boots

I had one close call, but the snake wasn't dangerous. Does that count or not?

No venomous snakes here, but I had the bright idea to catch a 5+ foot water snake once, except I didn't see the extra loop of snake behind a log, How I learned how big it was!, lol, it lunged and missed my face by a couple inches. Set me back on my butt,

…. Venomous is preferred but let’s hear them all lol

We used to have our family reunion down on Degray Lake. We would camp, swim, fish, and shoot the bull. One night a few of us decided we were going to catfish all night. I needed to stop by the cabin as we were headed down to the lake to get something. Well I didn't have a flash light and they were already down at the lake. No problem I could make my way down the trail in the dark but found out I couldn't see the snake in the trail. Got to spend the next 45 minutes listening to my uncle's debate on whether it was a snake bite or not since only one fang penetrated the other hit my shin bone. They were from the Depression Era and weren't going to put my folks in debt over a possible spider bite. lol. My uncles finally figured it was a snake bite since I was swelling pretty good. Took me to the hospital in Arkadelphia where I got to spend the night. Spent a week on crutches. Pretty sure it was a copperhead since we had seen a few around the place we were camping.

I used to catch large numbers of snakes to sell, to the pet trade. Friends and I used to go on trips just to catch herptiles. I would take the bite, if necessary to catch a snake, especially when grabbing a handful at once. I once grabbed what almost looked like a bouquet of 26 live garter snakes and 1 dead one, sticking out of a Winter den hole in late February. I got nailed grabbing 4 black racers from under a piece of plywood at once. I never got bit by anything that did any serious damage. Most of the snakes that bit me didn't even break my skin.

I used to hate the crocodile hunter because he was always getting bit when he clearly didn't need to. I eventually realized he was getting bit on purpose, to keep the viewers entertained. He was much more careful with venomous reptiles.

Ohio doesn't have many venomous snakes. We intentionally looked in areas that had recorded populations, with no luck. I spent many thousands of hours catching snakes and only ever saw two poisonous ones. The first one was a very large timber rattler, that someone ran over and cut the tail and head off at the entrance to the Mead Experimental Forest. The second was a female copperhead, that my friend Leroy found sleeping on a mouse nest, under a piece of tin. I was catching an Eastern fence lizard and Leroy started calling for me to bring a forked stick. I bagged up the lizard and broke of a short forked stick.from a brittle old branch.

When I saw the copperhead, I told Leroy, "Let me get you better stick.". He grabbed the stick I had, pinned down the sleeping copperhead's neck and dumped it in the pillow case I held open. When we got back to Leroy's house, I opened the pillow case and dumped it in a 10 gallon aquarium. That copperhead was the pissiest snake I've ever seen. It would strike the glass over and over when we were close, leaving venom all over it.

I took the copperhead out and was holding it and it almost stuck me. I didn't know they could put the fangs out the sides of their mouths.

Leroy was an alcoholic and lived with his mom. He passed out sitting at the table, the aquarium was on and his mom thought he got bit. She called the paramedics, who brought the police and more. They ended up calling a herpetologist, who came up from Kentucky, to take Leroy's snake.

Keith

When I was a kid I was at a friend's ranch and caught a beautiful prairie rat snake. After a few minutes it was calm so I was letting it move freely through the hands. I don't remember what spooked it, but it bit my cheek and wouldn't let go. My friend thought he should yank it off. I yelled at him before he ripped it off my face. Once the real threat (my friend) was addressed, we carefully pried its mouth open and it was a nice pet.

Thats one of the few times I couldn't use water to make a reptile release.

Ok, venomous.....My father in law was building a house in Arizona, opened the garage and a rattlesnake went for him and came just short of his richard....carpenter came over and shoveled the snake dead...then said "good thing it didn't get you, I wasn't about to suck the poison out!"

…. Yall livin dangerously men…I like it

Bow hunting about 10 years ago and mid day found a large open area with no grass etc. to rest for an hour or two mid day. After I woke up I got up and as soon as I moved I heard a rattler. My head was looking around as much as I could without moving. I couldn't see the rattler no where. My pack and bow where about 6 feet away and that rattler curled up on the shady side of my pack.

I finally figured out I should be able to move to one side that I could see well enough and nothing was there. To make a long story short I finally ended up spotting it and it was history after that.

I have had a half dozen close calls with almost stepping on them. I never go in rattle snake country without snake guards/chaps and a terk pole ever!!!!

When I was younger my friends went fishing over the weekend with one of the Dad's, got all set up fished the next day and had enough of sitting on the bank !!

Not knowing of all the excitement that comes from doing that fishing all day !!

We went back to camp and we all had BB guns and decides the threat of squirrels and birds were more important, and made
off into the side hills looking for that one shot, one of the guys started yelling snake, and of course the whole patrol showed up in quick double time and cornered it !

All rolled up and rattling that tail end like a buzz saw, I knew it was a biter if molested, having been around much bigger and more aggressive ones when held up ones when I lived in Arizona, but one kid wanted to mess with it and dang near got hit on the first try !!!

Which swiftly got me fixing his education right quick , mean while Mr. Rattler had found a crevice to slide up into, which, soon become a battle ground of all sort of volley's from from those BB guns, that snake was swiss cheese by the time every one had reloaded twice, LOL I though how are we going to explain getting hit in the eye with a BB, felt them bouncing off every thing !!

Well we dragged what there was left of him out, not a large one either maybe two feet, and brought him back to camp, arguing about who was the main killer, the Dad about had a heart attack when he finally got back with no fish, LOL and said he hollered for us several times, with new adjectives I had not known you could put together that way, with his talk of staying around the camp followed with more of them words !! LOL

Never have bothered any of them since, even though I do use them in my leather work, I buy or trade work for them when ever the chance arrives,, but wow that was a time being little and our first killing LOL !!

…. I’ve too many to list but the scariest one was crawling across a pine that fallen over a creek… I stuck my face around a pine bough and there coiled up was a cotton mouth with his jaws spread wide right in my face …could smell his breath….guess I figured I couldn’t pull back in time without being bit so I held my face still and reached back… twisted a piece of pine bough off and knocked him into the water from his blindside

… if that had gone different I wouldn’t be as pretty as I am now lol

… get in here Mr. Dobbins and Jtrap … I know yall have a few

I got bit by a prairie rattler at a snake round-up in Sharon springs KS about 20 odd years ago. got one fang in the pad of my thumb. Had venom all over the side of my hand, so knew I didnt get much. Was not a pleasant experience. Was only about maybe 14 inchs long. Hard to control the head on those juveniles.

I'm the aggressive one!

.. you know you’ve had a close call or two uncle Swamp ! Lol

First time I ever saw a rattle snake he was curled up in a prairie dog hole, I tried to stab him with a arrow, when he rattled I jumped and ran like a Yankee at Chancellorsville. Thus ended my snake catching career

I’ve had to kill 2 rattlesnakes with a chainsaw. One near Tiller, Oregon and the other near Oakhurst, California. You’d think a power saw would be loud enough and create enough vibration to make them leave long before you see them, but apparently there’s a few stubborn specimens out there. 2 less now

Had a rattler strike my snake guards in San Angelo Texas turkey hunting last thing he did 16 rattles on him guess it was a good one

In my younger days i worked as a ranch hand in Montana, the ranch owner and i went to town for a haircut and some shoes
for a couple horses. For whatever reason we took his wife car,and a rattlesnake was sunning itself on the gravel road,
so he hit the brakes and slid over that snake. we got out of the car,and i pick it up and put it in the trunk.The local bar had
a contest for the most rattles ( a sixpack for the week,and a case for the month)!
So anyway we stopped @ the bar and opened the trunk up and was the snake all coiled and buzzing.
I took a tire iron,and made sure it never buzzed again.
I believe that snake had 13 and a button! ( we won the sixpack)

… good clean livin right there

Mine has got me in trouble a time or too……

Dang thing like to get out of its kennel and frighten people.

You say the goofiest (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman). I bet you’re a ton of fun to shoot whiskey with lol. If you ever find yourself in SE Alaska, let me know

Back in the 70s, my brother and I were fishing for native brook trout. He was walking ten feet in front of me, he stepped right over top of a timber rattler on the trail. I saw it, a few feet in front of me. Never rattled.

In the early 80s, in the same area in north central Pa ( Cameron County ) I went trout fishing on a July afternoon. At the end of the day, when I took off my hip boots, there was a snake fang stuck in rubber, half way between my ankle and knee. Never saw or heard the rattlesnake.

I have had a few over the years out West but the closest was in West Texas near Del Rio. We had flown to a fire and I rolled on my back under the skid on the helicopter to hook up the Bambi bucket and was about 12 inches from a large and angry rattler. I had another snake of some sorts drop out of a PJ in Utah on the top of my pack. I sure shucked that pack in a hurry!

Many of my venomous snake stories (and there are many) involve a dead snake. The snake would have to talk for ya'll to hear a truly exciting story.

I sent several nice timber rattlers to GritGuy a few years ago. Those were the ones I had time to skin. BTW...Nice trade GG!

Here's a few that I still had the pics of on this phone...for viewing pleasure...

…. Yall got a pretty timber over that way Swamp

… aside from the cotton mouth inches from my face … the second scariest was froggiggin… I shined two big bulls from the road … couldn’t walk over to them on land due to switch cane so slipped down into the slough … as I passed a spot that jutted out from beaver stacking limbs.. I heard something… shined the light just as a cottonmouth slid off directly into my crotch … stood real still as it slithered between my legs

… after it passed through I eased on and got both those frogs

Nerves of steel!!!

… figure if you’re still you got less of a chance to stir them up and have them aggressive… worked in both situations

… also got hit on the hand by a copperhead strike … but was just a glancing blow as I pulled my hand back … he didn’t get a fang in me

No copperheads here at the Ga-Fl line, but a couple counties north there are some. Further you go north...the more copperheads. Not sure why they're not here.

We have 3 rattlers, the cottonmouth, and the coral snake.

Cutting a big pine close to a power line and had a big copperhead crawl out of the pine straw between my feet. I was at that point where I couldn't leave the saw or the tree would of went into the power line. Luckily it kept crawling and I was able to get the tree on the ground. He didn't survive the encounter. I have a lot of respect for copperheads. My great grandmother died from a copperhead bite.
Had lots of close calls with cottonmouths while beaver trapping. Running traps off nights one morning and almost grabbed one by mistake thinking it was a stick until it moved. Started bringing a better headlight with me after that.

… got a lot of corals here …. Luckily it’s hard to get bit by them

… I’ll kill them in my house slippers lol

Had this guy crawl out of the weeds just after I had set a couple of beaver traps on each side of the break.

Have a cousin that worked in a coal mine. Once a month they would have a cookout for the birthdays that month. They always cooked as much exotic stuff they could get. One guy brought a huge rattler and they cut his head off and after he quit squirming they laid him out on a table and was getting ready to skin him, then the guy that brought the snake said he wanted those rattles. He took a knife and just touched it to the rattles and that snake instantly came back and struck him in the face. The guy said knowing they had cut the head off it still scared him bad. If a guy has a weak heart, bit or not it could still kill ya, lol.

Lmao …. Good story foxpaw

Lufkin …. You ain’t got any snake stories?

…. You went and got too good to talk to people a little south of the trinity or what ?

Not a close call got bit by a rattlesnake in 2005 spent eight days in the hospital and a full year recovering. I was lifting a pipe and it was in one of the pipes and it got me.

… direct hit

…. What was the hardest part of the recovery?

… I’m assuming western diamondback ?

When I was a kid, we were on a church father and sons outing down at Lake Powell. We had a softball game going on a sandy flat. Several times guys that made it to "third base" said they heard something buzzing. Nobody figured it out until about the forth inning the rattler, in the hole under the little bush we were using as third base, had enough and came shooting out of there. A shovel took care of that one and we continued the game. That night we started throwing matches into bends of a wash that had blown full of tumbleweeds. Flames 10-15 feet high on some of those pockets. But on one of the smaller blazes another rattler squirted out to get away form the heat. We all lost interest in wandering around in the dark without flashlights at that point.

No one got bit but it sure was funny.

Guy that organized the KS roundup was from Osborn KS. He took folks with him in a bus to watch him catch snakes. Kept trying to get me and my buddy to tell him the places we were catching them.

We showed up in town with about a dozen one afternoon in our snake box. They had a show going on. Bleachers with a "pit of death" the attraction. Had about a hundred snakes in it mostly diamondbacks caught in TX and OK.. Made a coral of sorts from plywood. Was a couple guys in it playing with the snakes.

Guy from Osborn pointed at a scale and said weigh them there to get paid. Had a young guy there supposed to weigh them. I dont think anyone explained how that was to be done. We carried the box over and said we wanted them weighed. Explained weigh the box full, then empty, subtract the difference. He said no dump the snakes on the scale. Sounded fun so we did. Kid screamed and ran when they of course wanted to go somewhere else. People in the bleachers were screaming and jumping off of them. Was quite a fun tine. Osborn came over mad. We got the snakes all gathered back up. he went ahead and bought them.

Guy was crooked as the contents of that snake box at the end of the day. They had a biggest snake contest. We had it won by a good margin with a snake my son found. He was only about 12 at the time so even though he found it we did not let him catch it. When Osborn saw it instead of paying us our prize money they brought out a snake that been caught and sold in OK. That kid at the scale told us where they got it.

There is no round up there now. Tree huggers were having fits about it and guy from Osborn died. From what I have seen all those round ups are crooked like that.

We would pump water out of the Yellowstone river and irrigate the hay fields!
So i had too walk the fields and make sure every part was getting wet ,it
also rounded up the snakes to the high ground. I broke a few shovels on rattlesnakes.
The ranchers dog got bit in the face,swelled up for a couple days.
Fun days,, especially when stacking hay in the fields,and rattlesnakes parts hanging out of
the bails! we wore leather gloves.

Missouri has cottonmouths, copperheads, and rattlesnakes. I've shaken hands a time or two with all of them but never been bit. Worst snake bite yet was a lawyer that hit me with a $250 bill for fixing a speeding ticket.

ol' dad

1976 I had a summer job with Utah Division of Wildlife Resources at Hardware Ranch. They put up hay in the summer and feed it to elk in the winter from horse drawn sleighs, with rides free to the public. That summer we kept the fields irrigated then hauled the hay, putting it up in a huge barn. One of the fields was at the base of a rocky hill called Rattlesnake.You could expect seeing a rattler at any time in that field. But when we cut the hay and raked it into windrows it concentrated all the field mice under those rows of hay. The snakes took advantage of the good hunting. When the hay was bailed we loaded the bales by hand on a big flatbed to take them to the barn. You learned real quick to look carefully at each bale and roll it toward you to make sure there wasn't a rattler under the bail, or caught alive in the bail, before you picked it up. The few snakes that got bailed alive were angry little nightmare makers. Luckily none of us got bit. I collected a bunch of rattles that summer.

Bit by a prairie rattler when I was a kid in the right little finger when I reached to pick up my lunch I had set on the ground. Burned like heck and turned black and swollen went to the ER and they monitored it Dr thought it was a dry bite for the most part. lost some skin but other than that got away lucky, hate the dang things and we got plenty of them. Lost a horse one year got bit in the face, amazing what the dang things can do.

This thing tried to drag me off and swallow me whole, but I put up a pretty good fight.

Watch it don't wrap around your finger,You'll be a goner!!!!!!!!!!!

Back when I was really into taxidermy, I bought lots of Eastern diamondback snakes from Georga, Florida and got timbers and copperheads from a friend in Kentucky. I tanned them, made belts, mounted them, and sold them. I had a big box of snakes from Florida shipped frozen by UPS and when the driver delivered them, I said I hope they are not dead and cut the box open. It was full of 5'+ Eastern Diamondbacks. He freaked out and ran to his truck thinking he was driving around with a big box of rattlesnakes. It was a good laugh. You had to be very careful skinning out the heads with all the venom that you didn't stab yourself or cut yourself because it would be just like a bite.
The friend from Kentucky had lots of videos and I was amazed at how mad a timber could get. I saw how they could move their fangs and would try and stab his hand by moving the lower jaw or sticking the fang through the lower jaw to get his hand or finger. He took videos of dens in the mountains and the copperheads would come out snapping their mouths.

Never an experience with a poisonous snake but as a youth I was running up some steps from a lake and in the woods. I was barefooted and a large pine snake around 4 foot or better was coiled on a step and I stepped on the snake going up and he coiled around my lower leg and I got him shook off and screaming etc. Heart rate went up a bit.

Bryce

only chicken snakes for me Savell. good thing I experienced it young in life gathering eggs. tore my garage to hec and back three summers back when one came in and was on top of a stack of ice chests. fell across both arms and latched onto to my right hand. wouldve have been a dandy of a video. Once I got his head in my right hand, sounded like egg shells being crushed. still cut the dog outta of my arm when I went to spinning and got hung up in a folding chair. that chair looked like a pretzel that Carl Childers put together. Matter of fact, that may have been as intense as that big melon headed dog I could only get my catch pole around his nose that day. That was intense, pretty sure you still remember that one. Poor ole Sammy didnt know what to think.

Yep … ol cujo

that was one bad dog til I cinched down that noose on his nose and mouth. still shouldve let you do what needed to be done.

…. Still haven’t heard from Mr Dobbins or my hero Jtrap

Hey, Savell. Not too impressive or poisonous, but pretty funny... I use to rent an old house up on the St. Croix river. One day, I was hearing a sort of strange sound from the kitchen, so I went in there to try to figure it out. I was looking up the exhaust hood above the old electric range to see if some critter got in there when I heard the sound coming from below my face. I looked down and saw a snake pattern moving under each of the four stove burners! At one point, I had put aluminum foil under the range top and his slithering along the foil was the sound I heard. I could not see his head, so I carefully pulled out each electric burner so I had four holes with snake view. Then I waited as he moved until it appeared that one access hole was closer to his tail end, and I grabbed him to pull him out. He grabbed tight onto something under the range top and the tug of ware began! Too funny. I pulled and pulled and he didn't give! After a bit, whatever he grabbed onto started to cut into him and he weakened and let go - suddenly flying past my face and onto the floor. I stepped on him behind his head and then picked him up to check him out. He was cut and pretty limp. Well, I knew I had a pretty good reptile ID book so I hung onto him with my left hand and paged through the book with my right hand. He started regaining strength and wrapped himself all around my left arm waiting for me to get done studying. He was a good sized pine snake with a great attitude. He put on a pretty good show! I took him outside and threw him into the woods. (He was probably back in my place by the next day!)

…. lol good story Patrice …. My wife would have ran away screaming lol

The big timber rattler I beheaded in Oregon ended up laid out across the dash of the bullbuck’s pickup, I’ve never seen a man jump and roll out of a truck so fast before lol

…. Had the biggest copperhead I’ve ever seen end up stuck in my blue jeans

Third grade I was the fastest crawdad catcher in all of Rock Creek, my buddy Curt would argue that he was though.

Each day we went down the creek flipping rocks and catching crawdads. We would pass this one big rock and bet just how big the granddaddy of all crawdads was that lived under that rock. Eventually we agreed to work together to catch that granddaddy crawdad. Curt got on the backside and I the front and struggled and strained to lift it up. Seeing as I was the fastest I was positioned to get the best grab at it but all I saw was a big old moss back grinning up at me with that wide open white mouth.

I hollered SNAKE and on that day I was indeed the fastest crawdad catcher in Rock Creek as I passed Curt like my tail was on fire, lol.

Scouting some new deer woods close to where I wasn't supposed to be. It was upper 90s that day, and that woods was thick to where you had to crawl through in places.
I got about half way to where I wanted to get to when I was just about out of steam, and considered heading back from where I came. I about halfway died coming in that way. Surely I woulda died going back through that tangled mess.
I looked further ahead and saw a giant oak tree, so I figured that the walking woulda been easy under that tree. It was. Once I fought my way to it tripping and falling along the way. I got to the base of that big oak and was in mid stride, ready to finish a step with my left foot when I spied what looked like an entire bushel basket of snake had been casually poured onto the ground.
I froze mid stride, and looked left and right to make sure that canebrake didn't have any company. He didn't. I backed away slowly and went shopping for a tree limb adequate for efficient dispatch.
I needed a long handled fur seal club, but there weren't none close to that description. I settled for a log not so big that I couldn't swing it, but big enough that if I dropped it that it would still kill that snake.
That snake never moved, nor rattled. Well, not until I drove its head into the ground halfway to China. Then it begun to rattle. That there shook me up good. Never heard a rattler before.
I removed its head and found an easy path and walked a quarter mile back to the truck carrying that snake. My arms were burning before I got back to the truck.
It was 6'4" in length and as big around as my calf.
I skinned it out and found a freshly swallowed robin inside that didn't even make a bulge.
I was never scared of snakes before that day. I have to fight from screaming like a girl when I see a crooked stick these days.

July 1, 2014 - Fayetteville, GA, Whitewater Creek at Redwine Road. I was walking up the creek with my crew to survey the creek and felt two needles go into my leg midway between the knee and ankle. I was standing in the water which was about 15 inches deep. I knew exactly what it was even though I didn't see the snake. I hollered to the rest of the crew to get out of the water and was trying to get to the sandbar behind me. I drug my leg back through the snake and it bit me a second time about an inch behind where the first bite was.

We were about 400 yards up the creek and I figured we better get back to the truck in case I started having bad reactions and needed to be carried. It already turned black and blue by the time we got to the truck and we marked the bite and time. Also marked the swelling at 15 minute intervals. My technician called her husband who was a doctor and he said if there were no bad reactions, get on home and got to the urgent care before going to the hospital. By the time I got to the truck I was cracking jokes and making fun of myself.

You get to the front of the line when you walk in the doc's office saying you are snake bit. Ended up either being a dry bite or very little venom. Gave me a tetanus shot and sent me home with instructions to have someone stay with me overnight in case of a delayed reaction.

Another friend I was working with a few years earlier got tagged by a moccassin and never had any reaction until the doctors signed her release paperwork the next afternoon. That one was in Uchee Creek in Evans, GA on June 1, 2005.

Both were water moccasins that bit us underwater. Those dates and events are very vivid even today. I joke around now and say the snake died 10 minutes later.

Know exactly where that is and the closest to me with moccasins.

This happened in June about 10 or so years ago. I was hiding behind a big cypress tree watching a cut beaver dam just before dark. I did have on Lacross trapline hip boots.The weeds were about 15" high. I had already seen the weeds moving so I knew a snake was in there but I couldn't see the snake. I stood still behind that cypress hoping that the lone beaver that was left there would show up to check the dam and get treatment two-two-el-are. A cottonmouth hit me on the calf and just about knocked my leg out from under me , but did not penetrate the hip boot,. I didn't know they could punch that hard. I finally caught that old 3 legged female beaver a few days later.

Rickey

Unless its venomous and in the yard or something I just let them be. Used to catch and sell them but I dont kill them just to kill them.

Sorry haven’t been on in a couple of days. Hardest part of recovery. After two surgeries 8 days in the hospital and a month or rebreeding twice a day. A full year of days living in a fog it finally subsided. It’s an experience I don’t suggest. In my world if it slither it dies. I don’t care good or bad. I have it out for snakes.

After a morning turkey hunting with my daughter we are headed back to the truck when she skirts a patch of knee high river cane. Being bull headed I wade through just to feel a tap on the toe of my right foot. I look down and laugh.
It's a little yellow tailed baby copperhead not even eight inches long. I no sooner see it than it dives into a root hole and is gone.
But it left a pea sized drop of yellowish venom on the toe of my rubber grange boot. It wasn't playing, got to respect that.

… copperheads can’t get through leather

That's why I've never bothered with snake boots. Just good sturdy leather boots.

Close call with a different meaning. A friend of my wife's was bit on the leg by a mojave rattlesnake. It took 28 doses of antivenom to save her. The priest preformed last rites on three separate occasions. She spent 10 days in the hospital. She has to have blood transfusions a few times a year because her blood cells breakdown faster than they are replaced. .A year later She was bitten by another mojave on the hand. Not as dramatic this time, but she still has problems with her hand.

Back in the early 80s me and my buddy was squirrel hunting and it got pretty warm walking around that afternoon and we came to a creek with a small waterfall and cold clear clean water he went to his knees to get a drink and I said don’t move took my 22 and shot a copperhead that was eyeball to eyeball with him that was a lucky shot cause it could have went south in a hurry

From March of 1976- March of 1979 I was in the Navy and stationed at NAS Oceana, Va. I lived on Knotts Island, NC. My backyard was the Mackey Island Wildlife Refuge. One afternoon, about the third week in October, my landlords grandson and I were going to rebuild some deer stands, and also took shotguns because dove season was still open, and the area is known for it’s water moccasin population. As we progressed farther into the woods every stump,, hole in the ground, or brush pile had just piles of snakes ( moccasins, Florida strain) sunning everywhere! My landlords grandson, Ronnie, hated the things. We each had 20 gauge auto shotguns and at least a box of shells each. We would shoot the “ bundles” of snakes and they would just roll. The stench From those snakes is hard to forget to this day. We ran out of shells before we ran out of snakes, and just for good measure, Ronnie killed a few with sticks. Ronnie inherited that piece of property!

…. Snakey place for sure Rally

Okay, Savell. Here's my only snake story from up here in Cheeseland with a photo. Imagine our shock as this monster moved in on the girls' watering fountain.



Would have been really funny if the girls were around at that moment. That little guy would have been really sorry!

I was camping with my dad and we were fishing from shore. I had just casted out and was looking for a spot to prop my rod up. I picked up a rock, thinking I could stick the rod down in the hole that the rock was in. There was a rattlesnake underneath the rock, a few inches from my hands. I had a BB pistol with me so I grabbed that and started blasting at it but it swam away.

…. Y’all ain’t got any rattlesnakes up there do you cowboy ? Lol

Wisconsin has a small population of massasuga (pygmy) rattlesnake and timber rattlers. I have only seen one timber rattler in my lifetime spent in the Wis.outdoors. They are mostly found in the bluff country along the Mississippi River.

I was cutting the last of some Gypsy Moth timber on this job in the late 80s, early 90s. There was a bunch of dense saplings I had to go through because there was no leaf canopy allowing a lot of sun in. I had my visor down which limits visibility a good bit, making my way to the next oak. I saw something kinda like shaking, then I heard it. I was within 5 feet of a big ol rattlesnake. Just picture the 6-million-dollar man doing one of his big jumps, only in reverse-that was me.
It was one of those bright, sunny, no humidity days in September which I love and now I couldnt wait for winter to roll in. We found more that spring and found out it was a major denning sight in that area. It was the first, closest venomous snake I ever seen up to that point. I still fear bees more than snakes because you cant see the little devils, their fast, they attack in droves and it seemed like every day I was standing on a new ground nest.

… lol I liked your other story better Mrs Patrice

… I’m sure everyone survived that ordeal lol

The fall of 1970, I was 19 yrs old, and was invited on a deer hunt to Montana with a friend and his father. I had a new Remington 700 in 6mm caliber along with a new pair of leather boots and not much knowledge of mule deer. For my age I could navigate pretty well anywhere I went in the deer woods of Wisconsin as long as I had a compass. This would be my first trip out west and one of the questions I asked was were there any rattlesnakes in that part of Montana. My friend laughed and said yes but it was to late in the year for them to be out.
We camped out in a valley off a narrow dirt road in the foothills of the Rockies.
Each day we would each go our own way and still hunt through the hills.
The second morning i shot a fat doe for camp meat. Leaving my pack by the carcass I confidently headed for camp only about a mile away to get help retrieving the meat. After walking much further than I thought I should have I realized my compass was
still in my pack by the dead deer. All the hills and valleys were starting to look the same. Trying to gauge direction by the sun I headed in the direction I thought would bring me to the dirt road. I walked a couple more hrs. before
finding it and had seen a small pine snake in the process. So much for it being too cold for snakes to be out!!
Glad to have found the road I started to walk to camp. After walking what seemed like several miles my new boots
had given me blisters bad enough I took them off and proceeded along the dusty trail. I was just about to put a foot down when the branch I was stepping over in the road moved. The size and color made my mind instantly think rattlesnake! The 6mm went into survival mode and it wasn't until after it was dead I realized it wasn't a rattler but being only in my stocking feet no chances were taken.
Continuing on, my dilemma ended when a couple cowboys came down the road and give me a ride in the back of an old pickup as they knew the area we were camping in. Got the doe out with my friend and had fresh venison
all week. I managed to miss a gimme shot at a giant mule buck a day later. My friend and his dad each shot a big one. We still laugh about that trip and my misfortunes 55 years later.

Just last weekend in SD, was walking with the grandsons out to a prairie dog town for a little recreational shooting, when one off them behind me yelled run, Apparently I stepped over the rattler and they were about to. bout a 3 footer.

We have rattle snakes where we live, sometimes in our yard. I can't hear them, when my kids would holler Dad very loud I would stop in my tracks. The doors in my shop are not tight.I have killed two rattlers inside, talk about jumping.

Yep we do

Yup, my dad and I were fishing on the Chippewa down by Arkansaw

(Arkansaw, WI not Arkansas the state)