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