The snakes are out
Small Game
Got this pic from a friend in Arizona a few weeks ago. She said it was taken by a friend of her husbands.
I was out hiking with a friend of mine this evening. Nothing serious, just a stroll around the nature trail just outside of town. Just as it was getting dark I almost stepped on a little prairie rattler.
I got about 2 feet from it before I noticed it just laying on the grass next to the gravel path. I'm wondering if I didn't notice it if it would have let me just walk right on by?
It's funny. I lived in Arizona for over 12 years and only had 1 encounter with a rattler. I've been in Eastern Colorado and Northwest Kansas now for just 2 years and I've come across at least a half a dozen of them.
Do any of you guys wear snake boots? I'm starting to think maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea.
I'd rather see 3' of snow and temps below zero than live where you can run into that. Gives me the creeps looking at it.
I think I just screamed like a little girl after looking at that picture did anyone of you hear me?!?
I'm with stagetec, I'll keep the snow and cold!!
I think They are pretty in pictures but they freak me out in person
Screw that! Napalm that whole area!
I don't mind snakes but that ball of vipers would make me nervous. They are very mobile during the Spring breeding season so it's wise to watch your step. I was walking a trail last week watching for snakes, deer tracks totally unaware of a 10ft alligator across the trail. His hissing caused me to detour. Be safe
Mohave greens I think. One of the most poisonous rattlesnakes, has hemolytic and neurotoxins.
This past winter doens't seem so bad now....
I wouldn't want to walk through there at night or early a.m.
Looks like a lot of boot, belts, hatbands. Something...
Spooky too
Mike, wewre you taking a piss when you took that picture of the snake in the road?
@Bou... NO, but LOL!!! Didn't even notice that!
found this guy late sept WY!!!! high elev pulled him from the blacktop so he wouldn't get killed
Better you than me don't like it but interesting to see for sure.
here's another one I found in the road in eastern Colorado.
Mike, I think your friend is pulling your leg. I got a pic like that in an email about 5 years ago...lots of limb skins right there!
I saw something similar on you-tube last week.
There are good snakes and bad snakes.....
I'd run my obligatory Salma Hayek and her snake from that Quinton Tarantino vampire movie about now.... but it's been pulled already a time or two... I'm begining to think Charlie doesn't like snakes... =D
Shotgun! I'll stick with snow up to my BA!!$!
Josh
@Beendare... I think you're right. I searched Mojave greens and found that exact picture on some historic California site.
Still a cool picture.
I like snakes!
Have a great bow hunt. BB
Me to BB, would love to see that den site. By the way that is a great picture of a bull snake? My brother Terry had a Gila Monster in the yard yesterday, he lives near the Green Mountains of AZ.
Living in the desert southwest all my life I've had my share of snake encounters. But the 2 most scariest happened only about 6 weeks apart, 1 in the desert, 2 at home... The first, late Aug just north of the new house scouting a spot to shoot doves come Sept 1. Get up early Sat morning and head to a spot I'd hunted before to check out the flight. Sitting in my truck at dawn, just light enough to see, not much activity, I get out to go check out the other side of the wash... Now, I'm wearing T-shirt, shorts and flip flops. I hadn't taken 10 steps when the rattler lit up! If anybodies not heard that sound before and CLOSE! you haven't lived!! haha Anyway, my next step on to a flat rock in the dry wash would have been onto the back of the snake..not good with flip flops... Then approx 6 or so weeks later, mid Oct, Get home after work, wife says "let's grill steaks for dinner" Good deal... I get changed out of work clothes, throw on shorts and T-Shirt..go outback and fire up the grill...throw the ball for our lab a few times..go into the house season the meat, grab a beer, go back outside check on the grill, more ball time with the dog then head in to grab the meat and BAMN right at the back door the rattler goes off... It's grey light, barely see, patio lights not on..where the F is the snake!? I look down at my right side and I have a 100 foot extension cord coiled up...3.5 foot snake coiled inside the coil...not 12 inches from my foot...'bout shat myself right there. Managed to get Bob (lab) around the other side of me and into the house...then I jumped in myself and slammed the door and sat right on the floor...dizzy. Wife and daughter say "WHAT'S THE MATTER???" There's a GD rattlesnake on the patio! I say. I get up and wife wants to know what I'm going to do... before I can even respond she's calling 911..."Hang Up" I tell her, I'm going to kill it. Well if you hang up on 911 they call you back, right now... Wife in somewhat histerics tells the operator the story and adds that I'm about to be killed by this snake. I tell her to explain to 911 that I got this and sorry for the call...she is told in turn that there is a 'snake guy' that lives just down the road from us and to call him and he'll come and get the snake. I told the wife that if the guy can be here in 5 mins the snake lives. I kid you not the guy shows up in half that time. After he's got the snake in a 5 gallon bucket my wife, still terrified, asked him "how did it get back here? can they climb walls (our walls are 6+ feet and we boarder desert)?? The guy looks her in the eye and says "no, they can't climb these walls...but I've seen 'em leap 'em!" I about pissed myself laughing. Just a few days later, taking the trash out, walked around the corner to the side yard and a garden snake flew out in front of me on the path..darn near another shat inducing moment although quickly followed up with an 'oh you little prick...' Stay safe out there folks!
Now guys aren't snakes cool, they give us all some great stories. One time I was herping for snakes in the early spring and went to a den site I knew of. It was a very interesting site because there were several different species of snakes that used it. As I sat on a windfall in the warm spring sunshine I studied the types of snakes I could see. There were garter snakes, water snakes, blue racers and even a milk snake. It was then that I noticed one right between my feet. As I looked close at the snake that was still covered in light mud I noticed the head was diamond shaped and realized it was a massasaga rattler. I jumped up pretty darn quickly. Had a good laugh a little later with my brother the herpetologist in the family.
Was sent this from a friend in Texas.
I am always amazed how much snakes can turn manly men into a bunch of squealing little girls.... I use to be a cop in place where we would get rattler calls and I would jump the calls loved getting those devils with a golf club....Sometimes in August I would kill 4-8 a day...was like a little hunting break at work...most cops who had no trouble going to shots fired would love their doors and whimper when it came to snakes....of course a dead snake placed in the proper spot was a timeless gag better that a whoppee cushion...
Here is a big prararie ratttler I killed in Wyoming a few years back hunting pronghorns. There was a deep ditch I used to access my area and knew I would be sneaking thorough it all season...I was hunting solo and getting bit in the face not an option...once I saw him I had a blast trying to "spear" that rattler with the stone flake I found...in front of me was a deep cut and weeds the game was not to get bit....whhhhooo you guys don't know what fun is!!!!
@switchback..... GEEZ man!!!
I lived in AZ, and I know the sound of the rattle!
@habu... those little buggers sure can make you move, can't they.. lol! When I ran into that one the other day, I jumped back a few feet before I was even done processing it was a snake.
I used to wish I was as tall as my friends...seemed like I was always trailing behind or just about running to keep up. Then one day my two buds bailed off both sides of the trail....copperheads. One of the few times I was glad to be shorter.
@GEN273... that's a big snake
Habu John. I know they live down here in the SW part of MI but I've yet to see one.
Last Summer I left the truck,headed for some rock ledges,hoping to find a couple rattlers for a friend that wanted skins for his long bow.I only made it a few yards and this guy rose up to challenge me.No luck at the ledges though.
I've been catching and handling venomous snakes since I was 13 so I don't get too wound up about them but I did have an incident,a few years ago,in this same meadow,that was a little too close for comfort.
I was Spring bear hunting and coming out,minutes before dark.It gets dark late then,so I imagine it was after 9:00 PM and I was in a hurry,tired and hungry and home was 45 minutes away.So I was coming through the meadow at a pretty good pace,downhill.In mid stride,I heard and saw this rattler and my foot was headed right on top of him and I just couldn't stop.I came on him so fast,I don't know how he did it but he shot down a ground squirrel hole that he had been laying in front of and my foot landed,exactly where he had been coiled.You could see a flat spot in the grass where he had been.I only wear ankle length hiking boots and that could have been ugly.I was lucky that day.
These days,I slow down a little bit,coming through places like that and try to give myself a little daylight when I can.
Snakes scare me to death. I don't mind them if I can see them. It's the surprise factor, and the fact I think there's one behind every bush and under every log that bothers me
Knock on wood. . . only had 2 close calls, both with snakes I couldn't identify.
One was years ago on the logging road in early bow season, I was walking out in the dark with no light, and all the sudden hissing and leaves shaking right in the path. I detoured and kept walking
The other was this morning. I was walking in in pitch black to turkey hunt, was gonna sit against a specific tree from which I've killed a tom in years past, and had a close encounter a couple days ago.
This tree is on a drop from an open field, down into a soggy patch, then it's 30 yards over to a large creek. I've long thought this ledge, which is 5 or 6 feet tall, and runs for about 200 yards, is snaky snaky. It's tree covered, holy, brushy, etc. Always leaves piled up there. Snaky
I got to my tree, got ready to sit down, and something is there hissing at me. Almost didn't hear it at first. It might have been a black snake for all I know, but it scared the tar out of me. It sounded like that low open mouth hiss you get from a cottonmouth when he's displaying. I'm literally getting crawly flesh as I sit here typing this.
Bake
had to remove a gopher snake from the house a few days ago that my wife was convinced was a rattlesnake... I hate snakes but I love their skins
I had one that made me jump and one other that I got way too close to without knowing this weekend while chasing toms. I assume these were non-venomous, since this was in Illinois. Neither appeared to be a rattler, and neither was a copperhead, but I really am not very high on snake intel.
