OT--Question For You Boys In Texas, AZ, NM........

[Sixgun]

Howdy dudes,
Rangeriders post on the rattlesnake really got me to thinking. (and that ain't easy ) Up here in Pa. I've shot a few rattlers but they are few and years between. I camp a lot and spend lots of time in the woods and can't imagine trying to enjoy myself with those nasty serpents lurking on every rock. so.............my question to you Southern and Southwest boys is...........

How do go camping with things like that running around? How do you walk around in the woods with that danger being ever so present? How about when you have to pull over and take a leak, do you have to scout the ground real well before exposing yourself? (the snakes would have a tall leap for me ) Boots? How high you have to wear 'em?

Sure would be interesting to pick your brains on this.----------------Sixgun

[O.S.O.K.]

They aren't that bad - at least they warn you - usually.

You don't see that many snakes in my experience. I usually don't go walking around the woods at night - but if you do, like when you shoot a deer at dusk and have to go track it, you use your flashlight and look. Some guys wear snake boots (not like Ted Nugent, the kind that prevent the fangs from penetrating)...

More of a bother when camping is the darned scorpions - basically will sting you like a wasp.

Being a scouter and camping pretty often, I've taken to sleeping in a modern nylon barrel-bottom tent which keeps the varmints out.

[20cows]

Though they crawl on the ground, the ground ain't "crawling" with them.

[JerryB]

I am not from the west but I did live a lot of years in south Florida. Down there The Eastern Diamondback is supposedly the largest rattler.They are in the woods and can put a hurtin on you, but I never did have much luck hunting with my eyes glued to the ground. Just hunt or fish and be aware of whats around you and watch your hound or catch dog, when they start stiff legging and bristeling then start looking around. Hunting from horses was a little better.I reckon that Rusty and some of the other Crackers can tell you about the same thing. At one time I had a pint jar full of rattles.

[J Miller]

I lived in AZ for almost 40 years. I spent much of that time in the desert. I saw very few rattle snakes. In the last year I was there I saw three in one month. They were the first I'd seen in years.

I simply paid attention to where I was walking and never had any trouble.

Joe

[RKrodle]

Well Sixgun, I was born and raised in rural Texas and accept for my time in the Marines I have lived here all my life. I have never seen a Rattle snake in Texas, lots of Cotton Mouths and a Copper Head every now and then, but no Rattlers. The part of Texas that I live just don't have them, and I've been to several different parts of Texas and didn't see them there but was told that they were around. If I ever do I may scream like a little girl and run away . When I'm around water where there may be Cotton Mouths I try to walk heavy, pretty easy now days at 260 lbs, so they know I'm coming. Around on our place I keep them thinned out of the ponds pretty well.

[O.S.O.K.]

On a recent scout campout at a local rancher's place, I saw a nice fat cotton mouth. It was pretending to be a stick so we just left it be. I related this to the rancher later when he was down to sample some of our fried catfish and he said - next time kill it!

I've killed my share of venomous snakes but I generally like to leave em be. Copperheads are the exception to me - they are agressive and proliferant. I've killed quite a few of those. Only one rattler - was sitting on my doorstep - bad move for the snake. We used to see them on a regular basis on the gravel road though.

And for the record, CCI .22 LR shotshells out of a Ruger bearcat are perfect for dispatching snakes.

[mescalero1]

It's never been a big deal, growing up there you just learn to cope.
Very few people are ever bitten considering the number of encounters.
That one from the post is an exception, they do get that big and bigger; I have seen bigger.
But they are rare.
The guys from Florida are the ones that get me.
I saw a internet thing of a new housing development in Florida, and the homeowners had to call Florida fish & game, thier pets kept disappearing.
Fish & game shot a gator, took a picture of it dead, had to get a backhoe to lift it up, with the hoe completly extended, it was still on the ground!
Now THAT is a monster!

[rangerider7]

I wear snake boots as soon as it gets warm. I have killed 4 rattlers this year. If I had gone to every rattle I heard I could have killed 20. They are very prevalent on the ranch. You look at everything you do very closely before you pick anything up or step near a place they can be. I'm just glad they warn you!!

[bsaride]

Here in the deserts of southern California I don't see too many rattlesnakes but they are out there.
I usually just watch where I'm going and always look when stepping over a rock or brush.

As a boy scout I used to out looking for them and caught/killed a fair share. Another time I was riding
the motorcycle with a passanger and had one crossing the highway I just barely avoided.

[Sixgun]

Thanks guys,
There's just somethin' about big snakes and big spiders I don't like. They put fear in me real fast. Nothing else seems to faze me. Maybe in a past life I was thrown in a pit of snakes. The black guys I work with are terrified of snakes. The biggest, toughest guy will run like a baby from a 1 foot long snake.

I see regular snakes around here (black or garter) all the time but I leave 'em alone. Those poisionous ones would get the sixgun slug if I was down your way! ------------Sixgun

[mescalero1]

Sixgun,
I have not shot a rattler since I was a kid.
Course, when I was a kid I shot almost evrything I saw.
I am older now, like to think I know better.

[Hobie]

I've been allover the place, probably not much different than a lot of people here. In all that time I've had only 4 or 5 "close" contacts with snakes. The closest was one that slid up by me as I lay resting on the ground. It was touching my ankle and and my back between my shoulder blades at the same time as it crawled/slithered right up my backside. There was a poncho between me and the snake. I could hear it move away from my ruck on which I was resting my head. Another time there was one laying parallel to the trail on which I was moving my platoon in file. The soldiers being about 2-3 feet apart (they bunched up too much which is why I'd moved back there), that snake was at least 6 feet long, maybe longer. It was cool so it didn't move much. I had to point it out to the soldiers so they would pass it without disturbing it. One snake came up on a sandbar in a river on which I was hiding behind some driftwood. I've actually seen more around Mom's house.

[20cows]

Working in the desert oil fields of the Permian Basin (West Texas), we saw a lotof them in gas meter boxes and well cellars during hot weather. In the fall, they were very common on blacktop roads after dark where it was still warm.

[gunslinger598]

Plenty of snakes in this neck of the woods as well
Rattle snakes
Copper Heads
Cotton Mouths
spreadin adders,
rat snakes
king snakes

just to name a few .....

[Malamute]

When I lived in Az I had a few close encounters, We killed a few of them if they were big and cook them. They are still a lot like fileting a fish, and throwing the filet away and keeping the part with all the bones, just not a lot of meat on them.


In Wy, I had one dog get bit in the face and almost die. I took it personal. I kill all I see now. Including the one that somehow managed to get in the house (44 birdshot loads are hard on the floor). And the one under the front porch step I found by sound coming in in the dark. And the one I stepped over going into the garage, and noticed on the way out. And the several in the yard close to the house. And the ones in the road. And the ones I see when out dog walking.

I had one come out of a bush and start rattling RIGHT behind one of my dogs once. Killed it also.

My only regrets regarding killing snakes is that I couldn't find the one that bit the dog that time. I surely would've liked to kill that one.

I've shot them, killed them with rocks, shovels, trucks (good to back up and run over them a few times to be sure), tapped them on the head with a Winchester carbine butt,.....

I dislike rattlesnakes greatly.

[Charles]

Rattlesnakes will avoid human contact if possible. Given half a chance they will move out of your way and you will never see them. If you spend much time outdoors, you learn not to catch them unawares. You don't put your hands or feet where you cannot see them. Humans and snakes can live together, but it takes a little understanding.

[crs]

If you grow up around rattlers in Texas, you get used to them and sort of "stay aware" and either kill or avoid them. As kids we hunted them and moccasins with BB guns, shooting them in the head will take the salt out of them.
In the southern part of Texas where it rarely freezes, the do not hibernate and keep growing and growing ,,, - believe me, when you run across one of those big ones warming itself in the trail it can give you a start, especially when walking in from a deer stand after dark!

My place in Farmersville is just 30 mile north of RKrodle's, and we had to stop watering the front lawn in the summer because it attracted baby timber rattlers up onto the front porch! This has been told to me by multiple rural folk in North Texas, so maybe Ricky does not water his yard?

Like Ricky, I dislike copperheads more than rattles - they are hard to see and sneaky little dudes.

[Griff]

In the 18+ years I've lived in NE TX, I haven't seen a rattler around my place... a few mocassins and a cotton-mouth near the pond, but... just this year I found hole in the field nearest the pond, and it being winter, I ain't poked around in it... yet! But, I will be to determine what's in it. Wish I had a backhoe, it'd be easiest to find out what's down there!

[RIHMFIRE]

We have a few snakes hear in florida....
Eastern diamondbacks..
pigmy rattlers...
copperheads...
Cottonmouth or water mocasins....mean bastards
and coral snakes....
and about 10' from me right now...boa constrictor...
my daughters version of a real cool pet! ..Its shedding...
Anyway....we need to wear snake boots in the woods
all the time...Killed a 5'5" rattler a couple of years ago
in the nieghbors back yard...You really dont have to worry
about rattlers...its the water macasins that are the problem..
and as far as camping....I use a camper....
With the snakes, scorpions, bears, coyotes, bobcats, spiders,
chiggers, tics, and god knows what else....I dont sleep on the
ground down here...

[Duff L Bagg]

It's never been a big deal, growing up there you just learn to cope.
Very few people are ever bitten considering the number of encounters.
That one from the post is an exception, they do get that big and bigger; I have seen bigger.
But they are rare.
The guys from Florida are the ones that get me.
I saw a internet thing of a new housing development in Florida, and the homeowners had to call Florida fish & game, thier pets kept disappearing.
Fish & game shot a gator, took a picture of it dead, had to get a backhoe to lift it up, with the hoe completly extended, it was still on the ground!
Now THAT is a monster!

This is the pond just down the street from where I worked on the Kennedy Space Center. Snakes were the least of my worries when walking out to the truck at quitting time(mid-night)

[mescalero1]

Yeah,
thats what I meant

[Idiot]

What's wrong with a snake or two sharing the same hunting grounds? I wouldn't want it any other way. I grew up in the northern desert where rattlesnakes frequented the yard; sometimes they'd make their way into the house. I hunted one day and killed three rattlesnakes within 30 minutes. I also killed 6 cottontails during the same time period and was pretty happy with the hunt. I grew up knowing where the snakes were likely to be found and exercised a bit of caution when nearing those places.

When I moved to the southwest I found rattlesnakes everywhere (if you know where to look, they are likely there). When I hunt nowadays I can usually avoid the rattlesnakes and the chollas by simply being aware of where they like to hide and recognizing their existence - respectively. It's kind of weird, but you get a sense of where they are without really seeing them.

The most dangerous time for rattlesnakes in the southwest, in my opinion, is the cooler period right before they go underground and the warming up period when they're coming out. During this period of time they are too cold to uncoil and too cold to rattle. I've almost stepped on them when hunting doves in the fall because without some movement or rattling they are very hard to see.

The bottom line is pay attention to where you put your feet, especially walking through thick brush or near water, and don't ever put your hand into something to see what's in there (tool boxes on the tractor and that small handhold in the rock included) - use your eyes. Wearing boots and jeans will help. I'll take rattlesnakes and other nasty creatures in the desert any day over that car load of thugs behind black windows and booming bass slowly rolling through my neighborhood.

Duff L Bag: I sure like those gators. I'd like to whack a couple of those critters. They look like they've got a bit more meat than a rattlesnake.

[morgan in nm]

Around here, you see a lot of big poisonous snakes but like everybody else said, be watchful and you will be alright. In Clovis, NM, there was a picture of a rattler that somebody killed about a year ago that was a little bigger than the one from that photo you were talking about but I couldn't find it. You kinda have to be a little smarter than some about walking into a dug-out full of tumble weeds and trash. A good rule of thumb for me is that if a mouse can live there, a rattle snake will be close by.

One thing I do to avoid seeing any rattle snakes is to carry a pistol. I have never seen or killed one when I was armed.

[crs]

Griff;
I have heard of folks using gasoline to run rattlers out of their holes - you could try that, but toss your cigarette before pouring!
No telling what you may find in there!

[Barcelona Rick]

Over here in East Texas we mostly have cottonmouths, chicken snakes, timber rattlers and coach whips which will scare you to death when they rear up and look over the grass.....my bride of 32 years grew up in Jaxs, Fl and use to swim (after school) with her friends in some of the intercoastal canals.....they were swimming and throwing a frisbee to a yellow lab one afternoon when bam a big ole gator cut the dog about in two. My wife was in the water and said she set a swimming record getting out. I have more trouble with fireants than snakes.....

jumbeaux

[piller]

Here in the city, a suburb of Dallas, we have never seen a rattler in the yard. We have a bunch of little brown snakes with a cream yellow belly which are non-poisonous as far as I know. My wife saw a copperhead once at night when she was watering the foundation of the house. We have a clay type of soil here which shifts and cracks the foundation if it gets too dry.
My father worked for Panhandle Eastern Pipeline when I was a kid and he used to find rattlers near the well heads when he would go to check them. Mice liked that area, and the snakes were coming for the mice.

[Sixgun]

Well guys, reading these stories (especially those gators!) solidifies my thoughts on where I plan to retire. If its not right here on the Sixgun homestead, it sure as heck ain't gonna be south of the Mason Dixon line. Thanks! I got quite a learnin' here.-----------------Sixgun

[mescalero1]

Sixgun,
You have to expand your horizons.

[Duff L Bagg]

For the most part the pigs and fish are the ones in danger on KSC



I think this gator was on his to his smoke house to cure the hams and bacon

[Sixgun]

For the most part the pigs and fish are the ones in danger on KSC



I think this gator was on his to his smoke house to cure the hams and bacon

That was incredible!!!! I can just imagine that gator taking off with me in his mouth, (na...I taste bad) and leaving my winchesters uncovered and out in the rain. ----------Sixgun

[Catshooter]

Duff L,

Great photo!

I don't mind the gators and such like, I'm always armed and a good fight spices up the day.

But poisionus things? Nope. They got no reason, none at all. I kill every single one I can. I'll go out of my way to do so.

All y'all snake lovers are probably as glad as I am that I live north of the snake line. We've got some big Garter snakes up here, pretty and I don't bother them a bit.

Sixgun,

Snakes were one of the reasons I picked South Dakota to retire in.


Cat

[Tennessee Hayre]

On the snake issue I remember when I was about 7, I seen (14 Copperheads in our front yard moving in formation side by side headed for the gravel road , most likly the large creek on the other side during a hot summer. . Scared the bjesus out of me and my brother. They came out from under our house, We lived out in the sticks and the nearest friend was 2 mile etc.

[JustaJeepGuy]

14 Copperheads...moving in formation...

"Hut, two, three, four..." What a picture that would have made!