Anyone been bit by a rattlesnake in back country?

[dtrkyman]

Never bit, maybe one close call. I dig snakes!


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[Tbonespop]

View attachment 416464View attachment 416467View attachment 416466
Some of our encounters from last year here in WY. First one was right outside my house door. I had been walking in and out of that door all afternoon. He was laying under a board on my yard drag next to the shop door. Finally rattled at me on my seventh trip out the door while installing porch lighting.

**Edit: That looks like a Great Basin rattler. Nasty critter. Initially thought it was a Mojave based on the color, but seeing its location made me rethink it. Did a little digging.

 

[grfox92]

Once in the crawl space under my house. Once climbing a rock face 400 yd. from my house. Lots of snakes back then. 15 to 25 a year within a mile of the house wasnt a big deal .

Where were you located?

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[huck]

NE wash. st.

 

[Badseed]

Most of my life I have lived and hunted in pretty snake infested areas. Last year, we had 14 rattle snakes on our property that needed to be relocated which was slightly more than the average year. A few years ago while shooting prairie dogs in Wyoming we were on one ranch and stumbled across two of the biggest rattlers I have ever seen. Has there been some close calls? Oh hell ya but so far, fingers crossed, the snake gives just enough warning to stay away. One of my dogs has been bit 3 times on the nose. She is a bull mastiff/lab mix weighing over 100 pounds so she has some size to absorb the venom. A long time ago a vet told me that if your dog gets bit, give them Benadryl to calm them down, make them sleep and reduce the swelling. So far that trick hasn’t failed.


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[Longbow Lunatic]

Hunted out west six or seven times but...knock on wood...have never seen a snake out there yet. I like it that way.

 

[TheGDog]

Cholla needles are freaking gnarly.

Oh man.. you ain't lyin' there. When I was young, like maybe 15yo I think, we were bombing along in Victorville on the Husqvarna's. A slightly more narrow line I was blasting thru that occasionally had limbs from the nearby brush extend into the trail slightly. No big deal usually, ya got the plastic on, so ya brace for it or duck when ya can.

So anyway, there's this branch my foreleg up to knee had to push thru, and the deal was... just behind it apparently... was a cholla, EEK!

OMMFG!!! One segment got stuck in DEEP all along the baby soft flesh of the back of the knee joint! Those barbs on the quills are evil lil bastards!

Shiiid it even fully pierced thru a knobby on the front tire, and that was a 6Ply rated Desert Terrain Metzler tire! Went completely thru a knobby!!!

It took my breath away the shock of when I first realized I hit one. I had to let the bike slowdown naturally and leaning off the other side of the bike so I could put my "good"
foot down. Eventually Stepdad circles back and gives me his needle nose to yank those barbs.. FACK! My skin was like tenting up a good full inch or more with each quill I had to pull out from behind the back of my knee! Those barbs they have are vicious! Then the hard work of removing them from the knobbies on the tire.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

I hate snakes and people who like them are ******* crazy.

 

[DawnPatrol]

I hate snakes and people who like them are ******* crazy.

Hahaha. One of many reasons to love Alaska! Never have to worry about snakes.

 

[Mojave Kid]

Oh man.. you ain't lyin' there. When I was young, like maybe 15yo I think, we were bombing along in Victorville on the Husqvarna's. A slightly more narrow line I was blasting thru that occasionally had limbs from the nearby brush extend into the trail slightly. No big deal usually, y ago the plastic on, so ya brace for it or duck when ya can.

So anyway, there's this branch and the deal was..just behind it apparently... was a cholla, EEK!

OMMFG!!! One segment got stuck in DEEP all along the baby soft flesh of the back of the knee joint! Those barbs on the quills are evil lil bastards!

Shiiid it even fully pierced thru a knobby on the front tire, and that was a 6Ply rated Desert Terrain Metzler tire! Went completely thru a knobby!!!

It took my breath away the shock of when I first realized I hit one. I had to let the bike slowdown naturally and leaning off the other side of the bike so I could put my "good"
foot down. Eventually Stepdad circles back and gives me his needle nose to yank those barbs.. FACK! My skin was like tenting up a good full inch or more with each quill I had to pull out from behind the back of my knee! Those barbs they have are vicious! Then the hard work of removing them from the knobbies on the tire.

Evil Cholla!, i keep a pair of Hemostats clipped to my upland vest so I can pull quills out of my bird dog and or me while hunting the Mojave. Cholla-muy malo....

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Hahaha. One of many reasons to love Alaska! Never have to worry about snakes.

Exactly. I grew up in the southwest, rattlers were/are everywhere. So many people would be like “don’t hurt them, help me catch it and relocate it”……nope.

 

[TheGDog]

And the crazy thing about Rattlers, it seems, is kinda like you can come across a very wide range of responses/reactions by each individual snake.

One time having to take a detour while MTB'ing in Whiting Ranch, CA as I jammed along this dirt road slightly downhilled slope... at a certain point I passed by a buzzworm right near where the edge of the grass begins at the bulldozed edge of the dirt road. That one? He had this very specific radius of distance around him... where... once you crossed a boundary... he began rattling at a lower volume level. And... if you decided to come closer to inspect him.. he got louder inversely propertional to how close you were becoming to him.

I figured it was a good idea to throw dirt clods at him to shoo him away from that road. And I'm glad I did because when I resumed down that path, maybe 100yds later comes a cub scout troop.

-=-=-=-

Then in Asuza, CA while I'm exiting for the day in this one Canyon with a creek in it. I'm walking along a dirt road it has hugging the left as drivers in the US often instinctively do from driving. Well.. outta nowhere.... maybe 3 feet tops away from my feet coiled up in the beginning of the leafy dead matter ground cover where edge of the dirt road begins... this decent sized older one... I dunno... maybe he was fully asleep or something and me passing by so closely must have snapped him back awake or something? But DANG!! He went directly to full-on loud as hell pissed the heck off rattling! Man you never realized how quick and how fast you can hop out sideways towards the opposite direction till this happens to you!

I experimented with him too. After the initial rapid creating distance... I slowly would move a little more away and pause and see what he'd do. I was curious to see if he'd propertionally quite back down like that other snake had. NOPE! Max Volume loud as Hell, pissed off!

Few more yards and there's a scrub oak the road winds around... when I paused behind the scrub oak... maybe 10yds from him. While I was behind the scrub oak and not moving and being still... he'd eventually calm down and shut up.

But... once I slowly moved out from behind that scrub oak... I think most likely the moment my wind blew my scent or heat signature maybe? toward him... and by now I'm like 15-20yds away from him... BAM! back to pissed off full-tilt leave me alone buzzing again!

Surprised the heck out of me just how long he kept it up, cause ya gotta figure keeping it up is NOT good idea for them to do since it'd ATTRACT some other critters looking for a last-ditch meal.

-=-=-=-=-

And then... beginning of deer season this one year... on the hike-in.. once I could see enough without headlamp... on the trail, on the uphill stretch.... laying in a water rut.. this tiny little like 7" total length rattler! Hate to say it but he was stupid cute. I figure he musta got caught out in the open after it got dark and the cooler temps slowed him down too much, so he decided to just zonk right there. So I smiled and just stepped over him and kept on about my day, happier that I got to see something neat already!

 

[Mojave Kid]

And the crazy thing about Rattlers, it seems, is kinda like you can come across a very wide range of responses/reactions by each individual snake.

One time having to take a detour while MTB'ing in Whiting Ranch, CA as I jammed along this dirt road slightly downhilled slope... at a certain point I passed by a buzzworm right near where the edge of the grass begins at the bulldozed edge of the dirt road. That one? He had this very specific radius of distance around him... where... once you crossed a boundary... he began rattling at a lower volume level. And... if you decided to come closer to inspect him.. he got louder inversely propertional to how close you were becoming to him.

I figured it was a good idea to throw dirt clods at him to shoo him away from that road. And I'm glad I did because when I resumed down that path, maybe 100yds later comes a cub scout troop.

-=-=-=-

Then in Asuza, CA while I'm exiting for the day in this one Canyon with a creek in it. I'm walking along a dirt road it has hugging the left as drivers in the US often instinctively do from driving. Well.. outta nowhere.... maybe 3 feet tops away from my feet coiled up in the beginning of the leafy dead matter ground cover where edge of the dirt road begins... this decent sized older one... I dunno... maybe he was fully asleep or something and me passing by so closely must have snapped him back awake or something? But DANG!! He went directly to full-on loud as hell pissed the heck off rattling! Man you never realized how quick and how fast you can hop out sideways towards the opposite direction till this happens to you!

I experimented with him too. After the initial rapid creating distance... I slowly would move a little more away and pause and see what he'd do. I was curious to see if he'd propertionally quite back down like that other snake had. NOPE! Max Volume loud as Hell, pissed off!

Few more yards and there's a scrub oak the road winds around... when I paused behind the scrub oak... maybe 10yds from him. While I was behind the scrub oak and not moving and being still... he'd eventually calm down and shut up.

But... once I slowly moved out from behind that scrub oak... I think most likely the moment my wind blew my scent or heat signature maybe? toward him... and by now I'm like 15-20yds away from him... BAM! back to pissed off full-tilt leave me alone buzzing again!

Surprised the heck out of me just how long he kept it up, cause ya gotta figure keeping it up is NOT good idea for them to do since it'd ATTRACT some other critters looking for a last-ditch meal.

-=-=-=-=-

And then... beginning of deer season this one year... on the hike-in.. once I could see enough without headlamp... on the trail, on the uphill stretch.... laying in a water rut.. this tiny little like 7" total length rattler! Hate to say it but he was stupid cute. I figure he musta got caught out in the open after it got dark and the cooler temps slowed him down too much, so he decided to just zonk right there. So I smiled and just stepped over him and kept on about my day, happier that I got to see something neat already!

Wow, funny you mention Azusa canyon. In 1978, I went up to Pigeon Ridge to shoot and on the way down close to the highway a giant rattler was coiled up 3 ft from my legs under a bush. I put about 3 22 LR into him and took him home. I noticed a big lump halfway down his length and discovered the lump to be a fresh bunny. The snake was probably too weighed down to strike me but that was close.

 

[TheGDog]

Wow, funny you mention Azusa canyon. In 1978, I went up to Pigeon Ridge to shoot and on the way down close to the highway a giant rattler was coiled up 3 ft from my legs under a bush. I put about 3 22 LR into him and took him home. I noticed a big lump halfway down his length and discovered the lump to be a fresh bunny. The snake was probably too weighed down to strike me but that was close.

Damn.. that's taking me back! I remember the Pidgeon Ridge shooting area! Used to go there when my brother and I as fresh new young adults, bought our first few guns!

 

[Banded_spooney]

I'm wearing shorts and flip flops. I think I'm gonna go change into some brush pants and put my boots on....got me all freaked out

I killed one my mom was about to walk into once but it wasn't that close. We have had 3dogs get hit in the family. My uncle had one hit multiple times. The craziest one was my grandparents had a GSP when I was a kid that pointed one and it bit her on the nose. She never did stop pointing but after that she crowded birds a bit. I'm guessing her sniffer just wasn't quite as good as it once was.

 

[AK Troutbum]

I hate snakes and people who like them are ******* crazy.

You and me both. Just one more benefit of living in AK.

 

[TheGDog]

The big thing is just learn to be cognizant on where you're placing your feet... on ground that you can't clearly see the floor with your eyes. That's when I tend to more purposefully place one of my trekking poles into the edge of like an under area of a bush which prevents me from seeing the ground completely.

I almost never think about it. But when you're tromping thru bush that you could easily see rabbits diggin' on... that obscures the ground quite a bit? It's wise to keep that thought in mind of verifying where you're about to place your foot each time. Sucks cause it slows you down even more than you already are.

And another thing I've learned... is if you have kids or wifey with you... and you spot the snake before they do... ya gotta calmly tell them something like "Hey, can you come here a minute?" to first get them farther away from the area of concern... and THEN... point and explain to them that they didn't see that snake they were headed directly toward.

 

[Anglo-American]

The big thing is just learn to be cognizant on where you're placing your feet... on ground that you can't clearly see the floor with your eyes. That's when I tend to more purposefully place one of my trekking poles into the edge of like an under area of a bush which prevents me from seeing the ground completely.

I almost never think about it. But when you're tromping thru bush that you could easily see rabbits diggin' on... that obscures the ground quite a bit? It's wise to keep that thought in mind of verifying where you're about to place your foot each time. Sucks cause it slows you down even more than you already are.

And another thing I've learned... is if you have kids or wifey with you... and you spot the snake before they do... ya gotta calmly tell them something like "Hey, can you come here a minute?" to first get them farther away from the area of concern... and THEN... point and explain to them that they didn't see that snake they were headed directly toward.

My wife and daughters would walk right into the snake if I spoke to them like in your example.

 

[Rich M]

There was a guy on Bowsite that got bit and chronicled his entire ordeal with pictures, from strike to rescue to recovery. It was a heck of a thread showing what can happen. Maybe do a Google search to find it.

I seen something like this on a diff forum. Guy was in hospital for a bit. Then the how-it-happened story came out - he was doing food plot stuff and sees snake, charges it on 4 wheeler and runs it over, something happens with 4 wheeler so he hops off in flip flops and goes to "stomp em" - snake got even. Kinda stop feeling sorry for him as you read the story.

Another guy I knew used to mess with poisonous snakes - a pygmy tagged his thumb as he was teasing it. 5 days in hospital. Same dude was messing with a big cotton mouth while in the woods with me one day - it was flicking its fangs and venom was flying around - just dumb.

I killed a timber that raised his head and a couple cotton mouths that found me interesting. But mostly, live and let live - one area i hunt infrequently is loaded with pygmy rattlers - you'll see em coiled up on the established trails in the predawn (won't move if you poke em with a stick) or elsewhere.

 

[MallardSX2]

Black Phase Rattler from back in my snake hunting days.