Rattlesnake

[Kilboars]

Those could really ruin your day..

 

[UncleNommies]

In the southeast, rattlesnakes will let you pass by but copperheads are hard to see and will pursue you. Snake boots are required.

I was hunting south Ga when I was younger, had to make a large leap over a creek to get to where i was hunting. Made the jump, took about 2 steps and all I could see were these yellow things, then i realized it was the tails of a bunch of young copperheads. Back across the creek i went!

 

[EastHumboldt]

I was fishing last summer on the East Walker river. I was standing in a depression on the bank with abunch of weeds around my feet. I have tinnitus and some hearing loss, so with the rushing noise of the river I heard what I thought was someone’s drag going out. I kept looking into the river for another fisherman but didn’t see anyone. Then the light came on. I looked down, and there was a smallish Great Basin rattler about a foot from my boot. He was just coiled up and trying to tell me not to step on him, so I just eased way from him and gave him a pass.

 

[USMC-40]

Reading this thread about people taking shooting sticks, shovels, hoes to rattlesnakes…..

I live on the eastern shore of Maryland and we have very, very few copperheads here and no rattlesnakes. So I have no real experience with poisonous snakes. Is a rattlesnake striking distance so limited that hitting them with a shovel is pretty much a risk free thing?

They can strike further than I expected the first time
I was playing with one with a stick - when he struck he almost got me. I read somewhere they can strike 1.5x their length - so your average 4’ timber rattler can get you 6’ away.

 

[43.6N]

Reading this thread about people taking shooting sticks, shovels, hoes to rattlesnakes…..

I live on the eastern shore of Maryland and we have very, very few copperheads here and no rattlesnakes. So I have no real experience with poisonous snakes. Is a rattlesnake striking distance so limited that hitting them with a shovel is pretty much a risk free thing?

You also want to take note of how they are coiled.

If the coils are behind the head, they can strike their full distance.
If the coils are in front of the head, strike range is much shorter.

Look at the two coiled snakes @Owens posted pictures of: one has the full mass of his coils positioned so its head is in front of the center of gravity. It is poised for a full length strike.

The other has its coils in front of its raised head. It would need to reposition in order to leverage its center of gravity for a strike.

One technique we would use when catching rattlesnakes was to circle around until the coils were in front of the head specifically to limit their striking range.

I've come across plenty running on trails or at the archery range in the Denver area. The one in the first pic was annoyed when we got there because a mountain bike had just gone through. The second pic was just off the main path at the archery range.

View attachment 1078980View attachment 1078981

 

[MTlan66]

Reading this thread about people taking shooting sticks, shovels, hoes to rattlesnakes…..

I live on the eastern shore of Maryland and we have very, very few copperheads here and no rattlesnakes. So I have no real experience with poisonous snakes. Is a rattlesnake striking distance so limited that hitting them with a shovel is pretty much a risk free thing?

I guess when you grow up around poisonous snakes, you have a sense of what they can and can’t do, and how they behave. I have seen a lot of very large rattlesnakes killed with shovels, but only one myself that was over about 3 1/2’. I certainly prefer a firearm! I killed a smaller rattlesnake (2 1/2’ or so) once with a guitar case, as that was all I had available. Not recommended, but if I did it again, I would remove the guitar first .