Its kinda like people in California being afraid of earhquakes, and people in the Southeast being afraid of alligator attacks. The things listed above to be afraid of are WAY overrated! I'm much more afraid of the idiots on the big city freeways and the sleezy characters in the bad neighborhoods.
Jogging, guns and rattle snakes
- Thread starter jbull380
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Its kinda like people in California being afraid of earhquakes, and people in the Southeast being afraid of alligator attacks. The things listed above to be afraid of are WAY overrated! I'm much more afraid of the idiots on the big city freeways and the sleezy characters in the bad neighborhoods.
SW_shooter
Member
Ok, the OP stated he runs and then shoots while his heart rate and respiration are elevated. Uhhmmm, upon seeing a snake mine would have been through the roof and I hope I'd be able to put ONE round in the snake before running out of ammo.
And I agree with bgrafsr, I've always felt Water Moccasins were the more aggressive snake. I saw one swim across a pond and chase a golfer in a golf cart along the fairway for over 25 yards. When I lived close to a lake we had copperheads and they would slither away and all you would normally see is the tail as it disappeared. The Water Moccasins or Cottonmouths were notorious for coming at you.
And I agree with bgrafsr, I've always felt Water Moccasins were the more aggressive snake. I saw one swim across a pond and chase a golfer in a golf cart along the fairway for over 25 yards. When I lived close to a lake we had copperheads and they would slither away and all you would normally see is the tail as it disappeared. The Water Moccasins or Cottonmouths were notorious for coming at you.
Texas Star
US Veteran
I thought Water Moccasins were much more aggressive than Copperheads.
Generally, yes, but both are in the genus, Agkistrodon. Young moccasins closely resemble copperheads. Someone may have been chased by a young moccasin and thought it was a copperhead.
That said, I wouldn't be at all surprised to meet an aggressive copperhead. And some rattlesnakes can be quite aggressive.
Some other snakes are notoriously aggressive. These include black mambas and king cobras, especially in mating season.
I remember a video of the late Steve Irwin in Kenya. He foolishly molested a large Egyptian cobra, Naja haje. It went right after him. So did Red Spitting Cobras, Naja pallida, if you want to look them up. Pretty snake. It always amazed me that Australian snakes were so docile around him. Very odd.
He got hold of a black mamba (Dendraspis polylepis) that he finally bagged after a very dangerous effort that nearly got him bitten. He was clearing it out of an African's hut. He made his famous, "I was sweating bullets" quip after that event! Why he thought it might be less hazardous than it was baffles me.
A South African guy named Austin Something (Stevens?) had a similar TV show. He did get tagged by a cobra. I think it was N. haje, although Cape/Yellow cobras (don't recall the scientific name) live there, too.
Both men were pursuing the snakes, hoping for "good TV."
Good undertaker opportunity, too...Oh: someone on another board recently sneered at me that I don't know an asp (viper) from a cobra. Turned out he objected to my writing that Cleopatra died from self-inflicted cobra bite. Legend holds that she committed suicide with an "asp." I think someone made a bad translation of Greek, Latin, or Egyptian sources. It was surely a snake, but Egyptians of high birth who were condemned were often slain by cobra bite, relatively quick and painless. A viper of that region, probably of the genus Echis, causes an agonizing, slow death. Reptile experts seem to agree that the cobra was a far more likely choice for a queen wanting to die. Cleo may well have had access to a puff adder (Bitis arietans), but that was again a poor choice for a royal suicide, although usually deadly.
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cass
Member
Timber rattler, Crotalus horidus?
What'd you shoot it with? You knew we'd ask!
My daughter is moving to Oklahoma. I'll warn her they have those up there, too. Her kids really need to be given a course in snake ID, as they'll be in a fairly rural area.
Being in Oklahoma, I'd bet Crotalus h. horidus - but here in North Texas, it's cousin is the Canebrake (Crotalus horidus atricaudatus).
You gentlemen who use those big words to identify a genus of snake amaze me. I see one and yell "snake", and anyone in earshot knows exactly what I'm yelling about. If I yelled "Crotalus Horidus", they would think, what in the wide, wide world of sports is he yelling about.
Texas Star
US Veteran
Thanks, yes.
The Canebrake seems to have gray tones where the timber has the tan. That's how I try to distinguish them. I believe we do have Timber rattlers in East Texas.Lord, in the Big Thicket, there's no telling what might be there, including Bigfoot, as indeed has been claimed. I promise you, the Thicket has more than its share of mosquitos!
Didn't some member post a photo of a Canebrake awhile back with the head shot off by a three-inch barreled M-36?
He had a nice little flap holster for that gun, too. He lives in one of the SE states, I believe. Don't recall which .38 load he used. Do recall the pic of a big snapping turtle that was hit in the head by a Walther .380 firing Glaser Safety bullets. Now, THAT was a memorable photo! Almost none of the head was left, but one bulged eye was hanging on a thread. If the ammo maker had seen that, it'd have made one heck of an ad.
Texas Star
US Veteran
You gentlemen who use those big words to identify a genus of snake amaze me. I see one and yell "snake", and anyone in earshot knows exactly what I'm yelling about. If I yelled "Crotalus Horidus", they would think, what in the wide, wide world of sports is he yelling about.
You've never heard of Crotalus Horridus, the ancient Roman javelin throwing champion? They'd probably think his ghost had returned!
Honestly, I abhor spectator sports. The only sports program I watch is, "River Monsters." The host is a biologist who used to teach in the UK. He knows the scientific names of those fish. Just doesn't use them in public, because the average viewer doesn't care. The average viewer probably can't find some of the countries he fishes in on a globe! Yes, to warn others, yell, "Snake!" or, "Rattler!" But when one wonders the exact species in a photo that may not render colors exactly or where one wonders about the ID based on markings, it is okay, I hope, to be more specific on the Net. This also allows members who might be curious to look up the snake and know they found the right one.
Some species have so many common names that it becomes confusing which is meant. Some yokel was telling me about "gray ducks" on a lake one day. I couldn't tell if he'd shot Gadwalls or maybe a female mallard, etc. What some consider to be gray, others may see as tan, and there are individual variants. For all I knew, the man was talking about coots! He finally said, "Well, the book name is Gadwall." Then, we both knew what was meant.
The cougar/puma has some 20 or more local names in North America alone. It ranges south to Patagonia. Giving the scientific name, Puma concolor makes it clear to the more knowledgeable person or professional scientist what is meant and perhaps, the sub-species. It also lets me have a feel for how much the snake photo poster may know about what he's showing, in case I'm unclear on just which of several similar species is depicted. Some photos aren't all that good. The OP here did a fine job. I was just confirming what I was almost certain about.
Now, if Crotalus Horridus is reincarnated and throws javelins from a chariot in a big race, I might care about the "wide, wide world of sports!"
David harleyson
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I wouldn't run unless there was a snake.
CAJUNLAWYER
Member
One word........Omaha
CAJUNLAWYER
Member
In Louisiana it's cousin is Bigus Snakus
Had several encouners with snakes here in far west Texas, but only one worth telling about. I was shooting on a rifle range in East El Paso. It's not there any more. We called it the 'pig farm' because it was near a pig farm and when the wind was wrong, dog fart was Chanel#5 compared to it.
I was shooting off a rest with a rifle, probably my old Model 70, 30-06, at 200 yards. I went down to check my targets,and there was a dead rattler at the entrance to the pits. He was about three feet long and ants were crawling all over him. I stepped over him. About the second trip to the pits, I unlimbered the S&W Model 39-2 I carried in a holster and shot him once. It missed him by a little bit, threw up a lot of sand and turned him over on his back. As I watched, and my eyes widened, he slowly turned over onto his belly once more. I emptied the 39-2 at him, and actually hit him a few times; a snake is a narrow target and hard to it, particulaly when you're excited. It did the job, and at subsequent trips to the pits, I'd put another round into him, but he never budged; the first treatment was sufficient. Don't remember what I was using, but at that time it may have been handloads using Cor-Bon bullets.
Wish I still had that first 39-2: the double action was better than my 38 S&W snubby revolver, and the single action was almost as good as my S&W 41. Wish I still had the M 70, too (the weapons I've sold would make up a pretty good collection now).
I was shooting off a rest with a rifle, probably my old Model 70, 30-06, at 200 yards. I went down to check my targets,and there was a dead rattler at the entrance to the pits. He was about three feet long and ants were crawling all over him. I stepped over him. About the second trip to the pits, I unlimbered the S&W Model 39-2 I carried in a holster and shot him once. It missed him by a little bit, threw up a lot of sand and turned him over on his back. As I watched, and my eyes widened, he slowly turned over onto his belly once more. I emptied the 39-2 at him, and actually hit him a few times; a snake is a narrow target and hard to it, particulaly when you're excited. It did the job, and at subsequent trips to the pits, I'd put another round into him, but he never budged; the first treatment was sufficient. Don't remember what I was using, but at that time it may have been handloads using Cor-Bon bullets.
Wish I still had that first 39-2: the double action was better than my 38 S&W snubby revolver, and the single action was almost as good as my S&W 41. Wish I still had the M 70, too (the weapons I've sold would make up a pretty good collection now).
Malpasowildlifer
Member
very cool!!
In one of Elmer Keith's books he talks about an encounter with a rattlesnake. He was walking down a trail in the morning when it was cool, loooking for his horses. He felt a snake squirm under his foot, and when he woke up he was three feet down the trail with a smoking gun in his hand. His partner said he went straight up in the air, drawing as he went. He shot once on the way up, once at maximum altitude and once on the way down. The snake was rattler-burger.
I came up with it during the last big ammo shortage. Trying to maximize the positive training value for each round fired. It has work better than expected. It forces me to concentrate on the fundamentals like nothing else. Not to mention the training value it has for my job.
In Alaska, snakes aren't much of a problem. When I do encounter one, I bow and scrape, and offer a lame apology. If that doesn't work, I fill my pants. That seems to work.
In Va. we call it a HolusCrapus.
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