Look what the high water has flushed out

Texas Star said:
Why do you tolerate this? That snake is going to tag someone someday!
Click to expand...

Like I said I only see him when I do not have a weapon. I should have said a proper weapon.

I have seen him three times. All three times I had my Smith 442, but I refuse to shoot across / into water because of neighbors just across the pasture. Richochet danger is just too high.

Someday, I will have a shotgun handy.
 
Wow - you guys sure credit a simple-minded snake with a lot of reasoning power! They react to a heat source - that's all. They eat small mammals - nothing raccoon or dog sized, much less human sized. They must swallow their dinner whole. They go after dinner or predators - the latter may be even competitors with them for their proposed dinner. They don't reason - they react. You are a heat source - that's all.

Stainz
 
stainz,


i dont think anyone here disagrees that cottonmouths aren't interested EATING a human, but it sure seems like they wouldnt mind a TASTE when they beeline in your direction :D
 
Stainz said:
Wow - you guys sure credit a simple-minded snake with a lot of reasoning power! They react to a heat source
Click to expand...
Actually, I think folks are just discribing their actual experiences, some of which took place at estimated "20 yards" and "50 feet". That's pretty far off for a heat source. In my personal case, it had to be a visual attraction I believe.
 
ThirtyAcres said:
Like I said I only see him when I do not have a weapon. I should have said a proper weapon.

I have seen him three times. All three times I had my Smith 442, but I refuse to shoot across / into water because of neighbors just across the pasture. Richochet danger is just too high.

Someday, I will have a shotgun handy.
Click to expand...

I understand. I once had to pass on a shot at a moccasin because some kids showed up across a big pond. I had a M-64 loaded with Federal lead HP's.

The thing was after some fish that I had on a stringer.

T-Star
 
I used to go fishing with my dad a lot when I was just a kid, up in north Georgia. We were fishing a small stream when i saw about half a snake showing out of the bushes on our side of the stream.

Dad had a semi-auto .22 but didn't have a shot at the head so he plunked one in the body. There were some other kids on the other side of the stream and the snake (later confirmed to be a true cottonmouth) instantly turned and headed for the people on the othe bank. Dad clipped his head off before he got six feet, it was just "bang-bang" and dad went back to fishing. As a kid I was mightly impressed with his fast and accurate shooting!
 
As for snake aggression, King cobras, black mambas, and bushmasters all have a reputation for attacking. And Bothrops atrox is a nasty tempered snake, often.

I saw a big Egyptian Cobra (Naje haje) come for the Crocodile Hunter when he was in Kenya. But he had been hassling it.

Most of you guys know who Jim Corbett was. The naturalist and hunter, not the boxer. He once provoked a charge by throwing a rock at a Hamadryd (King Cobra). He said that he always tried to kill a snake before hunting man-eaters. He thought it brought him luck.

Some snakes see quite well. A major US zoo used to have a Black and White Forest Cobra (Naja melanoleuca). It was aggressive and would feint to get a keeper to move the snake stick one way, then the snake attacked from another direction. The Curator at that time told me that it was probably just a matter of time until someone was bitten. I understand that the zoo disposed of that snake to another party who was advised of its nature. Always wondered how that worked out.
 
Last edited:
Stainz said:
Wow - you guys sure credit a simple-minded snake with a lot of reasoning power! They react to a heat source - that's all. You are a heat source - that's all.

Stainz
Click to expand...

Good. Then the .45acp round I send their way can be a new heat source. Maybe they can absorb several of them and enjoy the warmth.
 
Cottonmouths have a rank odor to them for sure. I can't descibe it, but I know it when I smell it. I usually smell one before I see it. We used to find them around our yard and garden, but there is no water source, except a couple of small ponds that are within a half mile. We would call them high land moccasins. Our cocker spaniel mix killed every one she found and never got bit. I agee with some that the snake in the OP doesn't look like a moccasin to me, and it's way too big. I get a kick out of messing with those who are absurdly scared of them, but not with a real snake. I know the dangerous ones and have no problem killing them, but I'll leave most others alone or pick them up and move them. I don't like any non-native species, plant or animal. You can have your boas and pythons, if it gets loose and I see it, it's history.
 
When I was a kid, we'ed occasionally get one tied in a hay bale in the field....talk about stink...already mad at the baler and then us too....used to get a lot of king snakes or coachwhips that way too...Dad had a strict rule that we had to bust the bale and let the king snakes go free, he felt they where better vermin killers than cats
 
Keep in mind that handling reptiles is a fairly good way to catch salmonella.
 
Being a fisherman in Florida, I've dealt with my share of cottonmouths but some of you guys mention eating them and making belts out of them. I can honestly say that I've never heard of anybody doing either.
Can't say that I've ever actually been chased by one but I have had them try to get in the boat with me. I figured they just smelled the fish in the ice chest.
 
Ever see the show on History Channel called "Swamp People?" The guy who hunts snakes at night...Willy I think. It was on last night. He looks kinda like Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He regularly rolls up on submerged snakes and just grabs them. Says he can't always tell the water snakes from the cottonmouths until he catches them.

You tell me. Middle of the night and he's hot boxing a marlboro red...smoke burning his eyes...holding a snake that's furiously tagging his forearms while steadying the boat and narrating the action. That's pumpkin berries right there.
 
they will come at ya, pretty much the same way a wasp will, a wasp isn't going to eat you either but he knows how to ruin your day. I did kill one one night at work and someone in the control room suggested fryin it up, so we did, just out of boredome I guess.
 
I grew up in Oklahoma and spent alot of time wading lakes in the Spring bowfishing. Two things that I always feared were the moccasins and aligator gar (big ones!). I have had mocs chase me out of the water many times. I don't care what anyone says, when one of them mocs are coming at me, I'm leaving!
 
R Crabtree said:
Ever see the show on History Channel called "Swamp People?" The guy who hunts snakes at night...Willy I think. It was on last night. He looks kinda like Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He regularly rolls up on submerged snakes and just grabs them. Says he can't always tell the water snakes from the cottonmouths until he catches them.

You tell me. Middle of the night and he's hot boxing a marlboro red...smoke burning his eyes...holding a snake that's furiously tagging his forearms while steadying the boat and narrating the action. That's pumpkin berries right there.
Click to expand...

When I was a whole lot younger, I used to hunt snakes both at night and day, in the swamp below Eagle Mountain Lake in N. Texas. Without exception, the Water snakes (Natrix) would make a hasty, submerged retreat, whereas a Cottonmouth (Agkistron) would arrogantly retreat while remaining on top of the waters surface. I don't see how anyone with just a little experience could get the two species confused. Also, both have their own, strong, different odor.
 
Went to move an old rug that had been put out for the city to come and pick up. Found about eight white eggs about 3/4" in diameter and the same in length. Yep your right snake eggs. First time I've ever seen them. You would think what with all the water here in Louisiana they would be closer to the bayou. Evidently what with the current drought we are having the snakes are moving further away from their nests for water and seeking better nesting places. I've even found them swimming in my pool. The little 410 guage shotgun usually takes care of them. Frank
 
Faulkner said:
In reality, I find ticks and chiggers to be more of a nusance than snakes.
Click to expand...

For sure they are more plentiful but they are a lot more difficult to shoot. I can see how shooting them would make one become an expert marksman though.

Just make sure they are not attached to your skin before shooting them.

Remember that ticks and chiggers may be a problem, they do not send a person to the hospital or cemetary. Snakes will.
 
We have a lot of cottonmouths and plain water snakes around here. In fact, killed a moccasin on the pool deck a couple weeks ago. I have touble identifying these things in the internet threads but can't imagine confusing them in real life. The cottonmouth will chill you to your toes and there is no doubt what you're looking at. They look like a cottonmouth...period. Don't matter if they're young or old or long or short or whatever. They look like what they is.

Kill 'um.

Bob
 
To be nice, I'll only say that anyone who says a cottonmouth won't chase people, has never been chased by one. I've had outdoor jobs in Florida and Texas. I've seen pigmy rattlers, eastern and western diamondback rattlers, copperheads and coral snakes...all in their natural habitat. The cottonmouth is the only one aggressive enough to have chased me. That being said, I understand (from the Ross Allen Reptile Institute) that in captivity, cottonmouth snakes become docile.
 
oldman45 said:
Remember that ticks and chiggers may be a problem, they do not send a person to the hospital or cemetary. Snakes will.
Click to expand...

Not to stray from the snake theme, but ticks will indeed put a person in the hospital AND cemetary. Just within the past month a young man in his early 20's from our community got tick bit and was dead within two weeks with Lyme Disease. In another case, a teenage girl that goes to school with my son got 'tick fever' in April and went totally blind . . . she is just now starting to recovering her eyesight. Last summer a man I go to church with was in intensive care for a week with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever from a tick bite.

Ticks are a serious matter in the Ozarks. It's just not wise to get out in the woods or pastures without some kind of insect dope sprayed, smeared, or slathered on.
 
Last edited:
I can only recall killing one snake on purpose (as opposed to with a lawn mower), and that was for examination in a parasitology class. It was a water moccasin a bit smaller than that one. If you think those are scary outdoors, imagine how scary they are *indoors*. ;)
 
oldman45 said:
With six million snake bites each year in the world and over 125,000 deaths from snake bites, there is no way a snake needs to live after being sighted...

Kill snakes.
Click to expand...

In all of North America the number of fatalities from snakebite each year averages about 15. That's less than half the number of people killed by dogs in the U.S. last year.

Does this mean we should kill every dog we see?
 
This thread makes me happy to live west of the Cascades, about the most poisonous thing we have are mosquitos, and the occasional transient spider. Mom was raised in Van Buren, and her dad was a share cropper with about 40 acres of his own. He always tried to keep the moccasins out of his livestock ponds, didn't want his stock to get bit. I have no idea of the actual threat, but he thought they were a problem and taught my mom to shoot by practicing at the snakes. This was in the 30's, not alot of information about the snakes back then. I've seen my share of rattlers east of the mountains. I've just left them alone when they weren't threatening me. BTW, heckuva snake picture!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Hoptob
.38 Special Snubbies
Replies
25
Views
19K
ddixie884
ddixie884

Latest posts

Back
Top