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I was standing on a ladder yesterday screwing floor joist in for a duck blind I'm working on when I noticed a little movement out of the corner my eye near the far corner of the blind 12 feet away from me.

No gun in my pocket. My only weapon nearby was a pole saw and I know from personal experience that a pole saw has a tendency to grab a snake and throw it back at you.

That one might need to be another story for another time. And that stupid move also reminds me of another snake story where a (still very much alive) Cottonmouth came within inches of dropping in my driver side truck window right in my lap.

OK so back to this story. So I'm standing on the ladder with impact driver in hand and a few screws in my teeth when I spot this gigantic rattlesnake coming out of the grass headed right towards me. Actually I think it was heading right towards a pile of 2 x 4's in scraps under the middle of the blind?

I have to walk out on a path to about 6 feet in front of where the snake is headed to be able to get out and to get to my gin. Luckily there were some 12 foot 2 x 4's within easy reach and I was able to redirect the path the snake was taking.

Once I realized I wasn't going to die immediately upon making eye contact with the snake, it was really rather eventless encounter. I only heard it rattle for one split second while persuading it to take another path. But it was gone when I got back with the gun, couldn't find it because of the thick brush pile it went into.

About a 5 foot long Canebrake. I'm sorry the photo was a little blurry, I was a little nervous at the time of taking the photograph.

Does anyone else have any snake stories they want to share?

Timber rattlers really are easy going for the most part. People kill them all the time simply because they can.

Watersnakes on the other hand. They'd just as soon bite you as look at you.

2 yrs ago mid June. Went to draw down our duck hole.

I was in waders waste deep when I felt something hit my leg. All I had was a walking stick and figured it a branch so I used it to move the "branch".

The branch was a ball of water moccasin.

I literally prayed like no other day in my life.

The wind stopped and it was as though I was platonic or something. I will never forget that. Snakes were exiting any direction they could. I don't know how many where balled up but I stopped counting at 17.

Call in an air strike

Yikes. Only one solution for that.

Wildfowler wrote:I have to walk out on a path to about 6 feet in front of where the snake is headed to be able to get out and to get to my gin. Luckily there were some 12 foot 2 x 4's within easy reach and I was able to redirect the path the snake was taking.

I bet you did need GIN!

Just to keep the thread going (and being I dropped my phone when I saw the pic of your helper).You know I could have gone a long time without see a pic of a snake! Gin! I like your style.

Last fall, August. Me and the little girl went on a hike. It was a 'scouting/exploratory' hike. I was showing her different acorns on the ground, identifying past rubs, showing her tracks, just walking the woods! We make it a few miles from the truck and happened upon a blacktop road. Being I was tired from the strenuous terrain, I elected to take the easy path back.

We make our way down the road when she gets the idea we need to race. Being I wasn't going to kill her fun, we made a game of running back. Being I'm fat, out of shape, and was about to die, she had me by a yard or two. She was obviously winning. She had a good 20 yards on me when she went around the curve. Being the curve marked the 'high' in the road, I figured if I could get there I'd take a break.

Well, I made it to the hill. I was standing there with my hands over my head trying to regain a breathe when I took the step toward the edge of the road. In all honesty, I was just going to make a small circle. You know, keep moving but slow down for a second. I didn't get much of a break, for the step startled the timber rattler and his/her friend. One rattler warning you will get the blood pumping, two will bring on a heart rate that you can't imagine. Especially when they aren't but 6 feet from you. I didn't need a break after that!

on a side note: IF they wouldn't have rattled, we'd of never seen them. Their camouflage was unremarkable. the little girl got to learn a few things on that trip!

Hambone wrote:

Wildfowler wrote:I have to walk out on a path to about 6 feet in front of where the snake is headed to be able to get out and to get to my gin. Luckily there were some 12 foot 2 x 4's within easy reach and I was able to redirect the path the snake was taking.

I bet you did need GIN!

U......I

They're both vowels, close enough.

Hahaha

missed mallards wrote:I didn't get much of a break, for the step startled the timber rattler and his/her friend. One rattler warning you will get the blood pumping, two will bring on a heart rate that you can't imagine. Especially when they aren't but 6 feet from you. I didn't need a break after that!

on a side note: IF they wouldn't have rattled, we'd of never seen them. Their camouflage was unremarkable. the little girl got to learn a few things on that trip!

That is gut wrenching I'm sure.

Thing is, I've gone my entire life and only seen one rattlesnake in the wild back when I was in high school 25 years ago down in Terry on the pearl river swamps in November.

I have personally seen five in the last three years and know of a couple others on this place in Humphries county in the same time period.

Ran across this disaster building a duck blind.

Blackduck wrote:Ran across this disaster building a duck blind.

Holy Mackerel, I can only imagine the stench those two things must have been putting off?

Yuck

Snake stories? Yeah, I got a couple.

Please allow me to preface this one by saying that I am convinced that when God was putting all the critters on the earth, He placed the bag with the snakes down in what is now Ouachita Parish, Louisiana. AND, that bag had a hole in the bottom.

Back in high school, my dad had a surveying project outside of Bastrop, Louisiana, and my best friend worked with us one summer. One day we were surveying through the woods, carrying a transit (large rifle scope mounted with a bunch of sun dial sized compasses on a tripod), range poles, wooden stakes, hammers, wire flags, and a bunch of other work related crap. We came across this old fallen log, and each of us stepped over it without even thinking. The crew chief stepped over it. Then I stepped over it. Then, just as my friend was about to step over it, I happened to look back and see it. The biggest cotton mouth I had ever seen was less than a foot from my friend, who had just stepped over the same log we had all crossed. To my high school eyes, this snake looked to be almost 4 feet long.

Apparently, to my friend, it looked to be much bigger, because he jumped straight up 5 feet, over another 5, and hit the ground running toward us to get away from that thing. When I told him how amazed I was that he didn't drop any of his gear, he said that he was afraid we'd make him go back and get anything he dropped. And there was no way he was going back that direction again....Ever!

And for the record, yes. If you drop it, you go get it.