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Author
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Topic: Blizzards and Snakes
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DiYi
Wears wife's pink panties under his camo for good luck. (yeah, right!)
Member # 3785
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posted March 18, 2013 09:55 AM
Sitting here trapped inside with a blizzard roaring outside(gusts to 60mph).I've planned all the possible ways to call a few spots this week-ways they can approach without getting hung up by new,deep snow and cleaned all the guns I can take so here goes a Q I've always meant to ask.
How often do you guys in the south and west run into snakes while calling?Gonna quit resisting and call some south and west next year and just wondering.Historically if there's a rattler around,I'll find it.any thoughts/comments appreciated.
Posts: 623 | From: SoDak | Registered: Feb 2011
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted March 18, 2013 10:47 AM
As far as I am concerned, I don't think about snakes very much, but I am careful where I walk. The thing to remember is that they are not out in cold, and same with real hot, you won't see them then, either.
If I had to make a guess, I would say around 70 to 80° is when you are most likely to see them out in the open. And, in the summer time, watch your step at night when it cools off. On cool mornings, they might be sitting on a rock absorbing heat.
I remember in Georgia, you couldn't see your feet with the underbrush, and the lizards told me that rattlers could be there too. And, the last thing you need is a eastern diamondback bite.
Be careful in grassy areas and around a water source where quail might be around because rattlesnakes love quail but same thing, as it cools down they crawl out from under their rocks.
Also, pay attention to gopher holes and ground squirrel holes. You are just as likely to find a snake in those holes as a rodent, you know, where you fall in up to your ankle? I have seen them go in those holes at night when I walk out to pick up a dead coyote. Never fails, I walk more careful the rest of the night!
Rocky hills are sure to have snakes, lots of hiding places. I always look down, maybe more than looking around for animals? They mostly don't move so you have to recognize the shape. Spring time, right now out here, you need to be more careful than in the heat of the summer.
I used to laugh at those snakeproof boots, but in some places they give you confidence so I don't laugh any more.
Good hunting. El Bee
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 32361 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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DiYi
Wears wife's pink panties under his camo for good luck. (yeah, right!)
Member # 3785
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posted March 18, 2013 11:47 AM
Thanks Leonard.
Last rattler I saw I was scrambling up a bank along the Missouri and there it suddenly was,about 24 inches from my face.Haven't been constipated since.
Posts: 623 | From: SoDak | Registered: Feb 2011
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Kokopelli
SENIOR DISCOUNT & Dispenser of Sage Advice
Member # 633
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posted March 18, 2013 11:54 AM
Simple;
Call when fur is prime.
Quit calling when it's not.
You'll rarely see a snake.
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And lo, the Light of the Trump shown upon the Darkness and the Darkness could not comprehend it.
Posts: 8231 | From: Under a wandering star | Registered: Apr 2005
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Prune Picker
AR Forum Assistant Moderator-handgun GURU and dispenser of sage advice
Member # 4107
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posted March 18, 2013 12:58 PM
Several years ago a couple of friends and i were in the high desert hunting quail. For whatever reason we encountered a nest of rattlers, so we killed the bastards & skinned them. As we were leaving a guy drives by and stops, he sees the skins and tells us we were dickheads for killing them and that they are protected in Calif. Turns out they "might have been" Mojave Greens. I must be a slob hunter because i kill every snake i see.
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mike
Posts: 1265 | From: "Oklahomie" | Registered: Mar 2012
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted March 18, 2013 01:39 PM
Okay with me. I kill some, especially if they are aggressive, but am just as likely to leave them be. At the campout a few years ago, Gerry Blair told me he would sent me a nice Mojave Green he had, already pinned and dried. Never got it.
Sometimes they are hard to find. Man, I saw a big fat one a few years ago up around Helendale, in the riverbed. He knew what I was up to and ducked into a huge green tumbleweed. I think he was daring me to go after him in there, but my momma din't raise no fools.
Good hunting. El Bee
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 32361 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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the bearhunter
HM PROSTAFF & MIDWEST REGIONAL GURU VOTED MOST HANDSOME MINNESOTAN
Member # 3552
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posted March 18, 2013 01:48 PM
i've seen only 1 while out shooting prairie dogs in ne Wy. small one. strange as it was a cold/windy overcast day.
storm is FINALLY letting up here. just got done snowblowing, hopefully for the last time this winter. won't be seeing black dirt for quite some time.
a major flood ai'nt out of the question. damn, they suck!
[ March 18, 2013, 01:50 PM: Message edited by: the bearhunter ]
Posts: 1049 | From: minnifornia | Registered: Jan 2010
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted March 18, 2013 01:53 PM
Well, those are the one's to step on, if you are lucky. Chances are, he got caught out when the weather changed...you know how that is, in Wyoming?
Good hunting. El Bee
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 32361 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Prune Picker
AR Forum Assistant Moderator-handgun GURU and dispenser of sage advice
Member # 4107
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posted March 18, 2013 02:01 PM
Green tumbleweed! That's where we found them. We were looking for a downed bird and saw the tumblweed moving, thinking the quail was hiding there. we used the barrel of a shotgun to part the t'weed and found the first snake curled up and rattling at us. Needless to say that one didn't get skinned.
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mike
Posts: 1265 | From: "Oklahomie" | Registered: Mar 2012
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TOM64
Knows what it's all about
Member # 561
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posted March 18, 2013 02:08 PM
Last copperheadedrattlemocossin I saw was back in the fall and on the concrete running path around the lake I run at.
Little bastards like to warm themselves I guess. Don't see many of them in the heat or cold but watch out during cool nights and warm days.
Posts: 2283 | From: okieland | Registered: Feb 2005
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Prune Picker
AR Forum Assistant Moderator-handgun GURU and dispenser of sage advice
Member # 4107
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posted March 18, 2013 02:22 PM
When the spring rains start (if it rains this year) we load up and fish the Washita river at the mouth of Lake Texhoma for the smaller sized Channel Cats. Around early May the Cottonmouth Water Moccasins start their breeding cycle. It gets really interesting at times because they will bite your fish and aren't one bit shy of stalking you on the bank. I fish with a handgun in my pocket day and night, no exceptions. Call me what you want i don't care.
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mike
Posts: 1265 | From: "Oklahomie" | Registered: Mar 2012
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Krustyklimber
prefers the bunny hugger pronunciation: ky o tee
Member # 72
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posted March 18, 2013 04:33 PM
I hardly ever kill snakes, if I can help it, and have handled more rattlers than I could count.
I did pay the price once, moving a HUGE western diamond back out of the parking lot of one of my favorite climbing areas, in B.C. It had latched onto my walking stick a number of times, then I transfered venom onto my hands to one of my eyes and my lips.
Anyone else remember when Higgins licked the venom off the lens of his camera? ![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
Now the rattlesnakes here, that don't have rattles, they're cheaters!!!
I found a shed skin last fall, and I tread very carefully in the area now (*well not right now, with snow on the ground AGAIN).
I did manage to get myself bit by a HUGE black rat-snake last summer, they tell me that's a right of passage here though.
Prune Picker,
I hear ya... when I was in Texas I had a very big water moccasin "shadow" me as I walked along the creek, it was creepy and scary. ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
Krusty
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Think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of them are stupider than that!
Posts: 1912 | From: Deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia | Registered: Jan 2003
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DiYi
Wears wife's pink panties under his camo for good luck. (yeah, right!)
Member # 3785
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posted March 18, 2013 04:45 PM
Chit,maybe blizzards ain't so bad after all.
Posts: 623 | From: SoDak | Registered: Feb 2011
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted March 18, 2013 05:12 PM
All you guys that live with themm al the time just don't appreciate the morbid, paralyzing fear of those of us who tree at the sight of a garter snake. LOL When I was in college in NE KS, it wasn't at all unusual in the fall to have copperheads soaking up the heat on our concrete driveway once the coolness of the evening moved in. They made me very nervous.
About six years ago, I was hunting with Shaw and Q in SW KS near Garden City and down to the Cimarron National Grassland. Q and I were traipsing cross-country and I heard that bdistinctive rattling. Stopped me dead in my tracks as it was an unusually warm day. I looked all around and saw nothing. I stood upright. began walking to catch up with Q and there it was again. Stopped dead in my tracks. This went on for a couple more stop and goes when Q turned around and saw me frozen in one spot. He asked me what was wrong about the time I realized that the "snake" was actually the breeze blowing across one of the open reed calls on the lanyard around my neck, making the reed "rattle". I just told him "nothin'" and sheepishly caught up to him. Don't know if I ever shared that with him or not. LOL
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5440 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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the bearhunter
HM PROSTAFF & MIDWEST REGIONAL GURU VOTED MOST HANDSOME MINNESOTAN
Member # 3552
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posted March 18, 2013 05:26 PM
LOL C Dog.
not real knowed up on snakes but are copperheads/water moc's REALLY a danger??. never hear much about them causing problems
Posts: 1049 | From: minnifornia | Registered: Jan 2010
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TRnCO
FUTURE HALL OF FAMER
Member # 690
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posted March 18, 2013 06:04 PM
only one time while hunting here in Colo. have I found a prairie rattler out and about, and at the time we were archery deer hunting so it was early season. It was quite cool out and it was curled up, not in defense mode but in it's cold mode. I used an arrow to flip the snake over and he immidiately showed what defensive mode was.
I've killed one prairie rattler at work each of the last several years, except none last year.
I've never come across any rattlers while calling in Colo.
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Is it hunting season yet? I hate summer!
Posts: 996 | From: Elizabeth, CO | Registered: Aug 2005
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TOM64
Knows what it's all about
Member # 561
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posted March 18, 2013 06:09 PM
I've known 2 people who have been bitten by copperheads. Both were sick as a dog before they got to the hospital but both also nearly died from the anti venom.
A friend of mines wife was bitten the third time by a rattler (she catches them) and she spent a spell in hospital this past summer.
Never knowed anyone who was bit by a cottonmouth but cuzz was bit by some kind of moccossin while we were bow fishing. He got sick but got over it.
Moral of the story? I ain't messin with no kind of copperheadedrattlemocossin.
[ March 18, 2013, 06:11 PM: Message edited by: TOM64 ]
Posts: 2283 | From: okieland | Registered: Feb 2005
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Prune Picker
AR Forum Assistant Moderator-handgun GURU and dispenser of sage advice
Member # 4107
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posted March 18, 2013 07:45 PM
Copperheads are the most agressive snake that i have encountered here in the states, they will bite ya for fun. The Mamba is a badass in Africa, but not too mean unless provoked. i have actually held one that didn't scare me until i found out that the black Mambas are green with a patch of black in their mouth, and when aggravated turn darker, almost black in color! And i can honestly say that i have never met a black person in Africa that wasn't afraid of snakes, big or small. In Zaire (Congo) there is a small tree snake (deadly poisonous)that will bite anything that comes close enough to it. I learned in Africa long ago that a walking stick isn't only for the elderly!
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mike
Posts: 1265 | From: "Oklahomie" | Registered: Mar 2012
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the bearhunter
HM PROSTAFF & MIDWEST REGIONAL GURU VOTED MOST HANDSOME MINNESOTAN
Member # 3552
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posted March 19, 2013 11:21 AM
DiYi sent me a picture of him out trying to find snakes.
took awhile to clear his driveway.
Posts: 1049 | From: minnifornia | Registered: Jan 2010
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted March 19, 2013 11:27 AM
If you look close, I can see three of them that he ran over that were lying on the road trying to warm up. Poor things!
Good hunting. El Bee
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 32361 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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the bearhunter
HM PROSTAFF & MIDWEST REGIONAL GURU VOTED MOST HANDSOME MINNESOTAN
Member # 3552
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posted March 19, 2013 12:40 PM
those ai'nt snakes Leonard, those are squished dog shits.. they ai'nt go no where else too go!!!!
Posts: 1049 | From: minnifornia | Registered: Jan 2010
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Prune Picker
AR Forum Assistant Moderator-handgun GURU and dispenser of sage advice
Member # 4107
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posted March 19, 2013 12:41 PM
Gawd oh mitey! We get pissy here when a couple of inches of freezing rain lands in Okla. Let the power go off for an hour or two and i start thinking conspiracy.
Honestly, last year we had appx 2 ft of snow here, it was fun for a couple of days but the stinking sun came out and melted it within a day or so. Then the temp went back to the usual 43* w/5 to 15 mph north winds.
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mike
Posts: 1265 | From: "Oklahomie" | Registered: Mar 2012
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Kokopelli
SENIOR DISCOUNT & Dispenser of Sage Advice
Member # 633
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posted March 19, 2013 12:42 PM
Thank Gawd for Global Warming or who knows how deep that snow would be!!!!
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And lo, the Light of the Trump shown upon the Darkness and the Darkness could not comprehend it.
Posts: 8231 | From: Under a wandering star | Registered: Apr 2005
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the bearhunter
HM PROSTAFF & MIDWEST REGIONAL GURU VOTED MOST HANDSOME MINNESOTAN
Member # 3552
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posted March 19, 2013 12:56 PM
was a strange winter this year for sure. hardly had any snow till the first of the year, than POW!!!.
makes it better for coyotes though. few have/use snowshoes. ;
P.S. LB, I have an extra set iff'n ya wanna come out and try them??
i left some coyotes for seed, but...... ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Posts: 1049 | From: minnifornia | Registered: Jan 2010
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Prune Picker
AR Forum Assistant Moderator-handgun GURU and dispenser of sage advice
Member # 4107
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posted March 19, 2013 01:14 PM
And to think i felt abused for spending 40+ days at the lake last summer because of the heat. 33 straight days the temp never fell below 92*
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mike
Posts: 1265 | From: "Oklahomie" | Registered: Mar 2012
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