doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com OT - Why I hate rattlesnakes

For you guys that kill all snakes, be aware that some of them kill rattlers, copperheads, and cottonmouths, like the King and Bull snakes.

for Kings, remember:
If red touches black, its okay Jack.
If red touches yellow, youre a dead fellow.

Red on black, venom lack
Red on yellow kill a fellow.

Yeah, I noticed that too. I don't think the friend that forwarded the email to me knew the victim.

Bob I see you have the same pictures I do. Did you get the same email?

Chuck I don't kill non-poisonous snakes. And as someone pointed out it doesn't really do any good to casually kill a rattlesnake out in the field as they reproduce or another one just moves in. I don't kill them when the dogs can smell or see what is going on as I don't want them to think they are game. So the bottom line is that I don't kill all that many rattlesnakes. But I kill all I safely can.

On opening day of dove season (always Sept 1) a few years ago I shot a big rattler wounding but not killing it. My dogs came racing over because of the shot and I just barely caught them before they went into the thick weeds after it. That incident made me a lot more cautious about killing rattlesnakes while hunting.

Best,

Mike

I'm glad everything turned out well for the boy.
One thing that bothers me is was he alone in his hiking?

There was an article a while back in one of the magazines, don't know if it was a Gun Digest or what, where the writer purposely got bitten by a rattlesnake and did what is written to do, cut the wound open and suck the poison out. Probably more to it, but anyway did what was described to do and for the next 7 hours was in pain and had a fever but didn't need medical attention after.
So it seems natural that the longer you wait in time before administering treatment the more pain, damage you are in.

God Bless that he is in recovery.

Also as Chuck stated for the Coral Snake, big one is 20". Related to cobras, good thing is that they don't have an articulated jaw, so the only place they can really bite you is the fingers or the skin in between.

Did any see the TV show with the late Steve Erwin in where he was looking for the worlds 10 most venemous snakes and 9 are found in Ausralia. The most venemous snake in the world is the King Brown, he actually took someone with him in case he was bitten. Anyway his wife called and said that there was one in their shed. Went and caught it. Called them all "beauties".
It's a shame he died of a one in a better than million chance of what happened. He understood there was a place for animals like these and tried to teach that.
Not many people like snakes, if I see them I just go around them. The only dangerous snake around here is the Copperhead, and I haven't seen one in 40 years.

I suppose some non-poisonous snakes kill poisonous snakes but rather than wait for this drama to unfold I just let Mr. Winchester settle the matter.

A snake is a vermin just like a rat or a mouse or a cockroach. They're welcome to live a long and prosperous life as long as they do it out of my reach.

Mike, I did get the same e-mail a while back but had deleted it. I just googled it to find the post op photo I posted above. I also got one with similar photos of a patient who had been bitten by a brown recluse spider.....maybe a little worse than the rattler!

I had a fascination with a TV show called "Venom ER" which follows a real-life young Loma Linda physician, Sean Bush, who specializes in invenomation by nasty critters. Very interesting. It followed some incredibly miserable patients and a few didn't make it. The most serious were usually bitten by a rattlesnake that lives there and the name escapes me right now, but it seems it had "green' and "pacific" as part of its name. I don't think self care and no medical follow-up with one of those bites is an option. Google "Venom ER" for more info.

Here's a very interesting site for Rattlesnakes. http://www.scsc.k12.ar.us/2002Outwest/NaturalHistory/Projects/WatkinsR/default.htm

Also this is there and should explain a few things.
What is venom and is it the same as poison? No. Most people are confused on this point. Animal venom is injected into the victim and poison in consumed in some fashion. Most people make the assumption that if it is harmful, it is poison. Venom has the ability to do many different things depending on the variety. Each rattlesnake species has evolved with different forms of venom to obtain their food. The venom has the ability to paralyze, cause respiratory arrest or the breakdown of the blood. All venoms start the digestion process, enabling the snake to digest its prey more quickly.
This is why that boys arm looked so bad, TIME without medical help.

We have around 15 species of rattlesnake here in Arizona and the most dangerous from what I know is the Mohave. We have a fatal bite from this species awhile back.
Here's a link with info about the Mohave:
http://www.californiaherps.com/snakes/pages/c.s.scutulatus.html
Jim

I am fortunate enough to be able to spend 100+ days in the field, bird hunting. Almost all of that is in Rattlesnake country. Kansas, Nebraska and eastern Montana. We have, here at the home place "Prairie Rattlers" nasty buggers. I suggest to all who come to hunt that they have their dogs vaccinated, and on the advice of several local vets, to carry antihistamines. We have had a dog bitten, he had his shots. We dosed him with antihistamines, got him to a vet in Benkleman, Ne. asap. He was under the weather for a bit but not lost. Bit in the face. We keep a bunch of horses here, and one gets bitten now and then, usually in the nose/face. If we catch it quick, a short section of garden hose is run down the nasal passage, so they can breathe after the major swelling starts and then to the vet. I was bitten 2 years ago, got off the tractor to move a piece of tin, got bit on the back of my right hand. I had (always) heavy work gloves on, and the snake got caught in the canvas top. Diane said it was pretty funny, me trying to shake the snake off my right hand, while going for my snake shooter with my left. Said shooter being in right hand hip pocket. Try it! Anyhow not much damage, small puncture only. We try to avoid cover adjoining prairie dog towns and soap weed flats in warm weather. Be careful out there....

If I were smarter than I am I would write a Pulitzer Prize winning novel based around the movement that seems to have swept the 'civilized' world in the past 25 years, the idea that there is no good or bad in the world, no right or wrong, only different viewpoints.

100 years ago, snakes got a belly full of lead and no one thought twice about it. Thieves and child molesters got stuffed in a dark hole and Oprah didn't do specials on their plight. When countries fought, they united against one another instead of half of one country siding with the other guys. If they had airports 100 years ago, anyone with a beard and a towel on their head would have automatically gotten a long talking to behind the woodshed.

In my opinion, it is this basic craving for 'no right or wrong' that will slowly decay our civilization and allow less civilized cultures to take over. I believe there is good and bad in this world, and, on an admittedly much smaller scale, snakes fall on the the wrong side of that line when they get near humans.

I think that we have been convinced for so long that we are the sole determiners of what is right and wrong that we have lost some of our own civilization already by our own doing. It's unfortunate but maybe we can work to reclaim it in the future.

But this is OT. Every snake is not inherently bad and neither is every culture. But we do need to better understand what they each are about, and I just learned that surviving a rattlesnake bite is only a very small part of the overall story.