re: The Joy of Snakes..............

quote:

---

So, has anyone every gotten bit before

---

I did as a kid, but didn't get envenomated. I was too young to remember it, but to hear my parents tell the story, it was about the size of an aircraft carrier, and they outraced and SR-71 getting me to the hospital for what turned out to be a total non-event.



I caught garter and hognosed snakes when I was a bigger kid, and a couple of the garters bit me, but that isn't much of a bite. Barely draws blood, if that.

quote:

---

Unfortunately, she passed away unexpectedly on April 21st this year. About two weeks shy of her 65th birthday. She wasn't perfect (who is), but what I wouldn't give for a nagging phone call these days

---

I'm sorry, brother.


Damn...........

I got pics of a 17 ft rattlesnake that I will try to post on here on Monday. They caught it coming off of a golf course into a subdivision. They said it had enough venom to kill 30 grown men and it had 4" long fangs set 6" apart. You won't believe it, this fricker is huge.

I grew up in the country so I've got plenty of snake stories, but two stand out in my life time.

When I was about three my sister and I were playing hide and seek in the tall grass next to a small pond in the yard. We typically played there because it was in a pin with all the ducks, geese, and chickens. Yeah I know... anyway I laid down flat in the thickest part of the grass next to the water and after a while my sister comes walking up looking for me in the grass. I looked up at her and she was staring at me frozen in horror. I said what and she finally pointed and said you've got a snake by your head. I said no I don't and turned to look (at this point I was sitting up but still on my butt) and sure enough there was a cotton mouth coiled up not moving. It was about three inches away from my head when I was laying down. Anyway since it did not move and since I had no fear of snakes at the time probably due to shear stupidity, I poked it with my finger and said it must be dead. My sister finally found the energy to scream and combined with my poke that somebitch took off into the water. I later found out from Okefenokee Joe when I was 5 years old (he was doing a show at my school) that the cotton mouth is aggressive and it was out of character for it to bolt. I was blessed with some devine intervention that day.

Next I was about 14 when I was hanging out with a buddy even futher into the country than where I lived which meant make your own fun for sure. I told him how me and my brother would go frog gigging or in some cases netting with a 5 gal bucket, a net, and a strong flashlight or spot light. So given the ease of it he was all in. The idea is that one person stands on one side of the pond spot lighting the opposite bank while the other person walked along the opposite bank quietly scooping up the frogs with the net. ONE ISSUE the mill pond he took me to didn't really have any well defined banks. The edges would just shallow out so you had to walk in the water that was about ankle deep. Anyway we were having a blast catching frogs and when we were done we started looking for crawdaddies. So I'm standing there with a net, a bucket, in the dark, and in the water while he used his spot light in the water looking for crawdaddies. All of a sudden I feel this stiff slap or poke just above my ankle. I said, Dude something just poked me. He said where and just as I said my ankle it hit me again. Now in case you are wondering we both had on rubber boots that went up to just above our knees. Anyway just as he shines his light at my feet I get smacked again and this time it was higher. I said what it that? When the light made it to my feet the water was moving way more than normal around feet that had been standing still for about 20 minutes by then. He said don't panic but you are standing in a bed of mocassins and the smack is the big one trying to bit you. I shite you not I looked down and there were what seemed like 15 small snakes and one at the time I thought HUGE mocassin. Now you all know south georgia mud is very unforgiving and by that age I knew it too, but I did NOT care. My buddy being the calm cool and collected guy he was AND the guy far enough away from the action said get this...on the count of three slowly walk toward me and they will leave you alone. The problem was he was further away from high ground and all I could think about was high ground in the general direction of his house. He said one...and I said SEE YA! and proceeded to walk on water towards the high ground. When I finally stopped I was about fifty yards from his house and he had tackled me to the ground...laughing like that guy on deliverance. Later when I calmed down I realized I had come out of my boots (due to the mud) and the net and bucket was sitting in the water where I was standing. I told him its time to get a new net and bucket.

A bucket of snakes are good for baby sitting some kids and motivating the others to get the freak out of here.

So here I am browsing the good ole Georgia Sports board when my Mom who was in the backyard with the dogs comes flying in the house and yells at me "Go get your gun now, a rattlesnake is about to get one of the dogs!" I bounded my stairs up to my room in about 2 steps, got my 12 gauge from beside the bed and ran outside. My Mom had gotten the dogs inside and had a spotlight on the bastard who was in the corner of the yard, I racked the gun and the first shot was a direct hit to the upper body, meat flew everywhere, next one took his head and neck clean off and sent it flying against the fence, next 2 were for good measure and took some more meat out of the body.







This is a pic of him next to the 12 gauge for a reference, just keep in mind that there is another foot or more of him left in the yard.

Make the pictures work please.

Still can't get it to show up on mobile, I guess you'll have to get on a computer or something unless somebody can instruct me as to how to get them to show.

I can't see them on my PC, so perhaps it isn't just a mobile problem?


Fix'em! I wanna see!

You fry it up yet? Filet Mignon of the snake world