Dear Guy's

Well I know I made a few comments on snakes.

Just thought I should let you know of the last experience.

Took my son hunting to Out back NSW.
The farm has a 1500ach lake on it. Truly some special in Australia.

Our main goal was to get him a wild pig. He is only 12 years old.
Armed with a .222 we set off into the scrub. As he must carry his own rifle. The only light rifle we own.

After about only a 2km walk we come across about a 7ft long tiger snake. It gets up ready to strike.

I am only about 2.5mtrs from the snake and in the danger zone.

My son on my right starts to scream as he has never been this close to a snake in the wild.

I grab his arm to get him to stop screaming. As this is making the snake very up set. It also starts to consider a strike so I need to keep an eye on both.

I under stand the danger of such a snake.
Nearly 2 hours drive from the nearest doctor, cautions is required. Heck the drive way from the house to the main road is 14km of bumpy track. This is a killer snake.

He stops and we back out.

Pig hunting is full of danger and when you can only see 3 meters in front of you danger and the hunt is very much in your face.

Any way nothing to do with Africa but my offer to any person concerned about snakes on there africa trip to just stop next door for some training prior to your big safari.

Buy the way he shot 6 wild goats and 38 hares. Could some yabbies 26cm long and about 30 fish.

Had a great time and hate the fact I am not rich and have to work.

Regards Mark

Gulp! Glad it worked out a happy day for you guys - in spite of the added excitement!

- mike

Pretty scary. I too have had some pretty close encounters with venomous snakes and wished I had a shotgun at hand instead of a rifle. Always an after thought, though. Glad things turned out okay.

The problem can be compounded by those who have no knowledge of serpents. A person from the Damp Isles, when told to walk that-a-way, realises that something is amiss, and comes closer, whispering loud enough to awaken the dead,"What's the matter?"
"Puffadder, a big bitch!"
The Damp Islander then jumps, I suppose for my arms. The only problem is that I am standing at right angles in order to keep an eye on the puffy. Being tackled unexpectantly, I go down, full length. As I get my bearings, I look straight into the black eyes and flicking tongue at about four hundred mllimeters. My tackler also saw the same vision, then saw fit to use me as a set of starting blocks. I had the impression that I was being kicked closer to the reptile. It took about three weeks for the adrenaline rush to subside.

I had lots of close calls with big diamondback rattlers when I lived in the desert southwest. I don't miss that at all!

Snakes are bad news, the only good snake is a dead snake. Glad that you and your son made out of that situation.

Ahmed:

You sound like my dad. He used to say,"I only hate 2 kinds of snakes. Dead ones and live ones."

only thing scarier than that would be meeting obama

Puff-adder. My first day in OFS,SA, I got this picture. It was at the PH place. I must admit I was looking an x-tra time before stepping out of the bed in the mornings...later I didn`care

On the last morning of my hunt I was enroute to the lion blind and the dawn was barely upon us. The tracker in front did his "mamba shuffle" with the shooting sticks and, as before, I just stood still waiting for the snake to pass. I was looking around and down at my right ankle was a puff adder, about 3 inches away. He raised his head and I thought I'd just leave and walk away. No problem. Are they aggressive? Didn't step on him and thought no reason to bite me.

Dutch

No trophy fees on snakes...


Mike

I almost stepped on a Copperhead this week in Texas.

I have killed several posionious snakes over the years, in Texas and Zimbabwe.

In Zim I stepped on 2 different cobras while running after cape buff...

I ust od not worry about snakes, in the overall scheme of things.

The only two things that scare me are Women and the Police...

Well, actually, spiders, and loosing my baggage, scares me too...

Back in California many years ago, I was out one Saturday morning on some public land to shoot some ground squirrels. I heard a little rustling at my feet and there, about 6 to 8 inches from my boot was a 2.5 foot rattlesnake with it's neck in an S shape and starting to back away. It was not rattling.

I did what any red blooded snake loving biology major would have done. I caught it, took it home and put it in a cage.

I was on a business trip to DC and sitting at the bar in the MaClean Hilton (not unusual) and there was a wild kingdom type show about snakes on the TV. An Indian / American gentleman was sitting next to me and of course the conversation turned to snakes. He told me he was from a village south of Mumbai (Bombay?) and that his grandfather was the village snake catcher. He said every family in the village had lost a member due to snake bites including his. He said he missed his family, but not India.

snakes aren't so bad. i only spent 2 days in ICU, 2 more days in hospital and 10 days in bed at home after my rattlesnake bite- which occurred at night in my garage! gotta say though, after 8 previous major surgeries for other problems and multiple broken bones after being run over and left for dead- that damn snakebite hurt worse than all the rest. you really can't believe the pain when your leg doubles in size and turns blue. i have seen a lot of mambas, cobras, and puff adders in Africa but no REALLY close calls- always at least 4-5 feet away.

Was checking out some deer tracks on my Trinty River, Texas deer lease about 20yrs ago. I was walking backwards in some thick leaves. I heard something rattling. I'm thinking ain't no rattlers around. Turned around and found myself about 2ft from a LARGE Cottonmouth. The rattling was his stub tail slapping the leaves. Needless to say I jumped back about as far as human can. I had my .380 Colt Mustang in my back pocket, pulled it and unloaded all 6 rounds. Killed alot of leaves, but no snake. He took off and for some reason, till this dayI don't know why, I changed mags and took off after him. He finally turned and coiled. This time the Mustang stuck home, dead snake. Damn dumbass chancing a Cottonmouth! Guess I was just pissed cause he scared me so much. Too many stories about Cottonmouths and Rattlers to tell here. Don't know how I never got hit. Ten foot tall and bullet proof! Yeah right!

During my mis-spent youth in forestry school, I was out with one of the grad students looking for some marked seed source yellow poplars in a hardwood bottom. My foot bumped something that hissed, and my companion said that I leaped up, both feet at his eye level. The culprit - a box turtle! Scared me out of about a years' growth!

Obviously our venomous snakes in the US don't compare with Australia or Africa, but for our snakes, I have no doubt the cottonmouth is by far the most grumpy and aggressive.

A friend of mine is a general surgeon here in central Florida. He was called to a local emergency room to see a snakebite victim.

The victim lived in a nearby apartment complex and while throwing his trash (rubbish to you Brits!) in the dumpster felt a sting on his hand and realized he had been bitten by a snake. He killed the snake and brought it with him to the emergency room.

My friend took one look at the snake and said "that's a black mamba". He called the zoo which fortunately is just down the street and requested that they bring over antivenin.

The herpetologist at the zoo did not believe when he said it was a mamba. My friend replied something to the effect "just bring the stuff and we'll discuss it when you get here."

Sure as hell, it was a black mamba----black mouth, "smile", everything.

The patient did well and did not require the antivenin.

The police were called. It developed that some idiot had kept the mamba in a cage in his apartment. When it escaped he didn't notify anyone. I don't know what happened to him, but hope the idiot was punished.

So.... I guess you don't really need to go to Africa to get African-snakebit.

I broke my leg on the first day of my 2001 safari in Tanzania. I just slipped and didn’t want to drop my rifle. After that around camp, I was limited to using a camp chair as a walker (the Muslim Women’s Charity Hospital in Arusha didn’t provide crutches or even have any). One morning in our tent, my husband was looking for the strap he uses for his glasses. I hobbled toward him to help and saw, what looked like the strap, sticking out from underneath his duffle bag. Just as I told him, the strap moved completely under the duffle. I screamed, what I’m sure was a death rattling scream, “there’s a snake in our tent!” My husband immediately exited the tent, leaving me, unable to walk, with the snake between me and the exit. The entire camp staff showed up with clubs. And, with me frozen where I stood, one of the camp staff entered and pulled the duffle back. He clubbed the snake to death. Fortunately it was non-venomous. Seems that while using the improvised walker to go to the john, I hadn’t completely zipped the tent closed. You can bet I did after that. And, those gaps that sometime occur where the zipper meet, I now force a towel into them, so not even a mosquito can get in.

Regards, D. Nelson

and thats why it is called the Black Mamba.

Give me a charging Buffalo anytime!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Grumulkin:


I did what any red blooded snake loving biology major would have done. I caught it, took it home and put it in a cage.

Snork! Thanks for the giggle.

A young man I am acquainted with, suffered a very bad cotton mouth or water moccassin bite this past weekend. He is at home recovering. He need 18 vails of anti veneom, from three differnent hospitals.

You can read about his adventure in the Bolivar Commercial, Cleveland, Ms. You should have no trouble goggling the story. Unfortunately I do no know how to cut and paste

quote:

Originally posted by h kittle:
A young man I am acquainted with, suffered a very bad cotton mouth or water moccassin bite this past weekend. He is at home recovering. He need 18 vails of anti veneom, from three differnent hospitals.

You can read about his adventure in the Bolivar Commercial, Cleveland, Ms. You should have no trouble goggling the story. Unfortunately I do no know how to cut and paste

Here it is:

http://www.bolivarcom.com/view...es-toxic-snake-bite?

RAC

Thanks for the help.

Hartley

quote:

Originally posted by zimFrosty:


and thats why it is called the Black Mamba.

Give me a charging Buffalo anytime!!!!

Pppphhaark!! thanks for that! How am I supposed to get to sleep now? More scotch I suppose.

quote:

Sure as hell, it was a black mamba----black mouth, "smile", everything.

The patient did well and did not require the antivenin.

Not to scare anyone who doesn't already hunt Africa away from the experience, but. . .

I was always told you are unlikely to see a dangerous snake on safari. But the first three times I went I saw nasty snakes each time. Fortunately from the truck each time.

My first hunt in Namibia my 12 year old son noticed a snake keeping pace with the truck parallel to the road. We stopped and it "stood" up - a black mamba. Our PH dispatched it with a .17 HMR. We got some great photos, including one of the PH standing on the back bumber of the truck holding it up as high as he could with the tail down touching the road. With the benefit of hindsight handling a freaking mamba was probably a bad idea. At least, his mom thought so.

Another hunter in camp during that trip killed a Zebra cobra.

Second trip, back to Namibia, same PH but different area. Black mamba crosses the road ahead of us. This time I potted that sucker with the same .17HMR we had used three years earlier. Also a pretty long (but relatively skinny) snake.

Third trip, to RSA, we walked up on a puff adder laying in the road. That one got to live.

I'm going back this summer for my fourth trip, this time to Zambia. At this point, I EXPECT to see venomous snakes when I go.

I've shot a decent number of the cypriot Blunt Nosed Vipers over the years while hunting Chukars in the Troodos mountains. All of them warned me of their presence first and only one tried to strike but was hampered in the thorn pile it had hidden in.

About three weeks ago in Nelspruit my friends dogs set upon a Moz Spitting Cobra. The bull terrier chased the snake into a tee at which point it got fed up and dropped out onto the dogs. The dogs killed it and we thought it had just spat the terrier bitch until 10mins later we saw her collapsed below the deck. She had been bitten in the lip by the snake and the swelling a day later at the vets had to be seen to be believed. The dog survived after three days at the vets and one or two ampules of anti venom.

Den then told me he had killed a huge mamba on the drive way the week before so when it came to time to wave Shakari off in the dark I was in two minds as to whether I should stay in the house or not!!

Needless to say I didn't take up the offer of Francolin shooting on the long grass at that location!!

K

I live in Florida. I thought that serious cottonmouth bites were rare as the fangs are in the back of the mouth and they have to "chew" on you to inject the venom.
Peter.

Peter, I think you are confused. The cottonmouth is a front fanged snake and make no mistake they can bite you and fast. i have been bitten by one. The coral snake is what you are speaking of and while small ones might have to chew a really big one can bite you without chewing he probably would not get you good but they can bite. But never even think that about a cottonmouth they bite just like the eastern diamondback rattlesnake.

Peter a "cottonmouth" does have fangs just like any other venomous snake but the cottonmouth just holds on longer pumping it's venom into the victim.

I run into a few rattlesnakes now and then, mostly pigmy rattlers and the ever present copperhead snake. I carry a 3-inch Judge loaded with #7.5 & #6 shot for snakes around the dog kennel or backyard. It is one heck of a snake charmer trust me. I could kill a 20ft python at 12 feet away.

Zimfrosty:

I think I know that guy. We had a brief discussion in the Selous.

gerryb is correct, the cottonmouth a.k.a. water moccasin is a pit viper just like the rattlesnake and the copperhead for that matter. Long fangs in the front of the mouth. I personally think the cottonmouth is much more aggressive and dangerous than a rattlesnake. I don't think copperheads are very aggressive at all.

Coral snakes are not pit vipers; they are the same family as cobras.


http://ufwildlife.ifas.ufl.edu...identification.shtml

We killed this guy about 200 yards from camp....

That's a heckuva lot of snake

quote:

Originally posted by TexasHunter:
We killed this guy about 200 yards from camp....

How long was that Black Mamba? The one I got with a .308 Win was 9 ft long.

3 weeks ago i had my parents visiting me in the bush in Ladysmith Venue, Natal SA, and on our way in to camp i asked my parents to sit and enjoy the bush in the seats in the back of the cruiser. When driving in the bush i noticed a mamba in a good pace in the grass. It climbed up a tree only a meter from the road, and i stopped and made my parents aware of it. I think you could hear my mothers scream for at least a mile away.
Anyway, here it is.. I got out of the cruiser and took this picture with my phone. The pic is taken when the snake decided to climb down again. And yes.. I was back in the car in a flash!!


I guess you could say that i have a healhy respect for snakes.

Now for those who don't really know, the Copperhead is far more agressive than the cottonmouth or the rattlesnake.

Studies made down at the University of Alabama by a well known professor have proved this several times in the last 10 years or so.

The cottonmouth bits and hangs on pumping his venom into your body. The rattle snake strikes and bits but his venoum is stronger than the Copperhead. The Copperhead will strike you continuously several times.

Blue Dog, that's interesting, I will look for that study.