I have had hatbands made from snakes that I have dispatched and skinned including a couple of rattlesnakes and a puff adder. I have encountered a King Cobra somewhere in Asia and some kind of spitting cobra in Africa, but the only truly frightening snake I have encountered was the Black Mamba. He was approximately ten feet long and went past my PH and myself so quickly that it was almost unbelievable. I had read that mambas were fast but I have never seen anything like that. It would have taken a long time to get to a medical facility if one of us had been bitten, maybe too long.

Rattlesnakes usually don't bother me much. I am glad that I did not brush up against that sage before he had the chance to warn me to go away.

Remember Peter Hathaway Capstick's stories he wrote, there was one about hunting down and killing a mating pair of black Mamba's, they were both around 14' long.
RR

While training at Ft. Benning, we have crawled upon several of the little fellers. Several made it to the dinner table that night!!!!

I really have a phobia of snakes I should probably look into some kind of treatment for...

hate them!

almost stepped on a mojave! this late summer/fall.

I think we all need to be carring snakeloads and take these things out!

Can you carry a pistol w/snakeloads in Africa legally?


Funny thing is I find them interesting on the discovery channel etc... but in person/live snakes, ugh! even in a cage...

I've seen them in sage brush a lot in my native CO. The ones in CO and WY are the prairie rattlers and they very rarely get more than 3 ft long. Since a snake can only strike a little less than half their body length, keeping 2 ft away from tall sage brush makes you completely safe. But it is spooky to hear one buzzing off the ground.