OT:Snakes-Why'd it have to be snakes
 

Well one anyway. Went for a walk today to check out my stands for Saturday. As I was walking down the leaf covered abandoned two track toward my one stand I felt something hit the side of my boot! I looked down and back and saw a 14"-16" copperhead with the front portion of his body in an "S" shape waiting to strike again. Unfortunately for him though he was no match for my 1911 .22LR as I drew a bead on his noggin and let the hollow point do its job. I grabbed a stick and tossed him off the road into the woods.
I took my boot and sock of to check if he went through but I guess he didn't have the strength to puncture the thick leather upper. He just left 2 little marks just above the ankle. I'm sure glad I didn't have my sneakers on today. I think I would have been a hurtin puppy by now.

Glad it didn't get you. Our Mississauga rattlesnakes are rare, but are seen at times. Generally they want out of your way unless provoked. You fixed that specific problem.

Gets your heart pumping, doesn't it? Come on now, how many shots before you hit it???? :s2:

Come on Semi - at 3' I don't miss. Even a quarter sized target like this one. That 1911 will hit that size target at 20 yards more often than not. Now I have to admit that while I was removing my boot and sock I was beginning to get a little, how should I describe it, shaky? Sort of like when you're cool, calm and collected when you shoot that nice buck. Then after the shot you start to shake and sweat! Delayed buck fever I call it.

Well your blessed by him not getting good penetration. I hate snakes and the only good snake is a dead snake. If I am hunting and see one it purdy much a done deal for me. I was on a wounded warrior turkey hunt a few years ago and had a little run in with a cotton mouth. Any way me and the feller helping to be able to move around got me positioned on some birds and as I sat there waiting and watching for the birds to show up I heard Randy say OMG and he was looking towards me. Needless to say I was now curious and as I turned to look ever so slowly that was when I noticed the cotton mouth draped across my right leg. The turkey hunt was over but I waited the snake out and he slithered off and Randy got a big kick out of me not feeling the snake crawl up on me. Anyway didn't mean to hijack the thread. I did invest in a good pair of snake boots.

Clem, glad you are OK! Shaking, S@#$% I would have needed to change my shorts!! Reminds me of the time when I was playing war games in the Marines in Okinawa. I was point and signaled I was going ahead to look for ambushes. Well I saw this depression in the ground up ahead that at one time must have been used as a fox hole. Well I jumped in and heard this movement behind me and saw this brown snake strike me just above my ankle. I screamed like a girl. The guys that were with me finished the snake off with their M16's shooting blanks. I told the medic I got bit. He took his knife cut my boot laces, removed my boot and socks off only to smack me across the head to tell me I wasn't bit. Well needless to say I got a lot of ribbin that day. 1) I let everybody (Make believe enemy) know where our squad was. and 2) I wasn't bit and had to tie my shoelaces together so I could continue on for the day. Yea, I'll never forget that day.

That's a close one!
-Jake

Glad to hear you were not bitten. Maybe its time for some tall leather boots.

I didn't bother to look or to measure but I did a bit of research and found that a mature copperhead (which this wasn't) have fangs about .3" (7.2mm) in length. That's not very long and would not even likely to get through a good thick pair of cordura uppers. Also I found out that a copperhead strikes and lets go immediately one large animals. And males are aggressive during late summer and fall which is their mating season. So I had an adrenaline pumping experience and learned a few things about copperheads.

Aw Slowburn, it just ain't so. There's lots of good snakes out there that are not venomous and eat rodents and venomous snakes. There are only four basic varieties of venomous snakes in the U.S. - Rattlesnakes, Copperheads, Cottonmouths, and Coral. It doesn't take a lot of study to learn to identify the bad guys and leave the good guys be.

Ed, did you go EEK, EEK, EEK or Aiieeeee? :s2: I spent a few years in Okinawa in the early `70's and saw several Habu while traipsing through the back country. Once, a buddy and I were on a motorcycle tour of a remote region in the Northern end of the island when a local Okinawan ran out of a cane field waiving frantically. We stopped and found he had been bitten by a Habu on the back of his calf. It was swollen and he was limping badly. He ended riding the back of my buddy's bike to his village which was about a half mile from the cane field. At the village they loaded him in an old Nissan pick-up and took off down the dirt road like a bat out of hell. I've always wondered how he made out.