No BS Here !
10-15-2013, 05:08 PM
#1
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location:
Posts: 2,186
No BS Here !
During the past 2 1/2 weeks I have been finishing up my scouting and working on stand set ups where I hunt in SE Ala. Early Saturday morning, while scattering turnip seeds on one of the food plots, my "new" blood tracking Dachshund who was with me at the time was struck full face by a good sized Timber Rattler. Fortunately only one fang injected. She has survived thanks to a close by vet and anti-venom !
Here's the rest of the story ....
For whatever reason, Timber Rattlers have been "out" down there all summer. We usually see a few and kill 2-3. This year we have killed 7. In August and September, I killed 5 in the 4 1/2' range and missed a chance at a 6 th. Mid September, a buddy putting his stands out at the camp killed a 62" monster with 17 rattles and the button. Dang near stepped on it. Wednesday of last week another guy that hunts there with us was cleaning out shooting houses and found a 3 1/2' rattler coiled up inside one of the houses. So it was not like I was not aware snakes were about. But I thought the 50F morning temps would have them holed up, at least until it warmed up. I was wrong for sure. Dang near cost me my little buddy Elie Mae. After losing Mojo last hunting season to illness, man it would have ripped me apart to lose Ellie too.
Now get this, today is opening of archery season. I am on duty for a few days and could not head that way. I get a text about 7:45 a.m. from one of my buds hunting in central Ala. around Rockford. At just about daybreak, he ascended one of his ladder stands. The seat is about 15' off the ground. He was just about to turn and sit down when he caught movement .... a wad of Timber Rattler was coiled up in the seat of his ladder stand !
As my buddy put it, "I dang near jumped off the ladder ... I have no clue how I got to the ground so quickly. And I let him have the view and moved on to another location". He went back around noon to see if if it was still there. He planned to drag it off the seat with an extendable limb saw and kill it if he could. It was gone.
I am almost 65. I have hunted woods and swamps since I was 8-10 years old. I've come across dozens of snakes of all sorts from a rare Coral snake to a common Chicken Snake. And a few vipers as well. I have seen Green Snakes in shrubs. A few Cotton Mouth Moccasins sunning in the low branches of cypress trees. But I have never heard of such as this. I am afraid if it had been me, I would have been found laying at the base of the stand dead as a door knob from heart failure !
Here's the rest of the story ....
For whatever reason, Timber Rattlers have been "out" down there all summer. We usually see a few and kill 2-3. This year we have killed 7. In August and September, I killed 5 in the 4 1/2' range and missed a chance at a 6 th. Mid September, a buddy putting his stands out at the camp killed a 62" monster with 17 rattles and the button. Dang near stepped on it. Wednesday of last week another guy that hunts there with us was cleaning out shooting houses and found a 3 1/2' rattler coiled up inside one of the houses. So it was not like I was not aware snakes were about. But I thought the 50F morning temps would have them holed up, at least until it warmed up. I was wrong for sure. Dang near cost me my little buddy Elie Mae. After losing Mojo last hunting season to illness, man it would have ripped me apart to lose Ellie too.
Now get this, today is opening of archery season. I am on duty for a few days and could not head that way. I get a text about 7:45 a.m. from one of my buds hunting in central Ala. around Rockford. At just about daybreak, he ascended one of his ladder stands. The seat is about 15' off the ground. He was just about to turn and sit down when he caught movement .... a wad of Timber Rattler was coiled up in the seat of his ladder stand !
As my buddy put it, "I dang near jumped off the ladder ... I have no clue how I got to the ground so quickly. And I let him have the view and moved on to another location". He went back around noon to see if if it was still there. He planned to drag it off the seat with an extendable limb saw and kill it if he could. It was gone.
I am almost 65. I have hunted woods and swamps since I was 8-10 years old. I've come across dozens of snakes of all sorts from a rare Coral snake to a common Chicken Snake. And a few vipers as well. I have seen Green Snakes in shrubs. A few Cotton Mouth Moccasins sunning in the low branches of cypress trees. But I have never heard of such as this. I am afraid if it had been me, I would have been found laying at the base of the stand dead as a door knob from heart failure !
Last edited by Mojotex; 10-15-2013 at 07:17 PM.
10-16-2013, 07:58 AM
#5
Fork Horn
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 489
I hunted a fully wrapped tripod in a pine thicket...had a copperhead join me. I would have either died from being bitten or killed myself trying to get out. Luckily he just moved on. I was in there with a muzzleloader and was prepared to beat him about the head and neck area with the loading rod.
