My walk of near death on Saturday evening....

So Saturday evening I went for a walk with my fiancee and his kids... There is a wildlife conservation place right outside our home pretty much. We ran across a combination of 8 garter snakes & what i believe to be bull snakes?

They were all hanging on the pathway and the birds were attacking them (most were babies) so I moved them into the grass.

Then we literally tripped over a western diamondback rattlesnake.. HOLY COW I almost pooped my pants.:snake:

It was definitely a pretty large adult. It's rattle was huge and it was pretty large itself. Thank goodness he didn't strike since we literally did trip on it. He/she coiled up and hissed rather fiercely, and rattled like mad. Cool lookin snake, we're really lucky he didn't show us his cool tricks LOL.

Sneaky little buggers, huh?

Glad all of you are ok. :D

I dunno if sneaky is the right word :) I'm sure he was in plain sight, we just happened to be engrossed in conversation LOL.

Needless to say after that we paid a little closer attention. Didn't help it was at dusk so feeding time for all those guys.

As venomous snakes go, rattlers tend to be a bit more camo'd than, say, brilliantly colored eyelash vipers. I'm glad you didn't get hurt, I've been in very similar situations more times than I can count, and once is too many for me!

I have stepped literally on top of cottonmouths, tripped on copperheads, and stepped over/in front of/within striking distance of plenty of hots without realizing it, and then seeing the snake later. I'm sure it has happened plenty of times without EVER seeing the snake and knowing it.

I think it goes to show that many snakes, especially venomous snakes, have a bad reputation that they don't deserve, and that they certainly don't want to have to use a defensive strike.

I'm a little jealous, though I'm sure the experience was scary. I still have yet to see my first rattler in the wild!

It was a very cool snake, and yes he definitely was WELL camo'd.

I agree, that these snakes would MUCH rather be left alone with their rattle than have to strike in defense (vs for food). He had PLENTY of opportunity and gave PLENTY of warning and still never even struck out once.

just think how many times you have steped right besides hots and not even relized it :(

Im sure its a bazillian times.. Wish I would have seen them too, gotten pics even. :D

HERE IS A PIC OF MY WESTERN DIAMOND BACK!!!
http://i369.photobucket.com/albums/o...231979/032.jpg

awww its cute :)

Glad to hear that he didn't stike. I bet it was cool to see one in the wild though. I have always thought that rattlesnakes were one of the coolest snakes.

i was hunting one evening, on my way to the stand and stepped on an eastern diamondback. i heard the rattle and froze, looked around and i was standing on it's head! i had my friend use a stick to hold it down while i quickly removed my boot. poor thing coiled and continued to make noise, but never struck. we walked off and let it be.

definitely sneaky buggers :D

ill catch you a rattlesnake.. and you give me the snake in your avatar LMFAO :D

We have a Western Diamondback rattler on display at my job. It is around 5' and has a really nasty temper. It will strike at anything that moves pretty much. We have a 6' grabber to handle it, and the boss actually let me put it back in the cage after cleaning one time. It felt amazing handling such a dangerous animal. I think I was shaking for 30 minutes after that.

It did bite itself pretty bad, it was bleeding but it fine. It just turned its head a little after I picked it up and latched onto itself.

i have the same problem walking my dog on a path all the time.. i turn over a couple rocks and i can easily find a few.. kinda scary since a lot of young kids walk back there

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Originally Posted by temec

i have the same problem walking my dog on a path all the time.. i turn over a couple rocks and i can easily find a few.. kinda scary since a lot of young kids walk back there

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exactly.... there is literally a park RIGHT next to this walk area..

In all my years dealing with hots, I never heard a rattlesnake hiss... Anyway, glad you didnt get hurt... A snakes defensive strike is its very last resort. You might be suprized at how reluctant most venomous species are to strike..

Two years ago I had my first experience with a rattlesnake. I live in NJ and have been hunting for years and had never had seen one. I was out for a walk to scout one of my favorite spots and right on the side of the logging road was a 4 foot timber rattler sunning itself. I got close enough to take a good look when it realized I was there it turned coiled up and rattled rattled...message received and I walked away it just stayed right where it was undisturbed...Im sure there have many times I have been close but that was my first actual sighting. I have nothing but respect for any of the hots and try to avoid them when possible.