I caught one over six feet near the blue ridge parkway when I was a teenager. Except for being bitten by a retic, I never had a nastier bite. Grabed him about and too far back from his head and he started chomping lol
6 feet is average my uncle had an evil monstrous 8 footer that passed away in '99 awesome snakes handle them as much as possible to keep them calm cause they are fast as hell. good luck with him = ]