So your talking about being more comfortable at your home handling them? I dont understand that. Do you not go field herping? Are you uncomfortable out in the field? Your comfort level should not matter regardless of where your at when handling these snakes as long as your confident you know what your doing. If you had no business handling the eastern you should of never tried. One knows when there confident enough to handle these animals. Going from a copperhead to an eastern is a pretty big step up the totem pole. But I am glad you walked away without suffering a bite.