Hardwood
Senior Member
If its poisonous, and I see it, Its dead. Black snakes are the only ones with a free pass for me.
If its poisonous, and I see it, Its dead. Black snakes are the only ones with a free pass for me.
As far as the religious aspects...well, I am a man of faith. I believe in God. And, I have heard many, many times the scripture being used to justify the wanton destruction of snakes, venomous or not....but you have to bear in mind that the scripture has also been twisted and used on many occasions to justify the killing of whole populations of people too. And...on the other side of that coin, there are churches in the northern part of this state that use venomous snakes in their Christian worship. It's all a matter of interpretation, isn't it?
Dead snake
Germag,
A question about cottonmouths. I don't usually hunt in swamps or near rivers so I have no real first hand experience with them, but you hear and read a lot of stuff.
I saw a guy on tv once come up on one and aggravate it to make it open its mouth and show the "cotton". I saw one do the same thing for me when I was a kid. It is a scary sight! Anyway the guy kept aggravating the snake and it had its mouth open but the whole time was trying to back up and get away from the guy. The cottonmouth never did strike at him even though he kept messing with it. He said that the whole thing that they do with the mouth open was a warning and a defensive posture that people misinterpret as aggression or the snake "standing its ground".
I have heard different people talk about cottonmouths "chasing them". Do they really do this or are they trying to get away and people, being scared to death of snakes to start with, let their imaginations run wild?
Usually, you can't change ignorance. It is a learned behavior. People have an irrational fear of things, and that is something that is very hard to change. "Snakes will kill you!", and so they spread that fear to others. Yes, some snakes can kill you, but so can cars, guns, and of course, other people. It is more reasonable to fear people, because they don't always act rationally.
Along those lines, the reason I always have a sidearm on me while in the woods isn't really because some animal might try to kill me (even though I irrationally tell myself that). The odds of that are infinitesimal. It is about 100x more likely that a person would try to kill me in the woods. And about 1,000x times more likely than that on the street.
I started carrying in my woods, when I first heard a big cat. Since that time, I have seen what folks refer to as a panther (NOT black!), and yes, I do have an irrational fear of them. I know I wouldn't likely stand a chance against one unarmed, and my odds are slightly improved with a gun. Would one attack me unprovoked? Not likely, but I don't want to find out. Snakes on the other hand, don't scare me. I have literally walked by many Rattlers, and half of them didn't even rattle, none of them struck out at me. One of them I had to shoot, because it found it's way to where my dogs were chained up, and there was too much commotion to try and capture it safely. I put 5 rounds into it, and it still didn't strike once.
On the other hand, a friend of mine was attacked by a fox once, but it was likely rabid. That is a different story.
I'm with you Redneck, I don't think it likely I'd be attacked... but if'n it did happen, I know that cat would have the upper paw. And I am aware of my surroundings, mostly. I do tend to get caught up in thought while enjoying the beauty and peace in the woods. But no, I'm really not afraid of many animals, most of them are just doing what they are supposed to do. As long as they aren't disturbed, they would really rather not interact with people. Of course, I have also never come across a bear either.