How many of you have built a good blind to have a snake come visit you. One day i was setting in my blind and it had already got to be around 10 clock on one of those sunny warm morning and i was about to doze off and it's like i hear the wind pickup and as i look up at the tree limb above my head i'm thinking those leaves are not blowing and as i turn and look down this snake is next to my leg and what i was hearing was his tail vibrating. You talk about someone coming out of a turkey blind...omg...It's was one of those long black racer snakes that we have in Tenn...
I've had 5 or 6 rattlesnakes in a box stand with me one morning in Texas that were all about 10 inches long in a pile. It was cool out, so I picked my feet up off the ground and pinned their heads down with the butt of my rifle and slide them to the other side of the box one at a time and with the heads pinned I de-headed with my knife.
A few years ago me and a buddy had got ahead of a few birds that were walking down a fire break. We slipped in and sat down in a hurry, checked the birds and they were coming. Just before they get in site I glanced to my left and see a rattle snake slithering towards me about 10 feet away. I decided to hold tight and see what he would do. A minute or two passed and the turkeys are now in site but still out of range and the snake is inching his way closer. I was sweating bullets and hoping the one gobbler in the group would hurry up. As they walked into range my buddy shot I instantly rolled to the right and jumped up , the snake was only 3 feet away !!! Now I'm not necessarily scared of snakes but I don't want a rattler in my lap either. That's definitely the most stressful hunt I've been on.
Well those stories are what my nightmares are made of! I'm 6'3" and 270 lbs and run like a scared schoolgirl from every snake I see!!
ive had a few run ins with snakes over the years fortunately they were all non venomous snakes so i usually just sit still and watch them go about their business.
Quote from: Greg Massey on February 16, 2016, 01:25:43 PM
How many of you have built a good blind to have a snake come visit you. One day i was setting in my blind and it had already got to be around 10 clock on one of those sunny warm morning and i was about to doze off and it's like i hear the wind pickup and as i look up at the tree limb above my head i'm thinking those leaves are not blowing and as i turn and look down this snake is next to my leg and what i was hearing was his tail vibrating. You talk about someone coming out of a turkey blind...omg...It's was one of those long black racer snakes that we have in Tenn...
Were you able to salvage the undergarments and wear them again or just throw them away?
Yup...i was able to save them...lol...but i have never been able to come out of a blind that fast in years but that day i did...omg
Never in the blind and I try to avoid them at all cost. Here is a video that every year sends chills down my side (not in the blind but still related to turkey hunting...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpyUVMlTx_U
That is some crazy video... You are one brave man... :newmascot:
Quote from: Clovis67 on February 16, 2016, 06:42:02 PM
That is some crazy video... You are one brave man... :newmascot:
Oh no that is not a video of me (its just one I seen before). If it was me, I would have had a heart attack....lol
Quote from: born2hunt on February 16, 2016, 01:58:02 PM
A few years ago me and a buddy had got ahead of a few birds that were walking down a fire break. We slipped in and sat down in a hurry, checked the birds and they were coming. Just before they get in site I glanced to my left and see a rattle snake slithering towards me about 10 feet away. I decided to hold tight and see what he would do. A minute or two passed and the turkeys are now in site but still out of range and the snake is inching his way closer. I was sweating bullets and hoping the one gobbler in the group would hurry up. As they walked into range my buddy shot I instantly rolled to the right and jumped up , the snake was only 3 feet away !!! Now I'm not necessarily scared of snakes but I don't want a rattler in my lap either. That's definitely the most stressful hunt I've been on.
That is commencement. I would have done the opposite.
Quote from: Dearhunter3450 on February 16, 2016, 05:57:35 PM
Well those stories are what my nightmares are made of! I'm 6'3" and 270 lbs and run like a scared schoolgirl from every snake I see!!
ha me too,i dont care if its a green snake,im out of there,the guy who sat there with the turkeys coming and the rattler 3 feet away,you got more nerve than me,i would have been out of there when i first saw it even if it was a cow snake.
Was prescouting a new to me piece of public land. There was a chop that had nothing but pine logs and palmettos on it, but it was surrounded by thick heads. Thought it would be a nice place to sit and listen in the morning. No gun with me. I am sitting there listening, hear one a long ways off and am looking at a little WMA map trying to figure out where he is located. I catch movement to my right and look down and here comes a copperhead. They are not large snakes in general, but he was the longest and thickest I had ever seen. Well over 3 feet and fat. I am looking around for a weapon of some sort and nothing but rotten piney logs and palmetto roots. He is heading a little away from me at an angle and I decide to leave well enough alone. When he is just far enough away, I ease up into a crouch and he kind of reacts a little - still facing away though. He slithers another 6 inches and I stand up and step back. I was major league in "be cool, just be cool" mode. I am not really scared of snakes, but he had my complete and undivided attention.
A few years ago in MO I set up my pop-up blind for a little fall hunting and kept hearing a noise in the blind. I moved the stuff I had on the ground to find a snake had gotten trapped in the blind. He was able to get out when I moved my pack and the hunt was back on.
Last year, I'm sitting in an oak flat about mid-afternoon, making some soft yelps and clucks. I see a black racer come cruising by about 10' in front of me. He's making a bee line to who knows where. Nothing to be alarmed about. About 15 minutes later, I hear the leaves rustling over to my right. I look and he's about 5' away from me, looking at me. I took a stick and threw at him and he went back towards where he originally came from. I'm thinking that's all over with. About 10 minutes go by and I hear something easing up behind me. I turn and look and this joker is 2' from me!! I've got one of those vest that you can just sit down and lean back against with out the aid of a tree. When I went to come out of that vest, I caught a cramp in both legs!! So, here I am clinging to a tree with cramps in my legs looking back to see where this dadgum snake is. He's gone just as fast as I came out of that vest. I got up and moved my set up. He could have it!!! I don't like 'em!!!
I have had many snakes crawl up to my set up and thank goodness all so far where non poisonous. They usually show up like Mr. Sharpe described and once you move or slap the ground they take off.
I almost stepped on a snake last year when I was trying to find a spot on a ditch to cross. Do not know what he was but he just laid there and once I saw him I just moved down a bit.
Have had a few cotton mouths jump in the water as I was coming along. They are lightening fast when they want to be.
The only situation with a snake that really startled me was one evening after I roosted a bird I was walking through a field of young corn, probably 4-5 inches high, when I heard him start to rattle. I immediately stopped and tried surveying the direction the sound was coming from but between the low light and growing corn I had no clue where he actually was. I stood there for what seemed like an eternity, probably 30 seconds, and decided I had to make a move. I knew in what direction he was so I counted to three and when I hit three I jumped as far as I could in the opposite direction from him and ran 15-20 yards. When I stopped it was silent, or maybe I could not hear any rattling because of my hard heart beats.
I have walked up on a few rattlesnakes but that is the only one that I did not know exactly where he was and it was quite unnerving.
Sent from the Strut Zone
Ain't no turkey worth dealing with a snake....I will bust one with a load of TSS and live to hunt another day. I've been struck by a copperhead in south MS while cruising timber in college. Luckily had snake leggings on that day. I can do a good dance with snake leggings on!
Sent from my typewriter
I hunt in Florida so snakes are everywhere and I usually kill around a dozen moccasins a year. Non- venomous snakes don't bother me and I had several pet snakes in my younger days. Last turkey season I was walking a road and heard a gobble far off and I had to cross a deep ditch to get to him. Our ditches are wide and deep to keep the roads from washing out so I had put a stack of pallets in a spot earlier in the season for a bridge. Just before I stepped on the pallet I saw a big moccasin laying next to the bridge. I didn't want to shoot and spook the turkey or waste a Hevi-shot so I got a long stick and gave him a prod to send him on his way. Well he didn't take to it and came at me up the bank. I got the stick under him and flipped him in the water but he swam to the other side of the pallet and got on the far bank, coiled up and gave me the pissed off open mouth tail shaking thing. I'd had enough at this point and shot him. Never seen a moccasin this big that was yellow. They usually turn solid black at about 3 feet long. I've killed two more moccasins at the same spot since. I think they must lay there waiting for rodents to cross that bridge. I look closely whenever I enter a ground blind but so far have not found any in the blind with me.
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A few years ago I was guiding a hunter from Arizona ("Robbie') on a 3 day turkey hunt in north Mississippi. The weather conditions were far from pristine but we managed to get on birds every day. On the third day of his hunt, I was able to position us in the bedroom of a gobbler. It was a beautiful sight to see the gobbler leave the roost and sail directly in front of us to land in a clean spot in the woods roughly 35 yards away. I had successfully guided Robbie on a hunt last year so I assumed he could "take care of business" by himself. I intended to work the bird a touch closer, but Robbie shot (unexpectedly for me) and missed him clean. Oh well, kaka happens as they say.
The reason he may have missed could possibly be attributed to the event that rattled him the previous day. We were set up against a huge cedar tree on the edge of a good looking green field. We had not heard a gobbler, but I had killed ("harvested" for you PC types) several birds in this field over the years and besides—it was in the middle of the day and the big cedar produced some mighty welcoming shade. I was doing a little calling, some looking and perhaps a quick cat nap worked in between the calling and the looking. During one of my "looking" spells, a movement caught my eye on the ground perhaps 10 feet to the left and in front of me. To my surprise, it was a huge copper-head moccasin slowly moving towards us---he was perfectly camouflaged in the leaves so it is a wonder I spotted him at all. My first thought and plan of action was to calmly tell Robbie "Hey man, if I were you I'd get up since a big copper-head is about to crawl in your lap". Before I could implement this plan, the snake inexplicably picked up his rate of speed so my plan on dealing with it in a calm orderly fashion turned into anything but that. The situation called for immediate action. I barked a loud order to Robbie with all the urgency I could muster in my voice "Move Robbie, Roll Over Now, Down the Hill, Now-Man-Now!!!!!" Well, I suppose when the stillness of the afternoon is suddenly broken by a guy screaming drill sergeant style orders, you don't think about it—you just do it. After Robbie's inertia subsided from his self-induced roll down the hill, he arose wide-eyed and with his Arizona accent excitedly asked me "Dude, what in the hell is going??!!? I matter-of-factly responded "Come back up here and look what is now stretched where you were sitting. Robbie walked back up the incline he had just rolled down to look at what I was standing there calmly pointing at---when he saw it he let loose with stream of exclamations "Oh My Gawd!! Holy Crap!!!!" (note to readers—I have taken editorial liberties with his actual exclamations since I realize the "overly sensitive" among may be reading this). He took a couple of steps in reverse, raised his shotgun and told me "Step back-----I'm gonna shoot him!!" I had to laugh a little bit at him. I said "Robbie, lower your weapon Dude---let me show you how do it. I searched the immediate area and found just what I was looking for—a dead limb about 3 feet long and approximately the diameter of my thumb. I calmly walked over the venomous serpent who was now eyeing me suspiciously, repeatedly testing the wind with that forked tongue of his. I am sure he could smell the "fear molecules" Robbie was profusely emitting. With on swift and well placed whack from my stick, it as was lights out for Mr. No Shoulders. When I reached down to pick him up, Robbie screamed like a little girl. I tried to reassure him "Don't worry, he is mostly dead—now grab my camera phone and take a pic of the two of us." Robbie took the pic but told me in no uncertain terms "Man , you are one crazy dude" ( again, he didn't actually say dude, he used a two word descriptor—for those of you with any capacity for imagination, I bet you could easily guess what he called me.)
Lessons learned here
• It pays to stay alert
• Try and remain calm in stressful or potentially dangerous situations
• For most of us—there is somebody out there that thinks we are crazy
Hunted a see lease in Texas , when it rained I got in a bow blind, what's that noise, da g rattle snake under the boat seat I was sitting on....
Snakes don't bother me and I kept quite a few as pets in my teenage years. I hadn't had any run ins with snakes in the 5 or so years I've been turkey hunting - until last year.
I was hunting at a buddy's place on a gravel road that a known gobbler was using. Nestled under a couple of 8-10 pine trees, I set up and called and waited. About midway through the afternoon hunt, I heard a noise about 15 feet from me in the grass. I looked in the general direction but didn't see anything. Must have been a mouse/bird/some other small creature as I couldn't see it. About 10 min later, I hear the noise again (a little closer this time) but still couldn't see what made the noise. After another 10 min or so, I heard the rustling in the grass again - at about 7 feet from me. At this point I knew it was close enough that whatever it was I should have been able to see it. Then all of a sudden I saw this moccasin coming straight at me. :o
Of course, not wanting to ruin the hunt, I found a long stick and took care of him so I could finish hunting. It was an eerie feeling for sure. I may buy a pair of snake boots this year.
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I'm not afraid of snakes, but you guys can keep those venomous bass turds. There are a few timber rattlers in places here in NY, but I've never seen one.
Bob
5 ft. black snake slithered into my blind while hunting. it scared the poop out of me
Not skeered of a snake that I can see first. Several years back, I had been coming down this way to hunt with a friend for several straight years, always wore snake boots but had never seen a snake. Told Paul that and I knew I had just put the skunk on my week. I hunted 9 straight days and didn't fire a shot. Last morning, Paul was driving and I was passenger, which meant I got to open the gates. First gate, I unlock and the gate and get that rumbling in my stomach, uh oh. Get in the truck and sniff, almost puked, Paul says, "Sorry, my stomach is doing flips". Get through the second gate, park at third, he bails left, I bail right. Semi cool morning, only got bit by skeeters three times before I finished my business. Get dressed, guns loaded and wait for the first bird to sound off. He does, RIGHT where Paul had cleared his bowels. I still think the bird was voicing his disgust with what had just transpired. Long story made alittle shorter, we got the bird to come in, but Paul missed. I was livid to say the least. Nine days of hard hunting, lost 12 pints of blood to the carnivorous hummingbirds ( mosquitoes) and walked up on 5 snakes that week. Paul had lost a striker and was searching for it, I was calling him everything except a child of God, then I hear another bird. I leave Paul and go after that bird. Finally kill a bird and we go back to truck. But Paul was real fond of that striker, so we headed back to the spot. I always look where I put my feet BEFORE stepping to that spot, but this sucker blended in perfectly. He was stretched out and I stepped right on his head. To this day I still couldn't recreate how I defied the laws of physics the way I did, but I rather quickly reversed my momentum and was 10 feet the other way Purdy quick. Paul said he knew what I had done by the squeal, I like to think of it more as a high pitched war cry. 5'3 eastern
Had one slither right up to the sole of my boot
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