snake in the blind

[davisd9]

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

[gophert]

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!


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[Redfish]

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.


   

[catdaddy]

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

[hotspur]

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....

[kjnengr]

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.   

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.

[OldSchool]

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

[Jayhawkeye]

5 ft. black snake slithered into my blind while hunting. it scared the poop out of me

[misfire]

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

[tha bugman]

Had one slither right up to the sole of my boot


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