Just lived a nightmare...

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vmaxpro

vmaxpro

Member
Sep 11, 2019
1,092
160
Virginia, United States
So I live in the desert in a decent amount of property. I got bored and decided to plink some pack rats tonight. Started out good, got a couple! Saw a little bull snake, cool! I sat at the edge of a wash for a minute and just scanned with my light. All the sudden a rattlesnake lights his tail up about 3 ft away from my legs. Mind you im in shorts... for a brief second i said to myself looks like im grilling rattlesnake! Wrong, flashlight dies instantly. I cant see a damn thing. Completely black and this things still rattling. I got out of there, slowly, but talk about a piss your pants moment!!!!
 
I had numerous close calls with western diamondbacks when I lived in the southwest long ago. There were days where I would spend the day shooting rabbits and coyotes in the desert, and I'd come across at least 50, if not more, They seemed to do everything in their power to avoid confrontation, so I didn't really hunt them much unless I knew that we were BBQ'ing that day. They're damn delicious!!!

Cool that you saw a bullsnake! They were few and far between for me back then, ditto for speckled king snakes.

@sonny - I would have iced that thing if I saw it, I've never liked those damn things!!! 😂 
 
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I'm a wildlife biologist/wildland firefighter and have a healthy respect for most snakes. I too lived in the SW long ago and came across many a rattle snake while hunting. The second you hear the "rattle" the adrenaline kicks in an all you want to do is jump or run. To this day, that's the second largest dose of adrenaline I've experienced, next to sky diving!

As scary as they are, the rattlers and bull snakes do an amazing job of keeping the rodent population down. As for cotton mouths, they're just plain mean! 
 
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Where are the king snakes when you need'em?

Last time something like that happened to me I didn't see the snake until I was literally about to step on it, out of the corner of my eye I saw it move (just a little) and before I even looked at it, I jumped up and with both feet off the ground I managed to move quite a bit forward (still don't know how). That fear and dread of snakes is what caused us to survive this long, I didn't actually know it was a snake until I was like 15 feet away.


 
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So my wife always gives me crap because I carry a small Olight in my pocket at all times.....Sucks getting older and needing more light to find things.....Then when we go hiking / camping I have a second light with me. She looks at me and asks 'Why two flashlights" My response is "Two is one, one is none" This saying goes for knives, guns and flashlights....and maybe a good glass of Bourbon 😉

Tony P.
 
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