Mack's first duck hunt & rattlers

We finally figured out the teal up north and my dog Mack got her first duck hunt under her belt (9mo female chocolate). Its taken us a few season to figure out where the birds were going since we only get to hunt this property one weekend during early teal. Last year we watched them fly by in the distance all weekend but were almost right on the X this time.

It was a great hunt and Mack did great outside of a cripple playing dead face-down in the water that bit her on the nose as soon as she tried to pick it up! She walked on water but didn't quit & swam around it a few times trying to figure out what to do! Here's a few pics of the hunt and the dang snakes! Had never seen one on this property in 3 years and killed three this past weekend - two of which were huge! I hate snakes!

Mack looks proud!

Glad ya'll had a good hunt.

Looks great, except those snakes. Congrats on the hunt and the gorgeous dog.

Thanks guys! This is my first real hunting dog so I'm not sure what to expect but it was pretty awesome to see her/our training put to work. Although if it was up to her I think she'd rather chase frogs all day. There were hundreds of tiny frogs everywhere and she broke a few times just to chase them. Still a puppy!

Awesome!

You killed it wrong..remember your supposed to pick it up and snap it like a towel:)
Nice pictures

Great job and a good looking pup!

The pond we hunted Saturday was full of big bullfrog tad poles and also full of snakes eating them. We kept the dog on the bank, there were so many.

great job, hope you buried or burned the head of those rattle bugs>>>

Yup - one got burned, one was removed by the shotgun once I figured out which end to shoot!

Congratulations on the hunt but like you I hate snakes too ! The size of that is huge !! What I also notice is your wearing waders with rubber boots . Are they snake proof ? Snakes can bite right through rubber boots like butter . You might consider getting some gaiters at least for protection .

http://www.snakeprotection.com/snake-gaiters

Just to clarify, there aint no wrong way to kill a snake.
Great looking pooch

Yeah ronlhodges snake gaiters are a good idea. I broke my own rule by walking around the area we were hunting looking for a duck in the waders. I drew the short straw and was the only guy in waders to setup the spread but we all had snakeboots the rest of the time.

Who makes some breathable Kevlar snakeproof comfortable lightweight waders?? hahaha

Absolute. Complete. Garbage. Usually when wearing even khaki pants most North American vipers get their fangs caught and most of the time the fang doesn't even reach the skin. The fangs also start releasing their venom load on contact, so most gets caught in the fabric.

I hunt all the time in rubber boots. I walk around looking for snakes in sandals.

You may ask why I'm qualified to comment on this. I'm a professional herpetologist with a Ph.D in Quantitative Biology and I was lead keeper of Terrestrial Ectotherms at a major zoo where I supervised venomous snake management and bite drills.

It's one thing to be afraid of snakes or not like them, but don't go fear mongering for the sake of showing how tough you are when you go out in the woods.

So no, snakes cannot bite through rubber boots, "like butter."

Well can't help on the waders , not that kind anyway . Maybe that's something to suggest to people that make hunting waders .

Get your dog de-snaked.