So yesterday a friend and I decided to take another buddy out for his absolute first time hunting. the dove were flying halfway decent, so we figured we'd give it a shot.

Around 7pm, we were all having fun and i bust a pair. one falls across a small puddle of water and me and said newbie hunter walk across to the other side of the puddle to search for the bird. The grass is about knee height, and we can hear the bird still flopping around. All of a sudden, i step on what i thought was the bird because it starts moving under my foot. Immediately i pull my foot back to see a small juvenile rattle snake trying to retreat. never, EVER seen one while i've been out hunting that i can remember, and i STEP on the damn thing. My buddy is right on my shoulder and i shove him back, taking 3 steps back myself. I fire my 12 gauge into the tall grass where i can still see the snake moving 2 times. cut the sucker in half.

Scariest thing that has ever happened to me while hunting. it's funny. it didn't even hit me until we were walking back to the other side of the puddle that i had just stepped on a rattle snake. when it hit me, i was pretty freaked out. we're about a 25 minute UTV drive away from my jeep, and from there it's about 30 minutes to a hospital. no cell phone reception either.. i tell you what, that puckered my shoot for the rest of the evening

DANG! Glad you didn't get bit.

lmao, bet u had fun walking through the grass the rest of the day!

Good thing that lil guy didnt get you. I hear they cant control their venom yet when they are juvi's.

glad you didn't get bit....

must be the time of year they are out and about more than usual. I saw the first rattler on the place we're hunting yesterday and I was fine with it b/c I am paranoid and keep a close eye on whats going on around my feet....my friend on the other hand, not so much. We had just got finished walking back from where our bow hunting set-ups were and checking cams, then walked back down the pipeline to the sunflower field. I shot a dove and my buddy was going to go pick it up... he started walking away from me and I grabbed him by the back of his shirt when he was about 2 steps away from stepping on top of the little 3' rascal coiled up in a small divot. lol, since it freaked him out, I let him shoot it, then I was informed the keys were in the truck and I knew where to find him. He'd never survive hunting in our area of east tx.

lol good story rifleman!! me and my bud were cuttin some firewood one day in prime rattlesnake country, heres how it went --- SNAKE!!! BOOM!.... (chainsaw runs)....SNAKE BOOM!... killed several that day, all rattle snakes, they freak me out!

Dang, You need to invest in a retriever. Let them go in after the birds. At least they have a vaccine for them and they can smell them. Good thing you didn't get bit.

Good deal that you didn't get bitten!!! Snakes and spiders are the only 2 things that I'm paranoid of!!!

that would scare me enough to go spend the 130 on some snake boots...

mine came from Cabelas and have been worth it as when I am stalking during bowseason I can look ahead for game as opposed to the ground for snakes

Snakes are bad this year. Just go ahead and get that extra protection. I saw three adult canebreaks in 3 hours Saturday and half dozen baby rattlers over the weekend.

Glad the li'l rattler didn't strike ya, Hunter Man!

I love happy endings! That's the best part of the story.

Did you have snake boots on? This was the first year I wore mine dove hunting. It's been a real bad year for rattle-bugs.

Be careful out there during bow season fellas!!

lucky you didnt get bit...durn snakes!

They say this every year, not saying it isn't true but they do say it every year....like...
its supposed to be a hard winter....and then at the end of winter
We just don't have any winters like we used too....and
Opening weekend was hot....well it always is....LOL

Sorry i got off topic there.

Glad to hear you didnt get bit kill em all

Got bite by a Copperhead once, stepped on it with sandals on ,bit
me one fang in each toe( 2nd and 3third) It was dark so I did not know what happened at first Felt like someone cut my foot with a axe ,moved around to the patio fell to the floor
wiped the blood away saw the holes then the pain hit ..........
The only good snake is a dead snake

Well folks it is not a pleasent affair to be bitten by a rattler! In the caprock country from the Davis Mountains of west Texas, and all of New mexico, we get deer hunters bitten evey year durring deer season in November. On the south faces of the caprocks the rattlers come out of the cracks and lay in the sun at mid day. hunters walking along these caprocks, or climbing them get bit all the time.

Near El Paso the sand hills North west of El Paso in New Mexico, is a good Coyote calling area. The sand doons are simply sand blown up around Mesquite trees, with only the ends of the limbs sticking out of the sand. The Mesquites there look like a sand doon with mesquite hair. There are rabbit holes all through them making dens for rabbits pack rats, and even coyotes, in the sand doon.

I called in a pair of coyotes one day, and shot one. The other one ran out of sight,but they will often stop a short distance away and get on top of a sand doon to see what happened. I did the same running up the side of the sand doon to the top so if he poped up on another doon I could pop him too! On the way up I felt a jab in the back of the calf of my right leg, which I though was simply one of the mesquite thorns pokeing me. I shot the other coyote on a doon about 75 yds away, went to pick him up, and my leg started to burn.

I was about a mile from my truck, and had two big coyotes to carry, plus my rifle. I walked another 100 yds or so, and the leg started cramping up in the calf muscle. I stopped and pulled my pants leg up to look at my leg. there was a tiny prick spot more of a scratch that a puncture, but around the center was a raised swelling about twice the size of a silver dollar,about 3/8ths of an inch thick, and it was turning blue. I realized I'd been hit by a rattler, but he didnt get to really inject me well. He had apperantly hit my wrangler leg and one fang had just scratched enough to make it bleed some, and let in a small amount of venom. Now I don't want to take off running to get to the truck, and increase my heart rate. So I dropped the coyotes, slung my rifle and walked very slowly to my truck, which was still several miles cross country to the pavement, and much farther to a doctor, or even a telephone.

By the time I got to the cross raods on the west side of town, the swelling had stopped, and the burning had subsided some. I decided to drive on home whic was about twenty miles accross town to the east side where I lived near the El Paso airport where I worked. By the time I got home the pain had almost gone away, and there was no more swelling than there had been out at the bite site, so I figured it handn't got me enough to require a doctor. and simply let it go. However for about 5 or 6 yrs, everytime it got cold, my leg would start to ache,swell a little, and turn blue on the spot where I'd been hit. The pain for the first 20 minutes was just like a hot poker being stuck in my leg. and I only got scratched, so I certainly would not want to experience a full two fang injection of venom. That was 40 yrs ago, and that spot still on occasion bothers me. Snake guards up to the knee are a very good investment, IMO!
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watch the little rattlers. my father in law tried to pick a 14 inch one up. it bit him on the finger. after 6 bags of anti venom iv at $50,000 a bag and 3 sugeries he is ok

watch the little rattlers. my father in law tried to pick a 14 inch one up. it bit him on the finger. after 6 bags of anti venom iv at $50,000 a bag and 3 sugeries he is ok

Tommy, thats what good living will get you. Well let me take that back, you just got luckier than he##.

Glad to hear your okay. Friend of mine got nailed by a rattler. He had his snake boots on, but the force was such, it nearly knocked him over, and he had a bruise on his leg, where the snake hit him.

Aside from needing an underwear change, he's fine.

they do say that every year. but, this year does seem like their moving alot. we usually kill several afew a year, but mostly when we invade their space; under the barn, in hay stacks, etc. this year we've already killed five, and most have been out in plane veiw mid day. that is weird for our area

Yep, my snake boots are the best investment I could have done. Rattlers are all over my place just west of Olney. Ran across a little guy the other day and I thought about seeing if the boots would work or not (coors induced thinking). After the little sucker struck at me from about 4 foot away, I screamed like a girl and blew his head off.

Back in the early 1980s We used to have a year round hunting lease in Coleman County near Talpa, Texas. This is a rocky hilly oak covered country, and there are a lot of rattlers there.

One day we were hunting some from tree stands, others just sitting on rocks watching a oat field, and another guy we called “Machinegun” because his last name was Kelly. He was real big guy, who looked like Mr. Clean . He had made a blind out of dead sticks, stacked around the base of a large oak tree, so he could lean against the trunk of the tree sitting on a folding camp stool , and look out over a patch of sparse woods down the hill side.

About 12:00 noon I moved to where Kelly was sitting, to bring both our lunches. I could see Kelly long before I go to his blind and there was something strange about him. I kept moving toward him, and he never moved a muscle and looked like a statue. When I got close I said to him did you see anything, and he did not answer, but kept rolling his eyes up and down, first looking at me, then down into the blind, then back to me, repeating this several times. I finally understood he wanted me to look inside his blind. I did, and coiled up between his boots was a big rattler.

The snake had crawled into his blind sometime before two hours earlier without him realizing it. He had been sitting stone still for two hours afraid to move and get hit by that big boy. I had a .22 Beretta pistol on my belt, and I pulled it and looked at Kelly, as if to ask if he wanted me to shoot the snake, he nodded slightly “YES”, and I popped that BUZZ WORM in the head between Kelly’s feet. He looked like a rocket coming out of that brush blind straight up! He said "Man I didn’t think you were ever going to come my way, and I was fighting a heart attack for two hours, that seemed like two days."

The snake was almost five feet long, and a head as big as a full grown toad frog. That boy could have injected a serious amount of venom in one or both of Kelly’s legs before he could have gotten out of that brush blind that was waist high.

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I would pay money to see the dance to get away! I'm sure your buddy was laughing his A$$ off!
Did you yourself? I probably would have.