Snakes and hogs are moving

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I'm not bothered by love bugs but a snake that can squeeze me to death and then eat me is rather disconcerting. Pythons make rattlers look cute and playful by comparison. :what:

As long as you have a free hand/arm and a decent pocket knife, you can quickly cut your way out of being squeezed to death.
 
Well, the hogs have begun setting a pattern of showing up about 9pm and one about 7AM. I'm not strong enough, yet, to walk all the way back there on foot and I'm afraid running my ATV back there to near my box blind will spook anything around. I may TRY to walk it in a few days if they keep coming.
 
As long as you have a free hand/arm and a decent pocket knife, you can quickly cut your way out of being squeezed to death.

That's a theory I am unwilling to put to the test. Now I will certainly be willing to watch a video of YOU cutting your way out of a love squeeze. That would be fun. :rofl:

And, if you're not bothered by love bugs, you must not be a biker. :rofl:

No sir, I have enough trouble staying on the road with four wheels.
 
I have never tangled with a big constrictor but I live next to a state registered python hunter & he is a good sized guy. From what he tells me if you're alone & a big one (9 ft or more) decides to fight you & gets a good hold on you chances are pretty good you're going to get killed. A folding knife with a free hand only works for as long as you can breathe. My buddy blows them away with a shotgun before he even touches them. My battle plan is the same, shoot them in the head as many times as necessary & then cut (w/a machete) whats left of the head clean off. I'm not interested in hauling the smelly carcass across town for a reward. I'll leave it there for the buzzards. (I don't like them very much, just in case someone hasn't noticed)
 
I have never tangled with a big constrictor but I live next to a state registered python hunter & he is a good sized guy. From what he tells me if you're alone & a big one (9 ft or more) decides to fight you & gets a good hold on you chances are pretty good you're going to get killed. A folding knife with a free hand only works for as long as you can breathe. My buddy blows them away with a shotgun before he even touches them. My battle plan is the same, shoot them in the head as many times as necessary & then cut (w/a machete) whats left of the head clean off. I'm not interested in hauling the smelly carcass across town for a reward. I'll leave it there for the buzzards. (I don't like them very much, just in case someone hasn't noticed)

Well, with the little snakes we have around here, like the cottonmouths, a shotgun usually takes the head off. No need for a machete. :D
 
I have never tangled with a big constrictor but I live next to a state registered python hunter & he is a good sized guy. From what he tells me if you're alone & a big one (9 ft or more) decides to fight you & gets a good hold on you chances are pretty good you're going to get killed. A folding knife with a free hand only works for as long as you can breathe. My buddy blows them away with a shotgun before he even touches them. My battle plan is the same, shoot them in the head as many times as necessary & then cut (w/a machete) whats left of the head clean off. I'm not interested in hauling the smelly carcass across town for a reward. I'll leave it there for the buzzards. (I don't like them very much, just in case someone hasn't noticed)

Exactly. That “free hand and a knife” deal only works IF you can keep that hand free long enough to kill that snake before it kills you. I’d be glad to watch someone else try, but I’m not having any part of it.
 
Exactly. That “free hand and a knife” deal only works IF you can keep that hand free long enough to kill that snake before it kills you. I’d be glad to watch someone else try, but I’m not having any part of it.

Python chest squeeze deaths usually progress over minutes, not seconds. It takes time for a person to get wrapped up. It may be as quick as a couple of minutes once the person's chest is wrapped up. Usually people being squeezed will have one or both hands free, initially, and they attempt to pull the snake off of them, which is a losing proposition.

Like any other crisis, the key is to keep your wits about you. This is a progressive event, not instantaneous.
 
Python chest squeeze deaths usually progress over minutes, not seconds. It takes time for a person to get wrapped up. It may be as quick as a couple of minutes once the person's chest is wrapped up. Usually people being squeezed will have one or both hands free, initially, and they attempt to pull the snake off of them, which is a losing proposition.

Like any other crisis, the key is to keep your wits about you. This is a progressive event, not instantaneous.

You are assuming you will have one or both hands free and will be able to get to your blade. I don’t make such assumptions when dealing with a potential deadly situation. All the minutes in the world won’t matter when your arms are pinned or flailing about for your knife.
 
I believe in handling snakes, especially poisonous ones, with a shotgun, snake loads in a .38, etc. But this urban legion about getting to your knife and cutting your way free from a python is crazy.

Have a blessed day,

Leon
 
Gee MC, this thread kind of went off the tracks with all the python talk. lol

For our Texas venomous serpents I use whatever is handy such as shovels, hoes, rocks, post hole diggers, terracotta pots (I got in trouble for that one) and shotguns. To paraphrase the famous Captain Call, "Any man who slows down for a snake might as well walk."
 
Gee MC, this thread kind of went off the tracks with all the python talk. lol

For our Texas venomous serpents I use whatever is handy such as shovels, hoes, rocks, post hole diggers, terracotta pots (I got in trouble for that one) and shotguns. To paraphrase the famous Captain Call, "Any man who slows down for a snake might as well walk."

Yeah, I've not seen any pythons on MY place. :) Problem is, I never have shovels and hoes handy when I need one, but if I have nothing else, I'll have my .22 mag Black Widow in a pocket. I keep the first two chambers loaded with shot loads now. I used to just carry my .38, but it's hard to hit the head of a snake when he starts moving, though I've done it more'n once. The .22 mag works. I used to load my own .38 shot loads with 8 shot and a dash of Bullseye using gas checks for wads, but the little NAA is easier to keep in my pocket at all times. ;)

I shot a cottonmouth in my back yard this spring. We were getting ready to go to town and I had my 9mm on me. I just went out to the well house to check the rain gauge, was walking back and, thank God, looking down and as I began to step, I look down and the snake was just under my foot. I yelped and floated on air as I jumped back. :rofl: As I was jumping, I drew my 9mm, but the snake was moving, even bit at me, but missed. He was on the move and I fired 4 shots before I hit him. I was just outside the window from the living room and my wife freaked a little at all the noise.:rofl: Anyway, I decided to try the shot loads. I've also got a Heritage single action revolver, decided it'd be a good snake gun when I go out back and it was this gun I used on the OP cottonmouth.
 
I had a NAA years ago and really liked it. I may look into getting another one. Mine fired shotshells like a champ. Hmmmm...

We have a tank right below our house and normally I have to take out a cottonmouth or two. Nothing at all this year. I'll probably get bitten this afternoon. lol
 
You are assuming you will have one or both hands free and will be able to get to your blade. I don’t make such assumptions when dealing with a potential deadly situation. All the minutes in the world won’t matter when your arms are pinned or flailing about for your knife.

Victim mentality of assuming that you are dead if the snake gets to you will assuredly kill you as much as the snake will.
 
Victim mentality of assuming that you are dead if the snake gets to you will assuredly kill you as much as the snake will.

Victim mentality? Where the hell are you pulling that from? No one is suggesting that fighting back is a bad idea. I’m suggesting that putting yourself within reach of an animal that can kill you is a piss poor idea and that pretending that you will be in control of the situation is folly. I kill dangerous animals with projectile weapons for that reason. Man was created with a brain because the rest of his natural weapons are pretty weak compared to the other creatures around him. Use that noggin.
 
SS&machete2.JPG I agree. There's a difference between fighting back & looking for a fight. A python begins an attack by biting with a mouth full of nasty teeth that are curved back to prevent you from pulling away. Once they have a secure bite they begin to coil around here and there & everywhere. They are like a slinky, while you avoid one coil they are working on another. It happens quickly enough that even fast reacting animals like fox & deer don't get away. If all you have is a knife I personally do not recommend that you try to take on a big one. Take your knife by all means but start with the firearm.
Aside from awareness this is what I consider adequate for a dangerous snake encounter in the Everglades. If I'm actually looking for one I add a short barreled 20 Ga shotgun to the mix.
 
Tell ya what, if you get bit by a viper, I'm not sure which would hurt worse, the snake bite or the bite out of your wallet when you get the hospital bill for the antivenom. If it ever happens to me, hope my insurance covers it.

I have been bitten by a western diamond back once.....on the snake boot. When I'm out back, I have snake boots on. In the yard, though, I don't really wanna mess with snake boots. I've killed several off the back porch and even had one in the house once. Maybe I oughta sleep in those things. :D
 
Victim mentality? Where the hell are you pulling that from? .

Your insistence on not having hands free. If you read carefully, you will see where I posted as long as you have a hand free and a pocket knife, you can get the job done. Having an arm free isn't a stretch with python attacks. They don't try to isolate your arms to keep you from going for a weapon, through they may start with an appendage to get their grasping bite (anchor point) to start their process of trying to wrap your chest. Once that process starts, you have generally 1-2 minutes to counter attack before you succumb.

Let's get this straight. I am not assuming you will have one or both hands free, but it is hugely likely that you will have one free (maybe both) free, at least for a while. Where people often get into trouble is trying to fight the bite and/or fight the constriction instead of attacking the animal. They are working the wrong problem and so it is a battle they will often lose. If you keep your cool and access a knife, even a pocket knife with typical 2-4" blade, you can do a LOT of cutting on the animal very quickly and disable the snake's ability to constrict. You don't even have to kill the animal immediately, but stop its ability to constrict. Unlike some other animals, their hides are not particularly tough and not particularly thick. The muscles are just under the skin. Keep cutting until it can no longer constrict or until it releases.

If you have access to the head, stab the head.

If you panic and allow both arms to be bound up, then sure, you are screwed. I never suggested otherwise, but that usually isn't what is going to happen first.

If all you have is a knife I personally do not recommend that you try to take on a big one.

Right, but it is sort of like hunting hogs. The people that use firearms are very rarely injured by the hogs. Hog doggers who go hands on with hogs, particularly to take hogs alive, tend to get injured much more frequently, as do their dogs. If you are hunting with only a knife, you are going to be within strike distance. It is when the prey has access to you that you are most apt to get in trouble.
 
No part of my comments suggest a “victim mentality”. If you get grabbed, by all means, fight with whatever you’ve got. That goes for all four legged, two legged, no legged and finned predators. The truth is, an attack by a big predator is just too unpredictable to make assumptions about what you will and will not be able to do. Big constrictors kill, crocodilians, jaguars, leopards, lions, wild pigs, and other animals much tougher than people. It’s not much of a stretch to assume staying out of striking range is better for one’s health than closing the distance and reaching for the ol Benchmade. That was my point from the beginning.
 
My Grandfather was the last of the horse riding Game Wardens here in SW Virginia, he had me out with him catching rattlers
for some college research of some kind for a long time. I did this with him until I reached the ripe old age of 11 years old.
Of course I didn't do the wrangling I was the log rocker or the one with the water hose pouring something in the hole or
rock pile that ran them out.
I was allowed to do things with them that would have had my mother skin him alive.
From this experience I had a healthy respect for them but didn't pull up a skirt tail & run like some guys do. They need to
have their Man Card revoked.
Rattlers make great skins for bows & rifle stocks as well as copperheads. I think they are beautiful but deadly.
Other than that they are not allowed to live here on the farm, too many kids run around here barefoot.
Brings me to a point,,,, I bet you know people; & I mean grown men mostly that say every snake they kill or see is a copperhead
or some of them actually with a straight face say = That snake is a copperhead!!! And it is a black snake or garder snake or house
snake or even a common water snake.
These people even go as far as telling you that even if it is a black snake, that they breed with copperheads & den with them
which makes them poison snakes. ---This is biologically impossible !---
I never kill a common snake, just haul them away.
Even had to haul BARNEY away because I knew someone would finally kill him when they caught me gone, he was a big black snake,
better than any cat on mice.
 
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