Snakes during the season
- Thread starter cntryep3614
- Start date
laxwyo
Very Active Member
There was lots of snakes by Hiawatha in southern Wyoming, I never worried about it. Only saw them on the roads in the evenings
Retterath
Veteran member
HiMtnHnter
Active Member
...and in your hands and in your ass and in your feet, (just speaking from experience)
CrossCreeks
Veteran member
And they stay in for weeks and months, a few surfacing each day !! One year in September during an Antelope hunt I put my forearm down on a Wyoming Cactus and was setting in a deer stand in November still pulling them out !...and in your hands and in your ass and in your feet, (just speaking from experience)
Same here, had some in my knee once and it festered for months.And they stay in for weeks and months, a few surfacing each day !! One year in September during an Antelope hunt I put my forearm down on a Wyoming Cactus and was setting in a deer stand in November still pulling them out !
yeah those cactus needles are a literal pain in the ass!!! I hate snakes as much as the next guy if not more. by September I wouldn't be worried about the snakes so much. those snake boots aren't real comfortable anyway and I really don't know if they really even help that much. I just got the damn cold shivers thinking about those things!
HiMtnHnter
Active Member
I could just be lucky, but I've only ran into one rattlesnake in all my years of antelope hunting in Wyoming.
shootbrownelk
Veteran member
I had one in my right knee in 1998. I thought nothing of it until on a Bear hunt in Ontario, where it suddenly festered. I ended-up in a Canadian hospital with a full blown staff infection. My leg/knee swelled up like a football. They (Canadian doctors) were going to amputate my leg after 5 days. I was rushed to a hospital in Fargo N.D. where they operated on my knee and put me on anti-biotics.
Was on anti-biotics for months with a pump & a pik-line. Not fun....I'm real carefull about cactus these days! To heck with the snakes, they're nothing to worry about. But are considered delicious!
Againstthewind
Very Active Member
I think that's probably about average. I am at two accidental run-ins, but if you go looking for them they are out there. In the BHB growing up they weren't hard to find if you went looking, but kindof like bears they tend to leave you alone if its possible I think. Elmer's glue helps to get the little tiny cactus needles out, I have used duct tape (what can't you use it for) also. Luckily I haven't had the amputation threat, that is scary. Its just the glue and duct tape take any hair and sometimes a layer of skin with it, which kindof hurts a lot so do it in a private place where no one can hear you scream. I have more wood glue on hand now-a-days, but I am still a clutz, so still need to use it occassionally.
xtreme
Very Active Member
This is one from archery season. Its a green western prairie rattlesnake at high altitude, approx. 9500ft.
badgerbob
Active Member
At one time I was a Timber Cruiser for the US Forest Service. Part of our training was "snake proofing". We were taught to avoid rocky overhangs, et. places were it is obvious they will be, if at all possible. The thing I remember most was not to step over a log or rock. Step on top of it and then off. If one is lying on the other side, out of your view, you will most likely step out of its strike zone. They can normally strike only 2/3 of their length. This was in 1970 and I still practice it today. I have ran across 2 while hunting, however I did get 6 while cruising timber in one summer.
ceby7
Active Member
I must be a snake magnet because I've had a bunch of run-ins while out hunting. Stepped over one while elk hunting a few years back, he didn't rattle until I was mid stride right over him. One night while walking back to the truck while elk hunting I ran into 2 different rattlers right on the trail within 200yds of each other. Probably ran into 3-5 more in the last 5 years within a few feet of the trail in the same elk area. Stepped over one with an antelope on my back in WY back in 08, somehow I managed to jump back without eating it. They were thick on that hunt, ended up running into 16 over the course of the hunt, both on the roads and out walking. I also just about stepped on one this spring while turkey hunting, he rattled about 3' in front of me and I was able to stop before stepping on him. I'm lucky I haven't been bit yet!
CrossCreeks
Veteran member
I have posted this picture before on another thread but I have hunted antelope for about 15 years in Wyoming and had not ran across a rattler until this one in 2013 while hunting around New Castle. This was after the big snow storm that came in and killed a lot of livestock.
It was different seeing it moving across the snow ! With that being said I wonder how many I have walk past and never seen while hunting I am sure more than I want to know !
Bonecollector
Veteran member
WOW is all I can say. You'd figure he'd be hibernating..... or frozen at this point!