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Thread: 7 Ways Not To Die From A Rattlesnake Bite

  1. #1
    Team GunsNet Gold 07/2012 / Super Moderator Gunreference1's Avatar

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    Post 7 Ways Not To Die From A Rattlesnake Bite

    After today, it's all historical.

  2. #2
    Senior Member NAPOTS's Avatar

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    good to know, we have these guys all over out here (not my picture)


  3. #3
    Team Guns Network Silver 04/2013 alismith's Avatar

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    I disagree with this statement, made in #6:

    "Back slowly away from the snake or rattle with no sudden movements. Hold your trekking pole or stick between you and the snake. If it lunges, it will go for the pole rather than you."

    If the pole is moving real close to the snake, or touching it, it MAY stick at the pole and not you.

    The reason it MAY or may not strike the stick is that it is a pit viper and relies more on its heat sensing pit than it does eyesight. If your heat signature is registering fairly low in the pit and the stick is closer and more threatening, it MAY strike at the stick.

    Case in point, about 5 years ago during early fall, while traveling on a back road in the early morning, I saw a Copperhead curled up in the middle of the road (trying to warm up from latent road heat). Not wanting him to get run over, I pulled off the road, grabbed my walking stick (about 4 feet long) and tried to move him off the road.

    After about 3 nudges with my stick, he got very upset at my good intentions and tried his best to stay on the road. When he got pissed off enough, he started striking at me, not the stick I was nudging him with. I stayed about 3 feet away, but it was still close enough for him to register my heat signature. Not once did he try to bite the stick, but he was determined to bite me. The stick had no heat signature for him to focus on.

    I, finally, got him off the road and he crawled into the woods. I guess I saved his life because I drove back the same way a few days later and he wasn't flattened on the blacktop.

    The late Raymond L. Ditmars (one of the best US herpetologists) did an experiment with a rattlesnake to find out what he used the pit for. In a container with the snake in it, he lowered a balloon with cold air in it. The snake mostly ignored it. Then, he lowered a balloon with warm air in it and the snake struck it.

    Next, he covered the two pits with tape and let the snake use only its eyes. He lowered 10 cool air balloons and the snake mostly ignored them, but when it did strike, it missed 60% of the time. He did the same with warm air balloons and had the same results.

    Then, he removed the tape from the pits and used tape to cover its eyes making it blind. He lowered 10 cool air balloons and the snake, totally, ignored them.

    Finally, he lowered 10 warm air balloons and the snake struck them 100% of the time. This proved two things; the snake uses its pits more than it does its eyes for striking and, the pit also, acts as a targeting device to let the snake zero in on its target.

    If you're on a trail and come across any pit viper, the absolute best safest thing to do is leave it alone and move away from it. No snake ever bit anyone who was 100 feet away from it.
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  4. #4
    Senior Member NAPOTS's Avatar

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    From what I have read they can only strike a third to a half of their body length so a 6 foot rattlesnake (huge) can only strike 2 to 3 feet

  5. #5
    Team Guns Network Silver 04/2013 alismith's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by NAPOTS View Post
    From what I have read they can only strike a third to a half of their body length so a 6 foot rattlesnake (huge) can only strike 2 to 3 feet
    Right. They can only strike as far as their neck is coiled when they're threatening, which averages out to about 1/3 of their total length.
    "Valar morghulis; valar dohaeris."

    Commucrats are most efficient at converting sins and crimes to accidents or misunderstandings.-Oswald Bastable

    Making good people helpless won't make bad people harmless.

    Freedom isn't free.

    "Attitude is the paintbrush that colors our world." TV Series, Haven.

    My Spirit Animal has rabies.

    I'd rather be an American than a Democrat.

    "If you can make a man afraid, you can control him" Netflix Series, The Irregulars

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