God saved my baby today

bambam · July 02, 2012, 10:18:08 PM

Couple weeks ago I mulched my garden. Put down newspaper and covered it with grass. The hurricane we had Friday blew most of it to Canada, but some of the papers lodged in the tall weeds along our fence. I picked up most of it but left some of the papers in the weeds. RayElla decided it looked bad and went out to get the papers out of the weeds . I told her to leave them but she gave that look my wife gives me when she thinks I'm full of doo doo, which is about 4 or 500 times a day, suddenly, she yells, "Dad, I think I heard a rattlesnake !! "

I grab a gig and run down. I dig through the grass and can't see a thing. Then I lift an old piece of tin, and see a snake coiled. Can't hold the tin and gig it at the same time so I drop the tin. wipe several times and see the head slither out the other side. Gigged her behind the head and pulled her out- all 43 inches- 10 rattles and a button. !!! Big yellow female.

It was a miracle she didn't get bit. The snake had cloudy eyes, which means it was ready to shed, which is even more of a miracle because when their eyes are cloudy they can't see as good and are even MORE likely to strike !

God was looking out for her today.

iahntr · July 02, 2012, 10:32:16 PM

Dang ! Glad it worked out the way it did !!

FinsnFur · July 02, 2012, 10:47:52 PM

Wooooooo Weeeeeeah

She got more guts then I do just holding that nasty thing.

I'm glad it didnt gig HER.

Okanagan · July 02, 2012, 10:53:04 PM

Whew! I'll take the grace of God any day. Thanks for telling that one. That gives me the shivers for you and her.

No criticism at all but I notice the head is still on the snake as she holds it up. I have seen a dead rattler strike at the hand holding it fully a half hour to 45 minutes after being killed.

The worst case of that was pretty thoroughly killed by a .22 long rifle shot through it lengthwise, starting with part of the head and staying in the snake's body more than out of it till it ruined the rattles where it came out the tail. It was a long piece of ragged meat--- and STILL struck to bite. Missed my Dad's hand by a half inch, fangs passing between his thumb and index finger. He felt its muscles tense and dropped it. He was holding it about the middle with both ends hanging down.

Everybody in our family has since decapitated every rattlesnake ASAP before any handling of it, etc. Have seen a decapitated head open the mouth, extend fangs and snap shut long after being cut off.

possumal · July 02, 2012, 11:12:16 PM

More proof that God is good. I sure am glad He was looking out for the little one.

Carolina Coyote · July 03, 2012, 07:27:49 AM

Smart Girl apparently she had heard that sound before, could have been a real bad day for someone unaware, glad she was paying attention.

cc

bambam · July 03, 2012, 09:48:58 AM

Okanagan, you are exactly right, that was a dumb move on my part.

I did however put the thing's head under water for about 30 minutes, after it stopped moving, before she held it up, but it was still stupid of me.

Carolina, it was actually the first one she's ever heard rattle, thank God she was smart enough to realize what it was. I bet she never forgots that sound !

Todd Rahm · July 03, 2012, 10:34:27 AM

Fat lil honker isn't it? Bam what state you live in and is that the only poisonous snakes ya have? (No snakes in Alaska)

FOsteology · July 03, 2012, 02:51:00 PM

Yes, that could have had an unhappy ending. Glad it was removed.

bambam · July 03, 2012, 03:10:42 PM

Quote from: Todd Rahm on July 03, 2012, 10:34:27 AM
Fat lil honker isn't it? Bam what state you live in and is that the only poisonous snakes ya have? (No snakes in Alaska)

We live in West Virginia. We have 2 poisonous snakes : the copperhead and the timber rattlesnake. The copperhead bite usually isn't fatal to adults, but the rattlesnake is deadly if not treated. Biggest copperhead I ever killed was 34 inches. I almost stepped on it while goose hunting. 43 inches is a good sized timber rattler, but I have read they can reach 6 feet.

Todd Rahm · July 03, 2012, 04:01:34 PM

Cool, are either really common as in you see several a year kind of thing?

Carolina Coyote · July 03, 2012, 04:23:48 PM

Them suckers do get big I killed a Six Footer down in Georgia a couple of years ago. Okanagan was right about removing the head or mash it so flat you can see through it, The Cotton Mouth and Copper head are related, the Cotton mouth is a mean SOB and very dangerous, aggressive, at least the Rattler will let you know when he's around. cc

Hawks Feather · July 03, 2012, 09:20:36 PM

Glad that it everything turned out the way it did - no one got bit and the snake ended up on the grill. Here I always thought gigs were for frogs and 12 ga. were for snakes.

Jerry

nastygunz · July 03, 2012, 11:01:06 PM

Yikes!...we got some big rattlas in NH...almost jet black and they hibernate 6 months out of the year...and only one known area...not much chance of running into one like that!

bigben · July 04, 2012, 11:11:57 AM

Last summer we tried drowning one in cold ice water for 45 minutes and he was more angry when we dropped him out then when we put him in. Next time lop the head off and stick it in a jar

bambam · July 04, 2012, 04:03:45 PM

Quote from: Todd Rahm on July 03, 2012, 04:01:34 PM
Cool, are either really common as in you see several a year kind of thing?

Copperheads are common around here which is scary cause they don't warn you. I have never seen a rattlesnake anywhere near my house before this one. We went hunting them today up on the mountain in the ledges, but I guess we were the only idiots dumb enough to be out in this heat, because we didn't find any.

JohnP · July 04, 2012, 04:07:37 PM

Glad all worked out well. God is good and does more for us than we realize.

Todd Rahm · July 04, 2012, 04:13:40 PM

Lol, I'd love to hunt those suckers. I have only had my hand on one rattle snake when I was young but don't recall what kind it was. I used to go catch the Garden and Bull snakes in Indiana. We would flip rail road ties and grab them and place them in a bucket, and it wasn't uncommon to bring 30 or so home.

A bull snake will move its tail so fast that it almost sounds like a rattle, so when my buddy flipped the tie I just reached down and crabbed it by the head. I recall as I grabbed it the color was off, so when I got it under control we checked her out and it had a real rattle on it.

I carried that thing all the way home by its head to ask my dad about it.

He said a whole lot at one time so I don't recall all what he said, but he cut the head off just below where I was holding it.

Hey I didn't know. The figured it caught a ride in on the grain trains.

Since your post I looked up the poisonous snakes of Indiana, just to look.

Glad your daughter or anyone else didn't get nabbed in the process of getting that sucker.

cathryn · July 08, 2012, 07:30:18 AM

Praise God!

Bopeye · July 15, 2012, 07:31:13 PM

Thank God your baby is okay. Those Rattlesnakes can hit hard and nasty. I agree with removing the head, but you don't need to be told repeatedly now do ya.

A month ago, my dad, my kids and I were in Morgan county near the Kentucky line. We were looking for the burial site of Capt. Dave "Tinker" Beaty, who was a Union Guerrilla Cavalry man. The area we were in was grown up bad with briars and pine trees. We found several grave markers, but nothing was legible and it was obvious nobody had taken care of this cemetery in many, many years. I was walking around through the tangles trying to read the headstones when I saw a snake curling up to my right. I immediately pulled my Glock and started shooting. I shot it three times before I was convinced he was dead. He turned out to be a copperhead, about 2 1/2 feet long. I tried to get a picture of it, but my hands were shaking so bad and the smell coming from my drawers in that 100+ heat just made it too difficult.

I know some people would be mad at me for shooting a snake without positively identifying what kind, but at first glance it looked like a copperhead and my kids were close by, so that was enough for me.
Even if I could have settled down, I wouldn't have held it like that brave little gal is doing. Can't stand snakes, dead or alive.

Glad everything turned out for you. BTW, I had a guy stop us on the way out asking what all the shooting was about. I told him what had happened. He told me that he had killed a five foot long rattlesnake about 100 yards from where we were just the week before. Dad and I both agreed no more looking for headstones in grown up areas until things cool off again.........like about February.