When I took my EMT course years ago there was some stat that the overwhelming percentage of snake bites in the US involved males between 18 and 34 and alcohol. Along the lines of "Hold my beer and watch this."
God was definitely tripping when he made things with 8 legs.
Real guns have hammers.
How about bears and rattlesnakes?
My wife and I were in the MAP Brewery Sunday night, and two southern speaking guys sat next to us at the bar where we were having dinner. The day before, they had hiked the Bear Trap Canyon Trail southwest of Bozeman, to fish. The trail description cautions there are grizzly bears and rattlesnakes as hazards.
Both had their 10mm 1911 pistols with them, and were loaded with Underwood xtreme penetrator loads, that they had “learned about on the internet.” While fishing, one of the guys had lost his 1911 out of his chest holster, into the river, never to be seen again. Then on the way out, they ran into a big rattlesnake right before dark. Expensive hike, but they seemed to be drinking away any regrets, while hunting for local talent at the brewery.
Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.
Bears don't bother me much, and around here its just black bears, not GRIZZ. Big enough you would probably see them coming, and also a bigger target to shoot at if needs be.
Snakes generally get a pass from me unless they are close to camp or waaaaay to close for comfort. They do kinda scare me a bit. I've stepped right over top of a 5' or so Western Diamondback. Never even saw the damn thing on the trail (long grass helped it hide well) until my buddy who was behind me pointed the big fellow out to me. That tends to scare the hell out of you. I keep some .38 shotshells around, but just getting away from them makes more sense, most times.
Cougars being an ambush predator also scare me a bit. I have a photo of my uncle who is well over 6 foot tall (6'3-4"), holding up a dead cat from his property that is still touching the ground with its back paws, or nearly so. I'm not sure what it measured nose to tail, I should probably ask him. Most may not get so big, but even a smaller one can ruin your day.
I'll take bears over cougars and snakes most any day. All you guys who have a fear of arachnids need to HTFU! Squish it, dudes.
Pythons in the Everglades — great read:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/scien...ida-180972534/
Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.
Yes, as carriers of Schistosoma genus parasites (eg S. mansoni). Endemic in Africa, Asia, and parts of S. America.
https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/schistosomiasis/
Chagas is actually a little scarier as it starting to become more common in the US, and it often goes undetected/untreated, leading to cardiomyopathy and heart failure. Also, it is transmitted when these fuckers bite you around your mouth/face while you sleep:
Last edited by Nephrology; 07-19-2019 at 06:08 PM.
While we have a few eastern diamondbacks, but we are over run with copperheads down here. Our young pit bull mix got hit by one on the tongue 3 weeks ago. 2 vials of antiven. Our vet said the snake only got one fang in, not the usual two. He is fine now, our vet credits the use of the anti-venom by the emergency vet we took him to as being crucial to his good outcome and quick turn around. This was our 5th dog bitten by a copperhead in the last 25 years, all survived.
We have had one fatality I am aware of this year in AL from snakebite, a young adult male, bit by a copperhead, although I heard it was his wound getting toxic not the venom itself.
We have started giving the rattler vaccine to every dog under 100lbs as a precaution, the vet said it will also have some benefit against the copperhead bites. He indicated that is simply buys us more time and does not replace the anti-venom treatment.
I long ago declared the area within 300 yards of our house a "no slither zone" for the copperheads and rattlers, if I see you in the zone you are gone. No exceptions.