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Thread: Sidewinder, heading north soon

  1. #31
    Hammertime
    Join Date
    Apr 2016
    Location
    Desert Southwest

    Sidewinder, heading north soon



    AZ Black I damn near ran over on the mountain bike.

    All the rattlers I meet are pretty polite and rattle to warn you. Except the Mojave I actually did run over riding Vegas. That bastardized was mean as hell. Only snake I have ever had approach me.
    Last edited by Doc_Glock; 07-09-2019 at 11:29 PM.

  2. #32
    Student
    Join Date
    Sep 2018
    Location
    Arizona
    GJM, are you leaving-leaving or is it just for the season?

  3. #33
    Site Supporter entropy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Far Upper Midwest. Lower Midwest When I Absolutely Have To
    I was fixing up some deer feeders this past weekend and one of the tubes felt a bit heavy...




    Attachment 39984



    Attachment 39985


    Pine Snake. Non venomous, but they look and mimic rattlers by vibrating their tails
    Last edited by entropy; 07-10-2019 at 12:46 AM.
    Working diligently to enlarge my group size.

  4. #34
    Abducted by Aliens Borderland's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2019
    Location
    Camano Island WA.
    I think it's mostly the 110 degree heat that moves people north in the summer. Lived and worked in the desert awhile and bumped into a lot of rattlers. None of them ever bit me but then I stayed on high alert all of the time. Shot a few at close range (a few feet) but if you don't crowd them you get a pass. I always prefered to avoid them if I could locate them. I'm just talking about Diamondbacks tho, some poisonous snakes are aggressive.

    If you have water around the frogs and rodents will congregate. Then the snakes show up. They like baby rabbits too.
    Last edited by Borderland; 07-10-2019 at 10:51 AM.
    In the P-F basket of deplorables.

  5. #35
    Quote Originally Posted by Doc_Glock View Post
    This has been the snakiest year I can remember in Arizona. I rarely see rattlers and am up to three this spring plus a
    Bunch of King, garter and bull snakes.
    I think luck plays a big part of rattlers. This was the first spring we didn’t see a rattler in AZ, despite being out and about a lot. A local snake person said the unseasonably cold weather kept them less active this season.

    I don’t think 110 is so bad, but 118F is! Glad to be in AK and MT this time of year.
    Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.

  6. #36
    Deadeye Dick Clusterfrack's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2013
    Location
    Wokelandia

    Sidewinder, heading north soon

    Sidewinders are beautiful little snakes. You can make the same tracks on sand by rolling a single coil of wire (shaped like a spring).

    I knew a guy who was doing research on sidewinders, but didn’t respect their venomosity (is that a word?). He had one in a sack, and put the sack on his belt. Then he ignored a world expert on venomous snakes who told him that was a bad idea. Shortly afterward the sidewinder bit him through the bag on the inner thigh, about an inch from his junk. I guess you could say he was lucky?
    Last edited by Clusterfrack; 07-10-2019 at 11:42 AM.
    "You can never have too many knives." --Joe Ambercrombie
    Shabbat shalom, motherf***ers! --Mordechai Jefferson Carver

  7. #37
    Deadeye Dick Clusterfrack's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2013
    Location
    Wokelandia
    Quote Originally Posted by GJM View Post
    I will take a grizzly bear over a rattler any day.
    Ok, I am exactly the opposite. [emoji3]
    "You can never have too many knives." --Joe Ambercrombie
    Shabbat shalom, motherf***ers! --Mordechai Jefferson Carver

  8. #38
    The R in F.A.R.T RevolverRob's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Gotham Adjacent
    Quote Originally Posted by Clusterfrack View Post
    Ok, I am exactly the opposite. [emoji3]
    Right?

    One of those two will almost certainly kill you if you're bitten by them...and it ain't the snake.

    But I can respect an irrational fear of snakes. I don't have it with snakes, but I do with arachnids. The best part of the desert is the lack of people and the beauty. The worst part is the tarantulas and scorpions, no thanks.

    I was out once and my crew happened upon a large brown tarantula in a wash. Folks circled around to look at it. I stood about 15-feet away. Someone got a stick and poked it and it "reared up", you know like they do when they warn. And next thing I know, I find myself 30 yards farther down the wash and moving. I just remember seeing it rear up and thinking, "Aw, HELL NO."

    And the number of people killed by spiders annually is about the same as venomous snakes. It's pretty much purely irrational. But that's what phobias are.

  9. #39
    Site Supporter
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    In the desert, looking for water.
    Rattlesnakes aren’t that big of a deal. All that snake wants from me is to be left alone. If I stay at least a body length away from them, it’s going to return the courtesy. If for some unavoidable reason we get into closer proximity than that, a .38 loaded with snake shot will suffice to solve the problem.

    The only person I know who has been bitten in the fifteen plus years I’ve lived in southern Arizona was trying to pick up the snake. I’ve yet to have to kill a snake here.

    A bear might decide I’m food, or that I got too close to her babies, or that my dog looks yummy, and then we’ll have issues. I’ll probably visit Alaska someday, some dear friends live there, and it’ll just be cool anyway, but I’ll take the heat and the snakes over the cold and the bears and wolves.

    Tarantulas are cool spiders. If one bothers you, your boot will either convince it to leave you alone, or squish it. It’s just a big bug.
    Last edited by Duelist; 07-10-2019 at 01:36 PM.

  10. #40
    Hillbilly Elitist Malamute's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
    Location
    Northern Rockies
    Its not just about dying with regards to the difference between diamondbacks and mojaves. Seeing pictures of people that have been bitten just by regular rattlers, purple and black limbs, cutting the skin open to relieve the pressure, months of recovery and rehab, nerve problems long term,...no thanks.

    The bands on mojaves tails are similar to diamondbacks, just sized differently from what I understand. All the rattlesnakes ive seen had bands on their tails.

    Bears. Yeah, they can be bad. Ive met and know of more people that have been mugged by bears than humans where I live primarily. Most arent fatal, a few rare instances are. By virtue of their relative population sizes and distribution, ive seen and been very close to far more snakes than bears. Snakes* can be virtually invisible in many instances. Bears dont hide under your porch steps, or get in the house through a mouse hole, or hide in wood piles or grass. Dislike of snakes may be irrational, but long term exposure has made me dislike them more than in the past. Longer term exposure to living around bears and bear country has made me dislike them less.

    *Snakes being rattlesnakes. I couldnt care less if bull snakes or other innocuous snakes want to hang around and eat mice.
    Last edited by Malamute; 07-10-2019 at 02:07 PM.

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