Was this snake dangerous?

[FamilyFarm]

A nice copperhead (nice may be the wrong term!). They are poisonous, and as stated, they are very easy to miss and end up stepping on them. That is how most people end up bitten by them. It will make you sick, and it's certainly not something you want to have bite you. However, as I understand it, no one has died from the bite of a copperhead. My mom was bitten by one as a child, then again a few years later.
Terry

 

[BamaRob]

I'd definitely say it was a copperhead.

Here's a couple I caught near my home a couple of years ago:

Snakes will often continue to move after their heads have been dispatched. Their spine continues to send signals to the nerves in their muscles until all oxygen has been depleted in the remaining blood in their body. I've heard tales (probably "tall tales") about folks being bitten by a "dead snake."

Later,

BR

 

[jcmseven]

Frank,

That is definitely a copperhead snake. Glad it is gone. I hate snakes. Thankfully where I live it is too cold at night (even in summer) for most snakes to get too large. I do hear reports from the locals that some Southeast diamondbacks live toward the top of some of our hills, but thankfully I have never seen one. The copperhead is a mildly venomous snake. It is generally not aggressive but will strike to maintain territory. Most copperhead bites at worst will result in "compartment syndrome" where an extremity bite will result in severe local extremity swelling for the person bitten and can require surgical decompression to relieve. This is not common though. The other main US pit vipers are the cottonmouth and the rattlesnake. Among those two, the cottonmouth is more poisonous, but rarely is aggressive and has a higher incidence of "dry bites" Rattlesnakes are generally very aggressive and should be avoided by immediately running to the next county. Even though copperheads are not as mean as they seem, I will not feel I have missed anything if I am never bitten, or even never see one again.

John M

 

[MotorSeven]

Your lucky you spotted it...copperheads do blend in well. Now tell us you made a belt out of that beautifull skin? hatband? wallet? ......... something? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

RD

 

[gsganzer]

I think it was "Cotton mouthed coral rattler" /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[wushaw]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Copperheads are pit vipers. Pit vipers are wider at the back of the head, sort of a triagular or diamond shaped head. All pit vipers are poisonous. If I remember correctly, there is only one poisonous snake in the US that is not a pit viper. Anyway, if it is obviously wide at the back of the head, generally twice as wide at the back of the jaw than at the neck, it is poisonous. )</font>

Coral Snake is the only poisonious indigenous snake in the U.S. that is not a pit viper. Coral Snake

 

[MossRoad]

<font color="blue">"Cotton mouthed coral rattler" </font>

YIKES!!! /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[frank29]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Your lucky you spotted it...copperheads do blend in well. Now tell us you made a belt out of that beautifull skin? hatband? wallet? ......... something? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

RD )</font>That sounds like a good idea; but, at the time I didn't consider it. All I did was throw the body deep in the woods.

For some reason, I lost all knowedge of skinning and such. My dad's dad died when he was only two years old. So my dad grew up with only my grandma.

Still, all my brothers and I were active fisher"men" when we growing up. We fished, went frog gigging and squirrel hunting and just learned how to do stuff on our own. We just figured out stuff on our own. I can remember bringing squirrel meat to school.

All of a sudden, thirty years went by and I don't remember how to clean a fish. Kind of sad; but, that's where I'm at. When I read you post I thought "I used to know how to do that"

 

[phxraptor]

Don't think that black snakes are safe. Water Moccasins(Cotton Mouth) are black and despite what was said are highly agressive. They are one of the few snakes that will pursue you.

 

[MotorSeven]

Frank,

Smae here, as kids we used to skin everything out and make stuff. All we ever used was a piece of plywood, some brad nails and a big container of Mortons salt. A few years(8-9) ago had a run in with a lagre diamond back in of all places Big Pine Key FL(almost to Key West). So i skinned him out and showed my daughter how to make a couple of hat bands. She used to take the rest of the skin to show and tell once a year or so. There are alot of better preseratives out nowadays, but the salt cure seems to hold up for a long time. BTW, it is real hard to kill a Diamond back with an umbrella.....don't ask /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif!

RD