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Of walkin' on water
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Factor
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Psssst!---'Tooth! I don't like the way that thing's glarin' at me!

I wish Ranco' would come and ketch it . . .

Fixin'torun'Sticks


As long as there's Limb Bacon a man'll eat! (But mebbe not his wife...)
 
Posts: 4816 | Location: Buffalo River Country | Registered: 23 October 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of NWTF Longhunter
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Too late... Eeker

 
Posts: 797 | Location: Michigan | Registered: 29 April 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Yep, that's the critter all right. Bull snake. Harmless.

There were a lot of Sidewinder rattlesnakes in the Yuma Desert. Other guys would shoot them, but I don't mind snakes and so I never bothered them.
I shot scorpions!

I was partnered with another man as we worked beside the Colorado River one night. The river side tules were thick, but there were foot trails all through there. Most of those trails were low and had to be crawled through.
We were tracking a group of illegal border jumpers. Tom went into the tules, crawling along the trail, while I followed outside the brush line, ready to grab whoever Tom flushed out.
It was a dark night but Tom moved steadily along on his hands and knees through the brush tunnels, using his flashlight to see. Suddenly, he screamed, jumped up and came bursting through the tules, blazing a new trail as he charged out of there.
He had come face to face with a big Western Diamondback rattler.

Meanwhile, I had heard noises in the brush. I stalked closer, then I sprang into action - only to come face to face with a family of spotted skunks! Like Tom, I beat a hasty retreat.

Both of us would have been walking on water, if there had been water to walk on. Smiler


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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If it's all the same to you, Ranco', come and git this thing off'n my britches leg. He won't turn loose. I know he ain't got tushes but he's liable to gum me to death!

Kickin'Sticks


As long as there's Limb Bacon a man'll eat! (But mebbe not his wife...)
 
Posts: 4816 | Location: Buffalo River Country | Registered: 23 October 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Aww,he just thought yer nose was an egg!


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2013 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Last one - I promise. (this is a rainy, boring day, and I've got cabin fever.)

I was hunting Gambel's quail beside the Gila River not far upstream from its confluence with the Colorado. My English Springer Spaniel, "Benny" ranged ahead of me, criss-crossing the ground, working for any scent of a quail.

Maybe it was "the grass is always greener on the other side" effect, but the far side of the Gila looked more promising to me. That river is shallow, so I took off my boots and waded across.

I had my boots slung over my shoulder while I walked barefoot as my feet dried. Benny ran ahead. Ten yards ahead of me Benny ran over something that made a loud "HISSSS".

Ben's momentum had carried him well beyond the thing, but he heard the sound and turned back to investigate.

In an instant I reconized it as a coiled diamondback rattlesnake. Simultaneously, I yelled "NO" at Benny while I swung my shotgun to my shoulder and pulled the trigger. A blast of #7 1/2 shot from my 12 guage kicked up dust all around that snake.

That snake was 4 feet long even though missing the last foot or so of its tail. That's why it didn't rattle. It was missing the rattles.
A nearby field had recently been disced, and I think that snake didn't quite make it out of way before the disc ran over it.
I think that if my dog had not run over that snake and made it make a noise, I likely would have walked barefoot right up to it.

I've eaten rattlesnake, but don't particularly like it. I gave that snake to a friend who made a hatband out of the skin.
hmm. I never thought to ask him whether he brain-tanned it.


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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JUMPIN" JEHOSIPHAT!!!! Ah dang near took outen the the compuker screen with ol'Boomer when the snake pics came up thet Longhunter posted!!

I have a turrible phobia of snakes......don't matter what kind......all of them.

It all began a as kid growing up in LA......no, no, NOT that LA......you know, Lower Alabama!

Walnow, those of us that have been around in hurricanes know that is the time all snakes seek higher ground, be it roadways, dikes, hills, or porches. Iffen there is a mouse hole into your house, one of those critters will surely find its way in.

I was about 6 years old, living on the Mobile Bay side of Cedar Point road, right near where the road to Bayou La Batre turns off west. It was high water for shor 'n' them sneaky buggers were EVERYWHERE!

It was the early hours of morning just as I was about to awake, when I felt something like a bug attempting to crawl on my right neck. I kind of squinted to the right through sleepy eyes......and there it was!! Beady eyes staring back, pink forked tongue flickin' forth, coiled in a lazy loop......RIGHT THERE ON MY PILLOW!!!!......The most wicked water moccasin I had ever seen that close!!

I didn't dare move, just kept my eyeballs glued on that critter, waitin' for the right moment to roll out of bed to the left while flippin' the pillow and moc to the right.

It took awhile, but the snake finally moved it's head away from me and I took the opportunity 'n' skedaddled right outter the bed. My stepfather hunted down latter and dispatched it.

To this day I still flinch if anything touches the right side of my neck.

Got several more stories iffen ya want to hear'm.

Regards, xfox


The forest is a wilderness only to those that fear it, silent only to those that hear nothing. The forest is a friend to those that dwell within its' nature and it is filled with the sounds of life to those that listen.
 
Posts: 532 | Location: Bitterroot Valley | Registered: 23 October 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Hivernant
Picture of Willis Creek
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Thanks a lot for that story. I really wanted to have nightmares tonite!


"touch not the cat without a glove"
"Much of the social history of the western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good. . ." Thomas Sowell
 
Posts: 143 | Location: South of the Arkansas, on the slopes of St. Charles Peak, Colorado territory | Registered: 25 January 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Puts me in mind of a friend of mine out turkey huntin'. Walkin', callin', listenin'. Nothing. High up on a ridge he laid down in a restful looking spot to take a little snooze. Woke up to something mighty odd. Blinked his eyes open and there laid a cottonmouth on his chest. (Don't ask me why a cottonmouth was that far from water. Could be they travel some during their rut, I dunno.) Anyhow, my friend wisely chilled to bone, froze stiff. Got to thinking. Figured the snake would strike the first thing that twitched. Only thing he could do was control what the snake struck at. So he eased his huntin' bag up and dodged it at the snake. Hissssss!---smack! Now my friend was in control as the snake turned to face the bag. Dodge it at it---SSSS!---smack! as the snake plowed into it again. SSSS!---smack! SSS---smack! Finally the varmint lost heart, cringed back, crawled off my friend's chest and wig-wagged across the ground in the other direction. But a load of shot caught up with it . . .

I couldn't believe my ears when he told me the story, but I examined a picture of it and it was a big ol' cottonmouth as sure as the world.

Beatsme'Sticks


As long as there's Limb Bacon a man'll eat! (But mebbe not his wife...)
 
Posts: 4816 | Location: Buffalo River Country | Registered: 23 October 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Oh yes,now I remember why I don't want to go hunting back east....At least rattlers aren't water snakes.....


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2013 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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But then there's copperheads as you get away from the water. No warnin' from them like from a rattler. And you can't smell'em like you can a cottonmouth. And I've never heard a copperhead hiss. And they blend in with the leafy forest floor. Thankfully, when they're shedding they get all addled and are apt to strike the wrong direction. Was all that saved my dad once. But they're likely to run in pairs---married for life, I've heard. So, when you find one look for another. It's the second one that'll most like get you while you're dancin' around to get away from t'other'n. I was workin' in the log-woods, one day, and sat down on an ol' dead stump to take a breather. Glad my feet lacked a smidgen reaching the ground because a pair of 'em came crawling out from under the stump. Don't remember if I got'em both killed or one got away. In winter they gather up by the dozens in places.

Glad they're not as piz'n as a rattler or cottonmouth . . .

Fiddlesticks


As long as there's Limb Bacon a man'll eat! (But mebbe not his wife...)
 
Posts: 4816 | Location: Buffalo River Country | Registered: 23 October 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of MountainRanger
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Shook a cottonmouth out of a tree back in the 60s when in Ranger School... flood time at Eglin AFB and when on an assault boat operation from there to Pensacola to hook up with the navy, they put us over to the edge of the river to switch sides in the boat (let the OTHER leg go to sleep for a while). Now, we had been wet for about three days and were just starting to dry out some when this happened... THUMP! Down into the assault boat from a tree came this old snake, and we all looked at the snake, looked at the river, looked at the snake again then started pulling out our knives. NO ONE wanted back into that river or the swamp! That snake went in though... in about 30 pieces. He struck just a couple of times hitting a paddle once, and once the bottom of someone's jungle boot. Shot two rattlesnakes year before last a couple of hours apart in exactly the same place on my back deck.. but that's another story.


Sua Sponte
 
Posts: 460 | Location: SW Virginia (New River Valley) | Registered: 13 August 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Nothing like a real enemy showing up in training! Puts the 'war' in the war game.

Pretty dumb snake to jump into a boat full of Rangers . . .

Chucklin'Sticks


As long as there's Limb Bacon a man'll eat! (But mebbe not his wife...)
 
Posts: 4816 | Location: Buffalo River Country | Registered: 23 October 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Heh™


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2013 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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And surely that snake wasn't dumb enough to rear his noggin amongst a buncha Rangers and hiss out, "Hello!---My name is Charlie!"

Disclaimer: I put that silly statement on here earlier, then thought, "Those guys that actually faced Charlie mightn't think that's too funny." So I erased it. Y'see, I didn't get there. Volunteered twice but was kept t'other side of the world (orders is orders y'see). Hadda stay nose to nose with the Soviets. But I got to thinkin': what if instead of a boatload of Rangers it was a boatload of Navy intelligence/communications guys? And what if a dumb snake jumped in amongst us, said, "Hello!---my initials are KGB!" Wahoo! Now THAT'S funny! Thing is, we didn't have no knives. Only sledge hammers and axes (read about the Pueblo Incident for how well that worked!), so we'd have to be very careful flailin' at a snake in a boat . . .

Anyhow, I thought if I could take such silliness you other fellers could. Ain't my fault. MountainRanger started it . . .

Duckin'forcover'Sticks


As long as there's Limb Bacon a man'll eat! (But mebbe not his wife...)
 
Posts: 4816 | Location: Buffalo River Country | Registered: 23 October 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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There He Is!!!!OVER THERE!!!!


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2013 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Well,to tell the truth,I didn't go OVER THERE either,I was too busy teaching my Dad how manly and independent I was,I was going to work my way through College in spite of him wanting me to serve a hitch....Oh yeah,I was among the worst of the spoiled brats who thought they knew better than the Old Farts.....By the time I grew up and could see the Truth about the world,I was too old to serve.....So,yeah,I'm not the brightest button in the box....


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2013 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I'm an old sailor. I served as a navigator on a destroyer, and yes, I did get "over there". However, we sat offshore and blew things up from a distance. (I blame naval gunfire for the beginning of my tinnitus and hearing loss.)

Snakes. I remember seeing sea snakes off the Vietnam coast. Some of them were really big, 6 - 8 feet long, if I remember correctly. They certainly looked that big to me. I remember one of them attacked the ship as we passed by it. The thing swam over and hit the side of the ship, then it dove under water and disappeared.

Water moccasins (cottonmouths), in my opinion, are the nastiest, most dangerous of all North American snakes. They seem to have a real bad attitude!
People tell me all the time that they saw a cottonmouth here, but I think they are mistaken. They may be in the swampy parts of western Tennessee, but not here in the cold water mountain streams of east Tennessee. I think what they are seeing is actually the common water snake.
We do have both timber rattlesnakes and copperheads here in the mountains. However, they are seldom seen. Although I did hear of a man being bitten by a copperhead near here last summer.


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Free Trapper
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I also saw sea snakes off the coast of Vietnam, I think 6-8 feet about right. I was on the USS Benner DD807.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: markh,
 
Posts: 162 | Location: Burlington, Wisconsin | Registered: 28 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Hey! It is great to hear from a fellow tin can sailor!
I was on the USS Manley, DD940


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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