Why I never wear tennis shoes out here.

[Buck98]

Yessir, hone up your Oklahoma snake ID’s

I mentioned this in a previous thread awhile back, but it’s appropriate here: google snaketracts.com lists all the snakes found in Oklahoma. Very useful information.

 

[enuf]

Nope, a copperhead. I had a minor run-in with a coontail (western diamondback rattler) Monday. Was out cutting off some stumps from spring firewood cutting and as I walked past a pile of brush I felt a thump and my rt leg moved sideways a little. Dam rattler struck me, so out comes the .357 with shotloads. Guess it didn't get the memo "don't pick a biting fight with a cranky, toothless old fat man...he will just shoot ya". After checking my leg to be sure of no fang marks, I laid it along a tape measure...5ft 3inch with 13 rattles so not a big one but sure enough mature.

so he just hit you and didn't bite?

 

[Ready_fire_aim]

so he just hit you and didn't bite?

He was probably wearing bite proof boots

 

[cjjtulsa]

For the most part, I do the whole "live and let live" thing with snakes, but not with copperheads or anything that looks like it might identify as a copperhead.

I do too, I've never understood the indiscriminate killing of any snake you find. I'm an old car guy, and have more than one instance of rodents effing up my wiring on cars; anything that eats rodents is a friend of mine - unless they can also hurt my dogs or kids. Then they have to go. Otherwise, I've left many different varieties of non-poisonous snakes alone. Last year I had a large garter snake get into my shop with a huge bulge in the middle, probably one of my leopard frogs, and I left him in the shop to do as he pleased. Hope he got a few mice while he was in there.

Taught my boys since they were very little what was "good", and what was "bad", and they've been catching and handling snakes since they were in elementry school.

 

[Ready_fire_aim]

That has to be the most useless ID characteristic I've ever heard. I mean, it's true, but if my blind eyes are close enough to see that, I'm completely screwed, LOL.

Yes many of the more accurate snake identification techniques require getting too close for comfort

Thank you sir. Appreciate the help rather than shaming lol. Where I come from there were rattlers in the high desert but other than that we really just had rat snakes and gardeners

Haha! Right… here’s a few more tips

Extra hole behind nostril (the pit making the pit vipers). As mentioned, slit pupils mean venomous vs round pupils mean non-venomous

Hershey kiss shaped pattern with autumn colors most likely a copper head.

Venomous snakes tend to have very chunky bodies. Thick for their length. Large triangular heads. Upturned nose. Etc

Cottonmouths/moccasins will usually be on the surface of the water when swimming. Like 100% of its thick/stout body on the surface, almost as if it was slithering on the ground… if a snake is swimming with its body submerged and just it’s head above water it’s probably just a water snake. If it’s diving completely under a lot it’s probably just a water snake.

I have witnessed a cottonmouth being aggressive years ago. I was night fishing for catfish from the bank and had a few on a stringer. A moccasin showed up and decided it wanted to eat one of my wounded fish… so I tried to pull my stringer in real fast and it looked directly at me, then it rushed onto the bank and chased me away! I literally turned tail and ran from the SOB… I returned throwing large rocks at him from distance until he went away. Pulled in the stringer/iced the fish and got the hell outta there lol

 

[PanhandleGlocker]

Oh that’s awesome. Here’s a genuine question. What is the difference between poisonous and venomous? A native friend of mine was saying cotton mouths aren’t venomous but are poisonous. Something to do with bacteria on there teeth???

Poison is ingested. Venom is injected.

There’s no such thing as a poisonous snake. Only Venomous.

 

[SoonerP226]

… aren’t venomous but are poisonous. Something to do with bacteria on there teeth???

IIRC, the monitor lizards/komodo dragons are like that—they have no venom, but they have really aggressive bacteria in their mouths. I don’t recall hearing anything like that about reptiles that are native to North America, though.

 

[918evo]

I've killed around 30 copperheads in the 8 years I have lived at my house. 25 of them were killed in the same small area. I would go out on hot nights with boots, a flashlight, and a 10/22. My scariest encounter was messing with a gas tank on a car and having one slither off the top of the tank onto the ground right by me. The neatest encounter was going to check on one in the morning that I killed the night before and seeing an eastern yellow-bellied racer swallowing it.

 

[Jim Draper]

Nope, a copperhead. I had a minor run-in with a coontail (western diamondback rattler) Monday. Was out cutting off some stumps from spring firewood cutting and as I walked past a pile of brush I felt a thump and my rt leg moved sideways a little. Dam rattler struck me, so out comes the .357 with shotloads. Guess it didn't get the memo "don't pick a biting fight with a cranky, toothless old fat man...he will just shoot ya". After checking my leg to be sure of no fang marks, I laid it along a tape measure...5ft 3inch with 13 rattles so not a big one but sure enough mature.

That's big enough to ruin your day anyway.

 

[Old Noob]

I found a few copperheads clearing brush the other week out here in Okmulgee county.