Having been raised on a ranch in south Texas and hunting across south-western USA most of my life, I’ve had many close encounters with rattlesnakes. My first recollection of getting way to close to a rattler occurred in 1962 when my Dad and I were searching for a nanny goat that had given birth in the 80 acre hog trap pasture just south of the house. If we had left her out in the pasture overnight, coyotes would no doubt kill and eat her kids, so we needed to find and pen them near the house. My Dad and I were approximately 100 yards apart, combing the scattered thickets when I walked upon a big rattler that was coiled to strike. The snake was approximately two feet away from me before I saw him and easy striking distance. To this day, I am not sure why the rattler didn’t “pull the trigger” but I sure am glad he didn’t.
Since that day, I have had my fair share of close encounters including a rattler that either missed my leg or simply struck just short. I was cat hunting with my hounds and in the dim light of my two cell Ray-O-Vac flashlight, I could not see well enough to see how the event played out. I was high stepping just a little which might have affected my vision as well.
This last week, Steve and I had three very close calls with rattlesnakes while killing five snakes in two mornings. The first encounter occurred on a huge ranch in northeast New Mexico where I’ve hunted for many years. Steve and I were walking in to make a call in dim light as the sun had not yet peeked over the horizon. He was rolling video of me walking up a low hill in an attempt to set up on the westerly facing slope. About half way up the hill, I caught the motion of something moving just under where I was about to set my right foot. As the snake moved to my right, he began to rattle and I began to look for a stick to work on his broad head as I didn’t want to discharge my rifle where I was planning to call.
On the second stand of the morning, topping a steep ridge, I pointed to a rather large cedar that I wanted Steve to back up against in order to video. The cedar would not only offer shade from the rising sun but would more importantly break up his outline. As I eased down the hill to set out the e-caller, I found a half-grown cottontail in my path. I got Steve’s attention so that he could get video as I wanted to see how close the little fellow would allow me to get before bolting. To my surprise, he let me get a step away before scooting up the hill toward Steve. To Steve’s surprise, the little rascal bumped into his leg before scampering into the cedar behind him. As I was setting out the caller, Steve decided to see if he could find the rabbit in the bush for additional video. Instead of finding “Peter Cottontail”, he found rattler number two coiled within arm’s length!
Steve set up a little further from the rattler and after calling for 15 minutes, we decided it was time to deal with the snake. The snake was buried under the boughs of the cedar, making an attack with a stick or club impossible. While there was a few small rocks scattered around, an aerial attack with stones was impossible due to the same thick limbs. I decided that the safest and most effective way to remove the rattler was to shoot him with my Ruger American in 22–250 Remington. Let me tell you that the Hornady 55 grain V-MAX is bad medicine for a snake at a distance of three feet. Unfortunately, the Trijicon 3–9x40 AccuPoint was not necessary to execute the killing shot.
Driving to the third stand of the day, I killed rattlesnake number three in less than an hour and a half. It was not nearly as large as the previous two and never posed a threat to either hunter or cameraman. I was able to dispatch this one with a volley of stones, saving ammo.
Yesterday morning may have been the closest call and possibly the worse place in the USA to deal with a snake bite. We were miles and I do mean miles from any pavement and well over 100 miles from any medial help. To make matters worse, there was no cell phone service for 50 miles making a medivac rescue impossible.
It was before daylight when we decided to go through a wire gap that had not been opened in years. Thick grass and low brush had grown up, making seeing the ground impossible. As we blindly waded through the grass, Steve stepped on a rattlesnake wearing low top boots. Brian Hawkins and I were wearing snake boots but also jumped when we realized what was going on. We dug around in the grass and Steve extracted a little revenge on the rascal with a couple of rocks and I finished him off by grinding my heel into his head.
The only reason that I feel Steve was not bitten may have been because the grass was too thick for the snake to coil and strike. Whatever the reason, we were extremely lucky and thank the good Lord that we didn’t have to deal with a snake bite in this remote country.
A couple hours later, we killed rattler number five as he slid across a ranch road and disappeared into brush and thick grass. Brian stepped within a couple of feet of him in his snake boots to get him rattling. After digging in the grass, we uncovered the camouflaged rascal and I subdued him with a shot to the head from my Ruger SR22 as I was more than tired of messing with snakes.
I am not sure how many lives I have left before I have to deal with a snake bite as “sooner or later, the snake is going to win”.
