[Guest]

The snake avoidance seminars will protect you SOME of the time. Works best for pointers etc. However, when dogs are running and swimming the often get bit as the run by a snake.

I suspect the above is true. You may avoid bites on the nose, but the arse is still vulnerable.

Vaccines aren't exactly cheap and they need to be done every year (and timed just right for the season) but that's probably your best bet for round-the-clock protection.

 

[badbullgator]

Just more reasons to live where the water freezes solid for five months of the year.

yeah but we can eat the gators and snakes, you gotta buy alcohol to make that hard water any good

 

[Thomas D]

and the Pythons eat anything (and anyone) they want......................

 

[Txcutter2]

I hunt in some pretty nasty swamps in east Texas and we have a ton of cotton mouths and a few gators to boot. Had about a 5 footer swim through the deeks in teal season never bother us much but the cotton mouths get dirt naps asap they scare me more than the dogs I think.

 

[LAwaterfowler]

I was recently training with my pro where my dog was and had to run to the truck to get the shotgun to shoot a snake swimming in the pond we were training in. Moral of the story: Keep a Shotgun handy!

Blow there heads off regards

 

[T.Jett]

Keep live ammo and Benadryl handy

 

[Cleo Watson]

FLASH - Some of you younger gents from Texas to Florida might consider starting a new business to help out our friends in the upper states. RENT A SNAKE OR GATOR Guaranteed to help you prepare for hunts down South. Get a couple of each and take advantage of the Special.

 

[Rick Hall]

Rick Hall,

You might take a look at the little end of that snake hide. It look like it had rattles on it. If not that is one heck of a cotton mouth.

Skip C

Though I didn't have the "opportunity" to see that snake alive, I handled the skin and can assure you it is a cottonmouth. Measured 6'1", which I would not have believed possible if almost anyone but the fellow who killed it had just told me about doing so. Perhaps interestingly, his son has killed a 5'7" that he'd thought the mother of all mocasines prior to encountering this one.

I'm in a position to have seen what most would think an awful lot of cottonmouths, but never a live one I'd bet anything I cared for was over 4'. If anything, my own encounters with shoulderless tatailles of unusual dimention have run to the other end of the scale:

 

[Rick Hall]

Had about a 5 footer swim through the deeks in teal season never bother us much...

I've never been one to put a dog in deep water during teal season and had drawn the "safe" alligator line somewhat below that 5' mark, but I've done a lot of training with curious little gators shadowing the dogs. Had an incident this Summer, however, that's made me rethink what's safe.

We were doing "farm releases" of young gators returned to the wild in compliance with the regulations for collecting wild eggs for alligator farming, when I gave this little rascal his freedom - only to have him swap ends:

and come bite the air boat:

Which makes one wonder why a creature not intimidated by the size and noise of an air boat couldn't just as well take a fit to bite a dog?

And this cautionary note: two local fellows I know lost Labs to gators this September teal season, and a third likely did, as well, as his veteran dog went missing making a short retrieve in familiar marsh. Don't make the mistake of thinking that keeping a dog close to the shooting and commotion of a hunt is keeping him safe.

 

[david gibson]

And this cautionary note: two local fellows I know lost Labs to gators this September teal season, and a third likely did, as well, as his veteran dog went missing making a short retrieve in familiar marsh. Don't make the mistake of thinking that keeping a dog close to the shooting and commotion of a hunt is keeping him safe.

that just scares the bejeezus out of me. i cant think of anything more horrible, my poor dog in the grasp of a gators jaws, helpless, wishing his master was there to help him.

after an encounter last month i totally rethink where i am training and hunting. shallow water away from bayous, and rice fields. no more coastal marshes, but coastal bays in salt water.

as far as the dog disappearing, you'd think he would have heard something, at least a swish and a swoosh and splashing. scary.

i posted this when i found it, but i aint training there until i can get a canoe in and comb the whole place.....

 

[Hew]

Though I didn't have the "opportunity" to see that snake alive, I handled the skin and can assure you it is a cottonmouth. Measured 6'1", which I would not have believed possible if almost anyone but the fellow who killed it had just told me about doing so. Perhaps interestingly, his son has killed a 5'7" that he'd thought the mother of all mocasines prior to encountering this one.

I had thought the same...that it had to have been a rattler as I've never seen or heard of a cottonmouth getting that big. That's one amazingly big moc. I don't kill 'em when I see them and I've built up a lot of good karma with the cottonmouth gods. Twice I've been within striking distance and both times they let me slide. Was weird...both times I caught out of the corner of my eye movement and it was their tails shaking (like a rattlesnake). A third close encounter my brother was walking a trail just ahead of me and stepped on one. It was chilly so the snake was sluggish. Apparently my karma extends to anyone nearby as well.

 

[2tall]

From this mornings local paper. Fripp Island is just a few miles from my house. We have similar sized gators in our neighborhood pond. The point being, they will come OUT of the water if the opportunity presents.
Fripp Island golfer loses arm to alligator
By PATRICK DONOHUE
pdonohue@beaufortgazette.com
843-706-8152
Published Thursday, October 8, 2009
Comments (2) | Recommend (3)
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A 77-year-old man lost his arm below the elbow Thursday when he was attacked by an alligator while playing golf on Fripp Island.

The man, the father of a Fripp Island property owner, was playing the 11th hole of the island's Ocean Creek Golf Course at about 3 p.m. when the attack occurred. The victim was leaning down to pick up his ball when a 10-foot long alligator grabbed his arm, said Kate Hines, general manager of the Fripp Island Property Owners Association.

Hines said the alligator dragged the man into a nearby pond and went into a series of "death rolls," a technique the reptile uses to tear apart its food. The man lost his arm in the struggle.

The man's golf buddies were able to free him from the alligator's grasp and called 911. They kept an eye on the alligator until workers from Tracks Wildlife Control in Beaufort arrived, Hines said.

The victim, visiting family on the island, was taken to Beaufort Memorial Hospital.Tracks workers killed the alligator and performed a necropsy at the scene to remove the man's arm from the animal's digestive track, Hines said.

The arm was stored in a cooler in the hopes of re-attaching it. The victim was flown at about 5:30 p.m. to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. His condition was unknown late Thursday night.

There have been 10 confirmed alligator attacks in the past 25 years in South Carolina, according to state's Department of Natural Resources. DNR estimates that 100,000 to 200,000 American alligators live along South Carolina's coasts.

Thursday's attack could have been caused by any number of factors, said Joe Maffo, owner of Critter Management, a Hilton Head Island business specializing in alligator removal.

"It could have been a mother protecting her brood, this alligator may have been fed before by people or it could have been a dominance thing and the alligator felt he was trespassing," Maffo said. "These kinds of attacks are very, very unusual and very, very unfortunate. It's sad.

 

[Rick Hall]

Nearest miss we've had (that I'm aware of) was one that blew up "out of nowhere" and onto the bank to miss a dog running the water's edge. Looked like something on the Discover Channel.

 

[badbullgator]

I had thought the same...that it had to have been a rattler as I've never seen or heard of a cottonmouth getting that big. That's one amazingly big moc. I don't kill 'em when I see them and I've built up a lot of good karma with the cottonmouth gods. Twice I've been within striking distance and both times they let me slide. Was weird...both times I caught out of the corner of my eye movement and it was their tails shaking (like a rattlesnake). A third close encounter my brother was walking a trail just ahead of me and stepped on one. It was chilly so the snake was sluggish. Apparently my karma extends to anyone nearby as well.

I'll leave the rattlers alone, but I will go out of my way to kill any cottonmouth I come across. I don't find them as agressive as the stories you hear, I have have many instances where I was within inches of them and they just stayed where they were, but I have also had them go out of their way to strike at me. When my daughter was 6 or 7 I had her fishing out of the front of a small boat on a river with lots of over hanging trees. As we got close to some I noticed there was a big fat CM in the branches inches from her head. She had no clue and I slowly backed out and only pointed it out to her when we got away from it, but it never seemed to be ready to do anything other than lay in the branches. None-the-less I hate them and will turn the truck arond to go back and kill one

 

[duk4me]

I had thought the same...that it had to have been a rattler as I've never seen or heard of a cottonmouth getting that big. That's one amazingly big moc. I don't kill 'em when I see them and I've built up a lot of good karma with the cottonmouth gods. Twice I've been within striking distance and both times they let me slide. Was weird...both times I caught out of the corner of my eye movement and it was their tails shaking (like a rattlesnake). A third close encounter my brother was walking a trail just ahead of me and stepped on one. It was chilly so the snake was sluggish. Apparently my karma extends to anyone nearby as well.

Used to feel the same way with my live and let live philosophy going so far as relocating snakes. But now h$ll no after my encounter this summer its on with all snakes. Since Copperhead bite its Tim 11 snakes 0 and like a college football coach I fully intend to run up the score.

 

[Franco]

Time to increase harvest tags on gators all across the south!!!

BEAUFORT, S.C. -- Officials say an alligator bit off part of a golfer's arm as he leaned over to pick up his ball at a private South Carolina course.
The man, who is in his 70s, was retrieving his ball from a pond when the 10-foot alligator bit him at Ocean Creek Golf Course in Beaufort County. The gator pulled the golfer into the pond and ripped off his arm in the struggle. His golf partners were able to free him.
Wildlife workers killed the alligator and retrieved the arm in the hopes it might be reattached.
The man has not been identified. He was being treated at the Medical University of South Carolina, but officials there would not release any information about him.
A call to the golf course was not immediately returned.

 

[2tall]

Franco, the full article is posted above. It appears on follow up that the gator came up OUT of the water. Nobody has said whether it was visible or hidden when the guy reached out to pick up the ball.

 

[badbullgator]

Franco, the full article is posted above. It appears on follow up that the gator came up OUT of the water. Nobody has said whether it was visible or hidden when the guy reached out to pick up the ball.

Same thing happend here a couple of years ago. A lady was pulling weeds in her yard and a 12 footer came up and got her. The same year one took a bite out of a jogger running beside a creek
We don;t need more tags....we need a open general season with take as many as you can limits

 

[Mike W.]

Fortunately I don't have any on my property at the moment. If I ever see one, it dies immediately, regardless of season/tags...

 

[Hew]

Used to feel the same way with my live and let live philosophy going so far as relocating snakes. But now h$ll no after my encounter this summer its on with all snakes. Since Copperhead bite its Tim 11 snakes 0 and like a college football coach I fully intend to run up the score.

LOL. I can't blame ya. They broke the truce first.