Spring hog hunting in Texas

[petemi]

Shoot, I've got an alley cat that brings me copperheads on a regular basis.  5 or 6 so far this spring.  I wouldn't mind as much if she would kill them first.  When I see her headed toward me lately, I PAY ATTENTION!
Ben

For what my opinion is worth, I think the copperhead is our deadliest snake.  He doesn't rattle a warning and he's not sluggish like the cottonmouth.  He's also well camoflaged and hard to see in the leaves and brush.  As a kid I was taught to look over a log before I stepped over it.  One good thing about living on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, we have few if any deadly snakes.  It is a pleasure to walk the woods not having to look for them.

Pete

[markc]

Copperheads are mean, but not really deadly. Few people lose their life from a copperhead bite. Around here if you are bit by one and go to the local ER, they will give you  Benadryl and send you home afte cleaning the bite. If you call the ER they will tell you not to come in with a copperhead bite, unless you have an extreme alergic reaction. My bro-n-law just got bit by one outside Centerville and they told him not to bother to come to the ER because they really don't do much for those bites. 

[gcrank1]

GEESH!....My wife works pt. time in registration at out local hospital, she has LOTS of people coming in all the time with colds, little cuts, insect bites that most of us 'used to' just wait out or take care of at home. Of course, a lot of these are on the 'publicly (taxpayer)subsidized health care plan' that has such a low co-pay (like $3) that they are used to using the ER and UC as normal because they dont have wait for an appointment! No wonder our health care costs are going through the roof.
If somebody came in with a copperhead snake bite they would treat it like it was 'meaningful'. 

[rockbilly]

Several years ago I was showing some land to a couple of young school teachers who wanted to lease it for deer hunting.  When we arrived at the location I suggested they ride with me, they got in my truck, I drove over the property showing it to them.  We stopped several times and got out of the truck, when we did I always reached in the door pocket and stuck my little Model 60 in my back pocket, after a while they started kidding me, "What Ya gonna do with that pea shooter,"  "Can you hit the side of the barn," etc.  On our last stop we walked over near a windmill and checked out the water tank, as we were returning to the truck I was walking in the left track of an old trail to the tank, one of them was behind me, the other to my right.  As we walked along I notced the snake coil, I immediately drew the pistol and shot three times.  They paniced, "what you shooting at?"  I showed them the snake, it turned out to be much larger than I expected.  One of them walked back near the truck and picked up a metal fence post and brought it back.  They hauled the snake up near the truck to an area where the grass was low and stretched the snake out.  It turned out to be just under seven feet, I don't know what it weighed.  They were really amazed, I made a "quick draw," shot and hit the snake three times in the head, I didn't want to brust their bubble and tell them I was shooting my handload snake shots.  It was funny, for years they told everyone they met that I was a dead-eye with the pistol.

My place is southwest of Abilene, and we do have some biguns here...................