this weekend I did some shooting, learning the oddities of my custom built .45. Good thing I did. yesterday afternoon after shooting a couple hours in the morning I went to the top of the hill where the wood shelter for our little campgrounds is located. I was looking for a walnut log to make a gun stock with. I had my furry little 4 legged buddy with me and she was out of the truck following me around. I went around back of the wood stacks under the roof and back there was an old blue tarp laying on the ground. As I bent down to grab it and move it out of the way I thought , bet there`s a snake under there. I just chuckled and blew it off as being paranoid. I grabbe it and threw it back out of the way and took a couple of short steps and turned around just in time to see my dog following me and right between the both of us was a jucie little COPPERHEAD!!!!!! I thought for sure it was going to get my buddy, I screamed for her to stop and luckily she did . There we were about 6 foot appart with that Da&% ed snake right between us. I did manage go get around the snake to the dog and get her back in the pick up. Needless to say I had my .45 on my belt and thank goodness for a morning of learning where it shoots That nice little snake jumped in front of 3 out of 4 bullets. I thought that was quite nice of that nice little snake. Come to find out I had my hand about a foot and a half from him when I grabbed that tarp.I come close to getting me and my dog bit. If it wouldn`t have been for learning that .45 yesterday morning I would probably never have hit him at all. The moral to this story is to know your weapons, know where they shoot and how to compensate. I know I`m preaching to the quior but a reminder never hurts... Gary
I forgot, the snake was only about 16" long, big enough to shake me up though!!!