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Post by vectrix on Jun 18, 2010 19:41:34 GMT -5
How common are the timber rattlers down south? Anyone ever see one? I hunt alot in Greene and other parts occasionally and have never seen one or talked to anybody that has. I guess what I am getting at is, are there enough to be concerned or take precautions with? I usually just stomp around not paying much attention to the existence of a rattlesnake. Very common in my neck of the woods in the more remote areas. They still give me a rush when I run across one rattling or not. By the way the babies are born with their fangs & venom sacs ready to go. Just not near as potent as far as injectable venom volume & depth of bite. They are not particullry agressive until they feel threatened by your actions. Intentional or not! The best precaution is to be mindful of where you are walking & setting. Be leery of blindly stepping over downed trees, travelling rocky hillsides & creek bottoms, overgrown openings & edges, and dead hollowed-out stumps. They are particullay fond of briars when it's time change into their new skin for the year. As previously mentioned Copperheads are quite common here & leaves nasty bites & symptoms. Wow, I had no idea there were that many, kind of wish I didn't know now. I will definetly have my eyes peeled toward the ground come archery and spring turkey.
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Post by jabba on Jun 18, 2010 20:15:43 GMT -5
I have seen one in Orange county. I didn't know what kind it was... but it WAS a rattle snake. I tried to jab it with an arrow during archery season. It skeedattled. That was probably 15 years ago.
Jabba
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Post by tickman1961 on Jun 21, 2010 15:20:51 GMT -5
Brown County State Park has an hibernation area somewhere within its limits, I remember reading a story how a researcher was bitten by a eastern diamonback rattlesnake a few years back.
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Post by parson on Jun 21, 2010 16:46:08 GMT -5
Maybe some of the "let's balance nature" types could work up a plan to import some mongooses, or mongeese, or whatever the plural of riki-tiki-tavi's ilk are referred to as.
Just a thought (really just trying to get to my 1000th post).
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Post by duff on Jun 21, 2010 17:10:23 GMT -5
Indiana also is home to the Masagua or something like that. It's a small rattler that resides in our northern counties. I have heard of some in Noble Co and Laporte but I am sure they are all over up there.
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Post by throbak on Jun 21, 2010 18:11:49 GMT -5
my bro found a road kill massasauga several yrs ago at pigeon river it had one rattle
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Post by DEERTRACKS on Jun 22, 2010 6:30:22 GMT -5
By the way. Cottonmouths were found by the IDNR in the southern part of the state in a reclaimed coal mining area a while back. For years biologists did not think that they were this far north. The Cottonmouth is one ornery hombre to deal with, at least down @ Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee!
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Post by raporter on Jun 22, 2010 17:58:51 GMT -5
Saw my first copperhead in the yard this morning. Broke my walking stick....Brrrrr.
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Post by scrub-buster on Jun 30, 2010 22:51:16 GMT -5
Here is the skin all dried out. I should be able to use 53" of it. Add 4" for the handle and 1" for antler tip overlays, and I can make it fit a 59" bow. I want to carve one tip to look like the rattle and put the tail on that end.
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Post by raporter on Jul 1, 2010 7:02:57 GMT -5
Look forward to seeing the finished bow.
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Post by catahecassa on Jul 1, 2010 8:48:52 GMT -5
I have seen MANY copperheads down this way over the years & was actually bitten by one in my younger years! FORTUNATELY I had heavy socks & liners so it barely broke skin. I have also seen one cotton mouth as well in Crawford Co. & heard (never DID see it!) one very unhappy rattler in Harrison/Crawford (Cold Friday Rd. area). I have had a couple of buddies actually come face to face with one on a rocky ridge in Fox Hollow!
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Post by tenring on Jul 1, 2010 9:34:18 GMT -5
Copperheads have been in Morgan County since the Depression, specifically across the White River west of Martinsville. Rattlesnakes have been in Morgan and Monroe county since forever. My late father as a teenager lived and worked on a farm off of Farr Road in what is now the Morgan-Monroe State Forest. Taking a team of work horses down over a hill to water where there was a spring located, fed into a trough made of a hollowed out log, the horses would refuse to go down to drink. Dad said he would pick up rocks and pepper the area to move the snakes on, and would hear the rattling on numerous occasions. The area was near the old limestone quarry and cemetery. It took my many years to get him to take me down to the "old place", and he pointed out the concrete steps that led to the now gone farm house, and he located fence posts that he had set during the depression. While telling me about the rattlesnakes, he asked me if I smelled something. Turned out there was a copper head just in front of us. It left this earth when Dad grabbed a club and sent it to the great beyond. And rattlers have been nailed about a quarter of a mile east of Martinsville, still have a set of rattles that I got a half mile from town, almost stepped on it lying on a log, as I was leaving the woods during squirrel season, that being a female that was full of young ones. Killed a copperhead in an old shack about 50 feet from where I got the rattler.
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Post by varmint101 on Jul 1, 2010 14:31:01 GMT -5
There was a timber rattler in my yard last summer. I/we caught one at Salt Creek Golf Course that the DNR guy said they released in the park. I can't remember exactly now, but I believe he was around 6ft and as big around as my wrist.
I have always seen copperheads mostly in the creek beds here.
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Post by tenring on Jul 1, 2010 15:43:09 GMT -5
Didn't happen in the park without a name of the DNR fellow!
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