Snakes!

[flying sailor]

A photo of enormous snake skins drying out in a warehouse, in the docks of London, 1930
[Python?]
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Wonder if my girl would like a halter top made from a skin?

 

[rwp315]

As long as we’re on the subject .

Has anyone had a problem on their hunting trips in Africa?

If so I will no longer plan on my first trip.

I’ll purchase some paper game targets and pretend at my range!

My sleep tonight will be tough!

 

[JimP]

Two trips and never saw a snake, the first trip we were in what I would call a snake area. Outfitter killed a cape cobra the week before we arrived.

First trip was the middle to the end of May, second trip was in June.

Pick their fall and all will be good.

 

[Green Chile]

I've been early, mid and late season and haven't seen one yet but I've seen their sliding tracks. They are definitely around but thankfully we haven't run into them yet. I will say there has been some tall grass sometimes that the PH said we aren't walking through that!

 

[Speedster]

First trip saw one in the road but it was gone by the time we stopped. Second trip saw a puff adder in the road at night. The PH killed it. Next day we were hunting and the PH was about 2 feet in front of me and yelled snake as he almost stepped right on top of a 5 to 6 footer. It was brownish gray and I thought mamba but the PH said it was a mole snake which is not venomous.

 

[Trogon]

Three trips to Eastern Cape, saw a boomslang and a small striped snake in late April. The other trips in July, none were seen. Much colder in July.

 

[Hunt anything]

Almost stepped on a Gaboon viper in Mozambique in 2014, also on the same trip a 6’ mamba was swimming across a tributary of the Zambezi but he didn’t make it , a 10’ croc had him for breakfast.
2018 we saw an eagle flying off with a snake but no clue what kind it was. That was in the Eastern Cape.
2021 took 2 safaris first to the Limpopo and then the Northwest Province but it was too damned cold for snakes.

 

[Green Chile]

Crocs eating mambas sounds like a good outcome to me! There is a blind at a big ranch in SA called the Mamba blind. I said who was the genius that named that? I'm not getting in that friggin blind!

 

[Racer00]

I guess I am the unlucky one. I was in Eastern Cape and Limpopo in March of this year and between the two saw 4 snakes. A puff adder under the deck my first night in camp in EC that the outfitter killed before it hurt anyone. Next day a spitting cobra crossed the road in front of us while we were in the bakkie. Then on to Limpopo and while driving in one evening, I saw something in the trail. As I yelled snake, I realized my PH wasn't fond of black mambas. As we swerved and nearly went off the road, we hit the snake, which was about 8' long. It hurt him badly so we finished him off. Then on the last day, we went to a waterhole to watch game and take photos and as we sat in the blind a 10' python that was sunning himself on a small dirt outcropping jumped in the water and swam across in front of us not 15 feet from where we sat. He swam by and crawled up on the bank and away into the bush. Needless to say, I saw no need to head in that direction when we left the blind.

 

[rwp315]

First trip saw one in the road but it was gone by the time we stopped. Second trip saw a puff adder in the road at night. The PH killed it. Next day we were hunting and the PH was about 2 feet in front of me and yelled snake as he almost stepped right on top of a 5 to 6 footer. It was brownish gray and I thought mamba but the PH said it was a mole snake which is not venomous.

Yikes x10

 

[Hunt anything]

I had about a 2 and a half foot cottonmouth in one of my crawfish traps yesterday morning. I left it on the bank while I tried to figure out how to get rid of if it and the freaking thing found a way out and disappeared.

 

[Green Chile]

Now those cottonmouth are nasty! Very aggressive and I will yield the canoe to them if they drop in...ugh!

 

[freefall]

If (unlikely) I lived in cottonmouth country, I would pay the $200 class whatever fee and carry a sawed-off 20ga O/U, probably in a shoulder rig aligned with my spine. Depends how short I could get the barrels. But buy the Class 2-3 license, whatever it is, no problem!
Have I mentioned lately how much I love Alaska?

 

[Scott CWO]

As long as we’re on the subject .

Has anyone had a problem on their hunting trips in Africa?

If so I will no longer plan on my first trip.

I’ll purchase some paper game targets and pretend at my range!

My sleep tonight will be tough!

Twice. One run-in with a boomslang just above my head-shoulders with mouth open and another with a mamba that rose up next to me. Luckily wasn’t bit but close. Had a couple stiff drinks those nights!

 

[LivingTheDream]

Twice. One run-in with a boomslang just above my head-shoulders with mouth open and another with a mamba that rose up next to me. Luckily wasn’t bit but close. Had a couple stiff drinks those nights!

Scott, the more I read about your hunts in Africa, I'm not sure I would want to be your PH. Seems like you have all types of interesting encounters.

 

[Certus]

Boomslang are really cool and outliers in the colubrid world.

He documented his own death by snakebite instead of going to the hospital - The World from PRX

If renowned snake expert Karl P Schmidt hadn't been so curious, perhaps. But there may have been little recourse after the beautiful boomslang recoiled.

theworld.org

 

[Scott CWO]

Scott, the more I read about your hunts in Africa, I'm not sure I would want to be your PH. Seems like you have all types of interesting encounters.

Ha ha well I can assure you that other than my experience in the CAR, my other experiences are fairly commonplace among guides and PHs so I don’t think they would be worried about hunting with me. I have heard many a hair-raising story from PHs and other guides. Being a guide or a PH in wild areas is a hazardous job, as evidenced by several unfortunate incidents involving PHs that have been reported on AH. While rare, these things happen. Even in Colorado and Alaska, I’ve had a few incidents such as nearly drowning during a river crossing; getting slammed and knocked out while inside a horse trailer by a horse when unloading horses from the trailer; being charged after dark by a gut-shot 6x7 bull elk and charged by a couple brown bears. There’s a reason wilderness guides in the US are categorized for worker’s compensation insurance premiums in the same category as police officers. I’ve also tried to get disability insurance from several insurance companies but have always been denied.

All the above being said, wilderness PHs in dangerous game areas in Africa have my upmost respect because I think it’s far more dangerous work than what I do in the US. I have hunted wild DG African areas several times so I’ve had my share of adventures but not as many as the PHs that have guided me.

 

[HankBuck]

Just some random interesting photos about snakes....

An epic prinitive clash..

A King Cobra (the world's longest venomous snake) has attempted to catch, kill and eat this Reticulated Python (grows to be the longest snake in the world) and has been coiled and strangled by the python and died in the process.
Both were dead when found.

The King has met its match...

(Credit to original photographer)
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I Question and have doubts about the authent

As long as we’re on the subject .

Has anyone had a problem on their hunting trips in Africa?

If so I will no longer plan on my first trip.

I’ll purchase some paper game targets and pretend at my range!

My sleep tonight will be tough!

We saw 3 black Momba on our Safari and all were close but None were a problem, one was smallish - maybe 3-4 feet long and near my feet in knee high grass, was tempting to want to catch it and take a photo (I like snakes and have handled many) but I realized the risk and “stupidity” of doing that….just enjoyed seeing the snake up close and backed away - walked around it. Our PH said he never bothers killing them and leaves them alone, never had a problem on a Safari but did have a worker killed by one setting up their camp 2 years earlier.

 

[CarsonG]

South of Chickasha, out in the country.

I live over by Tulsa, I kill about 6-10 poisonous snakes a year mostly rattle snakes, cotton mouths, and copperheads.

 

[Certus]

I Question and have doubts about the authent

We saw 3 black Momba on our Safari and all were close but None were a problem, one was smallish - maybe 3-4 feet long and near my feet in knee high grass, was tempting to want to catch it and take a photo (I like snakes and have handled many) but I realized the risk and “stupidity” of doing that….just enjoyed seeing the snake up close and backed away - walked around it. Our PH said he never bothers killing them and leaves them alone, never had a problem on a Safari but did have a worker killed by one setting up their camp 2 years earlier.

Smart PH. I’ll never understand the attitude of being out hunting, seeing a snake in the wild and going “dangerous! Kill it!”.

Walk around it, like you said. You’ll never see that snake again. No need to be a big baby or try and prove macho man by killing it. Seems to be very common to kill any rattlesnake on your property, because it exists. They’re always there, just leave ‘em be. We had a little Eastern Brown under the front steps. I attempted to shoo it out of the yard and instead of took off to the back yard. I have a dog so there was only one thing to do….
I shut the dog inside for the evening and let her out later that day. Yep, snakes gone and I never saw it again. EZ PZ.
Here’s the friendly fellow popped up for a better look.
For perspective this fellow has an LD50 of 0.053mg/kg. The LD50 of an eastern diamondback rattlesnake is 1.3mg/kg and a black mamba is 0.25mg/kg. Soooo it is a spicy little noodle. But as said - shut the dog in, no problem. I live in town - snake bites (dog or human) make the news. Here we are 2 years on and no bites have occured due to me leaving it. They ain’t gunna seek out trouble, trouble comes to them.