I've never owned a pair of snakeboots. I was at a "wildlife expo" many years ago and there was a pen full of rattlers and a few cottonmouths, some very big, that the demo guys walked around in wearing the Rattlers Brand snake proof chaps. I saw numerous strikes to the ankle and calf area, with venom running down the leg after a strike, with no penetration. I called one of the guys over and asked him what kind of boot he wore under the chaps to protect his foot from strikes. He said any good, heavy bullhide boot will stop the biggest rattler fangs. They were the experts, not me, so I assumed they knew what they were talking about. I've placed my trust in chaps ever since, when in snake infested areas in which I can't see the ground clearly. A young fellow that used to help me on the farm was enamored of bowhunting in the early season in Brier Creek swamp. He wore chaps, and on two separate occasions he had rattlers hit his leg and get their fangs entangled in the material and hang on him, thrashing until he knocked them loose with his bow. He wasn't an excitable young guy, but I told him I bet his wash lady knew something had happened.

I'm sure that 99% of all snakebites to the legs are below the knee, but I can't help but remember a short article in a hunting rag, when I was a boy, that described how two timber cruisers were walking the woods one day, one behind the other. The front man stepped over a log and the rear man saw a huge diamondback hit the front man in the back of the thigh, a little above the knee. It's fangs were evidently long enough to penetrate deeply enough to hit an artery and the man almost immediately collapsed. His friend ran back to the truck to get help, leaving his friend sitting in the shade with his back against a tree. When he returned the bitten man was dead. Diamondbacks grow to as long as 6-7 feet, easily giving them the reach to hit you above the knee. Even canebrakes can grow big enough to hit you above the knee.

Snakes are a way of life for me. I'm probably much more likely to get bitten on the farm at work than I am hunting or fishing. Keeping your eyes on the ground ahead of you, and never putting your hands where you can't see is just part of my day. I worry more about my son and grandsons than myself. I've had enough close calls to be cautious, not sure they have.

SRH


May God bless America and those who defend her.