A surprise on December 28th

[phillipofnc]

As I was digging a solid dime beep, I thought I knew exactly what I was digging. As I scooped the first plug out I dumped the dirt and decided to finished pulling the loose dirt from the hole. That is when I pulled out a 3-4 inch surprise, a red belly water moccosin. Oh yeah, the dime was in there too. A little strange to find a snake in December at three inches deep and he was very active too. Now he is dead though. Happy hunting.

 

[muleskinner]

Any snake I run across is a very endangered specie.

 

[taropatch]

I would of killed it then ate it! O know how many people did I just offend, PS I own a 1500 garrett and I just love it!!

Why should anyone be offended. You ate it. That doesn't sound wasteful to me.
I've always wanted to taste rattlesnake. Heard they have big roundups and snake fry festivals in Texas.

 

[bigwater]

I've got a big black snake (about 5' long) that lives in the basement of my shop. He's harmless to me and keeps the mouse population down, so I don't worry about him much, even if we don't socially interact.

Off topic a bit, I guide rafts on the Ocoee River in the summers, and one of my favorite pranks to play on my customers is to sneak a rubber snake inside my pfd onto the raft and at a safe swim spot on the river, pull the rubber snake out and toss it up to the front of the boat while screaming "SNAKE" at the top of my lungs. Want to talk about clearing a raft in a hurry? Six customers instantly jump out of the boat swimming the river rather than stay in the raft with a snake. Over the almost 20 years I've been pulling that prank, I think maybe three people didn't jump out of the raft. Only one person got mad. He took my rubber snake and flung it off in the woods, and I had to go buy another one.

 

[tapoutking]

I don't know if I would have killed it. If it acted aggressive I probably would have killed it without losing the same sleep alot of the people here seem to lose over one animal. It always amazes me that people have such strong opinions such as the ones here. 99.9% are disingenuous anyway so I would tend to ingnore the "ruffled feathers".
This is a "treasure hunting" site so I suggest if you want to complain and discuss the killing of a snake then may I suggest you visit PETA's site. There you will find others like yourself that would be offended so you can spend countless days posting about something you all are interested in. Meanwhile, us here at the "treasure hunting" site don't have to be subjected to your moral superioriority.

Lots of people hate the fact that humans are part of earths ecology. You don't have to look far to find those that believe that the earth would be better off without us. Just look on this thread. Do some of you people get upset when a snake bites a human and said human dies? Do you get upset at the snake? And if not then why not? Your argument that "humans are invading their territory" is wrong. Humans are part of the ecology so I would say that your excuse for blaming the human in even that instance is wrong.

Without humans on earth, what and who is nature good for? What purpose would it all serve?

And for the record I give animals a wide berth unless I'm hungry......

 

[AGCoinHunter]

Don't sweat it, I would have killed it also. Only snakes I keep alive around my house are garden and black snake. All others become headless and buried.

 

[bigwater]

Don't sweat it, I would have killed it also. Only snakes I keep alive around my house are garden and black snake. All others become headless and buried.

Or boots.

 

[dneyedli@res1.mts.net]

Interesting.
9 posts indicating that someone was sad or concerned about the snake dying.
12 posts indicating that someone is offended or upset at the people that were upset that the snake died.
WTF?
Now that the snake is dead and the guy has a clad dime in his pocket, why does there need to be so many long winded posts explaining he had the right to kill the snake? Do people not have a right to be upset about a reptile killed for nothing? No wonder there is so much fighting in this world.
No hard feelings from me here. Just a little annoyed by all the defensive responses.
Happy Hunting,
Dave.

 

[The Seeker]

I'm sure that was not a good situation......Reminds me of a time when I was a kid and out looking for snakes, I was looking under some roofing paper when under one of the piece was a huge snake with a diamond pattern on it body....like you it was not good , I just stood there and the snake slithered away...I was happy , the snake was happy and no one was bit ...lolol But I know one thing , you need to get one of these the next time you go out!

Keep on Digging! John

 

[NorthGa.Sportsman]

Wow! how many people are members of PETA on here?Do not worry what anybody said on here. I would have done the same thing.Some people do not have anything better to do than come on here and complain about what everyone else does.

 

[Brendoodl]

Whatever!!! Most of you responding would have killed the damn snake anyways. YOu should have done the right thing and if you killed the snake you should have at least taken it home, skinned it and made a key chain or mini wallet. It sucks the snake is dead, but us as humans we are ignorant of what we do not know for FACT. Get over it, he knows and next time he will maybe make a difference choice, but the only thing I see here as being wrong is that he posted killing the snake. Get over it, life is too short ,as the snake.

 

[Ronin9868]

I would like to start a fund for the snakes family. I feel its the least we can do. Clad welcomed!

 

[N.J.THer]

Any pictures of the clad dime....

 

[azmetaldetector]

Can the moderator start a snake thread please...

 

[ronbo22]

P People
E Eating
T Tasty
A Animals

 

[GopherDaGold]

Now that the snake is dead and the guy has a clad dime in his pocket, why does there need to be so many long winded posts explaining he had the right to kill the snake?

No one said anything about the RIGHT to do anything. I suggest you unfurl your arms from around the tree you are hugging, drive your Prius back to your McMansion and re-read the posts.

Dadgum it! Now I'm doin' it!

 

[Goldiver]

[/quote]

Why don't more people kill the apples they find detecting? Those are what are really EVIL.
[/quote]

One could expand on this and say that WOMAN, is the true evil...
[/quote]

Woman and snakes both require fire to eat. Apple is easy. The simplest way is the best way.

Besides, I am afraid of fire. I get dry skin in the winter.
[/quote]

 

[packfan_1982]

Has anyone learned anything from Avatar ? If you did not see it I suggest you do.

Keep @ It and HH !!

I learned that "Unobtanium" is worth alot of money. I also learned that James Cameron isn't terribly original.

 

[outdoors1968]

When I was a kid, my stepdad, who was an avid hunter, ran over a big rattlesnake with his old international scout 4x4......... by accident, mind you...... Rather than waste it he brought it home and skinned it out, and my mom breaded / deep fried it. Kinda weird tasting, like between chicken and fish ...........
Anyhow, lots of snake lovers say everyone should be educated on every single snake rather than killing one, not sure who's right or wrong, but when you dig up a snake accidentally, I doubt there's much time to consider moral rights / wrongs of killing it before it whacks ya.

Being a metal detectorist doe not automatically mean you must study every plant, animal, etc you may encounter in the field. We should tread lightly and show respect, yes, but being in the hobby doesn't mean I or anyone else should conform to anyone elses beliefs on politics, ecology, eating / not eating meat, etc.

This thread seems to have degenerated into people trying to impose their views on everyone else.

 

[creeper71]

When I was a kid, my stepdad, who was an avid hunter, ran over a big rattlesnake with his old international scout 4x4......... by accident, mind you...... Rather than waste it he brought it home and skinned it out, and my mom breaded / deep fried it. Kinda weird tasting, like between chicken and fish ...........
Anyhow, lots of snake lovers say everyone should be educated on every single snake rather than killing one, not sure who's right or wrong, but when you dig up a snake accidentally, I doubt there's much time to consider moral rights / wrongs of killing it before it whacks ya.

Being a metal detectorist doe not automatically mean you must study every plant, animal, etc you may encounter in the field. We should tread lightly and show respect, yes, but being in the hobby doesn't mean I or anyone else should conform to anyone elses beliefs on politics, ecology, eating / not eating meat, etc.

This thread seems to have degenerated into people trying to impose their views on everyone else.

I tried to not reply to this post anymore then I did already which I believe this is my 3rd post.. anyways I would like to say that I have snakes falling out into my pits all the time while I am bottle digging in the old dumps.. yeah it does scare the crap out of ya for the first few seconds,but I jump back focus on the snake Id it then I toss it out of the way...instead of killing the snake a person could easily just toss it out of the way...most snake will run.. a copperhead may come back at you but that is rare... I think that all persons out where snakes are should at the very least be able to ID all poisonous snakes...not assume every snake is poisonous... cause truth of the matter is over 90% of all north american snakes are constrictors meaning they kill by choking the air of the prey... I also would like to say that if he would have killed a cat or dog alot of people wouldn't be so quick judge those who have an opinion about what he killed an thought it was wrong for doing so... they to would think it was wrong but since it's a snake an many people are uneducated on snakes they are quick to defend his actions ...

 

[bigwater]

a copperhead may come back at you but that is rare

I think you got copperhead and cottonmouth mixed up. You'll scare a copperhead more than he'll scare you. They do everything that they can do to avoid human interaction. They are so scared of you they just freeze to avoid being seen. About the only way you can get bitten by a copperhead is to step on one because you didn't see him in the first place. I've seen copperheads laid out on trails before with people walking by completely oblivious to the snake, and the snake just laying low hoping not to be seen.

A cottonmouth on the other hand is more agressive, and will chase your butt down and bite you if you invade it's territory.