hoppdoc
.400 member
Reged: 02/03/06
Posts: 1791
Loc: Southeastern USA
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Every hunter has some particular aspect of hunting which REALLY concerns them.
I understand and appreciate crocs in Africa. Mine is snakes. I hunt where water moccasins/rattlers are common and I detest poisonous snakes.
I will be honest and say that the african mamba/puff adder would concern me greatly as well. I have heard stories from PH's of bad breath range "coulda been dead" encounters.
Yowser!! **Snakes- Rifles are just very poor for snap shot resolution of this type of hostilities.
I do carry a revolver with snake shot but that would be impossible in Africa-----
-------------------- An armed man is a citizen of his country, an unarmed man just a subject.
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500Nitro
.450 member
Reged: 06/01/03
Posts: 7244
Loc: Victoria, Australia
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hoppdoc
If your phobia is snakes, don't plan on coming to Australia to hunt !!!
I've had a couple of close encouters including one while hunting ducks. The snake was lying quietly in the water as I crossed it and then it just rose up and struck towards me from about 2 - 3 feet. A shot from the hip with the Shotgun blew it's head off.
500 Nitro
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Sasquatch
.224 member
Reged: 02/04/06
Posts: 31
Loc: Canada
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I'm afraid snakes are it for me as well. They don't stop me from going, but I do not like them.
I was always told that if I went hunting in Africa the chances were I would never see a poisonous snake. Well, every time I go I see several.............maybe next time the odds will go back to normal and there will be a lack of serpents.
-------------------- Skyline Adventures
www.canadianblackbearhunt.com
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NitroX
.700 member
Reged: 25/12/02
Posts: 40689
Loc: Barossa Valley, South Australi...
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I never have worried much about snakes in Africa but in summer here I avoid higher grass like the plague.
Insects carrying disease is what gives me the creeps about Africa and not just malaria but eg incurable diseases like Elephantosis (splg?) also carried by Mosquitoes.
I've caught two "bugs" while in Africa, but thankfully after a few years managed to throw both off.
-------------------- John aka NitroX
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Govt get out of our lives NOW!
"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
"A Sharp spear needs no polish"
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JPK
.375 member
Reged: 31/08/04
Posts: 734
Loc: Chevy Chase, MD
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Snakes give me the willies.
When I see a snake up close, I join the hummingbird and the bumble bee as the third flyer that physics say shouldn't be able to fly.
I "always" keep an eye out and "never" put a hand or foot where I can't see in areas where poisonous snakes are possible. Still, when I see one, even exactly where I thought one might be, I experience deep primordial fear.
JPK
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mikeh416Rigby
.450 member
Reged: 24/02/03
Posts: 6051
Loc: The beautiful Oley Valley, PA....
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SPIDERS! I HATE SPIDERS, ESPECIALLY THE BIG HAIRY ONES!
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BFaucett
.333 member
Reged: 13/01/04
Posts: 472
Loc: Houston, Texas
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Back in 2000, my friend Kate and I went to South Africa. One day she was sitting with her PH in a blind (hide) trying to get a Warthog. After being in the blind for a while, the PH suddenly (but very calmly and softly) said, "Kate, don't move!" Kate said, "OK. Why?" Her PH said, "Puff Adder."
Seems this guy crawled into the blind between their seats.

The snake was about 12 inches from her feet. Kate VERY SLOWLY raised her feet and the PH shot the snake's head off with a .22 LR rifle he had in the blind. Kate had wondered why he had taken a .22 rifle into the blind. She asked him about it later. He said, "In case of snakes." !!! 

-Bob F.
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JPK
.375 member
Reged: 31/08/04
Posts: 734
Loc: Chevy Chase, MD
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A team of horses couldn't have gotten me back in that blind!
JPK
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NitroX
.700 member
Reged: 25/12/02
Posts: 40689
Loc: Barossa Valley, South Australi...
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That snake doesn't scare me. It doesn't have a head!
Nice markings on the skin however.
-------------------- John aka NitroX
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Govt get out of our lives NOW!
"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
"A Sharp spear needs no polish"
Edited by NitroX (03/05/06 12:47 PM)
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Yogi000
.333 member
Reged: 02/03/06
Posts: 265
Loc: New York, USA
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While hunting rattlesnakes in Arizona a few years back, I nearly stepped on one. I somehow reversed direction and flew UP in the air in what must have appeared to have been in defiance of laws of physics. When I landed a couple feet back the rattler struck and just missed my leg, coming up short. He was dead a few moments later and we ate him for dinner along with 6 or 7 others... we shaked and baked them and raosted them on sticks the tribal way.... yupper tasted like chicken too.
Snakes are not what terror me, I would have to say what CONCERNS ME is getting bitten by something small like a spide in my sleep and waking up paralyzed or unable to function... Although getting eaten alive by any BIG animal is MORE of a TERROR than the bitten during sleep thing. THAT is terror: Eaten alive. Yuck. I guess that is why we carry big doubles, huh?
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BFaucett
.333 member
Reged: 13/01/04
Posts: 472
Loc: Houston, Texas
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In reply to:
Nice markings on the skin however.
It's now a nice flat skin under the glass on her office desk. I've got to hand it to her, she was a real trooper on that trip.
On another day, she and her PH were on foot trying to stalk a Waterbuck when they heard a snort behind them. They slowly turned around and came face to face with a White Rhino bull that was about twenty yards away. No convenient trees nearby either. They froze and didn't move. Kate said she knew it was really serious when her PH slowly and quietly worked the bolt on his rifle to chamber a round. (A Brno 602 in .416 Rigby.) Fortunately, after what she said seemed like a lifetime, the Rhino just turned and trotted back into the bush.
The game farm was about 18,000 acres in size. There were a total of nine White Rhino on the property. (We were just hunting plains game.)
As for me, I didn't have any "exciting adventures" on that trip. Personally, I'm kind of glad I didn't! 
We hunted with Mabelingwane Safaris in the northern part of the Limpopo Province. I also hunted with Mabelingwane, on the same property, in 2002 and 2005. Here's a photo I took last August (2005) of one of the Rhino on the property.

Cheers, -Bob F.
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