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  • From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Homestead] Snake-jitsu (was Gunbelts)
  • Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2006 13:09:29 EDT

I am as much a gun aficionado as any other crusty backwoodsman, but having
gone mano-a-fang with a great number of pit vipers, I have to question the
value
of firearms against our legless antagonists.

This year has been a very light pit viper season with only two having to be
sent to be with their ancestors. Some seasons it's near fifty. If you are
in
immediate danger of being attacked by a snake, a pistol is useless. A snake
is deadly quick. So we are talking about removing a snake from an area where
you'd rather not step on it later by accident and there aren't many good ways
of doing that besides killing it,

Snakes aren't very sturdy, it takes very little to kill one. Of course, they
don't immediately know they are dead. You can cut the head off a copperhead
and then pick up the rest of the snake by the tail and headless snake will
attempt to get away, and failing that, it will attempt to bite you. The
brain of
a snake seems to be optional equipment.

I've found a long stick to be a much better weapon than a gun. A hoe or
shovel is ideal and one or the other is almost always in hand when I
encounter the
snakes. Once you are eyeball to eyeball with a snake, it helps to speak a
little snake, be a Parselmouth. A pit viper can't see very well and depend
on
heat detection to tell where prey or threats are. They don't percieve a
stick
or hoe as living, and so it's not a threat. They don't coil in a loop, of
course, to strike but make an 'S' shape. From that position they can strike
a
few inches longer than the lenght of the snake. If the snake sees your
shadow
coming toward it, it will stop and defend itself. If it sees your shadow
going
away, it will flee.

Ready the weapon and if the snake turns to flee, strike it sharply and it is
immediately in the next world. If the snake remains "coiled" strike it
between mid-snake and the tail. If it lives, it will immediately uncoil and
try to
flee and you dispatch it then.

I hate that it has to happen, but any chance that a child will enounter that
particular snake in the garden is too great a chance. My apologies to the
sanke, but better luck in the next life.




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