Pituophis are Pines (eastern), Bulls (central) and gophers (western U.S.) I have 3 bullsnakes and 6 pinesnakes.
Pituophis are known to have "variable temperaments". Some you can pick up in the wild and are very docile, and with others, no matter how long you keep them in captivity they will try to take off your hand every time you reach in the cage.
Pituophis are mostly bluff. They will hiss loudly, rub they rough scales against each other has they move in place, agitated. They will gape their mouths, vibrate their tails and even strike if cornered. They are slow moving snakes and usually stand their ground and bluff rather than try to make a run for it.
I've found that most of this is bluff, even the strikes. Even when they strike they rarely actually bite. They either miss you all together or just bump you. Sometimes they even bite themselves. Of all of mine I have only one biter and he's getting better each time I work with him.
Even when they bite it doesn't hurt. They have relatively short teeth and lack the jaw strength to inflict a painful bite.
The bites amount to several pin pricks, some may produce a small droplet of blood or two. If you pull back as it bites the pin pricks become scratches and sometimes a tooth will even pull out and feel like a splinter in your finger. This is not as bad as it sounds.
No one has ever died from a Pituophis bite.
I'd suggest getting some cotton gloves and wearing them around long enough to get your scent on them. Wear those gloves and a long sleeved shirt to pick up the bullsnake. This will give you to the confidence to reach right in and pick it up without hesitation, so you don't give it a chance to get an attitude worked up. It will protect you if it does bite, you shouldn't even feel it. After it settles down you can remove the gloves. Also try putting the scented gloves in the cage with him, so it gets used to your smell and associtates it with a relaxed experience. I'd suggest that when the snake finally does settle down, that you continue to hold it for a good period of time to reinforce that experience.
When I reach in, I do so open handed, palm down, and place my hand over the snakes head, touching it and then moving down to the middle/front of the snake and picking it right up. This touching it's head, lets it smell me and conditions it to know that it's being picked up and not being fed.
Pituophis are aggressive feeders and can come flying right out of the cage, mouth wide open at anythings that moves if they smell food or think they are going to be fed.
One other trick is to wear latex gloves when you handle them and let them bite the gloves. They taste bad to the snakes and it discourages them to bite you. The first time I tried this, my Pit bit a chunk of the glove right off my finger and had it hanging out of it's mouth, lol. It did seem to work eventually though.
Pituophis fans actually like the snakes attitudes and usually move up to Pits after becoming bored with docile snakes like corns. Some Pit owners even intentionally avoid handling the snakes too much, so they don't discourage this attitude of hissing and bluffing.
Note the scratches on my hand in the bottom pic...that is from a bite from that snake.
Pic 1 - black pine snake
Pic 2 - bullsnake
Pic 3 - southern snow pine (red phase)(this is the biter)









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1.1 Jungle Carpet Python (both gorgeous)
1.1 Ball Python (normals)
2.3 hatchling ball python (normals)
1.1 Ball Python (het for albino)(gonna make my own albino)
2.1 Corn Snake (Okeetee,Sunglow x Snow,Okeetee, )
0.0.1 Gray band Kingsnake (Blairs)
1.1 Desert Kingsnake
1.0 Andean Milksnake (het Inca phase)
1.0 Bullsnake (normal)(my garbage disposal snake)
1.1 Bullsnake (red bulls)
1.1 Black Pine Snake
1.1 Southern Snow Pine (red phase snow, snow)
1.1 Mexican Pine snake
1.1 Black Milk snake
1.0 Western Hognose (possible het albino)
1.1 Honduran Milksnake (het albino)
1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback (Hondo)
0.1 Spouse (WC)(hates the herps,and not real crazy about the dog)

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