Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ENTERPRISE-JOURNAL (McComb, Mississippi) 08 August 03 Face-to-face snake encounter prompts thanks for God’s help - Smithdale hunter gets all too close to cottonmouth
Below are excerpts from an article by Roger U. Lewis of Smithdale in the January-February edition of The Primitive Baptist:
As I look back on my life I am made to recognize the many times God has reached down with His providential hand and in His infinite mercy delivered this old sinner, saved by grace, from peculiar and dire circumstances...
On this somewhat humid and cloudy day I arrived at our hunting camp located along the Homochitto River in Franklin County, Mississippi. My brother, Grant, wasn’t at his campsite on the bank of the river, therefore, I decided to go to a location on a ridge adjacent to a swampy area extending to the river bank, where I harvested a fine whitetail buck earlier in the season. This was a promising spot and I was filled with much anticipation...
As I proceeded further downward I came upon the remnants of a gigantic beech tree top left by loggers. The humidity was stifling and I had begun to perspire heavily. I had to maneuver over the butts of the huge limbs to a stump on the very edge of a bluff overlooking the trail from the swamp.
Eventually I approached the first large, mossy-gray and lichen covered limb and proceeded to step over, when about three-quarters of the way through my step a sudden flash of white, resembling a beautiful, morning glory burst forth at the place where my right foot was about to land. In a flash of horror I suddenly recognized that this starkly-white blossom was not a flower at all but instead was growing from the service end of a hideous cottonmouth moccasin!
How I withdrew my foot from an almost completed step, I can, with conviction, only give credit to my maker — I found myself now fully standing, looking down on one of the largest and most poisonous reptiles in existence. Cold chills and goose-pimples skittered up my back as I stood on rubber-band legs thanking God for His mercy.
I considered dispatching him with my .30-30 rifle, but on second thought, I calculated if I shot I would frighten every white-tail deer within a square mile out of the county and my evening hunt would be fruitless. So, I looked around nervously and found a stick that appeared to be just the weapon to do the business at hand. As I returned the moccasin quickly tucked his fist-sized head, filled with lethal venom, into his coils. I forcefully rammed the stick downward toward his head and pushed forward with all my strength. The snake began to wither and squirm in pain.
SNAP! The stick suddenly broke, plunging me head-first between the huge limbs, wedging my upper torso, especially my face and head directly on top of the deadly reptile.
There seemed to be snake all over me, under my armpits, about my sweaty face, his scaly hide brushing my whiskered cheeks. The pungent stench, now emanating around me was sickening. It was literally me and him for what seemed like an eternity. “Lord have mercy,” I gasped.
Just as suddenly as I was thrust on top of the angry, frustrated, and now frightened cottonmouth, I now found myself standing upright as if a mighty hand had grabbed me by the nape of the neck and pulled me upward. I stood looking down again on the blazing white mouth agape with protruding deadly fangs and oozing mucous (probably venom).
The putrid odor gave me an overwhelming urge to up-chuck.
“Thank you, gracious Lord, for delivering me again from a most certain painful and deadly situation,” I prayed. I then thoroughly and carefully examined my shivering body for any fang marks and endeavored to wipe away the acrid smell on my whiskers and rumpled clothing to no avail.
I was hard-headedly determined to finish the job I had intended to do, so I looked around and found a huge, solid pole and after severely testing it for strength I again approached my adversary very carefully. As I looked over the limbs again the old reptile again quickly hid his head in his coils. (I believe I can substantiate in the Scriptures why a snake does this).
I then quickly and efficiently dispatched him and threw his flexing, slithering, no-shouldered body into a gully nearby, then proceeded with much care to the intended stump...
When I arrived at camp I was met by my brother. As we stopped he queried, “What on earth happened to you? You are a white as a sheet.” Shaking profusely, I related my horrendous experience to him. “Your luck is going to run out, if you are not careful,” he stammered.
I humbly reminded him there was no luck involved in my deliverance this day: that God had surely placed His mighty hand on me and led me from peril once again and I give all the thanks and credit to Him in being merciful and answering my feeble plea. Grant then stated with conviction: “Amen.”
Smithdale hunter gets all too close to cottonmouth

That is the funniest thing I've read for a while. OMG, my sides hurt now. I wish I could have been there..

"Largest, most deadly snake on the Planet" MWAAHAAAHAAAHAAA..Oh, it hurts...

"Fangs dripping deadly venom" "Gotta get it out of my whiskers" "Snake in my armpits!" "God deliver me!" Mwaaahaaahaahaaa...oh, ouch! Make it stop!

All that story needs is the cartoon pictures following the story and the "This happened to me!" tagline.

Well, at least God saved him from certain death in the jaws of Earth's largest and most deadly no-shoulders slithering Satan-created creature. Here's a question...if God knew he was gonna have to save this poor chap from the snake, why did he let him run into it in the first place? And...why didn't He give him a strong stick the first time? Was He just playing with this fool? Is that how He entertains himself? Why is it that one shot with a 30-30 would scare all the deer away, but all that thrashing and flailing at beating the poor snake to death with a stick won't? Why couldn't he just walk away? Did he think the snake would track him down and kill him in his sleep? Did he think that by killing that one Cottonmouth he's ridding the world of a foul evil? One thing that Mississippi has is plenty of Cottonmouths. He probably stepped over two or three getting back to that one.

Way to much drama and too many holes in that story. Sounds to me like someone that's trying to become a religious adventure writer. The really sad thing is that the locals will read that and believe every word of it.

Here he is rushing back to the camp to tell his brother about his brush with death.
...I agree with oldherper, complete BS.
Chris

Rednecks are always angered by things more intelligent than themselves. Snakes,tree stumps and beer cans all fall into this category that is why, I believe, that they are shot at with such determination.
although, being a native floridian I am sure that yankee's and other such types that come here to florida are just as ignorant when it comes to snakes,and just as vindictive in killing them.
Ryan,
BTW I will apologize in advance to all the people I offended with the yankee comment

Gawd I hate redneck religion!

Do we really NEED rednecks? And how has evolution allowed them to continue existing for so long on nothing but stupidity? Things that make you say hmmmmmmmmmmm.