Thanks, Pete, for one of the most interesting postings in a while. And it makes me shudder to think of the small places in Powell's Cave I've squeezed into head first. But of course I was always listening for that familiar rattling sound.
A snake that doesn't rattle, and is extremely poisonous, is the fer-de-lance (Bothrops asper) of Mexico. I've had some close calls with it in cave entrances. Bill ---- Pete Lindsley <caverp...@gmail.com> wrote: > Well, actually I have seen a few rattlers in caves and they > occasionally rattled me a bit. Reloaders know that you can substitute > #9 shot for the single big bullet and make your own loads like > Ronnie's wax bullets. (Commercial "Rat shot" in a .22 rimfire doesn't > do much and only makes them mad.) I recall one large rattler (~6 feet > +) that the rancher shot with his shotgun, not far from a tight crawl > way crack we were digging one day in central TX. Another time "well > back" into Powell's I crawled up a breakdown slope and backed off from > a sleeping, coiled rattler. That snake was about 3" in diameter and we > detoured our upstream exploration of the water passage through a > nearby bypass where we had to belly through a low dig in the flowing > water. Some caves are just snake dens and I can recall at least two > that we never checked out because they were just too full of rattlers. > We returned to one of those in the dead of winter and pitched in some > stones to the tune of many rattles; we let the snakes keep their den. > > Alan mentioned the AZ folks like to "carry". Four of us from TX > observed that as well when camping at a location not to speak of when > several cans were "plugged" by the locals. > > Several times when we took scout groups to River Styx we were always > very careful to scope out the upper entrance because more than once we > found snakes just inside. One time when half the group was just inside > the entrance and the other half was outside, a curious rattler (small, > ~ 2 feet) crawled out to see if he heard dinner in his cave. We > carefully boarded him up with sticks and small rocks while the rest of > the scouts and leaders quietly crawled past the viper. We always > enjoyed telling each group to watch for "Bubba", a six footer Butch > Fralia had reported seeing numerous times not far from the entrance we > were using. > > - Pete > > On Feb 21, 2010, at 8:08 PM, Mark Minton wrote: > > While it might conceivably be useful to carry a gun _to_ a cave > entrance (although not in my personal 40+ years experience), I cannot > see any reason at all to carry a gun _into_ a cave. Firing a gun in a > cave would risk serious personal injury due to the dangers of > ricochet, not to mention that there is very likely nothing in a cave > that would be threatening enough to warrant having a gun. Anything > worthy of a gun would be obvious almost immediately, like a bear or a > lion, and there would likely be plenty of advance warning (like scat > or remains of prey) so that one could get away before needing to fire. > Except for some possibly extreme situations, this is a ridiculous > concept. > > Mark Minton > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > Visit our website: http://texascavers.com > To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com > For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com > --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
