MS Raccoon Hunt vs. Rattler

Daniel Sims with a rattlesnake he and Brad Goodman came across last Sunday night (Photo: Brad Goodman)

Two Copiah County, Mississippi hunters didn't bag any raccoon's on last Sunday night outing, but you can't say they didn't have good luck on the hunt.

The luck was that Brad Coodman and Daniel Sims saw the rattlesnake, longer than 5 feet and with 11 rattles and a button, before it saw them.

"I stepped past a log and turned to look down beside it and there he was, about a foot from my boot," Sims said.  "It startled me a bit even though I'm not scared of them."

Sims and Goodman are avid hunters, and are used to seeing all kinds of things when they're out, but this was the biggest rattlesnake they've seen, Goodman said.

"We crossed a dry creek bed and just happened to see it," he said.  "I'm just glad it didn't hit us or the dogs."

A very large rattlesnake (along with a smaller snake) killed by raccoon hunters in Copiah County, MS last Sunday night.  (Photo: Brad Goodman)

The two were hunting on Sims' property, Goodman said.  

"I told Brad to look, then the snake turned to go in a hole and I shot him in the side, then I got down and grabbed him and pulled him out of the hole so Brad could put a finishing shot in his head," Sims said.

Noticing that the snake appeared to have fed recently, they cut it open once they had killed it.

"It had a full grown squirrel in its stomach along with what appeared to be a small rat," Goodman said.

"It doesn't matter how many you've seen in your life, it always sends chills up your spine when you see one," he said.  "It's one of the deadliest snakes in the state."

Courtesy of The Clarion Ledger