[Rick Lee]

Well, it's pretty hard to get bitten when using a snake stick. The longest Rattler you'll ever see in AZ is 6', and that's a monster and very rare. Their striking distance is 1/3 of their body length. So a max of 2' striking distance. Use a 4' snake stick, my arms are 2' long and, as long as you walk with the snake in front of you, so you can't fall back or sideways onto it, you'll be fine. I corralled this Rattler two or three times and by my second time, he had already been corralled by the other 10 people in the class. So he was plenty mad by my second time. Still, nothing to worry about.