[fintstone]

My dad and I had an "eradication" program for poisonous snakes when I was young (as they were dangerous for livestock and dogs...and people to some extent). He killed many rattlesnakes before I was old enough to shoot a gun (10 maybe?) and they were pretty much gone, but we never could completely eliminate copperheads. He usually killed them with a hoe. He carried one pretty much all summer, but I got to shoot them with a shotgun. Big fun, so I was always eager to tag along. I know that preservationist would say differently, but we considered that 'the only good venomous snake was a dead one'.

I am pretty wary of copperheads as well...as I am not sure I would see them as well as when young (too old and citified). They use their natural colors/markings to hide themselves rather well. So do the timber rattlesnakes (what we had in the mountains).

We had no cottonmouths. The water is too cold in moving too fast in the rushing creeks in our area/mountains.