This photo was taken in the mid 90s when I worked as a crew chief with the Mississippi Forestry Commission. That’s me on the left, County Forester, then my crew member. We were doing a gopher survey in Marion County.
The County Forester radioed me to grab his machete. He had a Diamondback bade just outside a gopher hole. When I saw the snake and looked at his machete, I thought, “this is not long enough”. As he kept the intruders attention, I eased over and hoped for the best.
This Diamondback was over 6′ long with 13 rattles and a button. Having a very short machete cause my swing to be off a little. What you see in the picture is about 6′ of the snake, about a 1’& 1/2 is missing.
