Hunting camp work day ends with rattlesnake bite

Timber rattler sends Mississippi hunter to the hospital with painful swelling

On Saturday, Dana Sanders was just doing what many of us will be doing for the next few weekends — preparing for the 2014 hunting season by clipping limbs to clear a shooting lane.

What he didn’t do, however, was look where he was stepping. And a timber rattlesnake made him pay for that mistake, biting him on the left leg and sending him to a hospital in extreme pain.

“It’s a cardinal rule when you’re traveling in the woods that you don’t put your foot where you can’t see,” the 47-year-old said. “I totally broke that rule; I let my guard down.”

Sanders remains hospitalized in Vicksburg today, receiving regular injections of antivenin to overcome the painful symptoms of that bite, which left his left leg swollen from his hip to his toes.

Click here to jump over to our sister site and read more about the ordeal that happened at his family farm south of Vicksburg, Mississippi.

About Andy Crawford 863 Articles
Andy Crawford has spent nearly his entire career writing about and photographing Louisiana’s hunting and fishing community. While he has written for national publications, even spending four years as a senior writer for B.A.S.S., Crawford never strayed far from the pages of Louisiana Sportsman. Learn more about his work at www.AndyCrawford.Photography.