Hunter 1, rattlesnake 0 after scary encounter in deer stand

LEXINGTON, Miss. — A Mississippi hunter says he was trapped in his deer stand when a rattlesnake joined him there last month, but the snake ended up the loser.

Mack Ginn of Lexington said he was about two hours into his Dec. 28 stakeout for a deer when he heard a strange rattle, The Hattiesburg American reported. He thought it sounded like a cicada, but then he remembered cicadas aren’t active in late December.

“It was 7:45 when I first heard it,” Ginn said. “I heard a rattle. It echoed in the blind and sounded like it was in the trees.”

He pulled his head back into the 4-by-4-foot blind and spotted a rattle attached to a snake that was only inches away, tucked into the slats of a pallet that served as the blind’s flooring.

“I literally jumped into the chair because there was no way to get away. When I was in that chair I realized I had nowhere to go,” he said.

The snake started striking at the shaky chair, he said. So he aimed at the creature through his deer rifle’s scope and missed. He then put the gun close to the snake’s head and fired.

He was left with a dead 4.5-foot (1.3-meter) snake and ears that rang most of the day. He also now has plans to update the blind.

“That ground blind will have a solid wood floor in there,” Ginn said. “I’m putting ¾-inch plywood in it and sealing it. I won’t be sitting on a pallet again, that’s for sure.”