[Swordmaker]

The one TX way is to smell it. Moccasins stink to hell - an undescribably rank, putrid scent that no other live snake possesses. If HG’s snake has no scent, it’s probably not a moccasin.

Exactly how close do you have to get to sniff the snake? Is six inches too close? How about a thirty feet?

[txhurl]

Help me out here? (we’re Lake Travis people)

We kill moccasins all the time. Once you get a moccasin out of water and lying cold and dead, they smell like a cross of a fresh diaper and a dead rat.

[Arrowhead1952]

Exactly how close do you have to get to sniff the snake? Is six inches too close?

You can smell them when you are within 20 - 30 feet. I've walked up to a tank, and knew there was one in a bush or at the edge of the water, and yes they will chase you, especially if you are near their nest. If you gutshoot one, it really stinks to high heaven.