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Regarding rattlesnakes, and their bites, do chest waders provide any
protection against their bites? Waders come in varying thicknesses,
and mine are multi-layer, so I would imagine that the ability for a
rattler to penetrate will depend on the type of wader.

Any thoughts?

Regular fishing waders would provide essentially no protection.
But, I recently read that although there were 1248 rattlesnake bites to
humans in the U.S. reported in 2003, only one human death resulted - as
compared to 44 deaths from lightning reported the same year. In a related
vein, a couple of years ago a friend of mine almost lost his hand due to a
reaction he had after his cat bit him. The personnel in the Lewiston
Hospital where he was treated told him that while they had treated 5
rattlesnake bites that year and 3 cat bites, the cat bites caused them
considerably more concern and problems than the rattlesnake bites.


--
Bob Weinberger
La, Grande, OR

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