Survivorman | Masterclass | Boot Bottom | Snake Protection

Survivorman Les Stroud gives you his personalized masterclass in survival, bushcraft and outdoor skills.

[drumzomario]

YES! I’ve done this with large garter snakes here in NB, Canada. When these suckers coil up and flatten out, they mean business!

[JoeL-kntc]

It's a venomous Water Moccasin or Cottonmouth

[Lucyorangejuicy]

Les, I found it a lil weird to have this premiere announcement when it ends up being only 1 min....next time maybe save the premiere feature for bigger videos or else we will stop taking the announcements serious. Kind Regards :)

[josephmcclure]

Been trying for a while on different bow drills with no success.not really familiar with the different types of wood.or what types to use.been experimenting.any suggestions?thanks for your expertise and knowledge.

[ericreed]

Looks like a species a cottonmouth moccasin a lot of their tails will shake to simulate a Radler in the leaves

[echo_then_void]

From what I've been told, most snakes do exactly what a rattlesnake does, just evolution worked more in favor of the rattlesnake.

[keisha]

YOU SHOULD ALWAYS CARRY A STUN GUN with you at all times when hiking in snake country to treat a poisonous snakebite. Although it has never been accepted by the mainstream medical community, the use of a stun gun (officially called electrical shock therapy) is considered by some alternative medical practitioners - particularly in Africa and South America - and some informed outdoor enthusiasts in America to be the treatment of choice for venomous snakebites.

The theory of how a stun gun shock works is that an electrical shock will destroy the proteins and enzymes in the venom enough to render it harmless. But the truth is that nobody actually knows, and there is no proven scientific hypothesis to account for it's benefit.

Also, although controversial, you should also carry either a Sawyer B4 extractor pump or a Ven-Ex venom extractor suction pump to suction out the venom when you do get fanged. The Sawyer is the best of the two. Study up on the recommended treatments for snakebites, but realize that the current recommendations are for normal times when transport to and treatment at a medical facility are available. If you are a very long way away from a hospital you may want to "cut and suck."

To explain, in years past the recommended first aid for a venomous snakebite was to tourniquet the area above the bite, incise the skin at the bite marks where the fangs entered parallel to the blood vessels and tendons about 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep and about 1 inch long, and then suck the venom out with your mouth or a suction device.

However, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2002 officially refuted this method of cutting and sucking, and it is no longer taught in first aid manuals, and is no longer used by paramedics in the field. Their thought was that venom enters the bloodstream extremely "quickly, " and therefore trying to suck it out is ineffective. Further, making incisions might lead to infection. Also, the use of a tourniquet might damage nerves and blood flow.

The current official position is that the best way to prevent venom from moving through the bloodstream is to remain calm, keep the wound as far below the heart as you can, and avoid hiking or running or doing anything that will increase the heart rate. In other words, do nothing at all, let the venom run it's course, and get your ass to a hospital. This is the mainstream medical recommendation, which, in my well-studied opinion, is not necessarily the best course of action depending on the circumstances.

If the snake injects it's venom into a muscle, it will take a while for it to be absorbed into the bloodstream. Intramuscular injection of a medication is the slowest of all methods of medication administration. The onset of action of IM administration is usually within 5 to 10 minutes, depending on factors like the blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature (hypothermia slows absorption), and many others. Snake venom injected into muscle tissue will be absorbed into the bloodstream in a similar amount of time as pharmaceutical medications.

That means the recommendations published in the New England Journal of Medicine are not necessarily correct. "Quickly" is a relative term. You'll easily have 5 or more minutes to tourniquet and suck out the venom before most of it is absorbed. Some or perhaps most of the venom will still be in the muscle where it was injected 5 minutes later.

If the venom is injected into fat tissue, such as in the abdominal area, most of the venom will still be there 10 minutes later. This is because fat tissue isn't as well perfused (meaning supplied with blood) as muscle tissue is. So sucking in an area of fatty tissue would likely be effective up to 10 minutes later. If it has been longer than 10 minutes all attempts at cutting and sucking probably won't be very effective regardless of the tissue type. You need to get the job done as soon as possible. But 5 minutes is plenty of time if you have the right first aid supplies with you. Although, even if 2 or more hours has passed you should still zap with a stun gun.

Personally, if the hospitals are closed due to the grid being down, or if I'm a long ways away from a hospital (i.e., more than 1 hour), I'll take my chances and use a tourniquet, and suck out the venom using a suction device if available, or if not available, by mouth. I'll also zap myself with a stun gun at the wound site until I'm unable to continue the zapping protocol regardless of how far away I am from medical care.

YOU WANT TO ZAP THE VICTIM (or yourself if you are the victim and there is nobody else to zap you) AS CLOSE TO THE BITE SITE AS POSSIBLE 4 OR 5 TIMES, WITH EACH ZAP LASTING 2 TO 3 SECONDS, WITH 5 TO 10 SECONDS BETWEEN ZAPS. This should only take between 25 to 55 seconds. Be sure to remove any clothing and zap bare skin for the best effect.
ZAPPING WITH A STUN GUN SHOULD ALWAYS BE DONE ASAP. If possible, it's best for somebody other than the victim to apply the stun gun because the victim may not be able to continue to apply subsequent shocks to themselves, and they may not be very accurate when counting out the seconds.

The reason for limiting the shocks to just 2 to 3 seconds is because it takes a shock of 4 to 5 seconds to disable somebody when using a stun gun for self defense. Shocks between 2 to 3 seconds won't significantly impair the victim of a snakebite, yet will still be effective against the venom.

If I don't have access to a suction device I'll go ahead and make two incisions at the fang sites using a STERILE scalpel (or alternately a sterilized razor blade is the next best second choice) and try to suck out the venom by mouth, or have a friend do the sucking (after all, what are friends for?). ALWAYS thoroughly clean the bite site with either Betadine or alcohol pads before cutting. Cleaning is imperative to preventing infection. Antibiotics can always be given later to help prevent infection. Be sure to have either prescription antibiotics or fish antibiotics if you are bugged out.

A suction device made for treatment of snakebites such as the Sawyer B4 extractor pump will provide way more effective suction than your mouth ever could, so if I have a device I'll forego the incisions, but if I don't have suction device, I'll go ahead and cut and suck by mouth.

The Annals of Emergency Medicine reported in 2004 that these commercially available extractors remove virtually no venom, just blood and other fluids. Venom extractors won't work as well at pulling venom from within muscle tissue as they will from fat tissue or if the venom is just beneath the skin. Effectiveness will vary depending upon where the bite occurred and how deep it is. Still, I'll take my chances and suck regardless of where the bite is located if medical care is not available or is more than 1 hour away.

You want to be certain you were actually envenomed before you cut and suck. All venomous snakes occasionally deliver dry bites, which are bites that do not inject venom (officially called "venomous snake bite without envenoming"). They do this because they have limited venom stores because they have recently bitten other animals, or because they want to save their venom for real pray, or who knows why.

Think of a dry bite like a bear charge. The bear is just bluffing to scare you away and not actually planning on attacking. According to estimates, 25% of all pit viper bites are dry, so statistically you have a 75% chance you were envenomed if it is a rattler. Other species have a much higher rate of dry bites. Small or baby rattlers are more likely to bite dry. Even dry bites can have pain and swelling around the bite, so it becomes a matter of how much pain and swelling are you experiencing, and what other symptoms you are experiencing such as bleeding, severe burning, purple bruising, nausea, weakness, dizziness, and an odd taste in the mouth.

If you are certain you were envenomed go ahead and zap, tourniquet, cut, and suck. If you are uncertain go ahead and at least zap because THERE ARE NO LONG-TERM COMPLICATIONS TO ZAPPING as long as the victim is laying down and won't be injured from falling when zapped. ALWAYS ZAP A SNAKEBITE BECAUSE YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE AND EVERYTHING TO GAIN.

Another recommendation of years past was to apply a cold pack to the bite site, but that advice has also been discontinued. The reason why this is no longer recommended is because they claim it will cause increased tissue damage. This doesn't make any intelligent medical sense to me because cold packs are frequently with many other injuries (such as burns, sprains, and dislocations) and they NEVER cause tissue damage if properly applied. I would go ahead and use a cold pack or ice pack if available, especially if I was far from medical care, because cold will constrict blood vessels and hopefully slow the distribution of the venom to the general circulation.

Treatment should be done in this order. Immediately zap, apply a cold pack, tourniquet, thoroughly clean the bite, then cut and suck if appropriate, finally properly bandage the wound and splint the limb. Call 911 for help as soon as practical. The cold pack and tourniquet will buy you a little time getting ready to cut and suck. Alternately, apply the tourniquet first before the cold pack. It doesn't matter which is first. But always zap first. You should skip using a tourniquet if you are not familiar with their use. It's easy to use a cold pack, but more complicated using a tourniquet.

Continued:

[Apollo]

I watched this series today and thought - it may be a risk, that the snake overshoots and strikes right into the face. But I guess there's no other part of the body you would put out for a strike.

[gamrman]

surprised that Les doesn't know what species that is

[kevingakacarolinaclunker]

It didn't work I got the crud bit out of me. 😊

[TRAPSQUAD]

I thought masterclass was a website 😂😂 anyone can just give them? Whoa 😯