Yes, I would run like an Olympic sprinter even in that knee-deep mucky mud and scream like a girl on a Wes Craven movie set being chased by a horrifying zombieman with a chainsaw hungry for brains if I came across this critter.

I’m not afraid of snakes. I have a healthy respect for them. But I’m not all yippie-ki-yay gung ho about them, either. A .45/.410 Taurus Judge would be just fine to have on my hip, thank you, in much of the Southeast when I’m hunting or fishing.

Is this the world’s most terrifying water moccasin? As Richard Dawson would have said on Family Feud, “Survey says … YES!”

The good folks at Mossy Oak posted this video in 2013 and it’s still slithering across laptop screens today, putting a bite into every viewer’s day. Just look at the size of that water moccasin! Southern hunters are familiar with these stinkin’ beasts when we venture into swamps, around ponds and on big lakes.

Water moccasins can be highly aggressive, depending on the time of year and their temperament. They also blend in well with their surroundings so if you’re not looking, well, you might get whacked.

Quick turkey story: I was hunting down in south Alabama about 15 or so years ago and the guide (we were on private land I didn’t know anything about) said we’d have to cross a small creek on a beaver dam to get to the treeline around the edge of a big field.

No problem. Then he said, “There’s usually a three- to four-foot moccasin on the top of the dam but it usually swims away. I guess he thinks it’s his.”

The snake was there and I shouldered my gun to shoot it, but was told not to. “Might scare any turkeys in the field,” he said. Turkey schmurkey. They were the last things on my mind. Fortunately, though, the snake did slither-swim away, we crossed the beaver dam and all was good. Except for there not being any turkeys in the field.