Mamba Death

That's what it's all about.
Something you made actually being used in practical application, that's no safe queen.

Thanks,
Rudy
 
Gary Just sent me this.


The Long Blade on Safari by Gary Lewis.


An experimental combat survival knife and a chance encounter with a black mamba


By Gary Lewis



The quickest way to get branded a greenhorn is to carry a big belt knife on a deer hunt. This was in my mind when I accepted a blade, on loan, to carry on safari in South Africa.
Three days before I boarded the plane for South Africa, I got a call from Jim Allen, of Three Sisters Forge, in Bend, Oregon, a knife maker. He said he wanted to loan me a knife.
It was no trouble to add another tool to my kit. It packed easily alongside my rifle in the case. But this was not just any knife. It was big.
At over 17 inches from tang to tip, it was the longest edged weapon I had carried since I had to cut brush with a machete as a teenager.
There was a moment when one of my partners started to chide me about bringing a big knife, but he stopped when I handed him the blade. Something in his combat training past told him this was no knife to trifle with.

The TSF Field Utility Knife

Jim Allen, the knife’s creator, calls it a multi-use survival tool, designed to chop, cut, pound, trench and pull rope and cord.
If it was easy to describe the blade, we would call it a tanto, with 11.675 inches of 1095 steel with a clipped angular tip and a uni-facial grind.
At .135 inches thick across the back of the blade, the knife had the weight to carry a stroke through a thumb-sized limb on the first try. The angled tip is ground to a chisel point for penetration.
In hand, the knife balanced a little tip-heavy, as a fighting knife should. With over five-and-a-half inches of handle, it is suitable for use with two hands on the grip. The butt is oversized, to accommodate a generously-sized lanyard hole that can do double duty for pulling or for tightening rope.
The handle is clad with black textured linen/resin scales and pinned with .1875-inch I.D. brass tubes. A parachute cord wrap provides extra texture in the hand. The para cord can be removed and the tubes employed for pulling, wrapping, tying and binding.
Cut from heavy-duty Kydex, the sheath is pure utility, with no retention clasps or safety straps. Held in a friction fit, the knife must be forcibly drawn. Designed to be worn handle upright, the sheath can be belt-mounted at the side, at the small of the back or belted to a pack.
The original concept was to mount the knife behind the pilot’s seat in a helicopter or an airplane. In the event of an emergency, the knife is only an arm’s length away, ready for action or to be belted on.

Living on the Edge

No matter how much experience you have, when you go someplace new, you’re a tenderfoot. It takes a few days on the ground to get comfortable, to learn the difference between an nyala track and a waterbuck’s, to spot the biggest ram in a herd of impala or catch the shine of kudu horn in the mopane.
There’s a lot of edge on the banks of the Limpopo. Shaded by fever trees, baobab, acacia and mopane, the river marks the border between South Africa and Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. We would hunt two different regions along the banks of the Limpopo.
Extreme, I thought. But if you’re going to live life on the edge, you’d better have an edge.
Our first hunt was with Shingani Safaris. Riann Vosloo had selected 27-year-old Stehan de Kock to guide us.
In the vehicle, I wore the knife at my side, skipping one belt loop. When we dismounted for a hunt, I slid it around to the small of my back, out of the way of brush.
In the heat of the day, as we stalked antelope from the shade, snakes, particularly black mambas, were never far from our minds. We hoped the cool July nights would keep them in their dens.
Able to reach 20 miles per hour, it is one of the fastest snakes in the world. It is also one of the most dangerous. “If you are bitten, best thing to do,” one professional hunter said, “is to find a tree close to the road and lay down. That way your body won’t bloat before your friends find you. And they won’t have to drag you that far to the truck.”
Black mambas are not black at all, but gray, yellowish or olive green. They are called black mambas in reference to the ink-black mouth and eyes as dark as the grave. One black mamba has enough venom to kill between 15 and 25 people.
Headed down a bumpy two-track in the early afternoon, we were looking forward to lunch and cool drinks.
“Boss! Boss!” The trackers on the back of the truck scrambled. De Kock stood on the brakes and skidded to a halt. There followed a flurry of words, which included ‘mamba.’ De Kock leaped out and grabbed Brian’s 375 H&H from the rack. Around to the front, he pulled up, rifle at his cheek.
The 300-grain Nosler Partition hit the coiled snake in two places.
The black mamba was down but not out. Its coffin-shaped head lifted off the ground, its tiny black eyes sought a target as I spooled it up on the knife. Writhing, it struck again and again, but its nervous system was damaged, if not destroyed.
I finished it with the knife. The blade, which had looked so big back home, could have been ten feet longer.
 
My best friend got bit by a black mamba ,he was in a comma for three months to this day he has black spots on his arm and dead spots he says no feelings , he walked out side and felt something on his leg reached down to slap at it and it bit him thank god he was to drunk to feel it LOL he walk about 10 feet and was out for three months.
 
I subscribe to the school of calling air strikes and artillery in on snakes of that caliber. From everything I've read those mambas are spring loaded to the mean, dangerous position.
 
Awesome story, and great to see your blade in use.

I was raised a country boy, but I still (and probably always will) SHUDDER at the sight of snakes, any of 'em!
Still can't get over a little garter snake biting my cheek when I was 6 in the garden.
Later when I married first wife, we bought an old abandoned farmhouse. Was working in basement on floor joists next to crawlspace, and for some reason a 3' rat snake thought my fist was a rat.

Call me a wimp.
Maybe I just don't understand snakes in general, but obviously your blade proves it not always a matter of understanding!
 
I like adrenelin... I dive in the dark waters where gators and bullsharks regularly visit or live. I believe if Im bitten by either, I wont lose my life. Maybe an arm or leg, at least I can still see the sun rise! Aint no way in Africa Im gonna get near a Mamba! One slip and its over! I think Id be like Shoot again... your clip aint out yet! Ive caught rattle snakes, been struck at 3 times ( we talking close calls) by rattlesnakes and moccassins but nothing here compares to a Mamba or Australias Common Brown...It would be safer to fool around with someones wife! Man thats crazy. Like swimming with Saltwater Crocs....Foolish!

Awesome pic though!!! LOL

I like Dead poisonous snakes!
 
Hmm funny looking Mamba . I was in Africa in the late 60s on a good will cruise and ,the only ones I ever heard of were black and bright green ???
maybe its the lighting . Must be a Baby , them snakes are average 8.2 ft. some grow to 14 ft fastest snake in the world can out run a man . Dangerous adventure
the black color refers to his mouth color which is black but, they are usually pretty dark ...
 
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nice looking blade

hate the story...

snake wasnt bothering either of the great white hunters and he killed it anyway?? if I say what I really think, pretty sure I will be banned

anywho

killing something that isnt bothering you aside

this statement

“If you are bitten, best thing to do,” one professional hunter said, “is to find a tree close to the road and lay down. That way your body won’t bloat before your friends find you. And they won’t have to drag you that far to the truck.”

this statement is completely false AND could get someone very dead that didnt need to be that way...I really hope that professional hunter is as good a shot as he is a storyteller

just as some of us cringe when we hear some secret recipe for heat treat that doesn't make much sense, but is used as a kickass marketing gimmick, people like me also cringe at OTHER kinds of false information that are used as a marketing gimmick and how dangerous those snakes are and of course by proxy how manly and brave the professional hunters are who brave something so deadly

can mambas kill you?? of course

are they dangerous? again of course


are they the creeping death they are made out to be?? sort of..I personally have called them the "tony Montana" of snakes

being calm and getting immediate medical attention are the best advice you can get...being calm is a really good one, or you can just lay down and die...but do it calmly

AND

just for those that are curios, yes I really like and keep snakes (corns and kings are a personal fav of mine with the southern copperhead my fav hot)

but

the only snake that ever actually scared me to the point of me shaking and loosing my cool was a pretty green mamba my friend has in his hot collection...thing LOOKS like it cant wait to kill you and is of course named Tony

guess I could have just shot it

again nice knife
 
Juvenile Krait and cotton mouth water moccasin

Here's my dumb ass handling two Killers . the Krait is real bad medicine , glad I didn't get bit . LOL:biggrin::lol::55::55: What ????
 
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bubba-san, why in the world would you put yourself in the position where you could get bit by either one, or both, of those snakes? That looks very dangerous to me.
 
Even if they bit me it wouldnt bother me I am immune to both venoms .:55::55::55::55::55: Both snakes are rubber props , just trying to have a little fun .:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:
 
I had a friend call me from Australia, he was giving me some stuff for being stupid enough to play with poison snakes , I told him they were stage / movie props made to look absolutly real . He still thinks they were real . I have a few of them and on occasion I have scared myself . Bubba
 
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