Taken from JRE #2020 w/Python Cowboy:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5uSwv4SpNbnepoCMxobQAw?si=ee79604e4a2e476c

I think I've been Florida Man a few times.

How did you get involved in hunting pythons?

First of all, can you bring that python head up?

I need to see it because I purposely didn't look.

I almost bled out in the middle of the Everglades, caught by myself in the middle of the Everglades.

This snake, 17 foot, 7 inches, 135 pounds.

And that's no eggs inside of it no meal inside of it that solid snake muscle and At the time that's about what I weighed so it was a fair Everglades battle royale

And that head actually has shrunk substantially from the freeze-drying process.

All critters freeze-dried that for me, and it takes all the moisture out of it really really shrinks now So I was out hunting the Everglades.

I was actually out in my 14-foot John boat by myself, and I was checking spoil islands out there.

These islands were dug maybe 100 years ago or more when they dug the canal.

They were made a hundred years ago when they were digging the canal.

And they've been up there, you know, gaining vegetation, getting real nasty.

And a lot of these critters come up on them to breed, to feed, and to nest.

And I was out there looking for you know a python like I normally do and I came across her.

I knew immediately when I saw her that she was very large possibly the largest python I've captured And I could only see the the back half of her maybe like the back third of her But I could tell she was a monster My heart is pounding I'd be lying to you if I said it wasn't but you know my main fear in a situation like that is not that this snake's going to kill me.

I'm confident in how to handle these animals, confident in my ability, but I'm worried this thing's going to get the best of me, overpower me, and possibly I'll lose it.

It gets away into the swamp to eat more of our native wildlife.

Coming across an animal like this, even with the situation we're in in the Everglades is still a once in a lifetime opportunity, it really is.

I've caught a number of them, but I spend a lot of time out there.

So I'm getting ready to capture this snake, building myself up to it.

The safest way to go about it is to find the head, grab the head with both my hands and keep her from coiling on me, wrapping around me.

Her head's buried in vegetation, buried in the maiden cane.

I just can't see it and she's working her way slowly off the island.

I'm afraid if I if I get closer to her head I'm gonna spook her and she's gonna try to start moving away.

I grab on to her tail and this is kind of a bad situation to be in especially with all the thick vegetation.

These snakes can easily overpower you and will actually drag you out into the swamp.

It intertwines in all the weeds and just drags you.

So I know grabbing this thing, my goal is to piss it off and get it to start striking at me where I can See that head and grab a hold of that head Otherwise this thing's this thing's gone So I get a hold of it and it starts dragging me it's pulling me off the island I

I'm hanging on to it Yeah, it's it's the this thing's eating alligators eating deer.

It's not scared of me, you know what I mean?

So I got a hold of it and it's starting to...

If I had gloves on, I wouldn't be able to grab it.

I need my bare hands to be able to work and and feel everything have the grip Gloves gloves will just get in the way

even something with like a texture to it.

They just get in the way So I got the snake dragging me out into the swamp You know losing this battle I'm able to dig my heels down into the limestone that I'm standing on, the limestone island, and I'm able to stop her.

I'm not gaining on her, but I got her stopped and we're kind of in this Everglades tug-of-war right now and she starts to get pissed off she starts hissing she starts turning around on me and this this is what I want but I got it not get bit you know I mean a Snake this size To my advantage there.

They're gonna tire out quickly and Her strikes aren't gonna be lightning fast, So she's striking at me.

Normally when a snake strikes, it's gonna strike out, recoil back, get ready, strike again, recoil back.

That's how they strike, that's how they get that power.

So it struck, I dodged it, it recoils back like a third of the way and hits me with this little sneak attack strike that I wasn't expecting.

This snake is anywhere from 10 to 20 years or more old.

And you know, snakes don't normally do that.

I think she kind of knew what she was doing she struck she got me on my arm got an artery got some veins coming off my artery and that that doesn't do it justice at all.

You can see them here, they're fucking crazy.

You can see that top 1 gets right into my main vein.

And the real bad 1 was on the top of my arm that you can't see where it's on this, I think it's an artery, I may have been wrong, coming on the top of my arm.

And she would have latched on, she would have wrapped around me, and I would have been in a very, very bad situation being out there by myself.

Thank the good Lord I had him on my side that day.

She struck, she bit, I was able to grab her head, and I don't know if it's how I pushed it forward and pulled her off or what, because all their teeth are recurved, like fish hooks almost, kinda.

Grabbed her head, pushed her off of me, she didn't latch on, she was trying to bite again, maybe that's she didn't think she had a good bite, and she was trying to regrip But I got lucky now.

I'm spraying blood All over the Everglades, but I have her head so now now my main thing is controlling her without exerting myself too much because every time I'm doing anything I mean it's it's I've never seen blood come out of my body like this you know really my hearts pounding adrenaline's going and my main thing is just to stay calm I don't think I'm necessarily gonna bleed to death I mean the amount of blood I'm seeing it cross my mind but but I really don't think I'm gonna bleed to death I'm worried about blacking out from blood loss the heat Exerting myself.

What's this snake gonna do if I black out?

It's gonna kill me 100% You know, I don't think it'd necessarily be able to swallow me and eat me maybe But it could definitely kill me So I'm really trying to control my heart where heart rate trying not to exert myself The snakes biting at me, you know, going nuts.

You can see the video on my YouTube of where I'm just covered in blood.

And I have a snake bag with me to put whatever snake I was planning on catching in the bag.

So I actually am able to use that bag to tie off my arm and kinda do a little redneck.

Yeah, while I got the head in 1 hand and I'm tourniqueting my arm, I think it was like this, tourniqueting my arm with the other and got my arm cinched shut, you know, kinda got the bleeding under control and I was able to kinda collect myself.

This snake is pretty much worn out at this point.

She's cold-blooded so they gas out after about a 10-minute fight.

So I'm kind of just laying on her catching my breath.

Now I got to get her back to my boat where I can put a bullet in her head because I don't just walk out around out there with a gun all these snakes I catch alive put them in a bag and it's just easier to not have a gun on me

I'm I'm literally crawling through cane and sawgrass and it gets snagged, you can lose a gun very easily and it's just, it's in the way and 99.9% of the time, I'm not gonna need 1.

And especially me, I'm the kind of guy where if I come across a 30-foot snake, you know, which pythons don't get that big, let's say I come across a 30-foot snake, something crazy, I ain't shooting it, I wanna catch it.

You know, that's, dude, that's what I'm all about.

Oh my God, this is you after this thing bit you.

Yeah, this is right where I'm getting ready to try to turn to kick my arm.

Yeah, I got my shoulder cam on and then I put a GoPro on the ground.

This is wild and you know normally I don't always get great I mean I get pretty good footage with my cell phone my shoulder cam But like I was set up this day, and I knew I had my GoPro running when this thing bit me

Are you Cinching up at the top of your arm above the wound above the wound.

Yeah above the wound and You know to be honest with you the the first thought that went through my mind when that thing bit me and I have all These cameras going and I see all this blood is This video is definitely going viral Just don't die

Yeah, I'm sure would have yeah found GoPro footage So now you have to

carry This thing out while you're holding on to its head.

She really is like a limp noodle wall while it's still alive She really is like a wimp noodle.

She is done Wow Yes, that's a man shit right there, son Not a lot of human beings are capable of doing that and just keeping it together.

It's creeping me out just watching you hold on to that thing as you're walking through the woods with it.

What I think it is more than anything and you know I hate to kind of take away from myself But it's it's what we're taught as kids you know we're taught to be fearful of snakes that they're this evil dangerous thing and I Can't tell you I think that's why I've been so successful on social media is these people They just freak out watching these snakes.

You know they can't believe it, and it's they're not really that crazy It's really not

I think they're really fucking crazy It's a piece of weather only in 1 state like this Look at the size of that thing, man.

I think, bro, I think they would eat you.

Wow That's actually how I started my social media as I made the news Went kind of viral for rescuing an alligator from a python.

I had a guy out on a guided hunt with me he recorded it videotaped it and you know made the news and a local clothing brand flow grown in Florida made my Instagram, made my social media, and was like, dude, you gotta start using it.

And that's really how it all got started.

That's how it got started, that's amazing.

And I actually, this was the smallest of the 3 I've rescued.

It was the third 1 that we finally got on video, because I never used to really record anything.

Imagine how fucking confused Alligators must be.


Speaker 0: The Jerogan Experience. I think I've been Florida Man a few times. Add that to my belt.

Speaker 1: How did you get involved in hunting pythons? First of all, can you bring that python head up? Let me see that python head. I need to see it because I purposely didn't look.

Speaker 0: This is actually the 1 that bit me.

Speaker 1: Oh, God.

Speaker 0: I almost bled out in the middle of the Everglades, caught by myself in the middle of the Everglades. Oh, my God, dude. That bit you? Yeah, yeah. This snake, 17 foot, 7 inches, 135 pounds.

And that's no eggs inside of it no meal inside of it that solid snake muscle and At the time that's about what I weighed so it was a fair Everglades battle royale

Speaker 1: Oh my God. Can I see it?

Speaker 0: Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1: Now, tell me the scenario. What happened?

Speaker 0: So, I was- The mouth on this thing, Jay. Yeah, look at all those teeth.

Speaker 1: Look at that. It's insane.

Speaker 0: Yeah. And that head actually has shrunk substantially from the freeze-drying process. All critters freeze-dried that for me, and it takes all the moisture out of it really really shrinks now So I was out hunting the Everglades. I was actually out in my 14-foot John boat by myself, and I was checking spoil islands out there. These islands were dug maybe 100 years ago or more when they dug the canal.

They were made a hundred years ago when they were digging the canal. And they've been up there, you know, gaining vegetation, getting real nasty. And a lot of these critters come up on them to breed, to feed, and to nest. And I was out there looking for you know a python like I normally do and I came across her. I knew immediately when I saw her that she was very large possibly the largest python I've captured And I could only see the the back half of her maybe like the back third of her But I could tell she was a monster My heart is pounding I'd be lying to you if I said it wasn't but you know my main fear in a situation like that is not that this snake's going to kill me.

I'm confident in how to handle these animals, confident in my ability, but I'm worried this thing's going to get the best of me, overpower me, and possibly I'll lose it. It gets away into the swamp to eat more of our native wildlife. Coming across an animal like this, even with the situation we're in in the Everglades is still a once in a lifetime opportunity, it really is. I've caught a number of them, but I spend a lot of time out there. So I'm getting ready to capture this snake, building myself up to it.

The safest way to go about it is to find the head, grab the head with both my hands and keep her from coiling on me, wrapping around me. I can't find her head. Her head's buried in vegetation, buried in the maiden cane. I just can't see it and she's working her way slowly off the island. So I know I got to quickly do something.

I'm afraid if I if I get closer to her head I'm gonna spook her and she's gonna try to start moving away. I grab on to her tail and this is kind of a bad situation to be in especially with all the thick vegetation. These snakes can easily overpower you and will actually drag you out into the swamp. There's just no stopping it. It intertwines in all the weeds and just drags you.

So I know grabbing this thing, my goal is to piss it off and get it to start striking at me where I can See that head and grab a hold of that head Otherwise this thing's this thing's gone So I get a hold of it and it starts dragging me it's pulling me off the island I

Speaker 1: was it wrapped around you or you

Speaker 0: know, no, it's it's stretched out

Speaker 1: and you're hanging on

Speaker 0: I'm hanging on to it Yeah, it's it's the this thing's eating alligators eating deer. It's the biggest thing out here. It's not worried about nothing. It's not scared of me, you know what I mean? It's kind of seeing what I'm doing.

So I got a hold of it and it's starting to...

Speaker 1: Are you wearing gloves? No. How are you able to really grab it?

Speaker 0: If I had gloves on, I wouldn't be able to grab it. I need my bare hands to be able to work and and feel everything have the grip Gloves gloves will just get in the way

Speaker 1: even something with like a texture to it.

Speaker 0: I don't want any of that

Speaker 1: Okay, I

Speaker 0: don't want any of that. They just get in the way So I got the snake dragging me out into the swamp You know losing this battle I'm able to dig my heels down into the limestone that I'm standing on, the limestone island, and I'm able to stop her. I'm not gaining on her, but I got her stopped and we're kind of in this Everglades tug-of-war right now and she starts to get pissed off she starts hissing she starts turning around on me and this this is what I want but I got it not get bit you know I mean a Snake this size To my advantage there. They're slower than a smaller snake. They have a lot of body mass.

They're gonna tire out quickly and Her strikes aren't gonna be lightning fast, So she's striking at me. I'm dodging her strikes. Everything's going good. It's

Speaker 1: Lloyd Mayweather out

Speaker 0: there. Yeah, doing a little duck and weave. Everything's going good. Normally when a snake strikes, it's gonna strike out, recoil back, get ready, strike again, recoil back. That's how they strike, that's how they get that power.

They kinda like recoil their body. So it struck, I dodged it, it recoils back like a third of the way and hits me with this little sneak attack strike that I wasn't expecting. This snake is anywhere from 10 to 20 years or more old. So it's been around the block. It's a smart snake.

And you know, snakes don't normally do that. I think she kind of knew what she was doing she struck she got me on my arm got an artery got some veins coming off my artery and that that doesn't do it justice at all. Their teeth are all, they're punctures. So, you know, they're like needles. So they puncture down deep.

Speaker 1: You can see them here, they're fucking crazy.

Speaker 0: You can see that top 1 gets right into my main vein. And the real bad 1 was on the top of my arm that you can't see where it's on this, I think it's an artery, I may have been wrong, coming on the top of my arm. And I got very lucky. Normally when they bite, they latch on. And she would have latched on, she would have wrapped around me, and I would have been in a very, very bad situation being out there by myself.

Thank the good Lord I had him on my side that day. She struck, she bit, I was able to grab her head, and I don't know if it's how I pushed it forward and pulled her off or what, because all their teeth are recurved, like fish hooks almost, kinda. Got her right off of me. Grabbed her head, pushed her off of me, she didn't latch on, she was trying to bite again, maybe that's she didn't think she had a good bite, and she was trying to regrip But I got lucky now. I have her head.

I'm bit. I'm spraying blood All over the Everglades, but I have her head so now now my main thing is controlling her without exerting myself too much because every time I'm doing anything I mean it's it's I've never seen blood come out of my body like this you know really my hearts pounding adrenaline's going and my main thing is just to stay calm I don't think I'm necessarily gonna bleed to death I mean the amount of blood I'm seeing it cross my mind but but I really don't think I'm gonna bleed to death I'm worried about blacking out from blood loss the heat Exerting myself. What's this snake gonna do if I black out? It's gonna wrap around me. It's gonna kill me 100% You know, I don't think it'd necessarily be able to swallow me and eat me maybe But it could definitely kill me So I'm really trying to control my heart where heart rate trying not to exert myself The snakes biting at me, you know, going nuts.

You can see the video on my YouTube of where I'm just covered in blood. And I have a snake bag with me to put whatever snake I was planning on catching in the bag. This snake is way too big for that bag. So I actually am able to use that bag to tie off my arm and kinda do a little redneck.

Speaker 1: While you're holding it down?

Speaker 0: Yeah, while I got the head in 1 hand and I'm tourniqueting my arm, I think it was like this, tourniqueting my arm with the other and got my arm cinched shut, you know, kinda got the bleeding under control and I was able to kinda collect myself. This snake is pretty much worn out at this point. She's cold-blooded so they gas out after about a 10-minute fight. She's like a limp noodle. So I'm kind of just laying on her catching my breath.

Now I got to get her back to my boat where I can put a bullet in her head because I don't just walk out around out there with a gun all these snakes I catch alive put them in a bag and it's just easier to not have a gun on me

Speaker 1: Jesus

Speaker 0: and Why is it would be so

Speaker 1: hard to have a gun right there?

Speaker 0: Well? I'm I'm literally crawling through cane and sawgrass and it gets snagged, you can lose a gun very easily and it's just, it's in the way and 99.9% of the time, I'm not gonna need 1. And especially me, I'm the kind of guy where if I come across a 30-foot snake, you know, which pythons don't get that big, let's say I come across a 30-foot snake, something crazy, I ain't shooting it, I wanna catch it. You know, that's, dude, that's what I'm all about.

Speaker 1: Oh my God, this is you after this thing bit you.

Speaker 0: Yeah, this is right where I'm getting ready to try to turn to kick my arm.

Speaker 1: Holy shit, man, and you're filming this

Speaker 0: Yeah, I got my shoulder cam on and then I put a GoPro on the ground. This is wild and you know normally I don't always get great I mean I get pretty good footage with my cell phone my shoulder cam But like I was set up this day, and I knew I had my GoPro running when this thing bit me

Speaker 1: Are you Cinching up at the top of your arm above the wound above the wound.

Speaker 0: Yeah above the wound and You know to be honest with you the the first thought that went through my mind when that thing bit me and I have all These cameras going and I see all this blood is This video is definitely going viral Just don't die

Speaker 1: Would really go viral if you died.

Speaker 0: Yeah, I'm sure would have yeah found GoPro footage So now you have to

Speaker 1: carry This thing out while you're holding on to its head. Yeah, well. She really is like a limp noodle wall while it's still alive She really is like a wimp noodle.

Speaker 0: Yeah, she's gassed out.

Speaker 1: She is done. That's insane. She is done Wow Yes, that's a man shit right there, son Not a lot of human beings are capable of doing that and just keeping it together. It's creeping me out just watching you hold on to that thing as you're walking through the woods with it.

Speaker 0: What I think it is more than anything and you know I hate to kind of take away from myself But it's it's what we're taught as kids you know we're taught to be fearful of snakes that they're this evil dangerous thing and I Can't tell you I think that's why I've been so successful on social media is these people They just freak out watching these snakes. You know they can't believe it, and it's they're not really that crazy It's really not

Speaker 1: I think you're just used to them. I think they're really fucking crazy It's a piece of weather only in 1 state like this Look at the size of that thing, man. That thing's enormous. And they eat alligators.

Speaker 0: Oh yeah.

Speaker 1: I think, bro, I think they would eat you.

Speaker 0: I've rescued 3 alligators from pythons. Wow That's actually how I started my social media as I made the news Went kind of viral for rescuing an alligator from a python. I had a guy out on a guided hunt with me he recorded it videotaped it and you know made the news and a local clothing brand flow grown in Florida made my Instagram, made my social media, and was like, dude, you gotta start using it. We'll send you clothes. And that's really how it all got started.

Speaker 1: That's crazy. That's how it got started, that's amazing. Look at these things.

Speaker 0: And I actually, this was the smallest of the 3 I've rescued. It was the third 1 that we finally got on video, because I never used to really record anything.

Speaker 1: Imagine how fucking confused Alligators must be. Like, I thought we were at the top. We were at the top forever.

Speaker 0: Yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 1: What happened? Yeah. What the fuck is going on

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Python Cowboy Recounts Being Bitten by a 17 Foot Python