Keeping an eye in the treetops can be costly in the Delta during fall hunting season — it’s not just squirrels that are moving. Water and woods guarantee a cottonmouth is close; a snake that often holds its ground when approached by an unsuspecting hunter.

Giant feral pig killed by Mississippi farmers

On the opening morning of the 2013 squirrel season, Jon Jackson Bennett, 7, Lyon, Miss., had a huge 5 a.m. breakfast of eggs and biscuits, bathed himself in OFF!, and hit the woods, strapped with his trusty Red Ryder and a pocketknife. His morning haul brought 10 fat squirrels — and one fatter cottonmouth.

The cottonmouth was coiled beside a beaver dam and killed with a .22 by Jon Jackson’s guide and hunting partner Matthew Edmondson, Clarksdale, Miss. “I could have killed me that snake, but Matthew saw him first,” declared Jon Jackson.

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Giant feral pig killed by Mississippi farmers

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