I live in prime rattlesnake country as well. To say I'm not a fan is the understatement of the century. I'll relate a story my wife thinks is highly hilarious, although just me typing it makes me have flashbacks and break out in a cold sweat.
I'd spent the day a horseback gathering cattle on fine day in fall a few year ago. It was an Indian Summer and perfect weather. When i got back to the cow camp, supper wasn't going to be ready for an hour so i jumped on my 4 wheeler to make a quick scout up the canyon above camp to see if i might see any of the few cows we were still looking for. I always carry my .22 for shooting snakes or other varmints when i ride, but i left it at camp. I ran on up Joe's canyon with just my binos. I got to the granite ledges and stopped to glass some deer. Oak brush makes almost a tunnel in spots up that canyon and there are a few great spots where you can really see lots of draws and ridges. My 4 wheeler was running as i attempted to turn up cattle or a good buck. The vibration made it tough to glass so i switched it off. The second it stopped i could easily hear a rattler going nuts right by the wheeler. He was a huge old ugly yellow colored rattle snake. Thankfully i'd swung both legs to the right side of the wheeler to glass and the snake was on the left side. He was less than a foot from where my left foot would of been. I grabbed for my pistol like a gunfighter but came up empty since it was at cow camp. The snake decided to head up into the oaks and i searched for a boulder or limb to detach his head from the rest of him. It always pays to be careful in the fall as snakes seem to run in pairs. As i studied finding a perspective weapon and came up empty, i was sick letting the big old snake get away. So i'm standing there on point and all spun up watching this big yellow rattle snake with black diamonds slither off into the oaks, when a beautiful yellow and black butterfly gently landed on my left shirt pocket!!! Normally that would not be much of a problem.

But when you aren't very bright on a good day, and your mind disconnects from your body when snakes get involved. I saw the butterfly and knew it was a butterfly and that should of been that, right? But my brain saw black and yellow and lost it's mind. I literally knocked the hell out of myself trying to kill that evil yellow and black snake that has flown up and landed on my pocket. I may also of screamed high and loud enough that folks at the cow camp heard me and thought an opera had begun somewhere nearby.
The snake got away, i bruised up my left collar bone and chest and one poor little old butterfly was pulverized like a squirrel through a woodchipper. Two weeks later i am confident i evened the score slightly when i came down the same canyon with a pair and a heifer. About 200 yards above where i and the butterfly had our strange dance, i saw a big old yellow and black rattler coiled under a sage brush shaking his tail. I got off my horse and put three .22 rounds through the top of his head. My cousin was with me and he counted 14 rattles and a button on the deceased snake. I never can get myself close enough to count. The moral of this story is- Snakes suck and Butterflies oughta know better.