We’ve all heard it said that a bad day on a boat is still better than a good day on land, but we’ve heard of a few days when we just hope the poor sap had his boat insurance paid up. Here’s one of the better ones.

A Navy SEAL had rented a boat during his shore leave to do some fishing in the Southern United States. We could tell you where exactly, but then we’d have to kill you. Or he would kill us, which wouldn’t be pretty either, so we’ll leave the precise location classified.

Now this US Navy SEAL was a highly trained professional, afraid of nothing. Well, almost nothing. Turns out our tough sailor had a strong aversion to snakes. And since the area he was fishing in was known to be home to some pretty good sized water moccasins, he brought along a .357 revolver, just in case.

Any of us who have ever done any fishing in the South know that water moccasins hang out in the trees, so if you want to avoid them, your best bet is to stay away from the cypress trees. Unfortunately, bass, perch, crappie and assorted other game fish also like to hang out under the cypress trees.

To make a short story long, our fisherman SEAL got so immersed in his fishing that he forgot to keep an eye on the trees. After a short run of killing the bass under the cypress trees, a five foot water moccasin decided to join the party, just to make things interesting.

The snake landed in the boat just as our brave sailor was reeling in what he was sure was the biggest catch of the day. Thankfully, our fearless naval hero was not caught unarmed.

The marksmanship training provided him by the fine folks at US Naval Basic Training certainly paid off. He had six shots in his trusty .357, and all six of them hit the snake. Unfortunately, even big snakes are not very formidable when it comes to stopping bullets. As it turns out, their long muscular bodies really don’t even slow bullets down much.

Incidentally, small fishing boat hulls aren’t a whole lot better at stopping bullets than water moccasins are. Our hero lived to tell the story. The fishing boat, not so much. The funny thing is he’ll still tell you that a bad day on the water is better than a good day on land. We’re not positive, but we’re guessing if he’s still saying that, he probably had his boat insurance premiums paid up.

Photo via Hunter-Desportes