I've not heard good things about coral snakes, never seen one though. The problem with poisonous snakes is the juveniles haven't learned how much venom to inject so they usually just dump it all. The one that bit me was about a foot long, a juvenile. As poisonous snakes go, the copper head/water moccasin we have here is fairly mild. They don't usually cause tissue necrosis. But Christ is it painfull, and two months latter my foot is still swollen. I grew up here and this was the first copper head I'd ever seen. Been bit a few times by black/king snakes, didn't really hurt but they don't have venom. Such are the perils of catching snakes. Out in the Shenandoah valley there is still the occasional eastern diamondback, but they've been mostly eradicated. Not totally, but mostly.
