I don't know how many times I've run into rattlesnakes, copperheads, and a couple of cotton mouths. Twice, I've walked onto out croppings covered with them. Having lived in CA, TX, KY, CO and other places with high populations of them, it is hard, sometimes to avoid them. When I get into brush up to my waist, I get very nervous sometimes. I've been struck at once, because I didn't se it, and he didn't give me an advance buzz that you will usually get. I've stepped on a copper head more than once, and wasn't struck at.

All that I would add to this conversation is this. If you're worried about it, and possibly rightly so, wear snake chaps, and watch where you stick your hands. Many snake bites are absolutely avoidable, and many are caused by people messing with them in the first place.

Kentucky is kind of funny. There are counties where you may never see a rattlesnake, and the adjoining county might introduce you to more than you ever want to know.

As one poster noted that there's nothing you can do, if bitten, citing the old day's methods of making incisions, using suction cups, etc. Actually this method can still be of use, by slowing down the flow of venom, to removing enough of it to dilute it enough for you to buy some time to get help.
It isn't reliable, that's true, and way too many people use the supplied "scapel", and end up cutting a vein, causing excessive bleeding and just cause more problems.

I think the best method is the "Austrialin Method" to survive a bite. Can't describe it here without pictures, but I'll try to follow-up with a link to it. Not 100% reliable, for sure, but those folks deal with 10 or so of the top 12 or so most venomous snakes in the world, and they have a good idea of what works and what doesn't.

I've been incredibly lucky not to have been hit, but in all actuality, the number of snake bites in the wild, are very rare, actually. I have, though, a good friend who was shot in Viet Nam, and was hit by a Timber Rattler (in the far south east corner of KY). He was with a friend, they had been riding dirt bikes in the hills, and about 15 minutes trying to get off the hill, he felt to faint to continue. His buddy left him, got help, and they got him off the mountain and to the hospital. Spent weeks in the hospital. Later told me, that the strike was much more painful than the gun shot wound he received in 'Nam.

I do have snake chaps, and do wear them sometimes, but they are uncomfortable, so I've survived all these years using common sense.

You are much more likely to walk past a cotton mouth, or copperhead, and never see it, than you are to be bitten by one.

My advice...use your own discretion, and a lot of common sense, if wandering into areas known to be heavily populated by venomous snakes.

Just my .02's worth....
J.