Cooperhead?

I don't have a pic, but I came across a snake that had some nice orangy/ copper color halfway down it's body and then faded to a more solid grayish color and then about 3 inches of it's tail seemed very light and looked like rings sort of. It was about 3 foot or so and maybe 2 inches in diameter. Was very docile. I got a stick and touched it's head, body, tail and now rattle, so couldn't be a rattler, right? What's the end of a copperhead look like? I can't find a good pic of what I saw. I wish I would've grabbed someone's phone to take a pic. I'm in Canton, Ms. near Jackson, Ms. was riding horses along the trails. Thanks Ron

Younger copper heads have a tail that is a light yellow. Its used to bait prey animals into thinking its a food item. From you description it sounds like a copper head.

Thanks Beanie, that's what I thought, and even remember hearing about the fake rattler too.

pictures of a baby copperhead:
courtesys of NC university's webiste (http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/gaston/Pests/reptiles/chamo.htm) and http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ec...copperhead.htm

Thanks Amy, that's about how the tail end looked. He/ she, was very pretty and calm, probably cause the storm was about to hit.lol Anyway, there were about 12 of us on horseback. Someone saw the scary snake, so I jumped off my horse and ran to it, picked up a stick (all this in my Steve Irwin mode), just wasn't saying (you're a naughty little girl aren't you?) If I didn't have ahold of my less than a year in the saddle horse, I would have tried and pick it up by the tail. Maybe. It was very calm, touched it's head, body and tail with the stick and it just laid there watching and flicking it's tongue. Then moved away from us.

We have lots of copperheads in the woods around here. They really are extremely docile. My sister actually stepped on one (accidentally) while we were hiking and it just slowly moved away. Venomous, but definitely not scary.

Noelle

The copperhead wouldn't have still had the green on its tail at 3 foot long. Only the babys. The captive ones ive had lost their green within the first 6 months. Maybe 12 inches long. the one in the picture was mine about 6 months old. It had already lost its green tail