Provided you follow the precautions ably outlined here, rattlesnakes are an insignificant hazard. In more than twenty-five years of SAR in southern Arizona, guess how many snake bite cases we handled? Zero, none, nada, zip. We did deal with one victim who was startled by a sudden encounter with a snake and fell...

I attended a presentation on snake bites by a Tucson physician who identified two varieties of victims - 1)small children playing around the house. These were bad because of the small size of the victims and the frequency of bites around the face and head. 2) males 17 to 25 years old who were deliberately hunting and handling snakes, often coupled with alcohol consumption as well.

I agree that a hiking staff or stick, as well as caution, in brush or rocky areas will work well. Pay attention to seasons and temperatures. On hot sunny days, snakes will seek shade. On cold days they will seek sunny areas. If you become familiar with conditions, you will be able to predict their presence and activity level rather well.

Occasionally, circumstances have required me to kill the snake, but in general I am reluctant to do so. All snakes do a great service by keeping rodent populations in check - you could profitably debate the proposition that snakes have preserved about as many lives as they have ended simply by limiting rodent populations and the fatal diseases (like hanta virus) the rodents vector to humans.

All in all, rattlesnakes are a fairly insignificant, albeit spectacular, hazard.

Still, it took me a couple of years after moving to the Channel Islands, where there are no rattlesnakes, to relax and crash through brush with wild abandon.