Snake Boots! Do I need them?

I'll be working in Kentucky in a spot inhabited by copperheads and timber rattlers. I hear it's pretty easy to accidentally step on one and get bit.
I thought, no big deal, I'll be wearing muck boots!
But all these fancy snake boot manufacturers insist I need their super-magnifico pair of expensive snake armor boots.

Is it true? Can they bite through rubber or leather like buttah?

Thanks for help. I'm new

I don't know first hand about what a snake can or can't poke his fangs through.  I would say it would depend on if the snake were strong enough and big enough to punch through, but we don't plan like that. We hope for the best but plan for the worst.
Snake boots do provide the protection you'll need if you come across a large rattler that is found the hard way.
I heard or read a story years ago in which a man was wearing leather cowboy boots and got bit by a rattler through the boot. He was taken to the hospital and his brother took those boots home. He put them on and started having snake venom symptoms. A fang had broken off in the leather and scratched him.
If it were an option, a .22 caliber revolver with snake shot for self defense should also be carried.

You might want to ask some of your neighbors.   I have done a good deal of hiking in rattlesnake county and have never had an incident.  Keep your eyes open and move carefully.

 If you are moving rocks or logs and branches on the ground, boots won’t protect your hands.

One stat that often gets overlooked is that even if there are only 2% odds of you getting bit, if you are part of that 2% then, for you, the odds just became 100%.

I don’t own snake boots.

Where I'm from, puff adders are the biggest serpent danger (some say they have the highest body count in Africa). When my neighbour first saw my work boots, he laughed and said a puffy would go straight through them. I need some steel toed behemoths, he said. I ignored his advice. Since, most of my encounters with puffy's have happened when I'm carrying brush in a bear hug and a puffy drops out, or it's found it's way inside onto my cool floor where I'm walking around barefoot, or any other situation where I'm not wearing my work boots anyway. So, for me, snake boots wouldn't have helped. Just my two cents

Short answer yes a snake can easily go through muck boots. My mother in law got bit on the pinky toe by a small rattler and almost died. She where’s them at all times in field now. Buddy got bit by copperhead 2.5 weeks in icu.

I’m hyper aware of snakes bc I’m scared of even non vipers. However I don’t have snake boots I thoroughly look where I’m working / walking etc.  My luck I’d buy the boots and either feel false security and get in a bind or snake large enough would hit me in the knee or something.  

I prefer my method

During my time searching for the land in Kentucky, talking to the folks, hearing all the stories (should have asked about the boots!), all the times anyone's been bitten or almost bitten was when they stepped on the snake, or stepped over something that the snake was behind.

I keep snakes recreationally, currently, for now, but not the spicy ones. I think I have it in me to be cautious and keep my wits about me. But from what I understand, you can hear the rattlers and avoid them. It's the surprise copperheads, tho.

Here its best to wear heavy cotton jeans that hang loosely around your legs.
The looseness makes it hard for fangs to get through to your leg.

John C Daley wrote:Here its best to wear heavy cotton jeans that hang loosely around your legs.
The looseness makes it hard for fangs to get through to your leg.

Time to dig the groovy leg warmers and bell bottoms out of the attic.

Rose Anvil (I think it was, on Youtube) had something on this. Apparently a rattlesnake has about 120 pounds of bite force; that is, the boot needs to be able to withstand that much pressure from a pinpoint strike.

Probably a good test would be to set a very fine gauge nail against the boot surface (with carrots inside to simulate toes), then give the nail a good whack with a tack hammer.