Many people mistake them for copperheads.
About 15 years ago while working on firewood, one of these suckers was hiding in the wood pile and came out striking. We cut its head off, but a few inches back. To my surprise, it kept striking for
several minutes! Craziest thing I ever saw.
Anyway, I took it to a local fire department where there was a resident "snake expert" on duty as I was worried about whether or not it was a copperhead.
He said they were often mistaken for copperheads. Then he proceeded to tell me that you can't tell a poisonous snake by the shape of its head as that can change due to whether or not they've eaten recently.
But the funniest part of his explanation was when he said you can turn a snake over and depending on whether or not the black "plates" touch determine if they are indeed poisonous. I can't remember which way is poison (touch or not touch) as my first thought was "Yep, I'm gonna turn a live snake over before deciding if my life is at stake or not"! lmao