A cottonmouth? EEEEK!

Okay, so I'm completely terrified of snakes.....they give me chills just thinking about them. Yesterday I noticed a hen acting strange outside the barn so I decided to go check it out. When I got there I wished I hadn't seen the snake...It was curled up with it's head straight up. I didn't know what kind of snake it was, but to me, no snake is a good snake! Last year we lost one of our LGD's to a HUGE rattlesnake, so I didn't want to let this snake go. I got a shovel out of the barn and planned on hitting it with the edge. It took me 5 minutes to get the courage up to take a swing. Last year I tried this method with a copperhead and missed (eventually killed it; boy those copperheads are M-E-A-N).....So after counting 1....2....3...about 10 times I finally got up the courage to go through with it. Of course I didn't hit it where I intended. I only made it mad and that was it for me, the shovel method was out. I watched it settle down by the pecan tree and I drove quickly to our house and grabbed the 22 AND a bb gun (you never know). The 22 has a scope so I decided to use it from a safe distance. I shot the snake twice with it and tried the 3rd time only to notice no more shells. So then I grab the bb gun. It would've probably been okay to leave it alone, it was pretty much a goner but I wanted to make sure it was absolutely NOT going anywhere! I probably used 10 or more bbs until I was satisfied that the snake would no longer move.....I found out later that it was a cottonmouth. Now I walk around looking down at the ground for fear that I may run up on another slithery creature!