Almost always snake bites are repairable with patches. Personally, I've had many on road and mtb and never had any I couldn't repair with a patch, even ones that were bad enough to rupture the sidewall of the tires and bend the brake track of the rim. I had a ride a few years ago where I hit a bad succession of potholes and wound up with two pinch flats (4 holes) in the front tire and one pinch (two holes) in the back. I replace the tube with four holes and used a stick-on patch on the rear (to be replace later with a glue-on).
If a tube blows while inflating, it's due to its being pinched between the rim and tire bead.