Having spent nearly all of my life in the woods huning, fishing and camping I have seen many strange/unusual things. With a little time around a campfire (and a little adult beverage encouragment) I could tell tales for hours of what I've seen and done that were at the very least "unusual". Only a few actually involved "fear" but several were quite startling at the time. Some that come to mind are:
While still hunting one fall, the sky opened up and rain fell like being poured from a bucket. I was in an are with many cedar trees and saw one nearby on which the limbs drooped to the ground. I push under the limbs and sat against the trunk of the tree. Thick limbs above shed almost all of the rain and I was quite comfortable. About 10 minutes later there was movement as the limbs across form me moved aside. A small 4 point buck scrambled under the tree and lay down not 3 feet away from me. Once he'd settled down he looked around and when his eyes met mine he froze. A stare-down went on for maybe a minute until he looked out at the rain, then back at me. I know animals shouldn't be given human traits as they don't think like we do, but I swear the look on his face said, "If you'll leave me alone I'll do the same". We sat there for about 30 minutes while the rain continued, then began to slack up. When the downpour was over and just a slow drizzle remained, the buck looked at me, the stood up and pushed through the limbs. He walked slowly away, glancing back a time or two until out of sight.
A strange and startling happening that was later a bit frightning because of what "could" have happened occured while I was hunting with a flintlock rifle. I prefer to hunt with traditional gear and often dress the part of a 1700's longhunter....just cause I like to do so. On this day I was wearing full buckskins complete with a coonskin cap. I had built a brush blind and was watching a creek crossing as dusk was aproaching....with just my head above the brush. I heard nothing and saw nothing when suddenly I was struck hard on the side of my head. I fell sideways to the ground and caught movement about 10 feet away. There was a huge horned owl sitting on the ground with my fur cap clutched in his talons. He pecked at it a time or two then flew away leaving the cap behind. Apparently he had mistaken the cap for something good to eat and attacked. At the time I was startled, but not really afraid. It was only later that I realized just how bad this could have turned out as I do know the power those big birds have and the damage that those talons could have done to me face/head.
I have hunted hogs for most of my life and although they do have the tools to be dangerous, most encounters are not so spine-tingling as some would have you think. Most hog "attacks" involve either a wounded animal or one that is accidentally cournered....or both. Two frightning encounters come to mind.
The first was a case of an accidental cournering of a boar. I was walking down a narrow trail through a very thick brush thicket. Anything out of the trail was basically impenetrable. Rounding a bend in the trail I surprised a 250 pound boar that was bedded in nook to the side of the trail. It happened so fast I really didn't have time to be afraid as the hog came up popping his teeth and came for me. I flattened myself against the brush and gave the hog all the room I dould to pass by. As he ran by, he hooked his head at me and I felt my leg be knocked from under me. Fortunatly the hog continued on and didn't press the attack. I was feeling quite lucky until I looked down and saw the long tear in my jeans and a bit of blood. Examination showed that my jeans and the heavy leather of my boot tops was cut about 8". The heavy leather had taken most of the damage and I only sustained a shallow cut along my calf.If I hadn't been wearing high-top heavy boots I shudder to think what damage might have occured.
The other hog "attack" involved my own mistake and a "wounded" animal. A friend and I were together alongside a switch-cane thicket where hogs loved to bed. We surprized a small herd and my friend shot....there was mass confusion as hogs scattered in all directions. My friend shouted "Don't let him get in the cane". I saw a large hog just going into the thicket and fired a shot from the .44 revolver I carried. It was not a "smart" shot....at the south end of a northbound hog....but this was, I believed, a wounded animal and was trying to imobilize it. It turned out that this was NOT the hog my friend had shot. His was dead a few yards away. When we looked at the tunnel-like trail "my" hog had taken we found much blood and knew we had a wounded hog in the switch-cane. Not a good situation. This was a truely frightning situation. The cane was so thick that one could only enter on the "tunnels" the hogs had made....literally on hands and knees. After much discussion and an hour or so of waiting, I entered the tunnel with the .44 held in front of me. The blood trail was quite heavy but after 50 yards or so continued into the thicket. I was truely terrified and every turn of the trail was even worse as I peeked around the bend expecting the hog to be waiting for me. Finnally I looked round another bend and there he was facing me at maybe 6 feet. A quick shot and much scrambling to get out of the thicket followed. Another 30 minutes or so with no sound or movement from the tunnel, I re-entered and went back to the hog. It turned out that my first shot had actually killed the hog...the hard-cast bullet traveling through his rump and forward to his chest. he was dead when I found him, although I didn't know that at the time. My quick shot at the turn had also been deadly (if the hog had been alive) to the center of his chest. However this was a very large boar (350 pounds) and I have no confidence that my shot would have stopped him at feet if he had been pressing an attack. This turned out well and was quite amusing later, but at the time it was a very frightning time for me.
I could go on and on.....but these stories come to mind first.
