Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Any Stories With Close Calls With Unhappy wildlife?

Damn Chris, you sure put a lot more trust in that woof than I ever would. Was that anywhere near Artillery Road by chance?

...this time!

It was in south anchorage, lower hillside. Wandered in with a boxer-looking dog one day and hung around for about a week. I suspect it was someone's pet that got too big and got dumped.

I carried a gun around the house for about a week.

Yeah, if it came in with another dog it was a pet at one point. Doesn't change the danger fact totally, but it does some for sure.

Those woofs sure are nice looking. Always thought they were cool looking critters.

Would scare me into shooting next to my lab except under your circumstances.

Not myself but, my hunting buddy had a wild bore charge him during a turkey hunt in OK. You can't imagine how many turkey rounds out of a 20 gauge shotgun that it takes to stop a pissed off hog. It sounded like a small war. Needless to say, our turkey hunting that morning was finished.

Once walked around the corner of a building at a plant and surprised a woodchuck. Unfortunately, it was cornered and there was no way out except past me. Reared up on it hind legs, and started to make a chittering noise, then charged me, grabbed my leg in its front paws and bit my leg. Made a nice laceration right through my pants. Ran off a little ways and stopped, rear up and chittered again, like it was telling me off, then took off.

Try explaining that injury in an accident report

Not as scary as hiking up on bear cubs though. Did that in Penfield, PA area, cute things ran off scalling and then I noticed Mama. She started toward me, but fortunately for me the cubs were running past and away from her, so she stopped and went after them. That raised the heartbeat a bit.

I knew all other stories would pale in comparison to whatever Phil had to tell!

I've been charged by pigs before. Even had a wounded javelina bounce off my rubber boots because I was in the only path out.

None of them bothered me that much.

But I don't know what I'd do with a pissed off Moose or bear. Those would have me screaming I suspect

I ran into a pack of wolves twice back in 08 on Ft Rich (south side of the Glenn) while bow hunting for moose. One time they were feeding on a bow killed moose shot the day before and the other time I was sitting on a spot where a friend of mine had killed a bull a few weeks prior near upper Campbell Creek.

Both times the wolves were less than 25 yards from me, kinda gave me the creeps, especially when I caught one of them trying to circle me from behind. I was carrying my 44 so I wasn't too worried but it still made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

The time I was hunting off my buddies stand (there was snow on the ground) my buddy and I were coming back out after having those wolves come into my bull grunts, there were fresh brown bear tracks over ours and you could see where he walked into the woods about 50 yards from our stand. He must have heard us coming and got off the trail to let us pass.

I still believe to this day that he was coming to calls and I'm glad we stopped when we did.

I was working in the Swanson River oilfield one March and came around the corner of a building with my head down and almost bumped into a young bull moose that was coming the other way. Luckily he was just as rattled as I was and hauled ass.

Been chased a few times down here by moose, one time I was fishing a small stream and a cow was in the willows on the bank so I detoured around her and kept fishing. Next thing I knew she was trotting out of the brush toward me making a strange bellowing sound. Then I heard another sound behind me, turned and looked and there was her calf. Took another nanosecond to realize I was directly between them, and for my legs to start working, hauled ass and she broke off the chase.

Another time a bull with two cows saw me from about a hundred yards, lowered his head, and started coming. When he saw how fast I was, he gave up.

And it is a good thing martens are small. Once a bud and I stashed some elk quarters on top of a big rock while we hauled some other stuff out. Came back and a pine marten had claimed 'em. He wouldn't back down, kept hopping from one to the other and showing his teeth.

I thought we were gonna have to shoot him but some rocks convinced him to give up.

Had a momma moose back me up into the brush so far I couldn't back up any farther. Two more aggressive steps on her part and my Redhawk would have left powder burns on her snout.

Had a grizzly circling us one time in heavy brush. Huffed at us a couple times. Backed out and got out of there.

Had to shoot a big sow on Kodiak while goat and deer hunting. She had two 2-year old cubs with her. Was definitely not a false charge. We were on a small hill and as they got close (about 50 yards), and it was obvious our paths were going to collide, I raised my arms and yelled. She stood up, looked at up, dropped down and came at a dead run. Because of the tall grass and the rise of the hill I couldn't really see her once she dropped down, I could only the grass parting as she came. I shot her at about 5 yards. Luckily it rolled her downhill. My second shot killed her. By this time she was about 40 yards away and she rolled down into the alders.

Waited about 30 minutes and went to find her and then ran into the cubs down in the alders. Fired a couple shots and ran them off. Left for the evening and came back the next morning. Had to run the cubs off again, but finally found the sow. Skinned her out and turned the hide and skull over to F&G.

Had a few black bear run-ins as well, but they were not nearly as exciting.

In spite of the AK myth, most close calls seem to involve moose, cows especially!

I was told that early on. And since we've been visiting since 86 appx, I tend to totally believe it.

I"m more nervous close to moose than to bears generally... Especially when calling in the fall and a big cow sticks her head in the bush with you and then gets that wild eyed WTF are you look...

Or walk out the door and mom has her young ones with her in the yard...

I was out grouse hunting with a buddy near Pocatello, Idaho one fine late September day, just outside the city limits. There were a lot of moose around. We came upon a cow and a small bull. He apparently thought we had designs on his lady friend...

We had a stare-down for about a minute, then he started walking towards us. He was maybe 30-40 yards away when he started. So we backed up. He kept coming, but would stop when we stopped.

I put two 20 gauge rounds into the ground at his feet, and he didn't even blink or flinch.

So we kept backing up over small finger ridges that separated drainages into the main creek. He kept following. Additional rounds didn't seem to impress him. We finally got some distance on him and he stopped and went back to his girlfriend.

I don't imagine he kept her for long, as maybe 30 minutes later we saw a huge bull at about 250-300 yards heading his way from a atop a larger ridge above the creek.

For our next trick, same day, we were hiking down a two track, and jumped a couple of grouse. We followed them towards some heavy brush near another creek.

A loud grunting noise warned us away from the brush. At that point, we decided to call it quits on grouse hunting in that area, at least until the rut was done !

In my 44 years in Alaska I have been charged by moose maybe a half dozen times, never by a bear, tho there have been some pucker times , and once I was mistaken for a potential meal of sheep or caribou. But then again I don't go around poking holes in big bears....

There was this "yard" yearling bull moose we called Ornery, because he was. At one time or another he charged everyone in the neighborhood during the winter, which we wrote off to winter stress, mildly injuring one person as she went to the car in dark.

One spring morning I went to tighten rivets in my flat bottom boat. Ornery was bedded down about 40 yards away on the property line. I put the film camera up head-high on the deck stairs after taking his picture and proceeded to pound rivets.

For some reason I looked up to find Ornery in full charge at 20 yards! I beat him to the door and slammed it in his face. Literally. I turned around to find his face pressed against the glass. Later I found he had hit the stairs hard enough in rounding the corner that he had knocked the Pentax SLR off the stairs, destroying it.

One day my neighbor found Ornery between his door and the truck when Rip was trying to go to town. Ornery wasn't moving showing aggression. So Rip got his bow and a flu-flu and thumped the moose in the ribs. Ornery jumped then picked up the arrow and started chewing it.

Rip decided tomorrow would be a better day to go to town

You know what they say,... "A myth is as good as a mile!"

Heh!

only God and that wolf knows why. we lose dogs here all the time to Wolves

I knew it would be tough to top Phil...but I got to try....I was attacked-and bitten- by a mama bluegill in shallow water once....


Does a fish count?

I have apple trees here on the place and the moose come in during the coldest part of late winter and "prune " them for me. because we had 3 grizz in the yard some years back I fenced the immediate yard with chain link to protect the dogs.gives them about an acre to call theirs. only 4 ft high but the deer and bear respect it. not so with the moose. one was pruning a tree just outside the fence and the dogs were having a ball barking at it from inside. Mr moose got tired of hearing then and whipped around, chest slammed the fence and came right through it. I was standing on the porch and slid the door open for the dogs to grease through and slid it closed in the moose's face.
he blew snot all over the glass and stood there grinding his teeth for a while then went back to pruning apple trees after making another hole in the fence. I swear he did it just out of spite. after a half hour I went out the other side of the house and he was bedded down under the firs next to the driveway. as soon as he saw me he was on his legs and in full charge with his teeth dared. I got back in the house and got my 9410. with 7 1/2 shot. went out and he had his rump to me about 20 or so yards. he was in high gear headed for Washington when the last hull hit the ground. my wife has declared a 3 strikes rule. after 3 aggressive moves they go in the freezer.