Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Not alone in the turkey woods!

Both cougars and wolves have recently been spotted in the woods I'll be turkey hunting in this year. And last year I found fresh bear tracks right below the cabin. All this in central Wisconsin, just North of the Dells. I've read accounts of critters, other than turkeys, responding to turkey calling, maybe I'll get some first hand experience this spring. Brings a new level of awareness to me. In past years the only thing that concerned me, while turkey hunting, was the bull out in the pasture. A beef bull, not a dairy bull, few things meaner than a dairy bull! I moose hunt up in very remote Canada where wolves and bear are a constant, just wasn't expecting this in central Wisconsin. Anyone have a close encounter in the turkey woods, other than with a turkey?

Lot of coyote encounters. A few fox and bobcats have responded to my turkey calls over the years also. Crows like to swing by for a visit. I bump wild hogs occasionally while covering ground trying to strike a gobbler or get ahead of one to set up. We also have bear and mountain lions but as far as I know I've not attracted one to my yelping. Usually the squirrels, deer and the occasional elk ignore me unless the deer get downwind. That's an aggravation to have a deer snorting and blowing at you while trying to call a gobbler.

no unusual encounters yet, but the cougars make you think twice. hopefully the decoy will get bit first.

I have called in coons, bobcats, hawks, other hunters, and even a few gobblers. A friend on the same Texas lease thought he had called in a cougar, but it turned out the cat was after two nearby deer that the hunter had not seen. The cat was out of shotgun range and his only sidearm was an auto pistol- also out of range.
From then on, he always carried a big bore revolver with him.

Honestly, my biggest critter worry would be to get bitten by a copperhead or rattlesnake miles from the truck in the steep rough country I hunt. I hunt big blocks of secluded public ground that is steep, rocky timbered country with very spotty or no cell service. Get hit by a big rattlesnake way back in the timber miles from the truck with no cell service and it'd be a bad time.

I've not had any encounters with coyotes, but my brother-in-law and a friend have had bobcats come in.

I'm like MOGC, I hunt remote, steep, rocky, timbered country with cell service only on ridges. Rattlesnakes are my biggest concern.

Yotes, bobcats. Cougar,s are in the area also. Been many sightings of em.

I will kill the fugg outta of yote if giving the chance. And the official policy for cougar is only if you are attacked
I was attacked and that's my story on what happened if it comes to it

Carry some 3 inch 4buck if time allows me to slip in a shell
If not 5 rds of Long beard should do the trick at close range hopefully.

Friggin cattle come to calling and dekes like groids for obama phone roadside giveaways.

I've dropped the firing pin on several coyotes while trying to call to a Tom. I can guarantee you they have had better days.

The worse unexpected experience I ever had was with a huge timber rattler. Early season, I was trying to get up the side of a ridge as quickly as I could. About 3/4 of the way up the mountain I reached an old strip mine high wall ledge. My heart was pounding like it was going to come out of my chest.
I just happened to look down and there he layed beside a big flat rock about three foot from me, all coiled up and covered in mud. It was almost a 5 footer.
If it had of tagged me I would have never made it back to my jeep. That thought never leaves me to this day when I'm in snake country doing anything. I'll take the coyotes any day!

I've had dairy cows come to a grunt tube so fast I thought they were gonna bust their udders. Every single one in the pasture, it looked like a stampede.

Fuggers won't leave either.......

Yes, lots of coyotes and bobcats.

On three different occasions a coyote has come into a turkey call. Twice it happened so fast I never got a shot off. This one came in between the decoys and the blind at first light. I put a load of #5 shot Winchester Supreme into him. He took off in a Ki-Yi dash back into the brush and another coyote came streaking across the opening but never got a shot off.

A neighbor 2 1/2 miles up the road from my cabin sent me this trail cam picture.

Wayne, you, uhhhhhh, might wanna setup against some good-sized trees when calling coyotes.

Yikes!!!

I turkey hunt in pineland and swampland in eastern NC, we have water moccasins, copperheads, rattlesnakes, coyote, feral hogs, feral dogs, and bobcat, and black bear - throw in ticks, chiggers, fire ants, and poison ivy. I've seen or come close to all of them while out turkey hunting. Just gotta stay aware of where you step and what's around you.

You mentioned ticks, tick borne diseases are no joking matter. I spray with permanone and don't have issues. If I were out of tick spray I'd be late getting into the woods because I'd have to wait until a store opened up and I could buy some. Lyme Disease is a bitch...

I wouldn't worry too much about getting attacked by a bobcat while turkey hunting. I've had them show up a couple times here, but they quickly lost interest when I quit calling and they didn't see any turkeys moving around.

Rattler bites are rarely fatal to humans, unless you gave an allergic reaction to the venom(like a bee sting). Yeah, they're painful, and they can have lasting detrimental effects, but very rarely is that effect death, rsecially if it's an adult that us bitten and injected with venom.