Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Your close encounters with wildlife

Way past time to change your litter box azz clown.

The year I got out of high school I hunted with some guys I didn't know on opening day. Two of them were brothers, one was one of those who kinda floated around from job to job if you catch my drift. He was a pretty funny guy however. He was blind in one eye and he wore a ski mask a lot while hunting and one eye hole would wind up on top of his head. One guy would pull it down and say "I know it doesn't bother you but it bugs the schit out of me looking at it" lol.

I was semi sick and came in early and one of the brothers comes in and said he shot a big buck but couldn't find it. Me and his brother go out to help him find it.

We find one little speck of blood and a sapling that got hit. I sit on the blood drop and everyone else fans out to look for more blood. We did this for a while hoping from one blood spot to another.

After 2 hours we walk right up to him, laying down on a ridge facing away from us. Walked up and everyone was talking for a few minutes when the buck sprang to life and his brother took a shot with a winchester 94 from the hip and nailed him right in the neck from about 2 feet away. Was a pretty spiffy shot.

I'm not sure the guy even hit the deer with his bullet. The only damage on the deer was his ball sack was swollen up real large and bloody. I'm not sure he didn't hit that tree and bark shoot that buck and he went to lay low and wait for everyone to leave like they always had.

Buck came about 6" from roaring right thru one guy.

Been around a crapload of hogs and killed a bunch but never had a run in with any. Did have a bobcat that tried to stalk me once while I was cruising timber. Not really dangerous but was amusing. I was crawling thru a blackberry thicket and came face to face with it. Backed out and sat on a log to eat lunch and I saw it circle around and try sneaking up on me.

The closest I've come to actual physical danger involved getting ambushed by a game warden who failed to identify himself who pulled up behind us behind a locked gate. It's probably as close as I ever want to come to a shootout.

? Geez, I grew up in the woods. Y' want a 30 page essay, or do you want the long version? Lemme think of a couple that were particularly .. interesting.

One time I snuck up on a forked horn and poked him with my rifle barrel. He 'bout ran me over trying to escape.

I had a gray squirrel mistake me for a stump .. seemed to sense something was wrong and he ran up me to take a look around. You could read "oh [bleep]" in its eyes.

One time I was fishing, wearing thin nylon and split leather running shoes, and something started tapping on my foot. I looked down and saw about an 8 inch rattlesnake trying to bite me, fortunately, he was hitting the leather and not the nylon.

One year I was walking home about dusk from a hunt and the trail was blocked ... there was a bear in the brush with just its head sticking out into the trail. Because of a wall of stickers on the other side of the trail, I had to pass within 16-18 inches of that bear's teeth, within easy claw range. No real way around, so I pulled the .44 (handgun hunting), thumbed the hammer back, and went past the bear with the muzzle about 3 inches from contact. That sucker never moved other than to just track me with its eyes. Spooky.

Few years ago I was muzzleloader hunting and found what I thought was a crippled bird in an skid road in an old clear cut. I watched it for a while. Eventually I walked over, it didn't fly, so I picked it up. I carried it around for a few minutes in my hand, then set it back down. If flew off. I have no idea why it let me do that.

Uh, one time I was backpacking. Ran out of jerky about day 3. 3 more days of ramen noodles. I was ready for meat. I woke up the last morning with a [bleep] sittin' on my chest. I caught myself mid-swing with a Buck General .. I was gonna pin the little SOB to myself and eat him. I decided it was time to head back to town for a cheeseburger.

Then .. I've had some weird [bleep] happen.

Like the time I had some sort of big cat, I think, in "camp". Coast range, SW Oregon. 25 yards or less, still daylight. I only saw the back half as it went into the brush, but it looked to be at least 300 pounds, probably bigger, had a short, stiff, 6-8 inch stub of a tail, and the knees bent the wrong way for a cat. Short, sleek hair, like a dachshund, but more of a lighter butterscotch color. On my home turf ... I know pretty near every critter there and all the big ones, but I just plain dunno WTF that was. Disturbing.

I could keep going all afternoon ...

Had a timber wolf walk within four feet of me when I was 12. Pushed a deer off me with a 16 ga. barrel once. The worst scare for me definitely was being within 50 feet of bull moose while I was on the ground twice. Once out in the middle of North Dakota where it was 3 miles at least to any kind of water. Had a dog point a bear in a den and been close to bears but those moose scare me. Had one dog that pointed deer regularly. When you walk up and flush that at your feet instead of a grouse it'll make you flinch.

Been bitten by a deer once, touched two deer alive as well (wild deer, not zoo deer). One of the ones I touched was one that bit me!

Turned around to look out of the corner of my eye at another deer and this one took a chomp out of my finger. Scared me...scared him!

The very first time I went deer hunting with my uncle I was sitting on the ground against a tree with my legs straight out in front. I heard something running to my right and the next thing I know a doe jumped right over my outstretched legs. Holy Spit Batman!

Years later after an afternoon deer hunt, my son and I were walking in the dark down a dirt road to my truck. I was in the middle of the road with my son on my right. I had my flashlight on and we heard some deer dogs jump a deer not too far away. I looked up and in the flashlight beam here comes about a six point barreling down the road. He ran by so close to me on my left that if I had wanted to, I could have touched him. Surprised the snot out of us and we just stood there in the dark looking at each other, laughing our butts off.

Sure...

I moved to Colorado in 1976 and soon after arriving one of my new neighbors invited me to join him and his buddies on an elk hunt in southern Colorado. I bought a Remington 700 ADL 30-06 and an over-the-counter bull tag. I was ready to go.

On opening morning, they put the rookie (me) where they thought the elk would run then they swept through the dark timber. I sat where they told me to sit for about half an hour and all of a sudden about two dozen cow elk ran through the meadow in front of me. With my heart pumping and my body charged with Adrenalin, I held my rifle poised and ready, waiting for the first set of antlers. But there weren�t any.

Then I heard a close shot just to the left of where I was sitting and the guy who fired that shot started cussing. I waited for a few minutes, hoping that a bull would straggle past but nothing moved and all I could hear was that guy�s continued cussing and moaning. I walked in the direction of his vociferations, maybe a hundred yards, to talk to him and see what was going on. He was lamenting that he had just missed a shot at the bull of a lifetime. He assured me that it was a genuine 7x7 royal elk and he had missed his chance.

About that time the rest of the guys emerged from the timber and asked where the dead elk was laying. I stood there not knowing what to say and the guy who missed the shot �fessed up and pointed in the direction of where the bull had run into the timber. I told them about the cows and pointed to where they ran. Several of them had cow tags and they decided that if we spent the entire day tracking them in the snow, maybe by sunset we might find them again.

Into the dark timber we went. We formed a line and tried to stay in visual contact with each other. It was easy to follow the tracks of a couple dozen elk in 6� of new snow. After about an hour I managed to step into a hole up to my calf. The hole was filled with water which ran inside my boot. I stopped to remove the boot and wring out the sock while the rest of the line kept moving forward. By the time that I got my boot back on, the others were well ahead of me.

I tried to catch up but couldn�t. The elk tracks were spreading out in different directions and I followed what looked like the biggest bunch. As I walked I came to a place where the ground was fairly clear of snow and debris. So I started doing the whole Daniel Boone thing, creeping through the woods quiet and slow.

I was having a great time when I spotted movement out of the corner of my eye. I froze and watched as the heads and backs of several elk slowly passed through a window of light in the timber. I realized that if I had my rifle pointed at the next opening in the timber they might walk right through that opening and give me a shot. I got into a kneeling position, chambered a round, aimed my rifle at the next opening and waited.

The first cow slowly walked into the opening and casually exited it. Her path had been only about forty yards from me. Had it been a bull I would have filled my tag. I sat there and watched several more cows and calves walk in front of me, while my knees were beginning to go numb.

Then all Hell broke loose. They must have caught my scent and suddenly there were flashes of movement all around me. Elk were crashing through the trees and bushes in every direction, it was noisy and confusing. I just stayed put and waited hoping for that bull to show himself.

Then a cow burst through the bushes about thirty yards away, running straight towards me. She was in a hurry to get away from whatever had spooked her and was in no mood to stop for crouching inanimate objects like me. She ran right at me. I didn�t have a cow tag, but she was about to run over me. I pointed the rifle at her chest and hoped that if I shot her, her momentum wouldn�t result in her crushing me. It�s amazing how fast your mind works when you�re excited. She realized what I was and she came to a skidding halt so close to me that she kicked debris onto my boots.

She reared up like a horse and for an instant she was suspended in air right above me. I stared into those feet and legs and imagined her opening my skull with those sharp hooves. My rifle was still pointed at her chest but I realized that if I shot her it wouldn�t change anything. I was resigned to my fate. At that instant, with her body suspended right above me and about to stomp me like a bug on an anvil, she was as big as an elephant and the largest elk in the world.

She whirled like a cat in mid-air, and hit the ground running in another direction, without touching a hair on my head.

I didn�t get an elk on that trip but I came home with the memory of a moment fixed in time that I will never forget.

KC

When I first moved up here I was living in an apartment building with bad outside lighting. Walked out to go to work one winter morning, took a turn out the door and walked into the antlers of a big bull moose that was laying down in the walkway. It didn't seem to faze him nearly as much as me.

While fishing in Katmai I had a huge boar brown bear step out of the woods less then my flyrod length away from me. He just looked at me and kept walking. I felt a little small. Of course he was one of about 20 I could see at the time fishing all around me.

Here's another.



This little guy was so new that he was still wet with afterbirth. He thought that I was his mother and he kept nuzzling my leg trying to nurse. I knew that his mother must be close and the best thing to do was for me to leave and let his mother find him. So I walked away and as I did so he tried to follow me on shakey legs and he was mewing like a kitten. That was heart breaking.

KC

One time I was shooting prairie dogs from the deck of this house and I was spotting them with binoculars. There was a doe antelope hanging round and she didn't want to leave. Strange. Eventually I saw why. Her fawn was hiding in plain sight about 20 yards from the deck. He was just lying there and I didn't see him till I caught him in the binoculars. I took my dog out to see him and he couldn't smell him. My dog didn't even know that he was there about two feet away until I touched him and he jumped up and started running.



KC

Been chased around a 6"aspen for 20 mins by a BIG black bear.
Been struck on the side of the boot x3 by rattlers.
Had a black bear screech to a stop at 6', bugling elk.
Been 12yds from a surprized griz while he
raged unhappily about it.
I've stabbed myself.
Been bucked off ponies.
5 accidental discharges NEAR me by clients.
Ran out of ice and had to drink warm beer.

2nd Sunday of Minnesota's deer season up in Hinckley many years ago. Very warm, foggy morning as I walked into a tree stand I'd been given permission to hunt. Temps in the low 40's, and heavy fog as I climbed into the stand, which had plywood sides on it to break the wind.

It's just beginning to get light when I hear something move right below the stand. I'm thinking squirrel as I casually peek over the rail. There's a bear cub right under the stand digging for acorns! I hear more rustling back behind me and turn on the chair to see another cub about 10 yards from me. When I turned on the chair, it squeaked a bit. Little did I know, but Momma bear was back somewhere behind the other cub. All of a sudden I hear this low gutteral growl as she busted me, stood up on her hind legs and woofed at me. The cub under my stand bolts-the other cub runs over AND STARTS CLIMBING THE TREE I'M SITTING IN! Momma comes on a dead run, determined to separate her cub from whatever made that tree squeak at her. She's about half way up the tree I'm sitting in when I got the gun pointed somewhere in her general direction and pulled the trigger. Somehow, I didn't shoot my self in the foot-never came close to her. She bails out of my tree and tears off through the woods, growling and woofing all the way. She must have batted one of the cubs because one of them let out a bawl as they haul azz for places unknown. About 50 yards out from me I saw this birch tree about as big around as my thigh explode and fall to the ground. Momma ran right through that tree, smashed it to smithereens and never even slowed down. I was shaking so bad I darned near dropped my rifle. I gained a lot of respect for how fast a bear can move. If you ever give any thoughts to outrunning one, you might want to consider plan B.

when i was in scouts we were camping on the flower's ranch one winter and i had come down with the flu. it was in the low 30s and i was miserable so i drank a few beers and crashed in my baker tent. According to everyone while i was in the tent almost delirious with fever, a pack of javalinas decided to wonder into my tent and mosey around. Chili our scoutmaster figured it was best not to startle them and the wondered off after awhile.

One of these days I'll tell about when a friend had the dead deer pee in his face.

Calling this elk from a long, long ways away to within about 7 yards of us. In NE BC.



A load from our trip to Africa too though we were in a Cruiser.

Camping in the Absarokas and went down about 50 yards to the stream and got water to cook a clean up from dinner. Got up in the morning and went back to the same spot to get more water and found fresh grizzly tracks in the mud right where I got water the night before. Yeeesh!

One summer I worked in Glacier and had a buddy invite me to go spelunking with him to a cave he saw on a map. I couldn't get my shift covered, so he went on his own. They found him the next day after he jumped a sow and her cub.

I knew a guy who shot a grey squirrel and picked it up by the tail, not realizing it was still alive. It bit him bad on his thumb and his parents took him to the emergency room, no rabies
thankfully. I have also heard of guys getting kicked by deer
that they thought were dead as they proceeded to gut them.

It was a long time ago, and I was in the shape of my life...