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

I was walking a trail in scrub oak that was waist high while watching the ridge above for elk and was not paying attention ahead when I heard what sounded like a faint grunt. Looking forward I got a surprise that startled me, a black bear sow with two cubs was sitting in the trail. It was one of those moments of, wow, what do I do now. I took a step backwards and leveled the rifle, at this, she started to move towards me. I keep moving back and she kept coming until I moved in-between two bushes at which time she kept herself between me and the cubs and went right past on down the trail. At all times she was no more than three feet from the muzzle and backed me down the trail a good twenty feet. She only made the one grunt and never seemed aggressive other than wanting the road.

Awesome experience

I happened upon a beaver once.

Is the thread about wild nights?





OH!! Wildlife!!!!!

Nevermind.

my scariest; 15' plus tiger shark at about 100 yards off shore - a few of these encounters, hogs in very thick brush - like the kind you can't stand up in, and the closet i've got to being eaten was as a kid taking my girlfriend parking one dark night by a romantic pond, getting out to pee beside the tall grass, and hearing a gator come crashing thru the grass after me with my wang in my hand.

should have opened his eyes first, but nice.

Looks like you already had the tag tied to his horns?

When I was eighteen I went fishing at a lake. On the way in I pretended to be an Indian sneaking up on some pretend deer. I had what in those days were called tennis shoes. (I didn't want to call then sneakers.:D ) The rocks I was sneaking on and around were huge, like ten feet in diameter down to about a couple feet diameter. These were on a "bed" of solid rock. Therefore I was able to move along literally silently.

I sneaked around a large rock only to come face to face with three deer lounging in the sun. I mean like five or six feet! I was startled as much as the deer. Two were facing in a direction so they did not need to turn to flee. One of the deer tried to take off and turn away at the same time so it ended up momentarily flailing on its side before it regained its composure enough to get its feet under it.

Thanks for reminding me of a fun memory.

Had a whitetail doe come up to within 4' of me and stamped one of her front legs at me three or four times before she decided to swap ends and hightail it away. I was 10 or 11 years old at the time and was just sitting under a tree squirrel hunting.

In the same patch of woods about a month after the doe incident, I was again squirrel hunting, again sitting under a tree when two squirrels started running in my direction. One squirrel was chasing the other and the squirrel that was being chased ran right up to me and jumped on my boot. The squirrel that was chasing him realized what I was before the one on my boot figured it out, he hit the brakes and hauled ass in the opposite direction while the one that hopped up on my boot seemed pretty surprised that the other squirrel left in such a hurry. Although when he turned around and looked at me, I thought he was going to turn inside out when I said BOO!

Stepped on a rattlesnake one night during a competition coon hunt. Would never of known I stepped on him until the guy following me yelled 'rattlesnake' and told me I stepped right on him.

Hunting with my son in law after thanksgiving several years back I was sitting on the edge of a field on the round and had two yearlings come across the field and step over my legs to enter the thicket behind me. It was really cool.

I touched a sleeping bull elephant's tail with the barrel of my rifle.
Probably wouldn't try it again but there he was so I did it.

I also had a trespassing poacher step on my leg while I was wearing camo and sitting against a tree. He took off like a scalded cat when I asked him what heck he thought was doing.
I guess he figured the voice was coming from under the ground.

I was about 25 feet up a large white oak late one evening it was a very quite and still evening. A flying squirrel landed on the truck of the tree about 6 incest from my right ear. I didn't hear it coming and I almost jumped out of the stand.
Had a hawk land in a tree about 60 yards from the tree I was in one day and it started looking right at me. He watched me for probably 2 minutes then left the limb flying right at me. At first I thought if was pretty cool but when got to about 15 feet I jumped and raised my bow in front of my face. When I did that he almost did a complete flip in mid air trying to get away from there. After things settled down, meaning me, I was wondering what he was doing. I was holding my bow upright in front of me when I noticed the puffs I had on my sting as silencers was moving in the wind, it would have looked just like a furry little critter to the hawk. From 60 yards that's pretty good eyes.

Calling coyotes I've had a few of them under ten feet. That will get one's adrenaline up a little. Had a hen turkey jump on the toes of my boots as I was sitting near a trail with my feet out in front on me, toes up. She looked around a bit and jumped down, never giving any indication that she saw me.

I cruised timber for a summer, flagging in processor trails and doing add on volume to the sales. On one sale there was a nice meadow at the top end of the sale. One one trail there was a large blow down spruce with a huge root wad right at the edge of the meadow. I stopped at the edge of the root wad for a break and as I stepped around a very large black bear was going around the other side about 12 feet away. He never saw me but must have smelled me when he got downwind as he took off like a scalded cat.

Taking our little trailer camper for a test run shortly after it's purchase, we camped at a nearby campground. We enjoyed a quiet night in the camper and a nice lakeside breakfast. Our morning was rounded out with a nice hike along the lake and a stroll through the campground. As we neared the camper my wife stopped at the restrooms and I continued to the campsite. There behind our camper rubbing his itchy back on the corner of the picnic table was a 300 pound grizzly. He took off for the timber. I turned and my wife was coming back from the rest room. I told what had just happened and she pouted a little that she didn't get to see the bear. I told her to turn around. He was crossing the road 50 feet behind her. He wandered off away from us. We reported the bear to the park hosts. They assured us that they had gotten several reports that morning on that bear. We had to leave that day so never found out what they did about the bear.

Mart

For some reason, the distress sounds of little animals have a way of initiating close encounters. Dunno why, but This Happened to Me!

While mama and baby sis ran one way, Silly Sammy the black bear cub ran over the daypack at my feet.

I was sitting in a deer trail, the only 'flat' spot on the gully wall, and the coyote that came arunnin' chose to race around the corner on the very same trail. I was so flabbergasted that I failed to flick the safety off while he was still in front of me, got off a round at poking distance as he swerved off the trail around me.

A California constitutionally-protected cougar slipped in on me while calling coyotes. I don't recall, now, how close he got, but it was too close. And that didn't change when I stood up and talked at it.

I was standing at the edge of a meadow, waiting for enough daylight to find the trail, and had an owl drift overhead. I pulled up my squeaker and gave a toot. The owl made a hard bank and came shooting in, flaring off only when I waved my arms.


I came close to running down an albino jackrabbit. OK, almost close. But that was one funny scramble through the sagebrush. I was younger, then.

Does the black widow dangling from my bedside lamp count?

I was a kidlet when the family took a ride on a steam train. Governor Pat Brown, Moonbeam's daddy, came glad-handing down the aisle. I knew my dad didn't like him, so I refused to shake his hand. That was a close one. Who knows what nasty things I could have caught if I'd touched him! Embarrassed pa.

Found a bat in torpor in our cabin one winter. I needed the can of paint he was clinging to, took him outside. It was a good twenty minutes before he was awake enough to fly off. Perhaps I should have offered him a cup of cowboy coffee.

Twice I've had the 'pleasure' of sitting down on the rock or woodpile that was home to a rattlesnake. I don't like those things.

The time I convinced a Colorado camp-robber jay to eat GORP from my hand was a lot of fun.

Sitting in the pasture calling coyotes for a buddy who had never shot one. I'm sitting with my back to a big oak tree, facing upwind working my Hadel's Govt. Trapper jackrabbit squeaker & my buddie's on the other side facing downwind in full camo, with his .280 Remington. This guy's never even seen a coyote up close & personal, much less shot one...
When I started blowing through the squeaker call the second time, a big male coyote busts out of the brush on a komakazi run straight at my buddy from 30 yards away! Buddy hadn't expected any varmits that close, & had his Leupold Variable on 10 Power... So at the last second, he pokes his rifle barrel straight out & pulls the trigger as the coyote makes contact with the barrel !
Kinda like in the movies, where the old black powder guns set the bad guys clothes on fire from a contact shot !
Burning Coyote hide smells pretty rank at point blank range! Buddy never asked me to take him coyote hunting after that.

I've been bow hunting deer here at the ranch using a ground blind, & have had baby piglets & a momma sow step right across my extended leg!
Definately Not a good time to grab a piglett by the tail, but mighty tempting!

Same buddy was bow hunting with me here at the ranch, & had a armadillo crawl in the ground blind between his legs. He flung his recurve & hauled ass & scared the crap out of that poor old armadillo !
Another budd I took bow hunting here for Turkeys, shot a big Gobbler that went down in a heap. He walked over to pick it up & the ole Gobbler tried to fly away as he picked it up by the feet ! It's kinda hard to wring a Turkeys neck while holding it by the legs with one hand, and holding your bow in the other!
Mighty entertaining, though, just wish I had it on Video!

Stepped on lots of big rattlesnakes here at the Ranch, & I really really hate those damn things! But it does prove that White Men Can Jump REALLY High!!!

My only really close encounter was having a big ole male cougar walk with in 10 yards of me while bow hunting in that same ground blind. We stared each other down for what seemed like an eternity, & he finally turned & headed down the deer trail.
After, that little encounter, I never leave the house for bow hunting here at the ranch without a six - shooter in 45 LC strapped on or at least my Glock 10mm.
Which, BTW, is perfectly Legal here in TX while bow hunting for deer if you have a CHL Permit.
Your Bow & Arrow sure feel like tiny toys when your eye to eye with a big ole cat! I've seen cat tracks here all my life at the Ranch because we are right on the Brazos River. But that's the first one I ever saw that wasn't in a zoo!

While dragging squid bars for bluefin a few years back, some 30 miles E of Chatham, one of the long rods in the spread went off. We'd hooked something big. Like, really big. Humpback whale big. We weren't anywhere near any pods of others. Just a random run in with a critter...

I can't imagine there's too many of us who've hunted out of a tree stand and haven't had close encounters with squirrels. 'Had several of them within spitting distance, and a couple that actually touched me. The whiskey jacks (Canadian Jays) always seem to hunt me down. 'Give em a bite of your sandwich and they stay with you all day. Chickadees are always good for a chuckle. I've had 'em land on my hat, my gun barrel-even had one determined that he'd found a bug between the stock and barrel of my rifle. 'Worked on it for a few seconds before giving up.

I posted on a big rock watching a hollow in southern Ohio one time. Was up there for a couple hours and decided to move on. I slid down off the face of the rock, and landed at it's base. What I didn't know was that a turkey was walking right across the base of the same rock at the same time, and I had it trapped between me and the rock. That crazy turkey about beat me half to death when it tried to fly up the face of that rock. I had scratches, feathers, and turkey schidt all over me! Never mess with a cornered turkey!

Ran into a mountain lion and got bucked off a mule in Oregon
Had a sow black bear and 2 cubs within 14 in of my head while sleeping in Alberta
Had a black bear on his hind legs across a picnic table from me in Oregon
Ridden mules into large herds of elk in dense aspen in Colorado
Swum with sharks, rays and moray eels in FL, HI, and Jaimaca
Badger walked across my sleeping bag while taking a nap WY
Moose and calf walked thru camp within 10 feet of campfire WY
Bears walk within 12 yards while gauging streams in Alaska
Got within 30 yards of a wolverine in Alaska
Saw 100 Dall sheep at one time in the Yukon
Drove my truck into a herd of 250 bison in S Dakota
Got within 10 yards of a rutting bull elk in Nevada last year
White-tails jumped over my shoulder as a kid in Maryland
Saw a wolf last year in NE Nevada
Had antelope jump over the hood of my truck in Wyo
Ran with wild horses on an ATV in Wyo
River otters swam under my canoe no CA
Four bears in camp in Oregon in one night

Turkey hunting in western Washington back in the early 90's I had quite the experience. Western Washington is dense....real dense as far as vegetation goes. Had the pleasure to call in a female cougar and two half grown kittens.

I first saw the adult just about 25 yards to my left up the skidder road that I was sitting along. Actually I was in the ditch depression in full camo. At the same time the two youngsters were walking across the same skidder road right at me from my right. They got within 5 or 6 yards. My buddy who was sitting next to me made a hand gesture and gently spooked the young ones as they moved back across the road.

Momma was calling and when they didn't follow, she came back around and appeared right in front of us. She then saw the decoy and approached it. She was withing a couple feet of pouncing on the decoy itself. At this point I had slowly pulled out my camera, put it up and took a picture. At hearing the shutter she paused and looked directly at me, allowing for a once in a lifetime picture.

After the second camera sound she and the youngsters quickly departed. I measured the distance where she was and it was just short of 12 yards. Quite the experience to say the least. Puts the hair right up on your neck. They are so quiet.

Bonus....Later that day I called in and shot a gobbler on the ridge above where we were. One of those special days afield.

Walked up on a feeding 250-275 lb momma black bear & a cub in a blackberry patch while summer scouting a few years back. Never knew they were there until she stood up about 15 feet away. We both stared for about 3 seconds & then parted ways. Apparently she thought the berries smelled better than the aroma of what just fell into my Huggies .

Shot a coyote standing on top of the next bale down in the row of round bales I was leaning against while calling. About 1 a.m. & full moon. I heard its pads picking at the netting as it walked or it'd probably have smelled the same thing the bear did as it dove on my head.

I'm an urbanite these days.

My encounters with wildlife is limited to stepping in dog chit and feeding pop tarts to possums.