How about telling us about your closest experiences with wild animals, dangerous or otherwise.

When I was a kid we were making a drive for deer in a large cornfield. A whitetail doe who was motivated by a couple shots fired at her by another hunter came past me at a dead run in the next row to the one I was in. At under 36 inches between rows that put her pretty close. Always wondered what would have happened had she been in my row as one couldn't even see 20 yards down the rows, she would have been dang close before she saw me. Think I'm glad she picked that row.

I was sitting on a stump during bow season with my face mask on so the damn bugs would stop biting me. A doe and her fawn came in at 15 yards, then 10. The fawn slowly came closer and closer, at around 5 yards. They never I knew I was there.

It was a pretty neat experience.

I've probably had 1/2 dozen times I've been close enough to moose to take one more step and reach out and touch them, mostly calves. This summer we had a calf in our yard and some neighbor kids stopped by and said they were scared to go to their home because the moose was near their driveway. I walked them home, keeping myself between the moose and them. After they ran down their driveway I headed back home and the calf followed me about 10' behind me.

My daughter got licked by a calf once. She was walking towards it in our front yard, and then the calf started heading towards her. She was scared so she headed behind a small tree and wrapped her hands around the trunk. The calf walked up and licked her hand.

I've also had a cow moose that was probably 40-50' away make some sounds that made it very clear that she didn't want me any closer (must have been a calf nearby I didn't see) which resulted in my taking a swampy detour.

dodging a driven wild boar and ... walking over a horned adder in Africa

Nor mentioning ticks sucking my blood

In Yellowstone,I was on one side of a tree about 2ft in diameter and a 6x bull elk was on the other side with it's horns on each side of the tree butting it and my wife was already up the tree.

Closest I want to be to a pi$$ed off bull in rut.

I was camping on a ridge at Custer State Park and woke up to find a huge bull Bison right next to my tent. I was actually surrounded by a herd and had to move very slowly and carefully to break down camp and get out of there. They're enormous that close up! I was planning to use the tent like a matador if it came to it.

Eric

I've been within 30 yards of a fair sized brown bear with only a swiss army knife to defend myself. I was alone with no one in sight and the bear was on the other side of the Russian River eating salmon carcasses. I know he was used to seeing human beings and he paid no attention to me ... but it still made me pucker.

Had a female grizzly with cubs come within 10 feet of me and all I had was a pocket knife. When it was all over she ended up dead and I had to pack her hide/skull 6 hours back to base camp. Turned it into Ak F&G, filed my report and that was that.

I have touched deer while hunting on 3 separate occasions.

It was mid-day of the 2002 Michigan firearms deer season and I had left my blind to do a little sneaking around when I startled a young whitetail fawn. Poor thing was scared chitless and it ran directly away from me and over a little hummock about 25 feet away and out of sight. I stood there thinking how cool it was to have been that close when I realize by the sound that the fawn had turned around and was running back in my directiion. It topped the hummock and I could suddenly see that it wasn't just coming back toward me, but was running directly at me. I stood staring for a second or 2 and then sidestepped to avoid being run into and as the deer passed I swung my rifle around and gave the deer a poke in the side with the muzzle, causing the deer to push it's nitrous injection button or hit overdrive or something. The additional burst of speed was impressive, as was the running high jump it performed.

camping with a buddy one time and we were both asleep in the bed of our pickups and the bull moose decided to hang out in between our trucks.

Black Powder hunting antelope one year had a heard jump over the top of the hole I was hiding in.

Feeding cows one cold winter had 4 or 5 antelope decide that hanging out with the cows was an easy way to get a meal

Had a bear raid our camp one night, blamed my fat friend.

Last summer I tried to take out a heard of Bighorn sheep with a Japanese mini truck, or maybe the heard was trying to take out my mini truck.

Hit a fox with a 4 wheeler

Cought a prairie dog more than once, they don't make nice pets

Sh�t.....makes my rattlesnake encounters seem like whipped pudding.

Once in Minn myself and a buddy had a dead Canada Goose go sailing between us and thru the hedge we were hunkered behind and impact our rental car in the passenger door.

The hedge was about three feet thick and the dent was quite severe....shattered the glass as well.
We just looked at each other and grinned.

Got a cold bite from a timber rattler on my place a couple of years back,my neighbor and I found the den and took care of business with an old keg of Bluedot.

A very funny close encounter occurred on my first wild boar bow hunt 40 years ago when they had it a Forksville PA.

I was on stand when I heard a guy running down the hill at me screaming, close behind was a Boar he had arrowed in the A$$. The boar slowed down as it got near to me giving me a broadside shot that did the trick. The jerk wanted the boar after I killed it saying he had shot it first!

Sounds to me like he had his opportunity to claim the boar, but chose to run instead.

Is that really a bear between my legs?
http://shootersjournal.net/is-that-really-a-bear-between-my-legs/

I primarily ground hunt.

That being said, I've had more than a few deer within 5'. Only once did a young buck walk up and touch my leg with his nose trying to figure what I was by smell.

Bowin' a few years back I wound up between a 300+ lb sow and her 4 cubs just before sunset. She walked right up to my ground blind within 2' of my face. I still remember the smell of her breath. Looking directly into her eyes I could tell she didn't have a clue as to who/what I was.
I did not want to kill that animal because of her 4 cubs.

-Ken

we were doing a drive in northern MN and i was in the thick stuff and fell behind a little. I jumped up on the root ball of an overturned tree (I wasnt carrying a gun) and slipped down the other side....and in the process put both of my feet on the rump of a sleeping fawn.

2 things happened at the exact same time. The fawn lasered out of there at just slightly over the sound barrier. I on the other hand was even faster and jumped about 100 feet straight up in the air. the only thing keeping me from a higher altitude was the heavy load in my shorts. I was 15 years old at the time. Whoever said white men cant jump would have sung a different tune if they would have seen me that day.
I can laugh now, but I think I produced about 6 gallons of adrenaline in a millisecond.

I stepped on a skunk while pheasant hunting once too. When i put my foot down in some tall grass, there was a feeling and a sound that just made me look down to see nothing but black and white. As my eyes expanded to roughly the size of a garbage can lid, I hot-footed it out of there so fast I didnt get sprayed.

Dat bare in crosfire avtar iz how da bare lookt at crossfire befur da bare raped hiz dum ass.

I was crossing a hayfield in search of groundhogs and as I came to a fence. I decided to cross it and glass from the ridge in the next field. As I put my hand on the fence and started swinging my leg over, I heard a rustling in the grass. Glancing down I saw a skunk right where my foot would touch down. Immediately I froze in place and considered my chances. The skunk started slowly moving away and I retreated to a safe distance where I counted myself extremely lucky.

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...

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.