Most memorable wildlife encounter whilst hunting??

[Little Wattsy]

A couple threads of recent have got me thinking...

One of MY most memorable encounters was a typical wet day turning warmish and suuny after a long Oregon rain a GREAT day to still hunt. After a climbing the 500-sh vertical feet necessary to get to the ridge top it was a nice easy walk. 9:30-sh am and I watch a NICE buck run a doe around a bowl. Neve got a shot. walking back out a see a deer beaded down dead ahead. A yearling doe. sound asleep. I walk quietly right up to it. at 10' I rest my gun agenst a bush and sneak on in. She is sleeping like the dead, her nose tuckeing into her body. Wondering if she might be sick I crouch down beside her and gently stroke her ribs. She twitched as if to shoo a fly. I then stroked her head between the ears at which she opened her eys. We made eye conatct and her expression was priceless and foreve burned into my memory. The obvious "HOLY SH!T" could be plainly seen in her eyes.. She jumbed up and bounded thrice, stoped and turned to look at me for a very pregnant second and then bounded away. An all time favorite.

 

[Big John]

While deer hunting in the Northeast Kingdom of Vt., I sat for a rest and soon heard loud banging noises, to my suprise two bull moose 75 yards away squared off for a long fight, banging antlers, falling and knocking over small trees, this lasted for approx. 60 minutes. Next day I hunted high on the mountain only to hear them fighting again. A truly great sight.

 

[Little Wattsy]

Another was on a bow hunt for elk when I was about 17.
I was in the coast range of Oregon. I could hear the elk heard comming noisily down the hill into the creek bottom where I was. I hurried to take up an ambush within easy shooting distance (pre-sights, overdraws, carbon arrows, releases, etc) I was 15 yards, MAYBE, off the trail; 30 yards from the creek. Arrow nocked. Tension on the string. I am ready. I can hear them RIGHT THERE!

Zip, zip. Two bear cubs dash past me and into the creek to play. My mind is trying to play catch up as to what happened to my elk heard. The mother bear (a 250-ish lb sow) pokes her head out of the brush and appears to be looking right at me even tho Im all camo'd up. and woofs in my direction. Every story I had ever heard about mother bears and thier cubs stream through my mind. I contemplate the "stopping power" of my 70lb bear bow and accompanying bear broadhead. She woofed again. Just short of staing my shorts I imitate a stump migrating backwards as benignly as possible. At 75 to 100 yards into my retreat I turn and start walking briskily. It was an effort to maintain compousure back to camp and not run... It was a greater effort to blend in some maucho into the story for the guys back in camp and not sound like a sissy :wink:

 

[Lonegun1894]

I was in the mountains of North-Eastern Arizona bowhunting deer (deer tag only), and sat down next to a tree. About an hour or so later of sitting still, I see a herd of elk walking my way slowly, and get curious how close they will pass, so do my best to just stand still. By the time it was all said and done, I had elk all around me as the herd had split and some were in front of me while others were behind me. I dont know how many passed behind me as I didn't want to turn around and spook them, but I had just over 100 of them, almost all cown and yearlings, pass in front of me. The closest was a cow that was one of the last in the group, and also stopped less than ten feet from me. Well, I didn't have an elk tag, but had to try something that on hindsight was kinda dumb, but worth it. Moving as slowly and silently as I could, I took one of my arrows, stood up, and took a couple steps towards the cow, then touched her with the nock (the BLUNT end) of my arrow. I was going to touch her with my hand, but she must have sensed me and started fidgeting, and I just didn't really want to get kicked enough to try it when surrounded by that many elk, especially since it would have only taken one to make sure I never left that spot.

Great question by the way! I bet this is going to be one great thread.

 

[BrownBear]

I was sneaking through dense coastal alders looking for deer, making slow progress but no noise. Most of such hunting is watching for a flicker of motion around you, then trying to resolve the shape among the branches.

You never see the whole critter- just the flash of white from the inside of a leg, the flicker of an ear, the moving flat line of a back. Or on occasion the dark mass of a head lifting or a foot sliding forward. Wrong color, wrong size, wrong place for you to meet a bear.

I heard a funny chatter and caught a flicker of white in my peripheral vision, and turned to look. Couldn't see a thing. Then suddenly I see the white again and hear the chatter. It was a winter-coat weasel (ermine) flying through the air and chattering all the way.

I heard a little rustle of leaves and saw a salmonberry stalk flex down, and there it was again, airborne and chattering.

I eased forward for a better look, and got a treat. The little critter raced across the ground and took a flying leap up onto the salmonberry stalk, flexing it as far as he could. When it snapped back upright he was launched through the air and chattered all the way. Hit the ground, raced in a circle and did it all again.

That crazy little guy tired, stopped and panted a little bit, then started doing it all again. Having the time of his life, fer sure.

 

[dbutch]

Early November... large prairie pothole lake (Wi)..Duck skiff well hidden in duck blind out in the middle of the marsh..80-90 oversize mallard decoys out..Youngest bro and a buddy in another blind 40 yards away...In comes a flock of mallards doing the 3 circle vortex 4-600 easy...
as they were coming in I said "don't shoot lets just watch".
Just the sound(roar) of the wings with the hens cackling away....
Once they landed they stay 5-7 minutes...what a sight in the air and on the water....Not a shot was fired.....I still dream about it.This was 30 years ago has never happened again..

 

[Spikebuck]

Thirty years ago I was out doing some stumpshooting with my recurve on a nice February afternoon. Up ahead I could see something thrashing around and upon investigating saw a very large grey fox that I thought was caught in a leghold trap. He would try to leap, but would just jerk back and fall down thrashing around. As I got closer, I could see there was no trap...nothing holding him back. There was an area in the snow about 20 feet in diameter all packed down, so apparantly he had been at this for quite some time. I sneaked forward and he paid no attention to me. Finally I decided he must be rabid or something, so shot him at about 10 yards to put him out of his misery.

Skinned him out and called a warden who came and picked up the carcass and sent it in for testing. Turns out he was having a stroke.

He hangs right above my desk as a full rug mount and a reminder of one of the most unusual wildlife encounters I've had in the woods.

 

[Moose Guide]

I was charged by a sow grizz and two cubs, most exciting 1 1/2 seconds of my life!!!

 

[roundball]

Nothing quite so remarkable as some of the stories already posted, but of the handful of good hunting memories I have, one just a few years ago was a highlight.

Had just received my first new long gun 3 days before deer season opened...(.58cal Early Virginia Flintlock from Matt Avance / TVM)...and got it sighted in before that Saturday's opener.
Sitting in the dark at the edge of an oak flat waiting for it to get light enough to see and just a few minutes after first gray light a decent 6 pointer came out of a nearby thicket with his nose to the ground like a bloodhound.
I’ve got a new Flintlock across my lap so I didn’t look a gift horse in the mouth and took him at about 50 yards...(didn’t notice one of his tines was snapped off until I went to get him).

The season had barely begun, so I quietly dragged him back to the tree I’m sitting against, cleaned and reloaded the Virginia, sat back down and poured a cup of coffee to enjoy the moment when I see the big 8 pointer coming out of the same thicket into the oak flat, nose to the ground on the same Doe track as the 6 pointer...when he got out in front of me I whistled, he stopped, and I shot him...also had a tine broken off from fighting.

Amazing it worked out this way but both my buck tags were filled by 8 o’clock on opening day with a brand new, first ever custom built long gun.

 

[Flint50]

Years ago, I was reading that the Division of Wildlife had done an aerial count of snow geese on Lake Meridith. The report said 20,000-thats twenty thousand snow geese! Naturally I headed down there to shoot some. I arrived before sunup and set up by a brushpile and waited. At first light-there they were a few hundred yards out in the water. Never seen anything like it.






A little later I started noticing passing flocks up high-headed south. Then came the big flock. It was unreal. It was kinda horse shoe shaped and I would guess a half mile wide, maybe a mile long. Biggest flock I'd ever seen.
I guess the geese on the water decided to join them. 20,000 geese honking and rising through the air. Literally blocking out the sky. I stood there in total amazement. Never got a shot, but watching and listening to them as they left is something I'll never forget.

 

[Flintlock58]

I have had a few memorable encounters. Two non game occurrences happened while camoed up turkey hunting. Once a chickadee decided to perch on the bill of my cap to search for food and then an American Redstart chose to sit on my shoulder and call. A funny one is my using a walkers game ear while turkey hunting. I heard what sounded like a B52 airplane very close!! Turned out to be a bumble bee inspecting a blossom near my game ear.

 

[BillinOregon]

Not a hunting story, but a woods story. I was helping my father cruise a stand of virgin redwoods in Humboldt County, California. My hard hat was aluminum painted a fluorescent fuchsia. I was crawling through a tangle of rhododendron when I suddenly heard the buzz of a giant bee inches from my head, followed by a "tink, tink." Hummingbird poking my helmet with his bill to see if it was a flower.

 

[Chris Hayes]

Mine happened just this year. A family joined our MZ club and the dad had no interst in hunting. The 14 yr old boy was itching to try hunting so I got him his tag and took him out. We hunted about 4 hrs on a buddies property that I had been saving for myself. I knew there was a huge deer bedding on it. We had went back to the cabin to cook lunch and Ne-wa-hi (he is part Lakota on his mom's side. It means heavenly sky since his name is Sky) decided to just kinda piddle around on the edge of the woods waiting for a hot lunch. My buddy pulled up to the cabin wide eyed and said he right up by the road bedded! Well, off the fire came the burgers and we walked the game trail up and around the hill to where he was bedded. We turned and walked straight at him and never saw him until he stood up at 15 yards. Sky lead him as he started running but just a bit far and when he pulled the trigger the right side went spiraling off about ten yards. He reloaded and while walking up the buck was still moving. He almost squeezed of a second shot and I said "he's down, he's down". He went limp immediatly and Sky walked up to his first deer. I was behind him as he knelt down and gently stroked the neck while saying a prayer his mom had taught him. I came around the head to look at Sky and tears were rolling down his face. Now, I am a big, biker looking guy, and because I am a safety director for a living I am usually a very gruff person. All I could do was kneel down with him and bawl like a baby too. I have never been so racked with emotion in my life. My buddy who owned the place was bawling to. I taught him to dress the deer and we had loins for lunch that day. the next day I took the to the locker and met him and his mom there. She took one look at me, ran up to me, hugged me tight, and she bawled. My son doesn't hunt for the same reason I do. He shoots anywhere from 10-15 deer every year. While we eat everything we kill, he doesn't have the emotion Sky did. I will never forget that hunt. He shot that deer using a rifle my dad had givin him, using .45 ball we cast in my garage, with patches and moose milk we made in my kitchen. I don't think I will ever top that.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I was in Canada going for moose. Too warm out and didn't see any cow or bull, but lots of sign. One morning, saw a black bear across a small lake - cool!. A couple of minutes later the bear emerged from the brush line with two cubs, so it was a sow with little ones.., and when she started walking toward me - very not cool!. (I have great respect for shebears, especially with cubs.) So when she got about 100 yards from me I spoke up loudly and waved to her, and she gathered her cubs and went in the opposite direction.

That was cool, and so was the time I went bird hunting on Maryland's Eastern Shore, and we kicked up a chukkar too far away for a shot, so we paused to watch it fly to mark where it landed to try and check that spot later in the day..., when a bald eagle came in and snatched it in flight. I'd never seen an eagle take a bird on the wing, so that was cool too.

LD

 

[cynthialee]

Even the telling of that tale was powerful. I am siting here in a puddle of my tears as I write.

:hatsoff:

 

[Chris Hayes]

I came very close just writing it.

 

[Eric Krewson]

My events all happened while I was scouting or leaving an area I hunt.

Drove up on a black panther sitting in the middle of the road on Skyline Mgt Area. I was on a logging road on top of the mountain in my jeep. Got within 30 feet of it before it decided to leave. No doubt about what it was although they supposedly don't exist.

Hit a monster buck with my Ford ranger leaving Freedom Hills mgt area after dark one evening. I had a winch on the front of my truck that dead centered the deer. He spun down the road like a top and landed in a ditch.

I decided to gut him an load him up. When I got to within about 5 feet from him he stood up and faced me, a ten pointer, with antlers pointed right at me, he wasn't near as dead as I initially thought.

I told him he could have the ditch, road and everything else he wanted, as a slowly eased backward to my truck and left.

This next one happened abut 1/2 mile down the road from where I hit the buck, again while I was leaving my hunting area.

I have a lot of people calling me crazy every time I tell this story, but it did happen.

I was bow hunting on the Dixie Archers hunting club one evening, didn't see any deer so I left about dark thirty for the 40 mile drive home. I left the club land, turned left on the Sally Burns road and drove north. When I got to the intersection of the Sally Burns Road and Mt Hester road I was adjacent to some land my friend Ralph Waldrep hunted.

I saw a light at the end of a hay field on the land and assumed it was the headlights of Ralph's truck.

Always one to compare notes with my hunting buddies I stopped my truck, got out on the opposite side from the light and shouted "do any good Ralph". It was a very still evening and I was sure my voice would carry the 300 yards to where I saw the light but I got no response.

When I walked around my truck and started down a field road toward the light I could tell it wasn't headlights that I was seeing across the field. It was a round sphere of bright light about the size of a Volkswagen. It appeared to be hovering silently a few feet off the ground.

Directly behind the object was a steep hill rising several hundred feet to the top of a ridge, to the left of it was a creek bottom and an open hollow that extended for miles.

When I took a couple more steps in its direction, it started drifting soundlessly to the left toward the open creek bottom.

When the object drifted to a point above the creek bottom it left to the east. I mean it really left. We are talking Star Trek, warp speed left. It went from being a Volkswagen sized orb of light to a pin prick of light disappearing into the night sky about 10,000ft up, all in the blink of an eye.

I was a helicopter crew chief in the Army back in the 60s so I know aircraft and altitude.

After it left I stood there awestruck thinking,” Well, I actually saw one".

 

[Kentuckywindage]

this was EASILY one of the most memorable hunts. My nephews first deer hunt in new mexico and i spotted this under a tree. Thats my nephews friend in the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZAciG2OWfg&feature=share&list=UUh-Mwm7N7yLyrm8U1lVsbQg

 

[robtattoo]

Last year, I want to say the last day of TN muzzleloader season, I was sat in the edge of a patch of overgrown woodland. I was all dressed un in my ghillie suit, but I wasn't really hunting, just sitting around in the woods with my rifle in my lap. 2 grey squirrels started playing around in front of me, lots of fun to watch, but nothing unusual. They gradually got closer & closer until one of them actually perched on my foot! There they are, just rolling around, doing typical skwerly stuff when they both look up & off to my right. They both promptly run up my leg, hop on my shoulder & proceed right up the tree I'm leaning against. I look off to my right & I see a tiny grey fox come ambling through the underbrush! He (she?) gets closer & closer, sniffing the air as he comes until he's nose to toecap with me. He started licking my boot for just a second & then started sniffing up my leg! I'm about to come unglued at this point as I don't remember having taken a breath for a good while & he takes a couple of steps back to my righ. The next bit was the amazing bit that'll stick with me..... The litte so-&-so proceeded to squat down, not 3 feet from me & curl out the foulest smelling deuce I've ever experienced. I can only guess his last meal was skunk-ass!

 

[blackpowderscout]

I was hunting way back in the wilds of the Altamaha swamps in southern GA last year.

I didn't see a thing all day but I kept smelling something pretty foul. I kept easing along and every so often I'd catch a whiff of this horrible odor.

Then I saw 'em. 2 skunk apes. Big, hairy, nasty stinking creatures they were. Neither of them saw me so decided I'd sneak up closer to get a better look. I got within a fewdozen yards when I realized they were'nt skunk apes at all.....it was just robtattoo and supercracker enjoying lunch!!!!

:blah: