Below is a quick excerpt from a past hunt:

"I have always explicitly trusted my hunting instincts, and they were now screaming for me to stop still hunting and quickly sit against the nearest tree. Ten minutes earlier I had sneaked to within thirty yards of two feeding does who were totally unaware of my presence. The howling wind and my slow cautious movement had paid off as getting to within that distance of standing deer is a feat of its own, and I had done it with two deer. But, now something inside me was unequivocally and without any doubt telling me to stop what I had been doing the past two hours and get motionless.
"Steenbuck Jim" (my African hunting buddy) and I have emailed and discussed how well we trust our “gut” when it comes to hunting, as we both believe in what it tells us. Call it instincts or premonitions, but I knew, absolutely knew that I needed to stop moving and hug the nearest tree which I did without hesitation. The finger of the coulee, like the six I had already crossed, was heavily treed and perhaps 75 yards wide. And, I had a miniscule 100 yards upwind of me which could hide a buck. Above that was open pastureland. The chances of a buck being found in that small section was astronomical; yet I waited.
My brain, being the administrative organ that it is, could take no more than two minutes, as I stood and began to move. Three steps, just three steps later, I again took a sitting position and put my back against a tree as the feeling was even stronger. It is difficult to describe the feeling I had, but there was no doubt that I was doing the right thing.
Miraculously, just thirty seconds later, I could make out the form of a deer moving my direction but on the other side of the ravine. Slowly lifting my Steiner binoculars, I could make out antlers as it passed through the thickly intertwined branches of the oak trees. When it crossed a small opening, the rack appeared to age the deer at 2.5 years old, but it was good enough for me considering what was magically transpiring."

When I was considerably younger and inexperienced, I was stumbling around deer hunting which basically meant I was out for a walk. I had covered a few miles and had looked at dozens of little brush piles of buckbrush and plum thickets without seeing a deer. Looking to my south, I glanced at another little thicket and immedately began to shake almost uncontrollably. Getting myself under control, I slowly made my way toward it which caused a deer to skyrocket out of the cover. Somehow, I knew that deer was there. Perhaps an ear flick or leg stretch had caught my subconcious mind, but that incident began decades of trusting my instincts.

I am just curious as to hear other stories from hunters who have experienced a similar phenomena. And with all due respect to everyones' stories, I am not talking about picking a right stand based on a "gut feeling" or choosing a hill to glass from based on a "hunch". But I am talking about having that "sixth sense" that is just screaming to be listened to. We know all prey species have it.....how about you????

In the 90's, I think 1996 I had an interesting incident. I will shorten it considerably.

We were called in to shoot some cattle killing lions. I shot 3 that night. We left them until morning. I should add that we were not sure if they were dead or not. I will leave out what happened that night which in and of itself is interesting.

We returned in the morning. We drive right to the dead cow. Standing in the back of the truck, I can see 2 of the lions laying stone dead maybe 30-50 yards away. We proceed to search for the 3rd.

After some time, I spot a tiny speck of blood and spoor which looks like the lion is dragging one leg. Upon inspection by the PH and trackers, they believe that my shot smashed a shoulder while not entering the body cavity . The pussy cat is likely alive and not in a real good mood.

We start to follow the tracks. There is a tracker, the PH and me walking side by side in the same line but not right together. Behind us and to the right is the property owner and his son.

It was interesting. I could see, hear and smell things I would never have noticed on a normal day. I had not experienced this before nor since.

At some point, I spied this small patch of bush. For some reason, I KNEW that the lion was there. How I knew, I have no clue but I knew.

I yelled to the PH and tracker and I dropped to my knees. Before my knees hit the ground, I saw the lions tail swing one time and the lion jumped over that bush and made a bee line straight to me.

I hammered him hard with my 416 followed by a shot from the PH with his 416 who also hit the lion. The lion recovered and continued toward me. My second shot did him in. He was stopped with the closest part of the lion about 6 feet away from me.

How did I know that lion was there? I don't know but I am glad I knew.

I think deep inside us , some of us have the genes that ancient man had .These are the hunter genes .Something, sights , smell or sounds woke up those genes.
A friend had a poodle , full size , and when it saw it's first rabbit it freaked out , had to be restrained .He acted strange the rest of the day ! The original hunting genes woke up !

Elk hunting way in the middle of nowhere. Woke up in the morning and I had strange feeling that I should go home. Just felt like I had to go.
Bingo, my first born was on his way when I got home.
Sitting on fresh elk kill with my bow that I found and all of a sudden I didn't feel right not seeing behind me. Looked around and nice tom was flat on the ground 10 yards or so behind me, watching me.
So I stood up and pulled my bow and he was gone like poof.

I have "listened to my gut" so many times during my career in a dangerous occupation that I no longer ever question it. While you sometimes can not put your finger on what specifically is concerning you, the totality of your senses are very reliable and listening to them will generally keep you out of harms way. NEVER IGNORE THEM!

The sixth sense can also be called "gut feel"

We would all be very wise to listen and act on the what the gut is telling us, I believe every one of us has a story to tell, a good one at that, emanating from that very feel.

I have followed numerous species of wounded game over a very long career, and can honestly say the trust I have put into these senses has prevented many a bad situation developing. Trust them.

Now if only my gut would spit out a few lotto numbers !!!

My instinct tells me to never trust ANY elephant! It has held me in good stead to date!

I think that sometimes we see, hear or smell things that our conscious mind is not aware of, but our sub-conscious mind recognizes. That gut feeling is our sub-conscious mind screaming at our conscious mind.

Not hunting related, but I was driving in Tallahssee one day with my four kids in the truck. I asked them to confirm they all had their seatbelts on because 'I had a feeling'. I'm not kidding, about 20 seconds later a woman ran a redlight and almost hit the driver's side door.

A friend and I were hunting along the Mulchatna river in Alaska near a place called Nick’s landing. We had been hunting the Overlook Mountain area for caribou, and were headed back to our camp on the river. We came to a place where a trail went through some very tall grass that looked like the old Texas Johnson grass, about shoulder high. The trail was winding so that we couldn’t see more than 10 feet of it at any time.

I heard or saw nothing but suddenly the hair on the back of my neck stood erect and I stopped in my tracks, and raised my rifle to my shoulder and snapped the safety to the fire position. I said nothing but glanced back at my friend and he had his rifle up as well. Without saying even one word we backed out of that grass and made our way around that patch of trees and grass to another open trail down river. When we got to the river we looked back up stream just in time to see a very large brown bear step out of the river end of that trail. Nick had warned us a few days before that they had a bad bear around there that was very aggressive and for us not to fire a warning shot at him because he had learned that that didn’t hurt and he would charge you. We hunt caribou in that area with bolt action 375H&H rifles because of the number of brownies in that area, but in the tight grass we may have gotten, maybe one shot off, by the time that bear could be seen, and if it didn’t kill him, and that wasn’t likely, we would have been I deep sh:t !

Listen to your gut and you will live longer! Soldiers, policeman, and hunters all seem to experience this sixth sense, and it seems to have been with me all my life. It pays to listen to it.

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quote:

Originally posted by PSmith:
Not hunting related, but I was driving in Tallahssee one day with my four kids in the truck. I asked them to confirm they all had their seatbelts on because 'I had a feeling'. I'm not kidding, about 20 seconds later a woman ran a redlight and almost hit the driver's side door.

This reminds me of another incident, also not hunting related.

My son (now 30) was an infant in a car seat. We were leaving Orlando as a hurricane approached. We were south of Tallahassee heading north on a 4 lane road. It was late at night. For some reason, I had the urge to shift to the left lane. I changed lanes. Not 5 seconds later, I passed a black cow that was walking straight away from us in the right lane that we had just been in. Had I not shifted lanes, we would have slammed into that cow at high speed.

Not a personal experience, but one of my Marines was riding down the road in Iraq in command of his vehicle and also the patrol of 4 vehicles. He suddenly yelled at the driver to stop. The looked ahead, and were stopped a few feet before a "Christmas tree light" IED-detonating device. They backed up, called EOD, and cleared the IED.

When asked about it later, he said that he yelled stop because one of the other Marines had said to stop, and he was repeating the command because the driver didn't stop the first time. The other Marines in the vehicle all denied saying anything. He has no idea why, but he called out to stop just in time.

Just my opinion, nothing more, but I really do believe that a hunters/predators instincts/senses are more finely attuned to their surroundings than those folks that don't have the same connection to life as those that depend upon all of their senses, including the Sixth Sense.

Incidents/situations occur that simply can not be attributed to anything else. Also, from experience there are just times/locations where those senses kick in and nothing manifests itself but the senses are still working.

quote:

Originally posted by Buzz Charlton:
My instinct tells me to never trust ANY elephant! It has held me in good stead to date!

Nobody I know would know that better than you Buzz!
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quote:

Originally posted by Crazyhorseconsulting:
Just my opinion, nothing more, but I really do believe that a hunters/predators instincts/senses are more finely attuned to their surroundings than those folks that don't have the same connection to life as those that depend upon all of their senses, including the Sixth Sense.

Incidents/situations occur that simply can not be attributed to anything else. Also, from experience there are just times/locations where those senses kick in and nothing manifests itself but the senses are still working.

CHS, that has always been my opinion as well. Hunters seem to be like wild animals where instincts are concerned. Like animals, hunters have a sixth sense where danger seems close at hand, even when sound asleep! Anyone who has been in a combat situation will tell you they developed that sixth sense very quickly as well.

That opinion can be proven in several ways, and one that I have noticed several times by finding an animal that was fast asleep. That animal being totally unaware of my presents till I stared at it for just a second the animal jerked awake and bolted. When The same thing has happened to me when I was only about 12 years old, being suddenly snapped awake, sleeping on the front porch of friend’s ranch house. I was sound asleep but came awake, without even moving, just opening my eyes to stare into the face of a coyote standing on the ground facing me. He seemed to be trying to figure out what I was with his nose no more than 12 inches from my face because of some instinct I opened my eyes without even moving.

As you say that is just my opinion as well, but also as you say I see nothing else to explain it!
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My hunting related incident happened in October 1991. A co-worker and I leased some hunting property in Sanilac County, Michigan. There were lots of deer on the property, but that county didn't allow Sunday hunting, so our available weekend days to hunt were cut by 50% every fall. My co-worker said he'd find a hunting spot closer to our homes in Oakland County, MI. On October 20, 1991 he called me up and said "I found a great spot that's close by us called Bald Mountain Recreation Area- let's go bowhunting there this afternoon". He picked me up around 2:00PM and we drove there and parked next to two cabins that they rent out there. As I was unloading my hunting gear from the truck, I got this weird feeling, and told my co-worker.... "A mass murderer either has killed or will kill some people here". He told me my imagination was too vivid or words to that effect. Three days later (10/23/91) Dr Jack Kevorkian assisted in the suicide of two women at the very spot where we parked. The headlines of the Detroit Free Press the next day had pictures of that spot. I took the paper and showed my co-worker, who was astounded by my premonition. Hasn't happened before or since.

quote:

Originally posted by MacD37:
When The same thing has happened to me when I was only about 12 years old, being suddenly snapped awake, sleeping on the front porch of friend’s ranch house. I was sound asleep but came awake, without even moving, just opening my eyes to stare into the face of a coyote standing on the ground facing me. He seemed to be trying to figure out what I was with his nose no more than 12 inches from my face because of some instinct I opened my eyes without even moving.

Damn Mac, I had that same thing happen to me just yesterday morning, I woke up and there she was, but it was definately NOT a coyote!

quote:

Originally posted by JCS271:

quote:

Originally posted by MacD37:
When The same thing has happened to me when I was only about 12 years old, being suddenly snapped awake, sleeping on the front porch of friend’s ranch house. I was sound asleep but came awake, without even moving, just opening my eyes to stare into the face of a coyote standing on the ground facing me. He seemed to be trying to figure out what I was with his nose no more than 12 inches from my face because of some instinct I opened my eyes without even moving.

Damn Mac, I had that same thing happen to me just yesterday morning, I woke up and there she was, but it was definately NOT a coyote!

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No examples / stories concerning women???

LOL!