I'll go first......
Way back when squills just had evolved outta the mud,me and the younger brother were hunting them.
He was 8-9 and I was a grown up 12.
The ole man had taught us to hunt when we were small, and thought nothing of it to drop us off somewhere to hunt and come back and get us at the end of the day.
Both of us had a couple of Grays stashed in the game pockets of our coats.Back then the pockets were inside the coats, all along the bottom.
Well, Brother Jack had cut down on a big Red squill.Being younger, he never had the enjoyment of trying to get the hide offa an old Red squill.(To this day, he only takes the small ones.)
He proudly stuffed this crat sized squill into one of his game pockets.
We commenced to walkin' up a hollow to hunt somemore when Jack went into some type of convulsions.He had dropped his shotgun and was jumping up and down,speaking in tongues,I couldn't make out what he was saying.I just knew he was in some kinda trouble,what with this Hissy fit and all.
As I stood there in awe, he would stop moving for a second,and then start spinning around real,real fast.Like his was shedding his skin or sumpthin'.
He froze up again lookin' right at me,frozen in terror.Hell, I looked over my shoulder thinkin something was gaining on me.
I turned back to see if I could help my brother when all of a sudden he grew another head.Right up outta his coat collar sprang the head of that big ole Red squill,under and to the left of Jacks chin.
It was diggin and clawin its way outta the confinds of Jacks coat,and Jack was screaming by now,swattin at his new Red head.Jumping up and down while running in circles is not something you do naturally.
I didn't figure this animal could kill my brother,but my brother didn't see it that way.
The squill was about halfway out when I told Jack to hold still and I would shoot it.
Jack looked at me with his eyes sticking even farther outta his head and started screaming,'No,No,No.'And he turned and jumped down over the bank.
This being West Virginia,we got STEEP banks.Most of the time ya gotta go down sittin almost on yer hind end.Coming up one , your nose will scrape the bank.
This was one of those banks.
Brother Jack coulda out run a Avalanche down that hillside,I mean he was just gettin' it.Less than 20-30 feet down he finally got shed of his coat, with the squill bailing shortly after.
I gathered up his Pokestock and slid down the hill after him.I picked up his coat and found the Red squill.It looked very dead this time.
I found Jack down by a creek, washing his chin and neck.He was scratched up pretty good,but I think most of the blood came from the squill.
When he settled down, I handed him his coat.Before he put it on,he dug his two grays out and had me put em in my coat.He left the Red by the creek.
He was telling this story at the dinner table,but he left out all the parts about screaming like a girl and the conniption fit thing.
The only thing I added to his story was that the Red squill looked to had been slapped to death.

That's a good one...and I can see it all unfolding in what passes as my imagination. Never saw a West Virginia hill but I've looked level at the tops of some really tall trees 30' away on some slopes in the Blue Ridge country, knowin' what you mean by that drop. Fella would have to be seriously motivated to take the first step down one of those hills.

Well, not too much like that for me. I had a quail fly out of my vest one day driving home from a hunt...buddy was pokin' around in the vests admiring the day's effort. 'Bout pissed his shorts on that one! 'Nother time I shot a big azzed Monitor Lizard on Guam...sorta grazed it with a load of #8 at close range as I wanted to have it mounted. When I pulled it out of the box to show my friends it was born again so to speak...ripped my tee shirt to shreds, to say nothing of my chest. Those damn things got teeth AND claws like a crat! He still got mounted in the end, but it was a well aimed heel stomp that finally put him away. Good mount it was too, scared crap out of a multitude of my folks guests...mostly the ladies.

Well, only other one I know of it the famous "deer leaving with the rifle" trick after regaining consciousness from being shot in the horns. Must be a fairly common event as I've heard a number of stories about that. The guy shooting the picture had told the shooter the deer wasn't dead but the guy wouldn't buy it. Eyes closed, no blood...obvious signs. The dummy thought the "shock" killed him...wrongoroonie. Funny part was that when the deer began to move he grabbed gun in one hand, horns in the other...quickly discarded the gun and pulled a sheath knife then cut the bucks throat. Thing like to beat him to death before he got'r done though. Woulda give thousands for a video of that....

Dan

POTYHC

www.Murphys.Law

Several years ago I was hunting rabbits with a Red Tailed Hawk.

I carried a sheath knife a shoulder bag (called a lure bag)and a "flushing stick". The stick should be about 4' long and one inch in diameter.

I'd walk along poking the stick into brush piles, sage brush, other cover etc. The hawk would find a height advantage somewhere and follow. When a bunny was flushed the chase was on.

The field we were hunting also held ground squirrels and rattlesnakes both considered fair game by the Red Tail.

A neighbor lady who knew I hunted the field had asked me to bring her a snake the next time I found a big one. She intended to make a hat band out of it.

I found said snake and clobbered it with the flushing stick. Mind you while doing so I had to wait until the Red TAil was looking away or it would help. I stuffed the snake in my canvas lure bag and snapped the cover shut.

An hour or so later with a rabbit or two added to the bag we were leaving the field. I had the hawk tethered to my glove and was standing beside a road waiting for a break in traffic. The hawk begain moving about on my glove and twisting it's head to look at my lure bag. It was RATTLEING. Oh shoot!

I don't remember all of the details but the problems were

1 keep the hawk away from the snake
2 keep hawk away from busy street 6 feet away.
3 get damn snake out and smack it with stick while keeping 1 above in mind.
4 retrieve snake, hawk, and bag and cross street.

I have since killed many rattlesnakes with a flushing stick. I now step on thier heads and then cut the head off with my sheath knife.

I saw the hat band when it was finished. It looked good.

Jim

poletax--thanks for making my evening. Laughed so long and hard that the wife came to see what was so funny. She read your post and said "I can't believe you are laughing at that poor squirrel's situation." I told her I wasn't laughing at the squirrel, but at your brother's situation. She still didn't think it was a bit funny.

Great tales guys!! I've had a couple of incidents with canada geese after I've gotten home,,I'm shure the neighbors were wondering what the hell I was doing wrestling geese in my driveway. Make SHURE you ,,Killem All!!!!!!!!Clay

Yer welcome , dustoffer. You've given me a lot of laughs too. My brother moved down around Huntsville,Ala.chasing the All Mighty Dollar.We still get together,range time every now and then.

H James Wilson, I never got to hunt with a bird. I suppose it is some kinda fun.I've watched wild Red Tails hunt the small fields around here.Amazing speed and even more amazing brutal attack.

I did witness a Periguine(sp)falcon smack down and carry off a starling. I wasn't 5 feet away.It was over in a blink.Blew me away. These falcons also wear the doves out.

Dan,I don't think I'd enjoy being hit in the face with a flushed quail, especially in a moving vehicle.Where could ya go to get away? What a hoot? I'da wet my pants laughing.
Those Monitors got nasty stuff in their teeth.(like my Brudder-N-Law)I know a fella that was bit on the ankle,his foot looked like it was gonna rot off,nasty.The docs fixed him right up.

I had a friend get sick as a dog because his "hat band" had bitten itself in it's death throes, and he got poisoned off it.

A co-worker got her finger near bitten off when she leaned over to look at a fresh caught 20-pound bluefish and it looked at her then jumped off the deck and got her.