Here's another one: A couple years ago while hunting Mule Deer in the Gila National Forest, my brother and I climbed to the top of a hill late in the afternoon, when the sun was low in the western sky. When we got to the crest we enjoyed a beautifull panaramic view of the canyon below us and the hills basking in the late aftenoon sun. There was a very, very slight breeze--just bairly more than still air--blowing from the South, and as far as we could see over that canyon, floating hundreds of feet in the air and being carried along in the breeze were hundreds of single strands of spider thread carrying spiders aloft. The sun was just right for us to see these single stands glistening in the sun, each dozens of feet long, and every one with a tiny spider dangling from the end drifting along with the breeze--an armada fo spiders sailing North. I had no idea spiders did this and I was in absolute awe of the sight. Talk about God's wonders...

Toomany Tools, haven't you ever seen "Charlotte's Web?"

I never saw that movie until I watched it with my kids....that is what the spiders did in this animated film.

I have so many neat things or "weird things" so I'll state a few.

This topic was discussed some time back in Bowhunting if I recall.

I've seen a young couple in the woods learning about "flesh management."

I saw another hunter take a dump in the woods about 80 yards away from me down in an oak flat on a mountain side....apparantly he forgot his paper. I won't go into detail about how he cleaned himself, but I sat there saying to myself, "oh my God, oh MY GOD." Gross.

I watched a whitetail buck pin a Doe in heat down in a ditch, not letting her get out, as he guarded her from other bucks. He bred her at least 10 times in 25 minutes. This occurred in Iowa in 1996. I filmed the whole thing. He also taught me more about deer sounds in the rut than any "expert" on any video. This was the first time I've ever heard a buck "yell" while grunting, literally screaming at the doe. Low and behold, The Drury boys have now come out with a deer call named the "growler" or some crap like that....I thought to myself, you boys are way behind.

Watched a bud shoot a mulie buck. We walked back to the truck to get his knife and camera (we were gone about 45 minutes), then when we got to the buck, a cougar had already thrown dirt all over the carcass to hide it.

I've had birds land on me, crap on me, land on my bowstring and pick at my string silencers.

I was hunting for Coues whitetail somewhere on the Arizona, Mexico border with some friends of a friend. While sitting on the front deck in the early morning hours, thinking about where we were going to go, a few hummingbirds buzzed around my head and my arrows which were propped up on the seat next to me. They thought the red and white fletchings were flowers, they stuck their little beaks down inside the nock holes. This was all about 14" from my face.


I watched a black bear that probably weighed no less than 400 pounds climb a tree like a cat, gaining about 18 feet up in 2 seconds.

I watched the birth of twin fawns only to have both killed by coyotes when they weren't even 10 minutes old. The doe was just too tired to do anything, and this coyote performed like it was a job he had repeated over and over. I never even knew he was there until he sprinted at them from about 40 yards away....he was waiting.

I was still hunting fox squirrels in a mixed hardwoods in southern Michigan. It was a fairly calm but overcast afternoon but the bushytails weren't too active yet. I got into a patch of 8-10" diameter sassafrass trees and motion caught my eye. There was a branch slowly moving back and forth in a very strange way, enough that it was worth checking out.

What a grin I must have had when I got the whole picture. Somehow, a section of one of those sassafrasses, about 20 feet long and six inches in diameter at the butt, had broken off and somehow landed on the very tip of where it had separated from, about 15 feet in the air. The section was kinda squiggly along its length and was perfectly balanced over the point, like a yoke or someting such that a slight breeze would make it swing very slowly back and forth. I can't imagine the odds of that happening!

I'm sure it's all fallen down by now but that was cool!

I have four things that come to mind:

1. I know this is American hunting, but this was the coolest thing: I was hunting in Kigosi last year. we spotted a maneless male lion and two females. We glassed them. Then one of the females brushed her hip against the male's nose. The PH glanced back at me and said, "They are going to mate." And they did.

2. I was baiting bears in MN and came to a "T" in two trails. Just as I reached it, I spotted two timber wolves on the trail at a 90 deg angle to me. We both looked at each and then they took off.

3. I was in a USCG helicopter flying over Kodiak to an island called Sitkinak (we were blowing up an unused and unlit USCG Loran tower). We came over a ridge and spotted a huge brown brown bear. We circled over it and he got up on his hind legs and pawed the air.

4. I was bird hunting in AZ in the desert. Came over a ridge and ran into a model buck naked posing for a camera.

Brown bear at 30 feet just silent as heck while were talking loudly over a just killed deer. The deer was closer to the bear than it was to us. The bear did not leave til the wind changed. Guess the gunshot and loud talking werent enough to convince it to leave but the smell was.

One more.
In high school, I was coyote hunting with a buddy of mine. We were hiding in a bunch of trees near a gut pile from a recent deer hunt.

My buddy had a wounded rabbit call, and was trying to call in a coyote, when I noticed something flying around up top. Then it dived at my friend and took the cap off his head. He got spooked and fell out of the tree, and I was laughing to so hard I did also.

two things come to mind of the many great experiences I have had. The first one revolves around my bird dog Maggie, an English Springer with loads of heart. We were hunting Blue grouse west of ft. collins colorado and even managed to bag a few. It was close to dark and we decide to hit one final grassy glade before calling it a day. As we started working of the little dry creek bed that ran through the open, I saw a grey flash in the grass. A coyote I thought, but I didnt have a clear shot....lucky me. After about 150 yards at full tilt, me brining up the rear, Maggie stopped under a small Aspen and began barking. I have never seen a coyote tree... hmmm, what do we have going on here I thought. About 10 feet off the ground, pearched in the crotch of a tree was a Canadian Lynx, radio collar and all. Man was I glad I didnt shoot, whew! So I proceeded to watch the big kitty for about 10 minutes, no camera of course. I think Maggie was pretty lucky she didnt catch that kitty, but you cant convince her that she could not have taken him. Very Very cool!

The second experience happened while deer hunting in South Dakota. I found myself a great log to set up under near a river crossing. I could slip my leggs under it, lay back and watch a good section of river. There was one crossing to my right which I did need to lean forward to see though. Aftwer settling in and relaxing some I figured I would lean up and check out the crossing down river. Just as I leaned forward....at exactly the same instant, a rooster pheasant right next to my feet on the other side of the log saw me and I saw him. He exploded out of there and I'm not sure who was more scared. I must have looked real manly. fun stuff for sure.
Steve

When I was a kid, my Grandpa ran a gas station/ repair garage. There were calanders or advertising posters on the wall using a small cartoon bear that world get into comic situations and be shown as having the hair on his head standing straight up. Fast forward about 30 years. I am sitting on a stump, trail watching for deer in the California Sierra mountains. About 25 feet from my stump a huge old saw log abandoned many years before is laying cross ways to my view. It was about 5 feet in diameter and 20 feet long. I heard something moving behind the log and got ready, thinking it was a deer. Out walked a small black bear, a yearling I suppose, just ambleing along without a care in the world. He got a few feet past the log, swung his head my way then back, then did a classic double take, His eyes opened real wide and the hair on his head stood up just like those long ago cartoons. He pasused until I laughed out loud, then jumped and ran like he was shot out of a cannon.Might still be going for all I know.

Last year , while deer hunting in Wyoming with a buddy, we spotted two yearling bucks sparing with each other. We were sitting on a hill top glassing across to another small hill and spotted the little bucks going at it. Both were whitetails, one spike buck and one forked horn. They were 300 yards away and had no clue that we were there.

Here's a picture (you'll need to zoom in)

Back in 1988, when I was a very young man in the U.S. Army Infantry (non-hunting situation), we were participating in a training mission near the East German/Czech border. It was mid-winter and very cold, and we had patrolled all day and most of the night. We had reached one of our check points and decided to take a break until the sunrise. I think that it was roughly three or four in the morning. Anyway, I was pretty cold and there was plenty of snow o the ground. We set up near an old cemetery, which had to be hundreds of years old, by all accounts (it was kind of eerie, actually). I also remember that it was totally quiet, no wind moving at all. I parked myself next to a few frost covered saplings and tried to keep myself warm and awake. As the sun started to rise (a few hours later) and twinkle off of the frosted branches, I notice the "snow" right next to me (next to my feet) start to move and twitch. WTF? Next thing you know, this lump in the snow shakes a little and a big white rabbit is sitting there looking right at me. It had been there the whole time and it looked pretty scared. I guess it was just too scared to move, or maybe to frozen too. Nevertheless, after a minute or so it zipped off into some nearby bushes.

Another time in Germany (while "flanking"), a buddy and I were watching a rabbit feed on some grass one night when some kind of cat came out of the woods and starting putting the sneak on the rabbit. That cat was bigger than a house cat but smaller than a bobcat. The cat stayed low to the ground and behind the rabbit. The cat stalked for about 30 or so yards, I guess. At the last moment, the cat winded us (I guess) and then looked right at my buddy and me and took off for the trees. The rabbit hopped off once it saw the cat running away.

One that comes to mind happend when I was about 14 or 15 years old. We used to hunt for small game in the evenings after school. One evening a friend and I were hunting squirrels. He and I were sitting about 400 yards apart.

I was sitting on a fallen log in the middle if a mixed forest of pine and beech trees. The tree was across a heavily used deer trail. I, being young and dumb, sat on the fallen tree, right over top of the deer trail. I saw a deer approaching me from upwind, winding along the trail toward me. I sat there motionless with my .22LR on my lap. The deer rounded a pine tree and snapped to attention at about 3 or 4 yards. He was a young six point whitetail. He obviously knew something was not quite right about the tree over the trail. He did the classic foot-stomping and head-bobbing to the point that I almost started to laugh. He would take several small steps forward and look away, then suddenly look at me, as if to catch me moving. After what seemed like forever, but was likely several minutes, the deer decided that the odd growth on the tree was nothing to be concerned with. He decided to move on forward - directly toward me. When he was about four feet away, I suddenly threw my arms into the air and yelled at the top of my voice.

I honestly thought the deer was going to kill itself trying to get away. The deer hit the ground, hoofs flying in all directions. The deer ran about one stride and hit directly into the tree he just walked around. He then took off at supersonic speed, about 2 feet off the ground, toward my friend. I could hear that deer running for a long way.

Later, my friend told me that the deer ran past him, still going strong, and was still running when it went out of his sight and hearing.

I wish I could have had that on film.

when i lived back in the great state of georgia, a friend of mine and i hunted the okeefenokee swamp on a regular basis.

we both took friday off for opening week of deer season and headed off into the swamp, with all our gear in our john boat. we took a diffrent route than we usually did this time and found a small island that i couldnt help but check out. it wasnt more than two hundred yards across and five hundred yards long with rubs and scrapes all over it, so we decided to both hunt it (makes things alot easier when hunting two or three miles back in the swamp). we headed off and set up on one the many platforms back in the swamp.

we woke up about and hour and a half before light and headed back to this island. i set up on a beautiful oak on one side of the island and my buddy set up on the other. about twenty minutes after good light a doe and two yearlings started heading across this island, nearly directly in the middle so neither of us had a shot. the yearlings proceded to cut across the swamp and just as the doe neared the water she started stomping and blowing like mad as if she had winded us. the yearlings alerted and started looking around. after a minute or two the doe started to turn tail and the yearlings also started to head back. just as the first yearling started to turn an extremely large alligator (biggest one ive ever seen!) lurched out of the murky swamp water and grabbed it by the chest!

both of us saw the whole thing and tell that story every chance we get. it was then i decided to start carrying a camera when we headed back into the swamp.

shoot straight,
geoff

LARK: Liberals Accepting Responsibility For Killers

OOORAH!

Very nice stories, especially the last one!

quote:

Originally posted by TCLouis:
Posted for a friend who misses Alaska EVERY day.

Reminds me of the time I saw an eagle snatch a salmon from the ocean that was too heavy to fly off with, so the eagle SWAM to shore to eat it. The eagle did a fine breast stroke!

Funny enough I saw the exact same thing happen with a King Salmon and a Bald Eagle in AK. Awesome sight. The Eagle could actually swim pretty good.

The first time I seriously went bowhunting several years ago for deer, I was sitting in the stand watching a squirrel get closer and closer. He finally got literally nose to nose with me. Probably less than 3 inches between us. not sure if it was the same day but I was sitting in the same spot and saw a huge old oak tree fall over. Guess because I was there to hear it, it did make noise.

Couple stories...

Had the beejeesus scared out of me on my way to my stand one morning in the dark. Kicked up/stepped on a pheasant bedded down in a hayfield - WOW!!

Was still-hunting deer up in northern MN, and was watching a muskrat poke along a little creek, coming towards me. It was maybe 10 feet away when a good-sized mink jumped from the bank and killed it after a quick fight. My eyes were bugging out - hadn't seen the mink - but the next thing I know the mink took a run at me to defend his kill! Scared the crap out of me, while I stood there with my 30'06 in hand (DUH!)

Great stories - great shows. Too bad we can't share them all, eh?

Once while hunting in Alaska, we came across 2 young moose banging heads in the middle of a very beautiful meadow. I thought to myself how grad it was to be there and take in all the wonder.

My hunting partner and I decided to get closer, so we moved in quietly to do so. I grabbed the camera to take pictures. Suddenly my hunting partner told me to look to the far right edge of the timber, which was about 90yds away.

I did but didn't see anything in the camera lense. So I switched back to the young bull moose clashing heads together and snap some pictures. This time my partner hit my shoulder with his hand and said look a grizzly bear. I then grabbed my bino's with the other hand and passed him the camera. There it was a big bear watching with a lot of interest in those moose. I just wish I would have had a movie type camera.

It sure was a grand place but we decided to leave and get away from that bear. We didn't have any bear tags and we both thought it better to look elsewhere for a bigger moose. I liked the idea of using the boat on the river better than walking around in those tall willows, especially with bears around.

The wife and I were fishing at Cowley County Lake one morning when we heard a scream from across the lake. We seen a fawn apparently looking for its mother the fawn jumped into the lake swam across and walked onto the pier we was fishing on. The strange part was it was making a noise that sounded like it was saying MAMA. Several of the people fishing walked out and petted the fawn deer. It finely walked off saying MAMA. I have often wondered what happen to that little fawn.

Another time while deer hunting during Muzzleloader season we had a fawn walk within 10 feet of us. There were about six people standing there with there muzzleloaders waiting for the fawn’s mother to step out. She never did but the fawn walked about 30 feet into the trees and stood there for an hour or more. It was the closest I can remember ever getting to a fawn.

I had crawled up into the crotch of a tree waiting for a deer to step out into the wheat field. I kept hearing what sounded like a person walking through the draw next to me it was to short for a adult so I thought here comes a deer. After about an hour out steps a large rooster pheasant I couldn’t believe a pheasant could make so much noise.

Just got back from Sonora Mexico. On this trip I saw a Coues doe running at full speed and diving under the lowest strand of a 4 strand barbed wire fence, without skipping a step or losing a single hair, or for that matter even hitting the bottom wire.

There is an open ravine behind my house. Two nights ago there was coyote who had just come out of the ravine and was standing in the middle of street...eating a pizza.

He looked up...went to the sidewalk, sat down and stared at me. I drove past...he went back into the street and finished his pizza.

I think it was pepperoni...Zachary's Pizza I suspect. They just opened a new location near my house.

I once went on a weekend whitetail hunt at a friend’s cabin on a large private ranch. The property owner had invited three of his business clients to come along for their first organized deer hunt. These guys showed up at the cabin with enough equipment to film an original ‘Tarzan†movie. They all had new (unfired) rifles, coolers, sleeping bags, backpacks, tents, cover scent, doe piss, ratt’lin horns & enough camo to stock a Cabela’s; but not one single round of ammo between the three of them.

Where are the moderators. The thread should have been locked after Skinner. That was a show stopper.

Years ago Charlie (worked at the university where I went to school) went varmint hunting/calling for the first time with a friend of his.
Charlie always wore a grey hat and the varmint expedition was no differnet. He and the friend sit up on opposite sides of a ridge, the calling commenced and few minutes later Charlie felt something hit his head and as he jerked his head up, he watched his hat leave in the claws of a hawk.
First and LAST varmint calling/hunting trip for him as he put it.

Between this and my experience I think it is proof that ones head sticking up with just slight amount of movement may well lead to exciting times with winged predators. I know I have attracted a lot of attention with the hawks with a predator call when I lived in NM.

TCLouis:

Your story has prompted me to relate a similar experience when I was about 15 (I'll be 77 in a depressingly few months). I sat out near the edge of a high field but inside a ridge line of woods. I was hoping for a shot at a fox and it was twilight in early Fall. It was cool enough and damp enough that I was wearing one of my father's old grey fedoras (at my mother's insistence - or I wouldn't have gotten out of the house. High crown, wide brim) I was at that point in any stand hunt where I was getting bored out of my skull. My hat suddenly came off my head -and no wind whatever! I sat there dumbfounded, not comprehending what had happened and it was several seconds before I saw the great horned owl ahead of me. Before I could really grasp that he had my hat - he dropped it and flew off. I really don't know why but it shook me up so much that I quit the stand. My cruel parents laughed their heads off when I told what happened. Your story stirred an old memory. I always wondered why an owl thought my father's old grey fedora was something to eat!

I was up at the top of NH, driving along the state highway, when I saw a coyote dashing around frantically in the knee-high grass along the side of the road. I pulled over to see what he was doing, but lost sight of him. I was just about to get back on the road when I saw something just on the passenger side of the car. I rolled the window down and looked out to see the coyote, sitting on his hind legs and staring at me inquisitively at about 8 feet. In his mouth was a still very much alive, struggling and wriggling bundle of fur; 'twas a cottontail. That coyote and I stared at each other for maybe 30 seconds, until he became bored, slowly got up, turned and presumably headed off to have lunch. Afterward, I couldn't believe it didn't occur to me to take a picture, as I had a camera sitting right next to me in the passenger seat. Doh!

Settin in a tree stand on the Niobrara river and started hearin some feirce loud growlin and barkin[two kinds] about 100yds away .Its real thick up that way and can't see nothin . This goes on for and hour or so then it begins to escalate and I hear somethin running . Low and behold here comes this coyote streached out runnin as hard as if I had shot at him .He's growlin while he's runnin . 20 yards behind him is this big bobcat also runnin hard and growlin I get to watch for about 60 yds and they both pull up . Coyote looks back bark/growls and the cat starts back after the coyote.I heard them goin in the distance and never saw them agin .I never knew how fast both could be.

quote:

Originally posted by wayles:
Settin in a tree stand on the Niobrara river and started hearin some feirce loud growlin and barkin[two kinds] about 100yds away .Its real thick up that way and can't see nothin . This goes on for and hour or so then it begins to escalate and I hear somethin running . Low and behold here comes this coyote streached out runnin as hard as if I had shot at him .He's growlin while he's runnin . 20 yards behind him is this big bobcat also runnin hard and growlin I get to watch for about 60 yds and they both pull up . Coyote looks back bark/growls and the cat starts back after the coyote.I heard them goin in the distance and never saw them agin .I never knew how fast both could be.

Amazing stuff, all of it. This collection of little personal stories of outdoors experiences we obviously love so much gets me smiling. Hunters are (generally speaking) a fine bunch, I think, regardless of where they hang their hats on the blue marble. Good thread, here.

And yes, I have been drinking.

Logged on, calm, collected, favorite adult beverage in hand, . . . but why can I not get page 2 of this thread?? Lot's to read but, NOOOO! not for me! Help! (Yes, I click and clack on all the appropriate page 2 buttons but only page 1 appears.) Thanks.
Brad

About 30 years ago, the grin on my son's face as he held up the first dove that he hit. It was the last time my dad went hunting with us and the first my son was allowed to shoot.
Judge Sharpe

Would have to be last fall while sitting in a makeshift groundblind bowhunting for deer and have this 6x6 elk walk up and stand next to me at bout 10 yards for what seemed hours.Just being that close and watching was a memory that will last forever

I was attacked by a raptor while jogging every time I passed his territory.I saw a monster great white shark approach and circle our boat while fishing.Once while on a 3 week hiking trip in Kluane park and going 14 days without seeing a single person I came across 7 beautiful american young women hikers in the middle of nowhere who had gone a month without seeing anyone.(I got a picture of that).I once tried to canoe the Nahanni river without any canoeing experience and lost everything and went 4 days before I was found.

It would have been my second or third deer season (about 40 years ago)Dad and me were getting ready for opening day. A friend of Dads and one of his buddies were going to meet us at our favorite hunting spot. It was a bitterly cold morning as mid November days usually are in Manitoba. The friends buddy shows up wearing a brand new one piece ski-doo suit and bragging about how warm it was. We arrived pretty early and decided to sit in the trucks a bit before we headed out to our stands. Didn't sit there very long and "buddy" has to have a crap. I guess he had never worn a one piece before because he managed to crap in the back of his fancy new ski-doo suit. Unknowingly he gets back into the suit and back into the friends truck. didn't take long for the aroma to work its way out of the suit. We had a knock on the window of our truck only to hear they had a little "problem" and were going back to town. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard.

Great idea!!
I actually saw a female otter kill and devour a 4' aligator. The Gator had gotten too close to momma's den so she jumped on it's back to defend her young, As the feightened gator tried to get away she held onto it's back and began to slowly peal back the aligators hide 1 small strip at a time,the gator made some noises that at the very least told me he was very unhappy.The momma continued to peel off the hide then flesh from the gator until it finally died a good 20-30 minutes later. The whole time I watched in amazement of the Otter's determination and the true cruelty of mother nature. The Otter than began pealing of pieces of flesh from the gator and brought them to her den ,it was then I figured out that she was a female and had pups. I was so amazed by this spectacal,I just had to go into camp and tell someone about it. No one had heard or even thought an Otter was capable of such an attack..

Once while fighting wildfire, I sent two squads back to the vehicles while I hiked over the mountain to retrieve squads I had ealier ordered to wait for us, while walking I could hear both groups of people talking, laughing and just enjoying the day when I saw movement below me. I stopped and watched a bobcat who obviously could also hear them "sneak" up the mountain right between them, he jumped up on the boulder I was standing on and I twisted my boot so the gravel under it would make noise, he turned, loked at me and his expression said, "holy crap!" and he tore off up the mountain.
while jogging one day, I heard a commotion and then a whitetail deer came tearing out of the brush, hitting a barbed-wire fence at full-speed and flipped and bounced until it landed right in the middle of the road. I approached cautiously, looking for signs of what brought it to this state, it picked up it's head and looked at me with an expression that said, "did you see that?" and then it was so exhausted it just laid back down and breathed heavily. when I got within twenty feet, it got up and staggered off, only then did I notice what looked like claw marks along her rear quarters! cougar alert!

First off, this little blurb is told second hand (hope my buddy doesn't mind ). In short, he (or one of his sports, I forget), shot a black bear. Bear goes down. After a short time, buddy shoulders rifle and approaches said bear, who is prone. Buddy kneels down and begins to stroke dead bear's thick neck fur. Bear's head suddenly whips around and stares at buddy at halitosis distance.

Story ends well for buddy, but that image stays with me as a good example of an 'oh shit!' moment indeed.

So far I gotta' say I like Dave's story the best. I don't remember Otters doing anything like that in the Disney movies I grew up with; they were so cute. I bet Grizzly Man saw the same films and look what that got him!