gamestalker
member
Over the many years of hunting and general outdoor recreation I've had countless close encouter's with Elk, deer, antelope, and bear.
For the sake of the time it would take to write, and read all of those I can recall, I'll just write about some of the most memorable events.
One fall turkey season my wife had gone out to see if she could get into a harem all by herself, here's what happened. She had located a large harem of about 50 or 60 birds. She managed to empty her 12 ga. 870 at them and only suceeded in scattering them all over the ridge. She came home and was excited beyond words and told me she wanted me to go out in the morning with her and call them in. After hearing about her encounter I knew we had the perfect setting for a fall turkey hunt. So about an hour before first light we were set up at the top of the ridge waiting for it to get light enough to start calling. That was when we heard a deer snorting and stomping the ground just a few feet from us. When I turned to see where the deer was I saw that it was a doe and fawn and they were no more than 10' away. At first I was too concerned other than the fact that it was getting close to calling time, and I didn't want the birds to fly down on their own. But that quickly changed when the doe got more and more aggressive and was litterally making every effort with her hooves and snorting to run us off. I finally stood up and swung my arms around to try and scare her off, but she responded by lunging toward me with even mroe aggression. I qickly grabbed my wife by the arm and whispered for her to follow me very slowly as we inched away from her, thinking she would just leave us alone. As we started our exit she continued to follow, stomping and snorting the whole time. We did eventually get to call our fall birds in, but not in her territory. We did kill two nice gobbs, but what an experience.
On another exciting turkey hunt during the spring, I had layed down next to a big dead pine tree not far from a water hole in wait to hear a gobble to persue. As luck would have it, I fell asleep and woke up to the ground rumbling. I slowly sat up and looked over the dead tree to see a good sized herd of elk running full bore right at me. They obviously didn't see me so I ducked back down against the dead tree and the next thing I know I have the herd jumping over the top of me and the tree, and diving into the water hole. All I could think of was, I hope one doesn't accidentally stomp on me or spook because of me, and then stomp me of gore me too death. They played aggressively in the water for about 10 or 15 minutes, and then as quick as they arrived, they exited over the top of me yet a seocnd time, but this time I had the hooves coming at me instead of over the tree first, as was the case when they made their arrival. I never thought I would ever find myself that close to a large herd of elk, so close that I was in fear of dying a bizzar death.
I was again turkey hunting in the fall this time. I wasn't doing so well locating a harem to work but I did hear a bull elk sound off a good mile away. So out of shear amusement, I decided to see what I could do to bring them in and grabbed a good sized limb and started bashing it against a pine tree. After a couple of minutes of doing this the bull sounded off again and this time he was a bit closer. I continued bashing the tree and he again sounded off and was much closer, maybe 300 or so yards away. I couldn't see him in the thick pine forest and decided to do some more bashing. All of a sudden while bashing the tree his massive rack appeared from behind the tree and he was hot too trot to engage the other bull he thought was making all the racket. I tossed the branch at him and ran for cover. As I looked over my shoulder while running away, I saw he wasn't doing anything, just standing there watching me. He was probably wondering where the other bull was, or, maybe he was laughing at the stupid human running into everything in his path? Seriously, I nearly knocked myself out trying to run away.
I'll share some other close and stupid encounter's with ya all in the future. But I just thought it might entertain some of you, who like me, struggle to find a deer, elk or other quarry when we have a tag in our pocket. They seem to know when we have a tag, or at least it seems that way sometimes.
GS
Merry Christmas
Gamestalker
For the sake of the time it would take to write, and read all of those I can recall, I'll just write about some of the most memorable events.
One fall turkey season my wife had gone out to see if she could get into a harem all by herself, here's what happened. She had located a large harem of about 50 or 60 birds. She managed to empty her 12 ga. 870 at them and only suceeded in scattering them all over the ridge. She came home and was excited beyond words and told me she wanted me to go out in the morning with her and call them in. After hearing about her encounter I knew we had the perfect setting for a fall turkey hunt. So about an hour before first light we were set up at the top of the ridge waiting for it to get light enough to start calling. That was when we heard a deer snorting and stomping the ground just a few feet from us. When I turned to see where the deer was I saw that it was a doe and fawn and they were no more than 10' away. At first I was too concerned other than the fact that it was getting close to calling time, and I didn't want the birds to fly down on their own. But that quickly changed when the doe got more and more aggressive and was litterally making every effort with her hooves and snorting to run us off. I finally stood up and swung my arms around to try and scare her off, but she responded by lunging toward me with even mroe aggression. I qickly grabbed my wife by the arm and whispered for her to follow me very slowly as we inched away from her, thinking she would just leave us alone. As we started our exit she continued to follow, stomping and snorting the whole time. We did eventually get to call our fall birds in, but not in her territory. We did kill two nice gobbs, but what an experience.
On another exciting turkey hunt during the spring, I had layed down next to a big dead pine tree not far from a water hole in wait to hear a gobble to persue. As luck would have it, I fell asleep and woke up to the ground rumbling. I slowly sat up and looked over the dead tree to see a good sized herd of elk running full bore right at me. They obviously didn't see me so I ducked back down against the dead tree and the next thing I know I have the herd jumping over the top of me and the tree, and diving into the water hole. All I could think of was, I hope one doesn't accidentally stomp on me or spook because of me, and then stomp me of gore me too death. They played aggressively in the water for about 10 or 15 minutes, and then as quick as they arrived, they exited over the top of me yet a seocnd time, but this time I had the hooves coming at me instead of over the tree first, as was the case when they made their arrival. I never thought I would ever find myself that close to a large herd of elk, so close that I was in fear of dying a bizzar death.
I was again turkey hunting in the fall this time. I wasn't doing so well locating a harem to work but I did hear a bull elk sound off a good mile away. So out of shear amusement, I decided to see what I could do to bring them in and grabbed a good sized limb and started bashing it against a pine tree. After a couple of minutes of doing this the bull sounded off again and this time he was a bit closer. I continued bashing the tree and he again sounded off and was much closer, maybe 300 or so yards away. I couldn't see him in the thick pine forest and decided to do some more bashing. All of a sudden while bashing the tree his massive rack appeared from behind the tree and he was hot too trot to engage the other bull he thought was making all the racket. I tossed the branch at him and ran for cover. As I looked over my shoulder while running away, I saw he wasn't doing anything, just standing there watching me. He was probably wondering where the other bull was, or, maybe he was laughing at the stupid human running into everything in his path? Seriously, I nearly knocked myself out trying to run away.
I'll share some other close and stupid encounter's with ya all in the future. But I just thought it might entertain some of you, who like me, struggle to find a deer, elk or other quarry when we have a tag in our pocket. They seem to know when we have a tag, or at least it seems that way sometimes.
GS
Merry Christmas
Gamestalker
