Unusual sightings

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One of my most memorable was on a deer hunt in Utah several years ago. We went for a long weekend scouting and found a spot that looked promising by Moab. we arrived The day before it opened and set up camp. Well by opening morning we woke up to half of Utah camped near us so we moved that day to another spot. I was glassing all morning from a ridge when I spotted two desert bighorns just above me, 250 yards. They started fighting, it went on for an hour! I took 3 rolls of film. The ewes were within 75 yards of me, the rams fought to within 100. awesome day, it saved the hunt for me. Yeah, I said "rolls of film", cameras used to use rolls of film.....
 
One fall morning I was calling bear in Sycamore canyon, Arizona. After calling for a while I stood up to find 2 fox right at my feet. I'm guessing as remote as this area was, that they had never seen a human being, as they weren't the least bit worried about my presence.

Similar to the above, I was calling coyotes, and heard something behind me. When I turned to look, I had a yote not 2' from me, just standing there looking at me. I almost didn't have the heart to shoot it, almost.

I had another experience while hunting fall turkey with my wife. We were waiting for it to get light so we could call some birds in that she had put to bed the night before. As we sat there, we saw a couse deer fawn walking right toward us. When the fawn had gotten to within several feet of us, along came mommy, and she was not happy. She started coming right at us, snorting and stomping. We got up and moved to a different spot, ended up killing our birds that morning though.

GS
 
I had the misfortune of watching a raccoon get bred once while I was hog hunting. If you haven't seen it I say misfortune because it looks like a scene from Law and Order SVU. The male Coon basically chased the female down and happen to catch her 10 feet from me. For the next minute or so it was the worst sound I'd ever heard. Then they just parted company. I've heard that sound in the distance a few times since then. Not much for romance those raccoons.
 
I was still hunting for bedded deer, creeping across a wooded hillside at midday. I was really doing it well, not making a sound, and the woods were quiet, no breeze.

There was an explosion of rustling leaves and running sounds immediately to my side and slightly behind me! The adrenaline hit me hard as I whirled around...bear? Mountain lion?...both were in the area.

No, I had spooked an armadillo, and it was crashing through the leaves to get away from me. I darn near had a heart attack. Had to sit down for a few minutes. Add armadillos to the dangerous animal list.
 
Maybe it is just a northern California, Oregon and Washington thing, But I know a few people that have had encounters. On another note, I watched a lion take down a doe once, very impressive. She didn't have a chance. I saw a golden eagle hit a big muley buck right in the back, Pissed him off like you wouldn't believe! The eagle landed on a rock about 20 yards from him after buzzing him a a few times, he was snorting mad. When he charged over there the eagle took off, then buzzed him once more before bugging out. Quite a show.
 
redneck2 said:
The guy I hunt with wears size 13's. Does that count?
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I wear size 12s and they're by far the smallest feet out of any of my brothers. Several wear 14 or 15. Glad it's not me. It gets expensive fast when you have to special-order shoes. If any of us could grow facial hair, some of us might be mistaken for bigfoot, but that's not in the genetics. Maybe one of us would be mistaken for a Yeti, but when they got close enough to see that it wasn't white fur, but pasty white skin, they'd realize the error of their ways along with the coming expense of the necessary psychotherapy for that which can't be unseen.

Matt
 
Several years back a good friend and I were hunting grouse. It was the end of the day and we were heading back to the truck with the dogs, walking down a logging road on a Oak Ridge in Sand Country. About 50 yards ahead of us the dogs spotted a large Badger. While I was able to keep my GWP at heel, my friends Springer took off after it. All we could see was sand flying off the road, while my buddy hollered at his dog, in fear the badger would make mincemeat outta her. By the time the dog covered that 50 yards( a matter of a just few seconds) the Badger was gone. By the time we got to the spot where the badger was, the only sign we could see was a spot of loose dirt in the road that still moved a little as it settled and the Badger continued to bury itself deeper. It still amazes me at how fast that large animal was able to start from scratch, on a packed logging road, and dig a hole big enough to bury itself while covering itself with dirt, in a span of single digit seconds.
 
My young at the time son and I were hunting deer, and a small spike buck walked towards us. I whispered to him about it, he took aim, and a small flicker type bird chose that moment to land on his barrel in front of his scope, blocking his view. He couldn't figure out why he wasn't able to see through the scope. The buck took off with his movement, and he didn't get the shot.

We both laughed, after he calmed down, and still talk about it.
 
Cool stories. It's a lot if why I like being out in the woods. Mostly just squirrels annoyed with me while I'm deer hunting with my 30-30 and chirping a bunch.
 
It still amazes me at how fast that large animal was able to start from scratch, on a packed logging road, and dig a hole big enough to bury itself while covering itself with dirt, in a span of single digit
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I hear ya. This was a lesson I learned as a kid. I was out hunting rabbits with a pumpaction .410. I was walking across a dam grade, and lo and behold, walked up on a badger. Knowing they were worth a few bucks (hair is used in paintbrushes, etc) I drew down and let him have it at about 15 yards with a 3 in load thru the full choke. It flipped him over backwards, and before I could even fire another round, he was in the process of digging himself in, and I never did get him (DAMN sure wasn't sticking my hand down the hole to pull him out LOL). The fact he took a full load of #5 pellets at close range, and it didn't even really phase him amazed me, as did his digging speed.
 
An unusual thing that happened to me, was when my brother and I did a "float". We were drifting a small river in a canoe for deer when a great horned owl flew onto a limb down stream from us, and perched looking down stream. I was in the bow and my brother was guiding the canoe. We drifted under the owl until I was actually looking back up over my shoulder to see him before he was aware of us. He spread his wings and sort of "fell" forward to launch, then sailed off down stream. I was amazed at how BIG their wing span is (especially at 10-12 feet under him) and how silent he took off and flew for a bird that large!
 
Squirrel hunting with my girlfriend's dad one day, and we hadn't seen any all day. As we walked back to the car he stopped to water a tree. I hear a faint thud, and an "Owww!". I guess there were two squirrels up in the tree that decided his head looked like a good target to drop acorns on. They like to taunt and tease us.
 
Not actually hunting, but just waling through a park in Ft Collins, CO.....My brother in law and I both happened to catch movement out of the corner of our eyes, and noticed something falling out of a tree. Walked over, and sure enough, there laid a squirrel basically on the brink of death. Not knowing what else to to, I found a rock and quickly (and discretely....didn't want a park full of hippies to try to get me arrested on animal abuse charges!!!) finished what nature had already started. No clue as to what actually happened to make that critter take that fall however.
 
On several occasions here in MT I have come across mushrooms sitting in trees. These are ground dwelling mushrooms, I have seen about 5 kinds now, none of them I recognize as being edible for humans but I am just starting to forage fungi. They are just lying on small branches between 3 and 12 feet off the ground like someone, or something, placed them there very carefully. At first I thought it was someone marking a trail or shroom patch but some of them are higher than I could reach. I thought they might be squirrels dropping them from higher trees in an attempt to bring them to a nest, sometimes the branches are too thin for squirrels to sit on, but sometimes, there is no taller trees around. So, either a bird is picking them and dropping them from the air, mushrooms fly when you aren't looking, they are being thrown, there are fairies in the wood, or bigfoot likes to get down with nature.
 
25cschaefer said:
On several occasions here in MT I have come across mushrooms sitting in trees. So, either a bird is picking them and dropping them from the air, mushrooms fly when you aren't looking, they are being thrown, there are fairies in the wood, or bigfoot likes to get down with nature.
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Squirrels eat mushrooms and Red Squirrels will actually hang mushrooms out to dry in branches to preserve them for eating later. I'd suspect them before Wood Fairies.......
 
I have a couple good ones to add.

The first was a time when a friend of mine and I were hiking in the woods on his uncles property. We were a couple good miles from the main road on a pig trail when we happen across a moonshine still. We made our exit post-haste and somehow remember to mark the location on his gps. When we got back to the truck he called his uncle and the local sheriff. Fast forward a couple of days and my buddy gets a picture of us at the still sight emailed to us. Turns out the sight was under surveillance by the sheriff, state police, and ATF. Sadly that picture was lost while moving over the past several years.

The second story is about a friend of mine who lived in the middle of NOWHERE...as is 1 hour drive to get to the nearest town. He was scouting for deer out off some old logging roads and happened to come across a large (20 foot or so) goose neck trailer with several large chemical tanks and other items. He figured out real quick it was a meth lab and made his exit. He called the DEA and the state police and informed them about it. The local sheriff had been busted for accepting bribes only a few months earlier so that is why he was not called. The DEA set up a watch on the area and made a decent size bust, but of course they could not tell anything about who/how much/etc.
 
During an archery 3D match, my wife took a shot at a foam raccoon target, and hit it solidly.
Then the raccoon upped and walked away.
But it had no arrow in it.
There had been a live raccoon behind the 3D version.
Very funny to all.
No one took a shot at the real one.
 
Another one:
We were strolling through a wooded area and a tiny, little deer came out of the brush right up to us.
Apparently, someone had been feeding it.
Luckily we had some trail mix with us, so we shared.
A few minutes later, there was a huff and puff behind us.
Yup, it was big Mama.
Hoping she was noticing how we were making nice to her baby, I offered her some of the trail mix.
She stuck her big nose into my hand and took some.
Both of them hung around until they had eaten all of our food, then moseyed off.
A very nice and unexpected day in the woods treat for us.
 
Ok, just one more:
A pal and I were up in Canada, fishing the small lakes.
In the evenings, some of the locals found entertainment by taking lots of beer to the local garbage dump and watching for visiting brown bears.
They invited us along, so we all piled into our car and headed over to the dump.
Sure enough there was what looked like an average sized bear rustling around on the far side of the dump.
As it was getting kind of dark, I turned on a spotlight, and lit up the critter so we could see better.
It took an immediate and unmistakable dislike to that light, and came charging straight at us.
It was a good thing that dump was a big one, 'cause by the time it arrived on our side, we had barely managed to all throw ourselves into the car and peel off outta' there.
And that bear looked a whole lot bigger up close than it did from across the dump.
Meaner, too.
We didn't look for any more bears at the dump that trip.
 
When I started this post I had no idea I would get such entertaining stories. Keep 'em coming! here's another: My brother and I were calling crows one day and were well hidden in some cedar trees. Brother decided to turn off the electronic caller and try using his new mouth call. Apparently he created realistic sounds of a distressed rabbit because a large hawk swooped into the cedar where my brother was hidden and stopped just inches from his face. Don't know who was more startled, the hawk or my brother.
 
I’ve got a couple. Back when I was in College in Oregon I was hunting deer in the Coast Range. I’d set myself down on a trail and was hoping to see a buck. What I saw was much more interesting to me, at least. Pretty soon I heard what sounded like a bunch of birds so I froze. Up the trail a covey of Mountain Quail came. They were happily talking among themselves as they jumped up, over or on my legs and feet as if I was nothing more than a rock or log to be navigated over. They continued up the trail while I sat there quite pleased with myself.

My other hobby is falconry. When I lived in SD my buddy and I hunted pretty regularly. He and I used dogs, of course. I was into English Setters and my buddy had an old bandit of a shorthair. That shorthair was good but he sometimes believed in lying to his human partners. On this day we were running him down a section line road when he slams on point. The way he was acting we were both sure he was sure he had a bird so we got out and put one of the falcons up. All our dogs were trained to flush on command so when my buddy called for the flush we expected to see that shorthair get in and get the bird up. Nothing!!!!! He was locked up in a pretty stylish point. Since it wasn’t my bird in the air I got elected to flush for the falcon. When the falcon was in position I was told to flush and went rocketing by that damned shorthair in my finest style. To add a little humor to the whole affair I jumped, sailed through the air and landed directly on a badger! Later I was told the shorthair didn’t move during the whole affair while all Hell broke out under my feet. I screamed, the badger snarled and after doing the fastest jig of my life was able to get away from the badger without getting bit while my buddy was laughing himself hoarse. Both the dog and the falcon showed good sense and didn’t mix it with the badger wherever it went off to.
 
One of the best I remember seeing was watching two greyhounds chasing a coyote across a wide-open Kansas pasture one time.

The sight hounds where gaining on the coyote by leaps and bounds the last 250 yards.
By all appearances the kill was a done deal.


Till they came to a new four strand barb-wire line fence.
The coyote went under it without even slowing down, and left a dust vapor trail accelerating out the other side.

But the two hounds hit it chest-high going 35 MPH.
The two bottom wires stretched out about 5' on the other side when they hit it!

Then sling-shotted them both back the direction they came from about 25', azz over tea kittle through the air!

They both got up and went back to the coyote hunters dog truck with a sheepish look and their tails between their legs!!

I guess it didn't hurt them much, if any?

But it was like watching a Road-Runner cartoon in real life!

rc
 
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