Dangerous happenings on LOCAL hunts! Post 'em!

[johnnyk71]

last year i was sitting in a climber looking over a dim road, which had a nice oak just across with a good spread of acorns. about an hour before dark, i hear pounding hooves, and i see a fawn tearing down the road. it splits off the road just past me, and i figure maybe momma is right behind it. so, i stand up and get ready, and wait. a minute or so later, i hear a sound on the road BEHIND me. i look to my left, and here comes the skinniest, mangiest old pit bull ever, sniffing hard and tracking that fawn from the opposite direction. i hesitate, and it heads on down the road. about 5 minutes later, i hear something running from the direction the fawn originally came. it was a huge half-black, half brown coyote. now, i tried to stop him with a whistle, but he was tearing right along the path the fawn took and never slowed down to give me a shot. i texted my buddy, who was hunting on another side of the property, and said, "what's next? a freaking giraffe? it's like Noah's ark over here!"

about 10 minutes before dark, that ole pit bull came sniffing back down the road. i had the green light, so i put a Magnus I right in the base of her neck. she went down without a sound, but after that crazy hunt, i was too scared to get down until my buddy got there with the good flashlight.

[YORNOC]

Great stuff.
 Since its my thread (heh heh) I HAVE to share for the first time a "non" local issue I had. Elk hunting out west with a guide. I will disclose NOTHING so dont ask. I was told to stay away from a particular area I was hunting. Back in the early 90's. I was chasing a herd of cow elk, compass only, and eventually became disoriented. I lost my place. I could see down to what I thought was the road 3000 feet below, but I was on the wrong side of the mountain. I came across a building, like a giant greenhouse. It looked old but.....green plants hanging on racks to dry. I heard voices, so I ducked down and slowly crawled back. Saw two guys with shotguns patrolling. No thanks. I backed right the heck out of there and never said a word. Compass doesnt lie, you are where you are not supposed to be stupid. Now I know why.
Never went back to the area or outfitter again.

[Gil Verwey]

I have two local ones and one hairy one in Maine.

I had gone bear hunting in Maine a few times and saw many bears. I shot a bear one year up there. The guide we were with had tree stands for us but they were better for gun hunters than bow hunters. I swear the one I was in was close to 30 feet up. A bear came in about 30 minutes before dark. I saw the shot and it looked great. The bear crashed off and I thought I heard it crash for keeps up on the top of a hill about 50 yards up from the bait.

I followed the blood trail and it was weak. When I got to the top of the hill there was no bear so I marked last blood and backed out.

The guide and my hunting partner arrived after dark. We took up the blood trail, but in Maine we couldn't carry a weapon at night. We went in with just our knives and flashlights.

Because of the high angle of the stand I shot the top of the off lung and the exit wound was high. The majority of the blood was caught up in the hair. The blood trail was poor and we followed on our hands and knees through thick stuff checking the bottoms of leaves and grass for tiny drops of blood.

After about an hour the guide said he thought he heard the bear ahead and said lets turn off our lights and listen.

My friend and I were sitting next to each other in this thick underbrush where we stopped. We were all listening intently for the bear and it was dead silent. The next thing we know we hear this scream - yeeeeeeooooooowwwww. My hunting partner and I pulled our knives because at this point we thought it was the bears death charge and war cry! After this long drawn out yeeeeeeeooooooooowwwww, we heard who who, who who. It was a screach owl that nearlry made us soil our draws.    

At this point we thought we would let the bear be and come back in the morning with fresh underwear. We came back and found the bear about 50 yards from where we left the trail.

None of us ever forgot that scream in the dark going after a wounded bear.

The next year in NJ hunting deer, I hunted in a spot where I had to go through a old cemetery in the woods and past an overgrown apple orchard. I hated that walk and it creeped me out.

I was hunting the end of October and would get to my stand before light and leave well after dark. This day I saw a monster black bear walk up this draw I was hunting.

I saw a few deer but no shots. I headed out on that miserable walk past the apple orchard just before the cemetery. Just as I got to the other side of the orchard I heard the bear woofing and popping his jaws. I couldn't see him in the orchard and he sounded very close. I knocked an arrow and kept my light in my bow hand and bow pointed to where the bear was popping his jaws. I didn't want to move until I had a good idea where the bear was. After a while I started to back out the trail. After about 10 steps I heard the bear crashing through the woods, I couldn't tell at first if he was coming at me or going away. He was heading away so I turned and continued to walk out but kept watching my back trail.

Another time deer hunting an area in north Jersey we had a problem with wild dogs. We had many running the area I hunted. They ran deer but I never thought of them going after a human.

This area was mountainous with nice ridges that ran along the sides of the mountain. I would come up the back side of the mountain and still hunt down the mountain on the ridges.

As I was still hunting I heard something behind me and saw a big mut looking down at me from the ridge above. I looked to my left and there was another dog there watching and when I looked right there was another dog watching me. I tried to make some noise to scare them off and they just continued to watch me. I continued down the next ridge and the same thing happened only the dogs changed positions. this happened two more times, each time they got closer to me and I thought they were really hunting me. I love dogs and would hate to have to shoot one but I thought this was a bad situation. The big mut seemed like the leader and appeared to not have any fear of me. At this point he was to my left at about 25 yards. I knocked and arrow and started to walk straight to him looking him dead in the eyes. I was mad as could be and he must have seen it in my eyes. I thought if he didn't move by 15 yards I was going to drop him. Just as I was getting to 15 yards he must have read my mind and took off, with the others right behind him.

I made it out without incident but that is the first time I actually felt as though I was the hunted.

It is all good and fun!

[YORNOC]

   

[Gil Verwey]

Man I forgot this one. This was a scary one.

It was a Friday evening in October 2005. I think it was Oct 5, 2005. I went to my tree stand on my farm after work. Soon after I got up in the stand a nice young 8 point came by. I hit him perfect at 15 yards. He stumbled and took off at a full speed. About 70 yards out I thought I saw him stumble again.

I waited about 15 minutes and went to look for my arrow. No arrow. I looked for hair and blood at the place I hit him - nothing. I made a few semi circles near where I hit him and there was not a drop of blood, hair or the arrow.

I decided to back out and call my hunting partner to give me a hand tracking the deer. He said he would be right over.

By now 45 minutes past so I headed back looking for first blood. I kept making semi circles for about 40 yards in the direction of the deer. Nothing. I decided to go to where I thought the deer fell. When I got there I found half the arrow and a lot of blood. I followed the blood and in another 25 yards found the deer.

The deer had run onto my neighbors property by about 20 yards so I wanted to drag it back on my property to gut it. I started to drag the deer back towards my property and after 10 yards I couldn't breath. I sat down and was sweating like crazy. I was dizzy and thought I would take a break and head back to the house to call off my friend. I called him and he said he was coming anyway and wanted to see the deer. I walked back to the deer and something wasn't right. I tried to drag the deer but couldn't. My wife drove up in my truck because I called her and told her I needed the truck to check the deer.

I told her I had no energy and as the good wife that she is she grabbed one antler and I grabbed the other. We dragged the deer another 10 yards back onto my property to my truck.

I didn't tell her what was going on. She headed back to the house. I couldn't catch my breathe or get any air into my system past the base of my throat. I felt like somebody was standing on my chest.

I had to lay with my head on the hood of my truck. I could feel I was going out so I held onto the truck and made my way into the cab. Once in the cab I was sweating like crazy and felt nauseous. I opened the door in case I was going to be sick just as my friend pulled up.

He is a retired police officer and said, "I am calling 911, you are having a heart attack and you are going to the hospital'. I told him I wasn't and not to call, because I had to work that night and over the weekend on a special project for work. He stripped me out of my one piece suit.

This next part is good. He wouldn't let me gut the deer. Now it was early October and hot. The deer had been sitting in the heat for a while now. When he spread the legs and cut into the diaphragm a glob of deer goo shot out and hit him in right in the mouth. It doesn't get much better than that. We loaded the deer and checked it. He got me back because I had to gut his deer in Ohio that year and he let it sit a while too.

He nagged me all the way to the checking station and back. Then he got me back and told my wife. She nagged me all weekend to go to the hospital.

I worked Friday night on this project but I felt like I had only came back about 60%. I couldn't walk 10 feet without being out of breathe. I stayed up all night, because I was afraid if I went to bed I wouldn't wake up. I eventually did sleep a little Saturday and Sunday, but continued to work on the special project.

By Monday morning I felt like I had only came back to 65% from where I was before this started. The project was done so I called out and went to my DR. He took me into the office and sent me straight to the ER.

They admitted me into the hospital, did some tests and released me on Tuesday late morning. While I was in the hospital I was in the room with an older man that was suffering terribly. I decided that this wasn't going to slow me down.

On Tuesday I was discharged at 11 am. At 2:30 pm I was back in my stand. I shot a nice fat doe. Since this happened my wife was making me carry my cell phone when I went hunting. I called my friend right from the stand and said guess what I did. He said what. I said I shot a nice fat doe. He got all upset and said he was coming over. I told him I was better and I can see the doe. I will have it dressed and tagged by the time he got there. He came anyway and I was just about to leave to get it tagged. That will teach him and my wife to nag me.

The next year my hunting partner had a similar health issue that landed him the same hospital room I was in. He also had a very old man suffering in his room. We both made a pact right there and then, that when these health issues are done we are going elk hunting and will continue every year after that. We did and we do.  

I had some other scary stuff that wasn't local, such as encounters with Grizzlies with cubs and a near plane crash in a beaver float plane. I was shot at and attacked with a machette and butcher knife, but this health issue was scary because you don't know how to fight it.

[TxAg]

Had a buddy that had a ratchet strap break and the sudden extra force caused the ladder to buckle. Thank God for safety harnesses and cell phones. He called me to come help him out of the tree....was perched on a knot on the side of the tree with his harness stretched out. Be careful out there.

Good news is he wasn't hurt, and I ended up killing a pig that night.
 

 


   

   

[AWPForester]

I got two.  One is funny, the other is a little different but the most frightened I have been.

The funny one:

I was in college and we were in summer camp.  Part of the class was to do a forest inventory on Coopers Rock State Forest.  The part we were doing it on was supposed to be closed to hunting.  We were working in groups of five. SO early one Morning in the middle of May we all met up there at daylight as we had a long hike to even get into the prescribd area.

Our group consited of 5 males.  We ran in to another group of Forestery students about 7 am that had 2 females.  As we were standing there talking the call of nature hit, so as to be polite I walked about forty yards to the edge of a food plot to take a leak.

I get over there and I am looking more across the food plot than I am paying attention to my feet.  I stop beside this big tree an unzipped. I began doing my business but was still lookng across the opening for game.

I had goten about halfway done when I looked down at my business at hand and noticed a boot about 2 feet to the side of my left foot.  It was like the cartoons, I followed the leg all the way up to meet his eys just looking at me from behind his face net no more than 3 -4 feet from me.  I screamed like a wildman and jumped about three foot in the air and backwards.

I screamed at him, What the #$%$ are you doing man!  And hurridely zipped up my pants.  My friends came running as they didn't know what was going on.  I apologized to him, and needless to say I quess the fact he wasn't supposed to be there was the reason he was intent to watch a man take a leak almost on him without making him aware of his prescence. Scared the heck out of me though.

The sober one:

September 17, 2010, WV had an early bow season.  I went to a farm that is owned by a logger that cut timber for me.  I hunted all day and saw a lot of deer.  About 6:30 pm a doe came along and I 12 ringed her at about 10 yards.  After she had run out of sight I give my customary thanks to the Good Lord for gracing me with such a blessing.  And as plain as the nose on my face a voice in my head said "That will be the last one this year".

It frightened me.  It did so because I knew there was something wrong with me.  I had spent 4 years in many a doctors office trying to determine what it was.  They all said the same, you are fine.  Too bad so many doctors think because you are realitively young and look healthy that you are.  Well, I was dieing and I knew it.  Slowly but surely I went from being a extremely strong and resilient person to this guy who got licked just mowing the grass.

I knew somethind bad was wrong and just days before this I got in the floor on my knees and prayed to Jesus to please fix this before it was too late.  I asked him to do what had to be done for me to get to feeling better.  Right there in that treestand my testcile started to swell and get tender before I shot the deer but I paid it no mind thinking it was due to setting so long.

By the time I got home, I could hardly walk, much less set. The following friday I was diagnosed with Stage II Testicular cancer, underwent Chemo through the end of 2010 and the first part of 2011, and am in full recovery from the cancer and as good I am going to get from the chemo. Praise the Lord!

Not your typical story but, the minute I heard that voice, I knew what I had, knew the long hard road I faced, and knew that I was going to make it.  But it still scared the you know what out of me.

God Bless to all

[J-dog]

Got some good eastern NC bear scares - but one in particualr gets me.

I was in PUNGO NWR- folks who know, know where I am talking about and the numbers of bears in there. They are protected so no hunting them. You see your average 2-250pounders, but some real brutes as well, 4, 5s, and 600s. These bears are not afraid of humans, they love to hear a boaw shot, and they WILL steal you deer.

If going in in the dark they will follow you to your stand! and that is my first one, some buddies and I were hunting a swamp and went in one morning, I and a friend broke away from each other to go to our respective sets. I was not 30 yards from him, when the hair stood up on the back of my neck! -- now I pay attention to my instincts - I was not using a light so I dug in my pocket and broke out my flashlight and scanned around me. 10 yards to my left side I saw eyes lookin at me, ears perked up about 200 lbs!

I turned my light off and kept easing towards my set - went about 20 yards and shined my light - I aint heard a sound! and he was there again holding about ten yards off bobbing his head around looking at me. Well he dd this all the way tot he set and when I hit the base of that tree I made every squirrel in the world PROUD!

This little bear hung around for awhile - I could shine my light down and see him wondering where his "funny" toy went up the tree and did not want to play anymore.

Chief

[Eric Krewson]

I was stalking up a logging road in Little Coon Valley on Skyline management area in NE Alabama, recurve in hand, looking for deer. This was in the early 70s before tree stands.

The sides of the mountain had flat benches like stair steps that the deer traveled. Often the benches would have thick patches of 6' to 8' tall river cane on them.

As the logging road I was on neared one of these cane covered benches in heard a screaming roar in the thicket. This roar was unlike anything I had ever heard, loud and guttural.

The roar got louder, the creature in the thicket started throwing large rocks, sticks, clumps of leaves, even dead logs almost as big as my leg. The missiles were coming out of thicket in a frenzy of activity, nonstop, in all directions as the angry roar continued unabated, steadily increasing in it's ferocity.

I looked down at my little 45# Kodiak Magnum and Razorhead tipped 2016 arrow. I said to myself "NO WAY" and ran away from the commotion on the mountainside at a rate that would have made an Olympic sprinter very proud.

The cane was so thick and tall I never caught sight of what was causing the disturbance, I wonder to this day what it might have been.

[beauleyse]

About 7 years ago I was hunting in early November in one of my favorite rut stands, nice natural funnel where two creeks diverge... Around 930 I have a black and white sow come through with 7 or 8 piglets not bigger than a grasshopper, normally we shoot all pigs on sight but with it so close to the rut and such a great location I let them pass right on by at 15 yards. I sit the rest of the morning and get down around 11 to go check a camera on a scrape some 500 yards away in a nice acorn thicket... I had my martin recurve in one hand and for some reason something told me to grab my pistol "just in case".... Well I get a phone call from dad as I approach the camera to remind me to check his camera, as I'm letting him know I have it under control I hear a grunt...I look up and no more than 10 yards away is that same black and white sow with those piglets hugging around her legs. I tell dad pig, "got to go", and before I could react to pull an arrow from my quiver or put my phone back in my pocket she is charging full force right at me. I honestly don't remember drawing my pistol or coming up to full stance all I remember is seeing the crimson dot from my laser grips touching her head as the 40cal bullet hole took its place and She slid to a stop touching the top limb of my bow and I fell to my butt thanking God I was alive...

[Gen273]

Gil,

Post you not so local stories as well.  

[ronp]

Hey Charlie,  I would follow you blind folded!

[shortstroke 91]

Got lost on a foggy/misty night once trailing a hog. Ended up finally finding a house and knocked on the door at 3:00 in the morning covered in muddy camo(homeowners were a little stunned by my appearance)found out I was 8 miles from camp as the crow flies. They took pity on me and drove me back to our gate after a long Q & A about how I got there.

Bought a GPS and compass the next day.

[GRINCH]

I was walking down the road to my stand to my right was a hedge row that was thick,I heard the most terrifying scream and rustle from there,tuned out it was a bobcat scared the hell out me never heard it before.
The other time was walking back to the truck after a dissapointing day,I saw an armadillo drew an put a broadhead into it's back well he flipped and dissappeared down into a hole.I went to check on the hole bent down a was staring at a 6 ft rattler,it was low 40's so he was lethargic I backed away and stuck him in the head.Ilearned to look at my surroundings that day.

[wixwood]

Great reading folks!!

This spring I was fortunate enough to be invited by some buddies to go on a pig hunt, it would be my first hunt in Texas and for pigs. What a hunt it turned out to be for me, I got two pigs with my long bow, found a real cool whole arrow point and just had a blast.

On the second to last day of our hunt I was sitting at ground level in my chair near a feeder where I had nailed my first pig. I was reading a book (CJ Box is great) occasionally checking emails on the e-device (work is sometimes too close) and keeping an eye on the happenings around me. I knew it was getting to that point in the evening where the feeder was going to go off and things might pick up. I put my book down, had a drink of water and checked the time, yep, about 10 minutes to feeder time. My bow was in my lap with an arrow knocked and my awareness level was on the upswing. I shifted in my chair to be a little more upright and comfortable and moved my feet from out in front to more under me. I’m hearing this noise, sounds like the feeder but I’m looking right at it and that’s not it. What is that NOISE..... there is movement low and on my left...A RATTLE SNAKE in full warning mode moved out from under my chair and is now about 12” from my left foot. That is the noise

Well, dad did a good job of teaching outdoor skills and awareness of nature. I kept cool and slowly took my arrow off the string and moved my bow with the fletching from the quivered arrows down and between my self and the diamondback (long bows are the best for this maneuver). My thought was that if it was going to strike, strike at this. Once the bow was in place I just kinda used the tip to push the snake away, (s)he was ok with that and started to slink off. I was pretty happy with it departing and going to leave it at that when it occurred to me that in an hour or so it was going to be dark and I would be wandering around getting out of here. I stood which re-antagonized the serpent, now at a much safer distance, reloaded the bow and pinned the snake. I hit it about 5” behind the head and it is very angry. So, once again the long bow shows its versatility and I use it to pin the head of the snake, whip out my trusty Deperschmidt knife and proceed to cut the head of the thing. I am about ½ through when low and behold....the feeder goes off. I nearly jumped out of my skin!!! I regrouped, finished my original task, sat down and let out a GIANT breath. What I wouldn’t have given for a beer or two just then.

The funny part: my chance for pig #3 came along a ½ hr or so later, a smart boar that took his time (too much time) working around into the wind and up to the feeder. I still had a pretty good level of adrenaline when I spotted him and by the time he moved to a shot spot I was sooooo amped I couldn’t even get my bow half drawn. Oh well, 2 outa 3 ain’t bad and the pigs as well as the snake found new homes in my freezer.