counting coup

[ChuckC]

We just had a couple threads on "how far" and "how close".  Has anyone out there actually "counted coup"  or what I believe to mean actually reached out and smacked a wild critter while hunting...or even if not hunting  (your dog or cat don't count).  I guess using your bow could count if you just touched the critter and didn't shoot it.  I have come remarkably close on a couple occasions (remarkable to me at least) but I have never actually touched them.

anyone ?

[Traxx]

Yes i have.
I would advise any other person,attempting to do this to a doe from the ground,to use a stick,or the likes.As soon,as i touched her,from a sitting posistion,she proceeded to kick the livin $%*@ outa me.I couldnt raise up my left arm,for about a week.Lucky for me,they were glancing blows,and missed my face,and head.

[McDave]

Does beating sticks, yelling, throwing rocks, and otherwise doing whatever you can to run black bears off from your camp count, or is that too close to your cat and dog?

[Mr.Vic]

Smacked a young buck once as he was checking me out in my brush blind. I agree bad thing to do. He knocked the bow out and about ran me over. I touched a coon once walking by me, smacked another one who climbed on my shoulders when in a treestand, again close calls for my hand. I caught a hummingbird, and hit a squirrel as he climbed down the tree in front of me. I had an owl land at my feet once and moved my foot ever so slowly and touched him before he flew. And last year i messed with a small mouse in my blind with a small stick. Lots of memories in 30 some years

[Whip]

I too have been remarkably close, but haven't actually reached out and touched one yet.  After hearing 2traxx tale I might be hesitant if given a chance in the future.....     But it is something I have always wanted to do.

I did have an owl count coupe on me once when he landed on a branch at my shoulder.  That was nearly thirty years ago and remains one of my best memories.

[ChuckC]

Mr Vic...I think bowhunters have more than our fair share of encounters with hawks and owls.  Pretty neat till one gets you.  One that stands out in my head...no I didn't touch it...but it landed in my tree, maybe twenty feet away and looked at me, standing back against the truck, hands down by my side.  I moved one hand..the one with three fingers cut off for a tab, so my really pasty white fingers just shined out.  He locked on and watched as I played like this, wiggling my fingers, till it struck me that he was honing in to kill something, and those somethings were right there by my crotch.  That stopped real quick.....

I have had coons and squirrels climb the tree right past me, and right on the stand with me. I actually had a squirrel climb on my knee and shared potato chips with me.

 I have had birds land on me and on the nocked arrow.  I have not gotten quite close enough to touch a deer, and now, probably won't try after reading these stories.  

Lots of neat things happen to those that wait..real still...
ChuckC
Chuck

[vermonster13]

I had a set of twin button horn fawns come right up to me a few years ago and touched them both on the nose with my bow. One the funniest things I'd ever seen in my life, they just stood there shocked for a moment unsure of what had just happened. Mama was having a coniption fit blowing at them to get them to follow her.

[tpoof]

I was sitting in my ground blind on day and just at dark a rabbit came hopping along and stopped right in front of me! I was watching it when all of a sudden bang something hit me in the back of the head and knocked my hat off!! I quickly looked to see what the heck happened and saw a Great Horned Owl sitting on the rabbit watching me; clicking his beak like crazy!! I figure he smacked me with his wings as he was going for the rabbit. I never did get my supper that night but the Owl got his!

[gobbler10ga]

had a bird land on my arrow this year

[T. Downing]

About four years ago, I called in a calf elk to about a 1/2 yard. The calf happened to look back down from where it came from, I took my recurve and touched the elk's rump, it spun around and stood staring at me for a brief moment before it ran back down into the canyon, awesome experience.

[bbassi]

one of my favorite memories is a chickadee that liked to land on the brim of my hat and turn upside down to look me in the eye. He did this several times one season. I actually got to looking forward to seeing him whenever I hunted that stand.

as for actually counting coupe, I came close to kicking a coon one time that looked like he was going to climb into my lap while turkey hunting. Let's put it this way, I won't ever let one get that close again.    

[kadbow]

I had an encounter with a spike bull elk a few years ago.  In my case it was touch or be touched.  The spike kept getting closer and closer.  He then leaned over to smell me and I stuck my hand on his nose to keep him from getting any closer.  His eyes about popped out of his head.  He bolted about 15 yds and then walked back up the hill toward me but about 15 yds out trying to figure out what I was.  Really cool but it always gets a little scary when critters get too close.  You never know how they will react.

[Thicket Hunter]

How about a backhanding a squirrel with a chipping iron while in the rough off the green? I think I fried it. One guy couldn’t believe I did it.  The other (a hunting partner) told him he just didn’t understand me, and that my family really would eat it.

Mark

[LCB]

Touched a mouse, kicked a coon, and had a squirrel touch me. Also had a few birds land on me. Came incredibly close to deer, turkey, bear, and a few porky's. All made feel a bit uncomfortable at these distances.

[Benha]

Deer with my bow and had seven baby skunks walk across my foot. Also a squirrel playing off and on my boots while hunting from a ground blind.

[Dawn Patrol]

I was hunting in Ala. and grunted in a small buck and he would not leave so I dropped my open raincoat on me and he left in a BIG hurry.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

hehehe I love stories like this.

when I was 12, my first deer season with my dad and I sat down on a nice sunny morning to have something to eat while I watched the beaver damn and I fell asleep with my PB&J sandwich in my lap.

I know falling asleep on the job while hunting is something none of us EVER do right?

anyways I woke up to a young deer, a little buck I think,sitting in between my outstretched legs eating my lunch. I was able to reach out and tickle him between the eyes but there was no getting my lunch back. Oh well.

when he was done he and I sat there for a bit just watching each other before he got up and wandered off totally nonchalantly.

My Old man whomped me good for not shooting it but he was too small, maybe 50 lbs total and Dad has never let me forget that deer either.  

No Matter how many animals I have hunted and killed, to him and his buddies I am the family animal rights activist.

[ChuckC]

Experiences like these are a big part in why I like the outdoors and to bowhunt
ChuckC

[knife river]

A porcupine stood on his hindlegs, leaned a paw against my leg, and looked me in the face.  We were humming to each other.  Have you heard porkies "sing?"

I put a .270 round through a black bear in Idaho and was following his blood trail down an old logging road.  The trail turned and went straight up a cut bank about 7' high.  I grabbed a sapling on top of the bank and pulled myself up, only to find myself looking in the big boar's eyes.  Luckily, he just woofed and ran sidehill until I got another round in him.

It was pretty habituated so it probably doesn't count, but I had a 190+ mulie in Banff lick my camera lens (long Nikon telephoto on a tripod).  I pushed his nose away and then he started bumping me hard with his knees.  Before he got more aggressive I took the tripod and backed off.

I'll tell you about the grizzlies sometime, but that's better with chips, salsa, and adult beverages.    :D

[Haf2hunt]

While in the tree stand I had a skwerl climb down the tree I was in jump on my shoulder, then my lap and play with my string silencers, had to shoo him away tho cause I thought he was gonna bite my string.

While sitting on the ground against a tree had a young button buck come up and sniff my knee, I had my hand on my knee at the time and was able to rub his chin.

Same thing happened on my first elk hunt, but was a cow elk.

I tripped over a bedded pig once in Guam while I was running thru the jungle trying to catch a monitor lizard.. I ended up getting a shot at him later but missed.  

Those are some of my most memorable moments while hunting.. I love the close encounters.  Great thread