counting coup

[unregistered]

When I used to be a Guard one of my responsibilites was to foot patrol this factory on the edge of town 5 times a night at about 2 hour intervals. Anyway a Red Fox lived on this site and I would see him most nights. But after the first month he began to follow me. I was a little suprised by this but made sure to keep my eye on him incase he was rabid or something similar. Well after a week of this he began to walk along side me! I had never experienced something like this before, and by this point it was obvious to me that he was quite healthy. The next week I decided to try something. Half way through my patrol I decided to sit down for a break and see what he would do. The Fox actually would come up and hunker down beside me! It was great! Before long he actually let me touch him and then I began to pet him. I would see him every night I was on shift by that point, but when I was on days off the other Guards would only see him at a distance because he would never come close to them. Some of those city boys were actually afraid of him lol!
But then comes the sad part. I found him dead in the yard about a month and a half after making friends with him. He had been hit by a vehicle, probably by one of the other Guards and probably intentionally. Anyway I picked him up and took his body to the far side of the yard and buried him deep in the snow so no scavengers would be able to get at him for awhile. I found another job shortly after. That Fox is on my mind alot, and I miss him.

[SteveT]

I was once bowhunting with a friend on property that was new to me, after finding the only tree that i could put a climber in ,it was right along the deer trail..
around dark i was about to climb down when i heard several shotgun blasts about 75 yrds from me, i didnt know what was going on , until i hear 'ive got 3 over here how many did you get? we got 4 over here...they had been shooting turkeys off the roost,in my mind here i am hunting about 10 mi from nowhere,and i really didnt want to hear how many anyone got!

 well i slowly got down ...there was no wind ,so still you could here a leaf drop...i just got my stand off the bottom of the tree, when down the path i could here 'this is the way to the truck'...they had split up and a man and his son were coming down my trail, i stood facing the tree from the backside that they were coming ,fully camo'd with my arm up against the tree with my face down on it , within seconds they were there...as i stood with heart beating 200 times a min. as they past by my tree, they brushed my camo...wheeeeeew..good thing they were'nt using flashlights...i let them get 100 yrds or so past and i slowly followed them back towards the pickup...my hunting buddy later told me that he had talked to the 3 guys but couldnt remember their names and to this day i dont know who they were...and thats ok...at least i'm not part of the woodwork the next county from here!

[akbowbender]

I stalked in on a Porcupine while it was eating in a patch at some kind of greenery. Touched it on the back. I popped up it's head, looked and sniffed around for about a minute, then went back to eating. I backed out and continued my hunt.

[Looper]

When I was a kid, my cousin used to deal with all sorts of wildlife on a professional level.  He would get calls from all over to come get deer caught in fences, swingsets, living rooms, etc.  The times I went with him, I learned real quick not to mess with whitetails.  Even small ones can hurt you.  

That being said, I caught numerous creatures when I was a teenager.  Snakes, snapping turtles, groundhogs, muskrats mostly.  Now, I'd rather watch them undisturbed than catch them.

When I lived in Alaska, I've had pine marten jump onto the deer quarters I was packing out, weasels in my boots, and once had a young black bear tug on my boot while I was napping under a big fir tree.

I did count coup on a big bull sealion while diving.  Not the smartest thing I ever did.  That thing was as big as a volkswagen beetle.

[EzArcher]

while bowhunting i walked up on a porcupine and gave him a nudge he just looked at me and slowly walked off.  while hiking on some back roads i saw a blond blackbear cub that climbed up a fence post and stared at me not 5 feet away. probably best that i didnt touch him

[swampdrummer]

Had a squirrel sit on my boot and chew up an acorn this season. Have had little birds and squirrels in the stand with me many times.
Way back when I once shot a hog with my compound. Hog  took off running straight at me! Not a charge by any means but just a chance direction. I grabbed that bow by the limb and smacked the hog between the eyes! Turned him around 180 degrees. Solid metal risers do have thier place! LOL

[Ragnarok Forge]

Back in my college days I was bowhunting in the Blue Mountains for mule deer.  A doe and two fawns were walking down a trail ahead of me and I slipped off to the side in some brush.  I closed my eyes and just stood there.  I could hear them moving closer.  I heard the doe step right in front of me and opened one eye and then reached out and touched her rump.  She bolted out of there like a rocket while her fawns were just looking at me trying to figure out what I was.

[Earthdog]

I,ve walked up to within touching distance of quite a few animals,a lot were in Australia where you should touch "nothing" as I finaly learnt after being stung an bitten once each,then having a big buck Easton Grey kangaroo I was sneaking up on "really take offence",after that last one I stayed well away from every thing else unless I'd just shot it.
Home in New Zealand I've had many birds land on an around me.
NZ Robins follow you around the bush to get the bugs you kick up.
Scrape the leaf litter apart for them an they hop around your feet with no fear at all.
Snuck up an said "GIDDAY" to lots of goats.
Walked up an grabbed a 1 week old wild pigglet once,that created a riot as about 30 of her family I hadn't seen heard her screaming.
To my relief they all ran the other way.
I shut her up by putting a square of chocolate in her mouth an clamping it shut.
She was more or less tame from there on.
So we called her Chocolate an she lived 9 years.
I've fed huge NZ eels by hand in back country rivers with strips of goat meat.Some of these old ones are over 100 years old, 2-3 times the thickness of your forearm an 6-8 feet long,"TikiTuna" of the old people.

All the critters are amazing in many ways.

[Roy Steele]

I onced touched a doe with my selfbow with a ghillie on awind blown day in a hay field.
  Another time crawing across a pasture again with my ghillie on.I heard a cluch and had a hen peck by my face 8,10 inchs.I did'nt touch here but wisH I'd grab her leg.Because once she got to the gobbler it was over anyway.
  3different times I had song birds and fitichs land on my rifle twice and my arrow once.Ghillie
  I shot 2 bucks in corn fields and yard or so in the next row.Again ghillie and windy.

[NancyVTAS]

counted coup on a yearling black bear in Ontario Canada, he went up the tree I came down, patted his hind paws as i went by. Guide said not many haywires[state side] guys get to do that.

[bushytail]

I was sitting against a tree with a log beside me.A red fox came from behind me and jumped on the log and walked right past me on top of the log.I coulda touched him.He stoped at the end of the log and sat down.And he scratched himself behind his ear.He never new I was there.I guess the wind was in my favor.That was pretty cool.
 Had a chipmunk go between my legs while turkey hunting.

[NorthernCaliforniaHunter]

It's a LOOOONG story but once I gained the trust of a wild pelican and ended up giving him a most enjoyable neck scratching. Soon as I left a tourist tried to do the same and got pecked so bad I nearly peed my pants laughing so hard. To this day I'm not sure exactly how I did it!