Strange or Unexplained

[Jakeemt]

Cool stories guys. I am afraid you won't find mine either hair raising or supernatural but it was kinda strange. I was out hunting squirrels with my shotgun some 6 years ago now. I was on the side of a large ridge and sneaking along a dry run-off early on December morning. I came across two grays got the first one drt, then reloaded (single shot) which I can do pretty darn fast and took a running shot one number 2. I thought for sure I'd hit it but, lost sight of it behind a big old white oak. Well I moseyed on over and looked around the tree for a good 5-10 minutes with no sign. So I decided to sit under the tree a minute have a smoke and consider my surrounding and where he might have scurried off to. I sat down and lit up then heard something fall out of the tree and land right next to me not even a foot away. Sure enough it was number two. He had only 2 number 6 pellets in him both in the neck and had finally succumbed.

[monkeyball]

I do not think this would fall under"strange" or "unexplained" but it still gives me a chill when i think about it. And every archery season I think about it..........

  Late 70's maybe early 80's. The first day of Archery and I am way up a tree in my Amacker stand. The wind was blowing so hard that the squirrels were on the ground. You would have had a hard time keeping on a deers vitals if the chance came.

  As I sat there wondering if this was a good idea or not, a local hospital helicopter flew overhead. I remember thinking to myself I hope know one fell out of a tree. I mean the wind was blowing!

 I sat for a few hours, then common sense got the better of me and I got down and packed things up and headed home.

 Later that night i found out that three guys were bow hunting over across the river. The one buddy was putting a one man drive on to the other two guys, who were standing together on the edge of the ravine up ahead.

 Not to much time had gone by and they spotted some movement down below. After deciding who was going to take the shot, the shot was taken and to there horror they realized that it was there buddy. The ravine was pretty steep and till they got him up to the edge he was blue. Gone before the helicopter ever touched down.

   It is etched in my mind forever, even though I was not there. I went to school with all three of the guys. Be careful out there!

                                         Good Hunting,
                                                    Craig

[ChuckC]

Now that is something that I just can't understand.  

We teach "know your target and beyond" and we teach where to aim.  How can a person see something, pick a vital spot to hit, and shoot it (with a bow mind you, so not 500 yards away), and not know it is a person and not a skwerl or a deer ?

I was hunting in northern MS years and years ago, we stopped at a bar for a burger and coke for lunch.  Good ol boys were talking and one said he heard something in the bushes behind him and he shot but he didn't get anything.  Now THAT is scary.

CHuckC

[TxAg]

^^^ wow!

I'll never understand how people mistake hunters for deer.

[Wallydog]

I know I had the most unusual hunt experience of any on here or anywhere else for that matter. Back in the 70's I was hunting the Joliet Arsenal in Illinois. It was a hassle to hunt it as it was huge and kind of fragmented due to it being a military facility. I had found a place to hunt that scouted out as an active deer area. I had a tree stand up and it was on the edge of a swamp and corn field. Perfect Illinois set-up. I was in stand before dawn and the weather was a perfect fall day. Saw a few does sneaking out of the corn but no shot. A few minutes later a I heard a sound I had never heard before. Growling, yelping, all excited like. Here comes a nice buck being followed hard by a pack of wild mangy dogs. They scented me and proceeded to circle my stand and growl at me too till I shot one. I was pretty shaken but decided to go on home. Grabbed the dead nasty dog by the leg and flung her into the swamp. Im walking back to my jeep when I hear another sound I had never heard before. It was loud and it was moving FAST towards my general direction. I get to an opening near the road and the noise is coming hard down a trail off to my left. I hunker down behind some timber and wait. The roar is by now impressive enough to get me full blown spooked. As it came into view I couldnt believe my eyes at first. It was a military tank and it was moving at better en 40mph. It passed me and literally jumped the road I was headed towards and it never once slowed down a bit. I never knew a tank could move like that. I finally figured I must had wandered into an "off-limits" area by mistake.(pretty shrewed thinker huh) They were off roading that big sucker and I was totally in awe of its speed and suspension. Never saw the dogs again on anymore of my hunts there. A guy I ran into several weeks later told me he had taken a "sound shot" but didnt know what it was. I never went back.

Last fall during the early muzzle loader season, two dudes just off the road were taking what looked like 300 yard shots at a wooded hill that they did not have permission to hunt on.  I asked what they were shooting at. One said it was either a coyote or a deer. I reminded them that it was bucks only early season, one said "that doesn't matter. We can't go up there to get it anyway."  That scared me more than the crazy brain worm moose that we had a couple of years earlier that almost trampled me in the dark.

[59Alaskan]

Fun thread!  Thank you!  

I could not find kill shot's original thread but remember it.

Here is a similar one though.  

 http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=048700;p=1

Graps:  My parents car broke down on vacation once in Luther, MI.  I still have scary memories of the hairy big one eyed guy that helped us...

[Gen273]

I am glad to see this one come back up for the new guys, a lot a fun stories in this one!

[Bull Elk]

My first bow kill, he only went about 50 yards, and when I got there, another buck was standing over him and beating up the dead deer.  Turkeys will do the same thing.

[mlsthmpsn]

Where did the "Supernatural" Thread go that was Started a couple days ago? I had the page open on my browser this morning, and now its gone!!

[bear bowman]

I have nothing on your stories but I had something happen to me this year that scared me pretty good. I was hunting in western Maryland in September. It seems every few years out there we see a lot of black bear. This was one of those years.
The first morning out I spotted a big boar. I was watching him and as soon as he cut where I walked he was gone in a flash. Typical bear response.
A few days later I was sitting in my treestand when I heard something approaching from my rear. It was a mother and cub. The sow came right to my tree and took some deep breaths, no reaction. She moved about 20 yards from my stand. The cub ended up at the bottom of my tree and apparently caught my scent on the ground and treed in my tree. It came up about 15'. At this point I didn't know what to do. If she came up to me and I scared her I was afraid that mom would be up in a flash to take care of business. She eventually backed down the tree and they walked out the same way I needed to exit. Needless to say, I went out with my flashlight blazing. I never saw a bear wind me and not get out of dodge before. Scared me to death.

[4dogs]

TTT.....Some good stuff in here!

[Sant-Ravenhill]

Perfect for Halloween!

[Trenton G.]

Perfect. Halloween and I was thinking about hunting. Guess I'll just stay home and guard the candy dish.

[Stumpkiller]

Some years back when I was young and ambitious I set myself down an hour before sunrise on the ridge of a hill that was a good half-hour walk in (I don't use a flashlight to enter the woods) from the farmer's house where I parked.  

As I was sitting there listening to the various sounds I heard snarls and screams from maybe 20 yards to my left but above me in a tree.  I'm wondering is it better to try and prepare to  shoot or swing my bow like a club and it died off.  I could hear shuffling in the leaves but could only see the ground moving a bit.  And coming my way.

When the light finally became bright enough I could see a gray squirrel lying with it's back to me.  

After some time I walked over and saw the squirrel had a big chunk out of its throat.  Blood sprayed around the leaves.


Apparently a weasel or fisher had gone after a squirrel in a tree and killed it, dropping it when it saw or smelled me.


Not too long ago I again got on a stump before daylight and, as the woods grew lighter, I was scanning my surroundings.  As I ran my eyes along i had an odd feeling, and looked back in that direction.  A tree about 15 yards away had eyes.  My hair stood one end.

Perched on a branch about six feet off the ground was a beautiful horned owl.  My pulse rate gradually dropped back from 10,000 to 70 and for another half-hour or so I admired my hunting partner.  He didn't seem near as upset that I was sitting there.  Eventually he silently flew off.

There have been other times I have seen barred and horned owls.  I always take it as a good omen.

[goingoldskool]

One morning I climbed up my favorite tree and got all buckled in and settled when I saw something moving ever so slightly about 15 yards in front of me.....now I'm 20' or so up a tree and hunting a fairly large woodlot.... as I started moving my head up and down and side to side trying to figure out what it was, I see it kind of jump up a little and all of a sudden it's about 3' wide and getting closer! At about 5' I realized it was an owl just starting it's flair with talons coming in first...at my head! I jumped up from my seat with arms waving in front of my face and I might have screamed like a little girl..... MIGHT HAVE...I do know that it took me awhile to get my heart rate down...

[Sam McMichael]

Sometimes I wish I had an interesting bigfoot tale to tell. At other times I'm glad I don't. admountainken talks about carrying a big bowie knife. Not saying I believe or don't believe bigfoot, or any other threat, is real, but I carry a Glock (at my wife's insistence) when I go to the woods.

The only real scare I got was when I was a teenager hunting on my uncle's land. I was the only person with permission to hunt the property. I walked in the dark very slowly and quietly to the tree that held my stand. When the guy in my stand spoke to me, it scared the willies out of me. Man, did I jump at the sound of his voice!

At first he was "reluctant" to vacate the stand, but after a very sincere threat to whip his a$$, he decided to go. If I had realized how big this guy actally was, I might have been a tad more diplomatic, though. As mad as I was, I was amazed at how startled I was when he spoke.

The only real likelihood of danger was when I was stalked by a pack of wild dogs. I was carrying a shotgun that day, so no real threat developed.

[Trenton G.]

A few years ago I was walking out of the swamp after an evening hunt. My dad had dropped me off at my grandpas and had gone to a different spot, so I had about a quarter mile walk back to the house. As I was passing the beehives on the property, I started thinking about the bear that had been seen hanging around them. As I was thinking about that, a great big black shape came rushing towards me from over near the hives. I could hear it breathing heavily as it came. I didn't have my flashlight out but I was really wishing for it right about then. I yelled, or at least tried to as it kept coming. At about 10 feet it slid to a stop and stood there huffing. Apparently they had bought a new black angus bull and didn't tell me. I've never been so happy to see a bull in my life!

[10essee]

It was about 18-20 years ago I took a friend of mine turkey hunting trying to get his first bird. We were hunting on my granpaws land that i had been born and raised on in E Tn. I knew every possible inch of those woods and had decided we would set up in what my brothers and I had dubbed " turkey holler". A place where I had killed my first, biggest and most turkey in.

 I put him on a small little finger that lead off the bench at the head of the hollow and I set up some 40 yards away looking the opposite direction. He had a clear view of the hillside and an old logging road in front of him that deadened in a spot the gobblers liked to strut when the sun got bright.

We'd been sitting there for an hour or so and I was throwing some blind calls every so often hoping to get a response. I happened to look over at him and he was giving me the something's walking sign with his fingers. I looked in front of him and didn't see anything and couldn't hear it either. So I turned back my way and called another sequence. Few minutes later I looked back his way and he was giving me the shooting hand signal. Once again I scanned all out in front of him and saw nothing.

I thought to myself he's messing with me and just as I turned my head back to look down the hollow I was watching " BOOM". Followed by click click boom click click boom till it was just the sound of his 835 action opening and closing with no more ammo.

I ran over to him and he was standing there shaking and wide eyed. When I asked him what he shooting at he just pointed to the left and laying about 15' from him was a monster bobcat that had apparently jumped in his lap.

After calming down he explained that when he gave me walking sign he had saw two bobs come over the hill and into the logging road and the shoot sign was he was going to get one. He was full came all but brown boots and we assumed that through the shuffling of trying to get turned with his gun that they thought his feet were grouse and had put tree between themselves and him. One stepped out several yards up the hill to get the " grouses" attention while the other one slipped on down and sprang from behind the tree into his lap.

Needless to say we didn't get him a bird that day and he never hunted that hollow with me again.

[Ron LaClair]

Early one morning in pre dawn light I crept along the creek
the smells were old, I heard a noise, I felt my knees go weak.
A monster buck suddendly appeard throught the trees up on a rise.
I drew my bow, the cedar shaft flew just like it had eyes.
The buck was down, his rack was hugh, I'd need help to get him out.
I turned to leave but something made me stop and turn about.
There he stood, beside my buck, he was ghostly pale and thin.
His scalp was gone, his naked body wore nothing but a grin.
I was frozen in my tracks, I couldn't move or speek.
I was standing face to face with the Ghost of Armstrong creek.