Strange occurrences while hunting?

[BourbonTrail]

A few years back, I was hunting on what turned out to be my last hunting trip with my grandfather. We were hunting gambels quail in Arizona. My grandfather got tired and went back to the truck, but encouraged me to go on hunting without him. So, I took my dad’s 16 ga single shot and went to see what was around. I didn’t have much hope (gambels don’t like to fly unless they feel cornered).
After about an hour of coming up empty handed, I heard wings fluttering wildly in a bush about 15 yd away. It was a quail that appear stuck, at the time I guess on a fence wire or some trash. So I decided after a couple minutes to put the thing out of it’s misery. After the shot, I walked over to figure out what the bird was caught on. To my surprise, it was a diamond back rattlesnake! Well as the bird was inedible, so I took the snake back to the truck to show my grandfather. He too had never seen anything like it.
In true hillbilly fashion, he said that we should eat it and tan the hide, lol. So we did, and I still have the hide despite my wife’s objections.

Question: What strange, fantastical, once in a lifetime moments have you had while hunting or fishing?

 

[Tra3]

I’ve had birds land on the barrel of my rifle on two different occasions. (While holding the rifle in a sitting or crouched position.) It was a wonderful experience and made me feel very connected to nature.

 

[Frederik]

I saw a young rock monitor that tried to eat a boomslang, the snake bit it and we found the snake and young rock monitor on the road not able to move the monitor almost dead and you could see blood coming through the creases of the skin from the toxic poison of the boomslang. We stuck around a bit and the snake eventually had enough energy to drag himself with monitor hanging on his tail off the dirt track.
The snake then got free as the monitor's grip finally loosened up.

 

[PARA45]

When my Yellow Lab Savannah was about a year old, my friend and I went to a dog trainer friend of him. He worked with the dogs for a couple of days, and it just happened that it was also dove season, and he had some land we could hunt. So, my friend and I decided to try our dogs with some real shooting and doves. The afternoon hunt was going very well, and my dog Savannah was retrieving all the doves (4) I had shot so far, until I shot the 5th one. The dove landed in a bush, and Savannah wouldn't go in to retrieve the bird, regardless of how many times I told her to get it. Savannah would look at me and look at the bush with a confuse look, and would whine a bit (something she never did), and kept doing this for quite some time. I finally got up to go and investigate, and the bird had landed on top of a rattle snake, and the rattle snake was not happy. I learned to look and listen to my dog behavior. I was very lucky that day not to lose my dog to a snake bite.

 

[crs]

Was hunting deer alone in very gamey broken cover southeast of Wichita Falls, Texas when there suddenly appeared in front of me at tree top height, a completely silent formation of two huge F 4 Phantom jet fighters travelling above the speed of sound. As they exited stage -left, - their sonic boom was very loud and spooked deer and birds from cover all around me. I was also a bit spooked and remember to this day the size and sound of those planes. I sometimes imagine what it would be like to be an enemy soldier just before the Napalm hit before the knew what was coming.

 

[jacques smith]

I call billfish big game sooo I’ll throw one in about fishing. While some 35 miles out of Islamorada I had a hook up on a rat blue marlin( 125 lbs) and passed off the rod to one of two clients. As the dance began I noticed this blue was coming in and staying in the air as much as possible. As I encouraged my angler to wind faster to keep the line tight once again the fish went airborne within 12 feet of the transom with about a 600 lb shark bitting off his tail fins. My clients decided it was time to go in

 

[Red Leg]

Many years ago I was bow hunting at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and was well up in one of the nearly bare twisted oaks that survive out on the West Range of the post. I was wearing a face net and all the other stuff most bow hunters wear. At about eye level I saw a large hawk flying directly toward my tree. At about three feet, he flared to land on a small limb against which my left shoulder was leaning. Talons outstretched for the landing He was inches away when we made eye contact. He practically turned himself inside out grabbing for air, and I felt the the wing feathers of one wing lightly touch the stocking cap I was wearing. Very neat experience.

 

[375Fox]

I was 17 and beaver trapping on opening day, the day following Christmas. I had scouted spot several days before when water was low, but it had rained really hard Christmas Day and brought the water up. The strip of land between large creek and marsh was under water but I knew where land was and decided to walk out and set traps anyway cause I knew water was falling (and was 17 and dumb). I had hip boots, heavy coat, pack basket with 2 partial cement blocks, #4 traps, and spool wire. I got to where I planned to set traps and trying to decide I slipped on undercut bank. I went in up to my chin but caught a root cause on way down and pulled myself out. Culvert pipes were only a hundred yards below and ice chunks were jamming it up. I decided I didn’t need to die and went home. When I got home I went in through garage door and remember my mom on my phone. When she got off phone I told her what happened and she was shocked. A family had 2 sons drown in a river nearby maybe 4-5 years before and stopped coming to my Dad’s business after that. About the minute I fell in was the minute she decided to call my mom, part of their conversation was about how she felt her sons were still doing good things in world. Maybe coincidence, but I always remember this story because I thought I should have drowned that day.

 

[Ike85123]

I was going with some freinds helping clear the crops of small vermin, ( really just target practice). My new brother in law at the time wanted to go. Being from kansas, he said he never experienced the desert. We was walking around and looking and my brother in law walked up. Said he found a gecko by the truck and put it in the cooler. We come back and was getting ready to leave and a buddy of mine looked in the cooler. My brother in law actually found a small gila monster. He was so lucky it didnt bite him and just acted like a gecko ! We all had a good laugh about it. I joked with him for years to never pick up a king snake with rattles .Haha

 

[Rare Breed]

A few years back, I was hunting on what turned out to be my last hunting trip with my grandfather. We were hunting gambels quail in Arizona. My grandfather got tired and went back to the truck, but encouraged me to go on hunting without him. So, I took my dad’s 16 ga single shot and went to see what was around. I didn’t have much hope (gambels don’t like to fly unless they feel cornered).
After about an hour of coming up empty handed, I heard wings fluttering wildly in a bush about 15 yd away. It was a quail that appear stuck, at the time I guess on a fence wire or some trash. So I decided after a couple minutes to put the thing out of it’s misery. After the shot, I walked over to figure out what the bird was caught on. To my surprise, it was a diamond back rattlesnake! Well as the bird was inedible, so I took the snake back to the truck to show my grandfather. He too had never seen anything like it.
In true hillbilly fashion, he said that we should eat it and tan the hide, lol. So we did, and I still have the hide despite my wife’s objections.

Question: What strange, fantastical, once in a lifetime moments have you had while hunting or fishing?

I have been deer hunting in a tree fully camoflaged sky up when a red tail hawk came from the field I was hunting straight at me and landed right below me in the tree. A national geographic moment!

 

[Tundra Tiger]

Years ago, while turkey hunting in my home state of KS, I went out for an evening hunt. It had rained earlier in the day, so walking quietly was easy to accomplish. The field I set up on didn't have a lot of mature trees where I needed them. My practice was to hunker down against a large one; I didn't own a ground blind at the time. So I made use of a tree that was maybe as big around as a dinner plate; it was not ideal.

There was a dry creek bed behind me, with chokecherry bushes on the opposite side. At some point I got the feeling I was being watched. I had had turkeys come in through chokecherry bushes before, silently, and low. So I looked back behind me. Nothing.

I continued to focus on the field in front, and my decoys, calling periodically. I was suddenly slammed from behind by a heavy, fast moving force; it knocked my glasses off. The cause, as it turns out, was a bobcat that had jumped on my back. Obviously I started to react when I was hit, uncertain of what was going on. The cat did not expect that; he about came out of his skin trying to dismount from me. After the fact, thinking it through, I think what happened is he was making a play for my decoys, and he thought I was a log or something and was using me for a springboard to accomplish his purposes. I had scratch marks on my head from his front paws, and some rather large ones on my shoulder blade from his back ones. Still the coolest close encounter I've ever had, and I've been fortunate to have some dandies.

 

[Bsto270]

Many years ago I was bow hunting at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and was well up in one of the nearly bare twisted oaks that survive out on the West Range of the post. I was wearing a face net and all the other stuff most bow hunters wear. At about eye level I saw a large hawk flying directly toward my tree. At about three feet, he flared to land on a small limb against which my left shoulder was leaning. Talons outstretched for the landing He was inches away when we made eye contact. He practically turned himself inside out grabbing for air, and I felt the the wing feathers of one wing lightly touch the stocking cap I was wearing. Very neat experience.

@Red Leg it's odd you mention this my dad had two similar brushes with hawks while bow hunting. We never quite figured out the why, with the best guess being his beard may have vaguely resembled a squirrel.

 

[Bsto270]

As a relatively young teen I was bowhunting early November at my grandpa's property. There was a rumor going around that someone nearby had a ram get loose from their farm. A few folks said they had seen it including my dad that archery season. I had set up with my brother off to one side, my dad to the other and myself dead center with a set of rattling antlers. About my second sequence, I hear leaves and see a streak running down the hill towards my stand. Picked my bow up and thought wow lot of white on that deer ( we get piebalds occasionally in the area). About 45 yards out thing comes to a dead stop. By now I can see what it is and hear a loud " bahhh". I had just rattled in a sheep. He had a nice set of horns but my dad had made the very real threat if we shot it by God he was gonna make us eat it. Having never had mutton I backed off the idea even as he fed closer. It munched on whatever browse could be had for over an hour until dark. Didn't run until my feet hit the ground climbing out of the stand.

 

[Wheels]

I was in a tree stand about dark. A skunk came up to the bottom of the ladder and started digging around. After a few minutes it was too late to shoot but the skunk wouldn't leave. I made sounds. It would look at me and keep scrounging. I would break twigs and throw at him but he wouldn't leave. I would start down the ladder and the skunk would posture. I would stop and the skunk would go back to digging. I thought about trying to pee on him but didn't want to ruin the stand for the next day.

When all is said, the skunk had me treed for over 30 minutes before he decided to leave.



@Red Leg I had a similar situation with an owl in a tree stand. Before sunrise I saw an owl flying straight towards me. He landed about two feet from me for a couple seconds before he figured something was wrong and he was gone. Barely heard a sound from his wings. Made my day.

 

[mdwest]

This past November while hunting sitka deer on Kodiak.. I heard something breaking brush on the other side of a hill I was climbing.. so I stopped just short of the crest of the hill to keep from being seen, with the intent of slowly continuing to climb until I could see on the other side and figure out what was making all of the racket..

10 seconds later, 2 young sitka doe came bounding over the top of the hill, and literally ran to within 15 feet of my hunting partner and I.. then stopped, looked at us.. looked at each other.. and then looked back at us.. and just stood there for a full 30-40 seconds..

While I was absolutely willing to take a doe (ultimately ended up taking one late in the afternoon on that same day), I couldnt bring myself to shoot one of these.. it was way too "easy"... and they genuinely looked perplexed and confused about that this big hairless animal in tree looking clothing was doing in their woods.. at one point I thought they were going to actually come closer to further investigate.. They only ran off because I blew at them and stomped my foot.. otherwise I think they would have stayed there a good bit longer..

Was a very cool experience..

 

[Randy F]

At primetime one evening bowhunting whitetails, I was concentrating on movement coming in from my left. I could see it was a buck but straining to see if it was the sway-back old boy I'd been after for three years when a squirrel jumped onto my head.
In his scramble to get footing, he launched my hat, scratched the side of my face, filled my shorts, and spooked off the buck.
I think it must have been the old boy and he was smart enough to use his accomplice to continue to age. I only ever saw that guy one other time after that...maybe because I did a lot of squirrel hunting for awhile.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

When I was a kid, I tagged along with my dad, deer hunting in Washington state and Idaho. We lived at Fairchild AFB from 1964 to 1971 and had a lake cabin, about an hour away, on Twin Lakes, ID. My dad could get resident tags in Washington state, since he was active duty military and also resident tags in Idaho, since that was where he was a land owner and resident. Sweet deal, so we hunted a lot, right along the state line of Washington and Idaho, just northeast of Spokane. We would cruise logging roads on a Honda 90 trail bike and stop and glass every once in a while. One year, probably around 1969 or 1970, we got off the bike and started hiking a bit and came across a bunch of junk scattered about. I remember seeing various gauges and wiring harnesses and mangled metal. Then I found a glove. It was a leather glove, with a longer than normal wrist length. My dad had gloves like the one I found, they were standard issue to the Air Force air crews (pre-Nomex days). My dad then explained to me we were walking in the debris field of a KC-135 that had crashed a couple years earlier. Kind of surreal, since my dad was a KC-135 pilot and knew some of the lost crew members. I remembered the plane crash, as it happened in the dead of winter and the rescue/recovery operation was quite difficult. It was on the local news and in the paper a lot. Fifty years later, I still remember that glove.

This is a link to an article on the plane crash:

U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker crashes in Mount Spokane State Par

On January 19, 1967, a U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker, en route from Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, with nine passengers and crew, disappears from radio and radar contact while on landing approac

historylink.org

 

[Chickenfarmers]

I have always had a nice times hunting as i do my homework before hitting the woods and i make my plans months before its hunting reason.
But there was one time something weird happened. Was hunting in Varmints in Colorado.
Everything was peachy till i heard a swig crack, looked back and didn't see a thing....Was spooked though. so i was looking behind me every few minutes.
To my surprise i saw a lone wolf. staring at me....Maybe 50 years away. The thing is it was so big. too big to be a wolf but it was. I have never seen a wolf that big. I can't exactly explain it. It was some kinda giant wolf straight of a Hollywood movie. It looked at me and turned around. I ran and never looked back till i go the the truck.