Wildlife Experiences

Mine was unforgettable. One sunny, warm day in autumn when I was bowhunting, I sat down under a tree, and dozed off. My peaceful nap was interrupted by a squirrel above me, chattering and dropping twigs and leaves on my head, and I suddenly discovered myself nose-to-nose with at least a 4-point buck sniffing away at me. The whole situation exploded, and I’m still grateful my stupidity hadn’t taken place in bear or wild hog country. FYI

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Numerous, from having a great white swim by me towing a buoy when I was 20, to having a talk with a 400 pound black bear 5’ away a year and half back, stare down with a rabid coyote, pack of wolves keeping me company in the Tetons same trip as the White…
Smaller,but still a hoot…I feed the birds here at home, and have had up to 70 chickadees, titmice, Jay’s, cardinals, nuthatches, sparrows, wrens, woodpeckers etc., as well as mourning doves. Well, 2 days back, I look over from my recliner, and have a familiar Coopers hawk staring back at me. We are now minus one mourning dove.

Along your lines, guy I worked with was turkey hunting, had a decoy he was using to lean against under a tree. He fell asleep, woke up to a bobcat attacking the decoy :laughing:. Guess my buddies scent and camo is pretty good.

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It was elk season, and the woods were wet and a bit foggy. It was early in the morning, and I was moving out to THE spot when a heard a funny sound. I quietly moved through the brush making sure not to make any sort of noise. I kept my eyes out for any movement through the woods. I continued stalking this noise slowly through the wet under brush. I had to duck under a fallen tree and move around the ungrounded roots of the tree when I see it! Shocked and surprised I could not move because of being scared being seen. I ended up backing up ever so stealthily without a noise. I am sure the lady taking a pooh in the woods would not appreciate the fact that she had been spotted.

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OMG that is to funny. :rofl:

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Same as @mattm over the years I have been eye to eye to them all. The most thrilling of them all was an 8 point buck that was 3 feet from the end of my barrel when I pulled the trigger.
What a thrill to look him in the eye and still get him. :sunglasses:

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I counted coup on a 6 point buck by sneaking up on him. Probably helped my sneaking skills that his antlers were tangled to hell and gone in barbed wire. Had some wire cutters with me, so I cut him loose. I actually was kind of scared I was going to get my ass gored or stomped on by him but I think he was to wore out as he just laid there as I backed away. :pray::joy::rofl:

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Anybody have some serious contact with wild hogs or pigs?

True story. Nope. Always wanted to go wild boar hunting though.

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We were camping in a National Park. Before turning in I went to brush my teeth leaving my bride and our newborn daughter in the tent. When I returned my wife was screaming and a raccoon ran out of the tent carrying what looked to be our daughter. I chased it through the dark campground until it dropped what turned out to be a full loaf of bread.

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Deer hunting as a 20 something and sitting on the ground at the base of a tree with my legs stretched out in front of me. Rabbit comes tearing along 100 miles an hour and trips over my legs. Hawk hit him about a foot to the side of my legs. Scared the crap out of me, hawk just looked at me and hopped away a few feet clutching the rabbit and started to eat.

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I remember my mother having a 'way" with animals, along with a “green thumb”. One winter, I witnessed her personally feeding a flock of black-capped chickadees by holding handfuls of seeds above her shoulder - these tiny birds actually flew into her hand to get the seeds. As a joke, she once stuck a twig of ■■■■■ willow in the ground, watered it, and walked away - years later, the 20±foot tree it had grown into was banging against the 3rd-storey gutter ouside of my brother’s bedroom window.

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Was wandering the woods one season and took a load off under a holly tree. Kind of a warm day and the sun was filtering through the trees. I propped my rifle up on my knee and let the butt stock rest in my shoulder pocket and I dozed off. I heard something i was unfamiliar with that woke me and I opened my eyes. The “tink” tink" tink" I heard was a turkey pecking at the muzzle of my rifle.There were probably 15 birds all around me but alas no way to get to the trigger and they were out of season so I sat there and enjoyed the view. After the birds wandered off I heard something like a squirrel running in the leaves off to my right. Turned out to be a nice 6 point buck with his nose up a does butt. I got to watch the whole fornication, copulation dance from about 15’ away. Old boy looked tired as hell when he was done and I didn’t have the heart to shoot him, the doe wandered off twitching her tail. Two days later I busted him. That was back when I had time to hunt and enjoy the woods. Never should have retired.

Cheers,

Craig6

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The family went out on an elk hunt. We had uncles and cousins all together. In the midst of the hunting shots were fired and my uncle could be heard," I got em!" We wondered over to him since we were sure all the shooting chased the rest of them away. I got there in time to see my uncle with the rifle in the racks of the bull and his son took a picture of it with a polaroid camera. When the flash went off the woods seem to come alive as the elk came to his feet and family members went flying. It was in a flash that the elk disappeared into the woods. A couple of hours searching we never did find the elk, or the rifle that was stuck on his rack. We assess that he apparently only knocked the elk out because there was no blood and no elk either.
If that wasn’t enough, my cousin had two friends of his go into the bar his dad was at about two weeks later and start talking about a big bull elk that was taken out just the other day that had a rifle in its antlers. It was said that he turned a dark red color. The whole funny thing is to, no one knows what happened to the polaroid picture.

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A friend of mine always wanted to go bear hunting since he was a kid. He would always talk about facing this bear and taking it down then making a carpet out of him. While we were in high school, he took a week of to go bear hunting. He was so excited about it! He came back to school, and you could see the excitement in his eyes that he had a story to tell. So, I asked him about it. He said, the morning was cold, and he was soaked head to toe. All morning he didn’t see a squirrel or anything. After about one o’clock he decided to go back to the truck to get a bite to eat. He walked down the trail and went to come around the corner and to his Suprise was the biggest bear ever. He stopped in his tracks and the bear stood up on his hind legs and let out, RRRRRROAAAR! He then said, I pooped myself. I replied, OH I do not blame you that would have been so scarry! He said, No, just now!
By the way, he did get his bear but as I remind him all the time, His stories are pretty sh*tty

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Mountain lioness. Based on her behavior, she was keeping herself between us and her den, as it was an appropriate time of year for kittens/cubs. She made no noise, remained at the same distance from us, but stuck with us for more than a mile. I wish I’d had a camera.

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In the water up to my waist catching sea trout with live shrimp. I had a stringer with sea trout tied to my wast. A very very large bull shark
Swam right by me with its back above the water making a huge wake in front of me. Very strange thoughts rushed thru my brain. I think I walked on water that afternoon as my wife watched from shore. Also had a close encounter on two occasions with I think the same two large Tiger sharks in that same water while snorkeling. They were very close and once they swam around and checked me out they went away. It felt like
“ I’m ok your ok “ but they didnt want Blacky for a snack, Maybe they didn’t like my suntan oil. During that same time my head was on a swivel
a mullet fish swam directly into my face mask and the scare felt like having a bucket of hot water dumped on me.
** THE END **

In 1963 I was in Biloxi, MS.

Yes. I strongly recommend an organized hunt from the back bed of a pickup (Texas has some great hunts). Wild pigs are not afraid of people and are aggressive and dangerous. You do not want to be caught on open ground, as they tend to forage in groups. On the brighter side…very tasty.

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I was under the impression that wild pigs carried multiple diseases which could be harmful to humans. Please correct me if I am mistaken. Thanks.

According to the USDA “Harmful organisms and pathogens, carried by feral swine, which can infect humans include diseases such as leptospirosis, toxoplasmosis, brucellosis, tularemia, trichinellosis, swine influenza, salmonella, hepatitis and pathogenic, and E.coli.” That being said, similar risks from most game and multiple domestic animals, fish, and fowl.

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