What’s your spookiest hunting experience?

[fta0303]

We saw one roll out of a canyon above us about 10 years ago. Chilling sight. It was way bigger than a Mt. Lion and super dark but you could just make out spots through binos at about 300 yards. Forest Service said a bunch of other people spotted it too. We were about 5 miles from the border. I was happy not to spot it again. We also get an occasional black bear heading through.

Oddly, jaguar range overlaps cougar range. They originally roamed the Southeastern and Southwestern states. They are a big animal, smaller than lion and tiger, but larger than the rest of the big cats. You can see they're much stouter than a leopard. I've been told by older people that the cougar would outmatch a jaguar in a fight though. Hard to believe, but the cougar is all cat too.

 

[fta0303]

Three instances.

1. My game scout in Zimbabwe was murdered in front of us. Poacher with an ax to grind. Filet knife under the ribs.

2. A Russian lit a round off (accidentally) behind my head. Debrief revealed that he was aiming at something in front of me and was peeking past my head.

3. 48 hours later, Russian #2 touched my knee with the muzzle of his 300 Wm. I jerked away the instant he pulled the trigger. I mean the exact instant. Like .1 seconds later or 1" slower and I'd be dead (in a remote canyon) or on 1 leg.

They were invited to leave immediately.

I take it you're a pro hunter. A dangerous job, because of the dangerous game you deal with every day, but you do deal with them. Also dangerous because of the untrained client, you can easily slip and make the mistake of thinking he's on your side. In reality, he's just another part of nature, deadly and prone to accident. Your story about your knee is terrifying - I dpn't want to learn about the exterior ballistics of a 300 WM by receipt !

 

[memtb]

Did it look like this one?

Not certain exactly what that is! However, many of those old folks died never seeing a paved road, lived in the woods on something not much more than a "two track", talked a bunch about "panthers" back in 1800's early 1900's! me

 

[gabal]

Deer hunting north central Wis. , had a Ruffed Grouse explode into the air right as I almost stepped on it .
It took ten minutes for my nerves to calm down and continue walking . My very first step a second Grouse took off . I stood there for another ten minutes .

 

[marksman1941]

Deer hunting north central Wis. , had a Ruffed Grouse explode into the air right as I almost stepped on it .
It took ten minutes for my nerves to calm down and continue walking . My very first step a second Grouse took off . I stood there for another ten minutes .

I think grouse have been the cause for more woodland heart attacks than any other animal. Their timing is impeccable too

 

[fta0303]

Deer hunting north central Wis. , had a Ruffed Grouse explode into the air right as I almost stepped on it .
It took ten minutes for my nerves to calm down and continue walking . My very first step a second Grouse took off . I stood there for another ten minutes .

A pheasant did that to me, and i'm now really missing the ten years it took off my life. I always wondered how, with a bird that explosive, anyone could shoulder a gun and get on that bird before its out of range !

 

[memtb]

A pheasant did that to me, and i'm now really missing the ten years it took off my life. I always wondered how, with a bird that explosive, anyone could shoulder a gun and get on that bird before its out of range !

I loved hunting Woodcock near my grandparent's place when I was a kid. That was another bird that would explode from beneath your feet, and then was "darting" left and right through the timber.

I would use my grandfather's little 410 single shot, using the few shells he would allow me….times were lean and he would ration them pretty closely.

My best morning by far was 5 birds down and drawing feathers on a 6th…..with only 6 six shells carried that morning. I considered it a near miricle!

I think that maybe the reason I had such success with that little gun was, it "Did Not" fit me good…..in fact, very poorly. When I brought the gun to shoulder, I was looking at the barrel well in front of the front sight. I think that that helped with "jumped" birds.

Had the gun fit me properly……I'd have probably missed them all! me

 

[memtb]

Did it look like this one?

Allen, I failed to mention, the cat shown looks heavier and has shorter legs than I remember of those described to me when I was growing up! memtb

 

[Allen Lone wolf]

Not certain exactly what that is! However, many of those old folks died never seeing a paved road, lived in the woods on something not much more than a "two track", talked a bunch about "panthers" back in 1800's early 1900's! me

Allen, I failed to mention, the cat shown looks heavier and has shorter legs than I remember of those described to me when I was growing up! memtb

I actually saw one in person at about 16 steps in broad daylight while hunting from a shooting house. It was chasing a small doe that came flying by maybe 30 seconds ahead of the cat. It stopped turned facing me then turned back preceding to chase the deer. It was about knee high very muscular weighing probably 100lbs max. A friend of mine saw it the next day standing in the middle of a gravel road. Must have been a jaguar since science says black mountain lions don't exist. I've been hunting 59yrs and that was the greatest experience I've ever had to see something like that in the wild. Especially in Northwest Alabama.

 

[memtb]

I actually saw one in person at about 16 steps in broad daylight while hunting from a shooting house. It was chasing a small doe that came flying by maybe 30 seconds ahead of the cat. It stopped turned facing me then turned back preceding to chase the deer. It was about knee high very muscular weighing probably 100lbs max. A friend of mine saw it the next day standing in the middle of a gravel road. Must have been a jaguar since science says black mountain lions don't exist. I've been hunting 59yrs and that was the greatest experience I've ever had to see something like that in the wild. Especially in Northwest Alabama.

I've often wondered……can you be charged/fined, ect. for shooting/killing something, that "science" says doesn't exist? Asking for a friend! memtb

 

[fta0303]

I actually saw one in person at about 16 steps in broad daylight while hunting from a shooting house. It was chasing a small doe that came flying by maybe 30 seconds ahead of the cat. It stopped turned facing me then turned back preceding to chase the deer. It was about knee high very muscular weighing probably 100lbs max. A friend of mine saw it the next day standing in the middle of a gravel road. Must have been a jaguar since science says black mountain lions don't exist. I've been hunting 59yrs and that was the greatest experience I've ever had to see something like that in the wild. Especially in Northwest Alabama.

You're very lucky. I've seen one cougar, not while in the mountians, but as I stopped to empty the tank on a N-S highway up in NE Wa. I was idly eyeing the river bar some 300 ft below me (Columbia River) and spotted the lion looking over a fallen log at a deer about 75 yards from him. Deer unaware, apparently. I watched that tableau for a while, the deer only moved to graze, and the cat not all. Fascinating.

Another of nature's scenes played out in front of me on the steep hill West of McCall Basin in the Wa Cascades, just below the crest trail. My Father and I were goat hunting, in November, had ridden in horseback for about 10 miles, were staying in a USMC arctic tent that had been put up by a local wrangler. The whole time, it was so foggy you couldn't see 25 feet, so we didn't do much hunting. I happened to glance toward where I knew the hill to be, the fog split, and I saw a doe walking across a steep snowfield way above me. When she was halfway across, her fawn started out after her, trepidatious. She reached the other side, but her fawn slipped in the middle and hurtled down the snow gully. She went back out, nosed around where he fell, then went on about her business, I guess. The fog closed back in, lowering the curtain on this little drama. Whole show lasted about a minute.

I woke one morning and stepped out of that cozy tent to use the open toilet stool that was placed, oddly enough, about 40 yards away in a small copse. It was snowing and sleeting horizontally, but I really had to go, so started off running over to that toilet. I made it about halfway, but by then had accumulated too much snow and ice on my windward side to carry. Went back to the tent! I always wondered who was responsible for that toilet installation, no more than a mile off the Cascade Crest, 10 miles in from the nearest trailhead. Inever saw another human being in McCall Basin in my numerous hikes into it.

 

[fta0303]

I've often wondered……can you be charged/fined, ect. for shooting/killing something, that "science" says doesn't exist? Asking for a friend! memtb

if you could mis-identify a cougar, so could the game ranger.....

 

[Prairie Sasquatch]

A pheasant did that to me, and i'm now really missing the ten years it took off my life. I always wondered how, with a bird that explosive, anyone could shoulder a gun and get on that bird before its out of range !

I wonder how many pheasants have flushed at my feet when I wasn't hunting over the years. Probably approaching hundreds.

This week alone I had 3 roosters flush at my feet while looking for morels, one while planting apple trees at the farm and one was in our garden when I went to pick asparagus. I have no idea how I didn't see him in the asparagus. The grass was barely higher than my shoes.

I curse the bastards every time!

 

[M1A1ABRAMS]

I wonder how many pheasants have flushed at my feet when I wasn't hunting over the years. Probably approaching hundreds.

This week alone I had 3 roosters flush at my feet while looking for morels, one while planting apple trees at the farm and one was in our garden when I went to pick asparagus. I have no idea how I didn't see him in the asparagus. The grass was barely higher than my shoes.

I curse the bastards every time!

Wish we still had them to curse.