That Moment

[Where's Bruce?]

In reflecting on all the wild things you seen and experienced in the backcountry...if you had to pick one experience, one moment that left you the most breathless, what would it be? I know it can be hard to narrow it down to just one thing but try.

For me it was during a bowhunt in Alberta, Canada. I had spotted a bull moose moving along a brushline with only one gap large enough for him to pass thru and enter the neighboring swamp. it was 6:03am...just minutes into first legal shooting hours. I sprinted along the same brushline (from the opposite direction) to the "door" I was certain he was heading towards. There I knelt down, nocked an arrow and shakily tried to attach my release. Unknown to me the bull had quickened his pace even though I managed to remain concealed when positioning myself...perhaps he heard me.

So I connect the release, pull back the string as I turn to aim and all I see are legs 10' in front of me. He stopped for a moment then ran off, apparently spooked by my movement but unsure of what I was. A quick call and he stops at 31 yards offering a very hard quartering away shot. I took it. The arrow disappeared mid body on his left side at exactly the right height. I watched as he took a step and stood there a moment, then went down. Moments later he was back on his feet, took a step and laid back down. He did this a third time before going down and staying down. I decided to stay put for 20 minutes before approaching at full draw. He was done. The arrow had barely nicked the left lung but flew cleanly through the other, the Exodus broadhead lodged so deeply into the right shoulder joint it could not be removed. That's why he didn't keep moving, that head was in the perfect spot. My first moose hunt ended in success after nearly two weeks of hard and disappointing hunting. I will never forget the moment I looked up and was in punting position of this bull. It is That Moment that comes to mind when I think about bow hunting. In that moment I could hear & feel my pulse.

 

[BackcountryBloodline]

Last spring I was bow hunting bears with my son. We had gone back to camp for a lunch break and as we were sitting there eating I began to hear a bit of cracking way off in the timber. Thought it was a dead branch falling through the trees at first and kept eating but after a few seconds I noticed it was getting closer and wasn't stopping. I grabbed my bow, nocked an arrow and entered the timber where I could hear it coming from. As soon as I got into the blowdown and deadfall I was crunching pretty loud myself and knew sneaking in would be tough, at this point I could hear panting though and knew it was a bear. I gave one loud "huff" to see if I could bring it in....next thing I know the biggest boar I've ever seen popped out from between two pines less than 15 yards away, looking left and right trying to find the bear that had the cajones to huff at him. He was so close I could see all the scars on his face in vivid detail and his coat was a beautiful rusty red. He was still walking towards me on a path that would put him in arms reach within a couple seconds, I was already clipped in so I drew back and began to settle my pin on his sternum as I saw his eyes focus on me and grow as wide as I've ever seen a bears eyes get. Just as I went to move my finger onto the trigger he spun out and crashed back into the timber, never to be seen again. Punched my tag on a different bear 100 yards away later that evening but Rusty is my white whale, you could definitely say he left me breathless and I'll be trying to catch up with him this spring for sure.

 

[netman]

Standing on a hill in North Dakota alongside the Missouri River with a full limit of ducks,geese, Sandhills and pheasant strapped up slung over my shoulder. My Chesapeake Bay retriever ‘Catfish’ sitting by my side.
We were watching as every duck and goose was migrating south out of Saskatchewan ahead of a big front.
For hours we stood there and watched V after V attached to another V attached to another V stretched from East to west north to south migrating. Millions of ducks and geese migrating all at the same time.
If I could paint my death picture it would be what I saw with my best buddy Catfish at my side.
I still get misty eyed thinking about those hours with my dog who was in his prime and now long gone.

 

[EastMT]

Kenai goat hunt.

Spent 3 days trying to work a route to this billy. Left, right, up the gut. Just couldn’t get there, cliffed out every time.

Finally decide to go all the way around the mountain up the back side. Make it up, get to the very top ridge, sit down to cool off, have a snack and watch the grassy spot he was below on the other side. Just get the snacks out, take a bite, I see a white back moving right at the peak. Pandemonium in slow motion, move like a snail, slide rifles out, lay down, wait. He comes over the top just like you alway plan but never happens.

200 yards, I tell my buddy, take him, if he heads back up I’ll back you up. No need, great shot, instantly over. Now for some food and water before we get to work!

 

[Diesel]

Hunting black bear in Pennsylvania years ago

Fresh snow, about three inches. Bear tracks everywhere going in all directions. At first, I was thinking there were several bears but after sorting it all out it was just one bear doing loops and walking back on it's own tracks.

There were so many tracks that I had to make a giant loop and find the tracks that left the circle. The terrain was full on blow downs in a snow covered laurel jungle. Visibility was about twenty five yards. But I had tracks and they were fresh. The hunt was on.

Moving slowly on full alert I followed parallel. It seemed that the bear climbed every blow down it came along. On the tree, out the main tree, drop off circle back, back on the same tree out another big branch and on and on. It had stopped on every vantage point it came to trying to see what was following it. You could see where the snow had been knocked off the laurel in places and I found myself looking at my own tracks several times. He was close, very close. but I still had not seen him.

This bear was either very smart or crazy. I was looking over my shoulder and spinning around at times. A black ghost in a white landscape. Several hours had passed in a very intense game of hide and seek and it was exhausting yet exciting.

At some point I realized I could see the laurel thicket was opening up ahead. It struck me that this was a chance to see this bear if it left the laurel patch into open timber. I decided to leave the track and took off on a dead run looping in a half circle in hopes to get ahead of the bear.

As I reached the edge of the open woods I was looking at a steep valley of white. I was leaning against a tree gasping for a full set of lungs and scanning the laurel edge in anticipation when I happened to look across the valley to my right. About three hundred yards up the other side was the bear standing there looking back over it's shoulder at me. Amazed, I pulled up and couldn't make a steady hold from my heavy breathing. So I decided to go shotgun style, pulling the trigger as the cross hairs swung across the vitals.

A solid hit started the bear rolling down the mountainside. It was snapping at it's side and trying to get it's legs under himself as it rolled over and over. When it got to it's feet I hit him again. And then it was still.

It was then that I realized the adrenaline high I had been on for hours was slowing leaving me. That bear had given me an education I will never forget. I am truly humbled by the experience. I salute that bear often as I look at it's mount on the wall of our den.

I hope there will be other exciting hunts to come but that one will never be topped.

 

[Mike Islander]

Morning flights at Bosque Del Apache. Also two adult eagles sparring and tumbling down hundreds of feet, over and over...near a South Carolina lake.

 

[elkduds]

Back when I was "just" a deer hunter, I went out one sunny Sept. afternoon w a pal who was archery elk hunting. I had my shotgun and a small game tag for grouse. We were in above Gunnison CO in unit 54. He went to sit @ a pond, I walked the open timber. After a grouseless hour or so, I was walking along a game trail through pine, that crossed a clearing before disappearing into the trees again. I spotted something big lumbering through the trees, coming along the trail toward me through the trees across the clearing. A bull, swinging his head to keep antlers out of the branches. Clearly not like any buck I ever saw, and the smell was unmistakable, unforgettable. Then he bugled.

I stepped behind a tree as the bull strolled across the clearing toward me. 20 yards, then 10. I decided I didn't want to startle him when he was passing my tree hide along the game trail. He was huge, with antlers that looked dangerous. His musky smell burned in my nose. When he was 5 steps away, I stepped partway out from behind the tree into the trail, ready to use the shotgun if things went wrong. He stopped, his huge brown eyes trying to register what was right in front of him. He held his ground until I waved my arm and whistled. Then he turned and started back up the trail as casually as he had come.

I whistled again, trying to notify my friend. The bull turned back toward me, bugling and uprooting the meadow grass w antlers and hooves. So I tried to imitate his bugling w my mouth. He began marching back and forth across the meadow. bugling and raking the grass. I called my friend's name a few times, even that didn't dissuade the bull. The bull and I conversed for another few minutes, then he meandered back the way he came. I could barely believe what had happened, and my friend called "bullsh!t,"until I showed him the tracks in a flashlight beam. Then he kept after me to tell it again, the whole ride back to town.

That 20 min encounter changed my life forever. Just hunting deer would never be sufficient again.

 

[16Bore]

I wouldn’t say “breathless” but I was sitting in dead silent woods and just the slightest hint of wind stirred. One single leaf came off the ground and rose about 10’ and landed on a tree branch.

It was eerie as shit.

 

[Nickofthewoods]

While camped by a lake deep in the Wyoming Backcountry, I unzipped my tent just as the sun peeked through the trees. Low lying fog covered the surface of the lake and a Loon's piercing call was the only sound breaking the silence.

For those of you that live in areas where Loons are common this may not sound that cool but I had never heard or seen one until then and their call in person is alarmingly loud and equally haunting.

 

[ODB]

Not the backcountry, nor hunting, but I remember a moment of clarity that explained the capriciousness of the way the world works and also the finiteness of life...

I was rebuilding the deck on my house, removing nails stuck in the joists with a crowbar. My kid was about 4 and was just inside the sliding glass door, sitting on the kitchen floor. I happened to look over and see a tiny little green inch-worm on a joist making its way toward me, inch by inch by inch by inch.

The first thought that ran through my head was, "I should grab that little worm and show it to the kid, she'd love to see it up close." My second thought was, "No. She will probably kill the thing playing with it, so I should just leave it be."

No sooner had the second thought passed through my head (and I mean to the millisecond), a robin swiftly flew down, landed on the joist next to the worm, plucked it up in its beak, hopped off the joist, landed in the yard just below me, promptly devoured the worm, and then flew off. So quickly - relative to my thought - did this event take place, that I was positive it was the universe sending me a message.

I considered the moment, shook my head, chuckled, and went back to work pulling nails, a wiser and somewhat humbled man...

 

[longspeak74]

Archery season 2015, I was hunting one of my favorite spots and had gotten in well before daylight. It was a picture perfect morning in early November, nice and crisp. I had only taken a doe up to this point and knew I wouldn't be able to hunt much during the late season, so I told myself the first decent buck that shows himself today, goes in the freezer.

I was enjoying the peacefulness of the woods when I heard a deer coming through the woods; a decent 8. I let him come in to about 10 yards and let the arrow fly. I immediately saw blood pumping out his side and heard him crash not far away. I sat back down and waited for a bit, even though I knew he was just out of sight, dead. After awhile, I gathered my things, let my bow down and climbed out of the tree.

The blood trail was easy to follow and it led me past a large Honeysuckle. I am looking down at the ground and just casually following the trail. As I pass the big shrub, I look up. Standing not 5 steps away, next to my dead deer, is an easy 160" with a drop tine looking directly at me. Largest deer I have ever seen, alive or dead. Old gray face with a super dark chocolate rack. We stood there staring at each other for what seemed like a couple minutes, as I was in awe. He finally just turned around and walked back down the trail; never blew, never spooked, never ran. I couldn't believe it.

I no longer have access to that property, but easily the most incredible thing I've seen in the woods.

 

[Scoot]

I shot a mountain lion with my bow. The shot was almost straight up and went through the front of the chest (not a shot I wanted to take, but the houndsman- my buddy's brother in law- said "take the $#*!@ shot", so I figured I'd better shoot!) The cat sprang from the tree on the shot and took off down the hill. One guy and one dog that had gotten loose followed and I was told to get my azz down there. We quickly found the mortally wounded cat, but he wasn't done yet. I slinked in to less than 10 yards (cliff behind that, so I couldn't back off more). I ran an arrow through his pump house and the sparks from my broadhead hitting the rocks behind him was magnificent! Upon contact, the cat pounced forward, straight at me. He loaded his back legs and had me in his crosshairs. I held my bow in front of me in hopes of some hint of protection. As he pressed to lunge, he promptly fell onto his side, stone dead. I stood there, staring at the cat, feeling my heart pound, semi-numb with fear and excitement. It was incredible.

 

[Where's Bruce?]

While camped by a lake deep in the Wyoming Backcountry, I unzipped my tent just as the sun peeked through the trees. Low lying fog covered the surface of the lake and a Loon's piercing call was the only sound breaking the silence.

For those of you that live in areas where Loons are common this may not sound that cool but I had never heard or seen one until then and their call in person is alarmingly loud and equally haunting.

You're right.

 

[Beendare]

Hard to pick one moment, I've been blessed with many;

The elk in Utah on the 14th day when the squeaker bull steps out at 40 yds....and he is a 1,000# toad of a bull.

One of the many hog hunts when you sneak in close and realize that big boar is GOING to charge you.

Bushwhacking through the alders on Kodiak and a bear the size of a VW beetle gets up just 20' away from a crater of a bed.

Searching for a Water buffalo in Australia my buddy wounded with his recurve that trampled our guide...and then turned and charged me and my buddy Robert.


....

 

[RazAlGhoul]

On a public land, a hunter bullet once last the side of the ears, He took the shot and not knowing where the bullet will end. A few inches towards my head and I am dead. it was to the scary thing ever.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Last spring I was bow hunting bears with my son. We had gone back to camp for a lunch break and as we were sitting there eating I began to hear a bit of cracking way off in the timber. Thought it was a dead branch falling through the trees at first and kept eating but after a few seconds I noticed it was getting closer and wasn't stopping. I grabbed my bow, nocked an arrow and entered the timber where I could hear it coming from. As soon as I got into the blowdown and deadfall I was crunching pretty loud myself and knew sneaking in would be tough, at this point I could hear panting though and knew it was a bear. I gave one loud "huff" to see if I could bring it in....next thing I know the biggest boar I've ever seen popped out from between two pines less than 15 yards away, looking left and right trying to find the bear that had the cajones to huff at him. He was so close I could see all the scars on his face in vivid detail and his coat was a beautiful rusty red. He was still walking towards me on a path that would put him in arms reach within a couple seconds, I was already clipped in so I drew back and began to settle my pin on his sternum as I saw his eyes focus on me and grow as wide as I've ever seen a bears eyes get. Just as I went to move my finger onto the trigger he spun out and crashed back into the timber, never to be seen again. Punched my tag on a different bear 100 yards away later that evening but Rusty is my white whale, you could definitely say he left me breathless and I'll be trying to catch up with him this spring for sure.

Awesome. I feel like I was there with you after reading this man. You should write some hunting short stories!

 

[S.Clancy]

A LARGE tom mountain lion looking at me confused after he tried to eat the turkey decoy 15 feet away.
A small mountain lion quizzically watching my boss 20 ft away.
A large and angry sow grizz with 2 cubs giving me the stink eye after I almost stepped on her cub.
My dog flushing (and retrieving) her first grouse on the side of a mountain in MT.

 

[timekiller13]

Sitting on the side of a mountain on Afognak Island with my Dad this past season. We were soaking wet, beat up, hands full of devils club thorns, dead tired and I'm pretty sure my Dad was hating me at that moment after we had just climbed 1500'. He looked out at the view and said "This is the most beautiful place I have ever been, worth every damn bit of misery we have been through today." I agreed.

 

[rayporter]

after much thought about first kills and such i must say that when i looked up that valley just after leaving the truck on my firs elk hunt ----------it was a life changing experience.

i still get goosebumps thinking of that view.

 

[Mike Islander]

It took a day to remember the two best experiences with wildlife/nature.

1. The most unique and awesome experience I had was a flock of about 20 turkeys coming down from their roosts and landing all around my nephew and I before dawn. We were hunting deer near Lake Marion, SC. We were on a power line clearing standing against two huge metal power poles. Getting there before dark, we just stood there completely silent. Just before dawn the turkeys started coming down. We had no idea there were there, and visa versa. We were literally surrounded by turkeys, some within a few feet. The slowly wandered off. Afterward my nephew and I were just smiling and laughing, aware that this was likely a once in a lifetime event.

2. As a young teen I was messing around on the Mokelumne River in Northern CA, at night. My parents ran Roaring Camp, a gold mining resort in Pine Grove (see RoaringCampGold.com). We were right on the river. I was probably out hunting for frogs or maybe sneaking a smoke or drinking one of Dad's beers, as we were the only people who lived there during the off season. I started hearing a woman screaming wildly, her blood curdling wales traveling across the canyon and sending chills up my spine. I ran back to the lodge, pretty much terrified. It was about midnight. When I got there my dad was already out of bed and told me it was nothing to be afraid of, just a mountain lion. He said he knew she was in the canyon because all our horses and goats had come back to the pasture earlier that day (they normally ran semi-wild all over the canyon). It was one of those experiences you never forget.