What the closest face-to-face encounters you've had with animals while hunting?

[NRA4LIFE]

Another one. My deer stand in MO is attached to a large live oak. I could hear a squirrel coming up the back of the tree. He got to about eye level and came around the tree not 1 foot from my head. I said "Hi there" and he jumped out of the tree about 20 feet.

 

[hunt1up]

No bear attacks for me. Last deer season I had a squirrel come and sit on the branch about 3' above my head. For some reason I knew exactly what was going to happen before it did. He looked at me and decided to start pooping. Dropped a whole load of pellets on me.

One morning at daybreak I had an owl come and land about a foot from my head. It was still gray light and I held extremely still. After a minute I made a quick jolt in his direction and he about fell out of the tree. Really freaked him out!

 

[jrock_jeep]

This blacktail 2 days ago was about 10 yards.

 

[Bulldawg]

It’s always been my goal to smack an elk on the butt or grab a spike by his spike, been close but no success yet.

Not hunting, but I did hit a grizzly with a softball sized rock in Yellowstone when he was trying to steal our breakfast.

 

[WashCycle]

Mountain lion in the dark at less than 15 feet. Was walking back at night from a wilderness area on a FR from some evening scouting just last friday(10/25). Cat was just off the edge of the downward side of the road. Caught his eyes in my headlamp, first thought it was a mule deer and then I realized I was looking at a Cat's face.

Probably less than a second passed but we locked eyes and once I realized that I could be in some trouble, I yelled and smacked my hiking sticks together...it was enough to push the cat down the hill and away from me. Had about 1.7 miles back to camp after that...was not enjoyable.

Also in 2016 while out with my GWP, he jumped a skunk and it ran right between my legs!

 

[lifeisgoodsteve]

3 wolves at about 30 yards, as they walked right towards us on the forest trail.

They didn't even us even as we were downwind and with me whispering over my shoulder to my buddies "wolf ! wolf!".

Once my brain registered that a pack of wolves was walking towards us totally unawares, I figured I should make sure they know we're there as I had no idea how they'd react to being spooked at short range. Drew my 10mm for an abundance of caution and simply said "Hey wolves!".

They calmly paused, looked at us in surprise, then trotted quickly and crazy silently off in 2 directions.

I'm clearly no millennial as I hadn't even thought of pulling out my phone until an hour or two later when reflecting on the experience. Was so awesome to see them up close and fascinating that they were as calm as they were when I made ourselves known to them. Found 2 fresh wolf scats from that morning during the next 2 miles of the trail, so am guessing they had been hunting the white tails which frequent that area.

 

[BJKfly]

Had a Wisconsin black bear start climbing up there first few steps of my hang on, staring right at me! Started carrying a 44 mag revolver with me after that while I bow hunt. Thankfully most bears are skittish.

 

[Marble]

Long story short....after wounding a bull elk and my dad broke his rifle, I sat 10' from a bull elk for a few hours while it laid there bleeding out. I was waiting for another firearm and keeping tabs on the bull. Made a spear to kill it, didn't work. Tried to club it in the head, didn't work either. Finally threw rocks at it and it finally got up and fell off a 15' drop off. It rolled down the hill and died.

I did have a knife and a saw with me but I wouldn't get close enough to use the knife since it's head/neck were very capable of still getting me.

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[taskswap]

Long story short....after wounding a bull elk and my dad broke his rifle, I sat 10' from a bull elk for a few hours while it laid there bleeding out. I was waiting for another firearm and keeping tabs on the bull. Made a spear to kill it, didn't work. Tried to club it in the head, didn't work either. Finally threw rocks at it and it finally got up and fell off a 15' drop off. It rolled down the hill and died.

I did have a knife and a saw with me but I wouldn't get close enough to use the knife since it's head/neck were very capable of still getting me.

Mods, can you please close this thread to new posts? Marble has perfected it already.

 

[Marble]

Mods, can you please close this thread to new posts? Marble has perfected it already.

Looking back, not the smartest thing I did in the woods. Rather dumb and dangerous actually.

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[Benet30]

My hunting spots are so good the animals can’t even find them! So probably had animals within a mile or so

 

[Charlie Brown]

Took my buddies son bear hunting, he was a little nervous about sitting alone with just his bow so I sat in the tree with him. A partridge landed on my shoulder and stayed about 15-20 seconds. It was early fall and only wearing a T-shirt those little nails are very sharp when they move around

 

[cacklercrazy]

Closest encounters?

After finished a calling set for predators... I rise from my stool, only to realize the Bobcat is 8yds away.

Missed twice on a deer w/ bow... as he's regressing a certain direction, I try to rise to my feet and try to reach for another arrow... didn't reach the arrow before the deer decides to abruptly turn-in towards my direction and there we were 7yds at a face-to-face standoff! Me in the leafy. STaying frozen with my fingers at the base of the arrow knocks. After a few seconds... I think my scent wafted over to him. He turned his body around so that now his but is pointed at me, but he's turned his head to look over his shoulder. His tail is twitching because he's caught my scent and starting to get nervous. Yup... sure enough, not long after his tail had axiously flickered a bit, he decided it was time to go!

Sitting on a cliff waiting for sun to go down overlooking a waterway and the trail I'm waiting for bears to come thru along... a Bobcat ends up stalking in along the cliff and gets himself to about 20 ft from my sit location. First I tried a Dog Growl. Nope. Didn't shew him. Eye just opened up bigger. Pointed the .30-30 at thim..Nope... still just stayed there. Wasn't until I decided I better raise to my feet that he saw my size and realize he should go.

While on a sit for Rabbits, with the mesh ghillie suit... a CottonTail comes from around the Scrub Oak I'm backed up into and stops literally like 8 freakin' inches from my right foot! He was adorble to watch. Even stood up on his hind legs trying to catch my scent! But the wind was working against him this day. Eventually he meanders on back to behind the scrub oak. Later I moved/fidgeted in my chair and that startled him to where he bolted like 20yds away, but..ya know... he made that fatal mistake of turning around to look back. So he was added to the tally that day. Sure was super cute though seeing him so up close and personal.

Then one time 3 of us were hiking back out right after final shooting light, when we had a bear jump out of a bathing pool 10yds away in the dark.

Less than 3 feet. I was sitting by a tree watching a ridge and a couple finger that went down it. A very small buck was working up one of the ridges, when he spotted a group of hunters on top of the ridge. The buck turned in my direction and came straight at me. I had my smoke pole with me,but he wasn't big enough. When he got next to me I yelled boo! That buck just about came out of skin.

 

[Sitkaspruce]

Was calling moose one day when my buddy says he saw a moose walking through the thick bush. We watched the area, but after 15 minutes, nothing showed. I turned back to pick up my M99 when we heard a crashing sound off to our right. I grabbed the gun and turned to see a small light coloured ball of fur come running out of the bush....then a second came crashing out....followed by a third.....at 21 yards (measured a week later when I went back). I yelled and then a much larger light coloured fur ball, with big claws and a very pissed off look on her face came crashing out, knocking the cubs out of the way like a bowling ball hitting the pins.

I yelled BEAR and both of us got ready. She stood on all fours staring at us while the fur balls all ran behind her. I yelled "if she hits the ground on all fours at us, shoot and shoot again" as she stood up. When she stood up, my dog saw her and started to bark. That really got her attention as she seemed to grow another foot. The she whirled, knocked over her cubs again and was gone.

We stood there for a few minutes, trying to comprehend what just happened....then we quickly gathered our stuff and headed back up the old logging road, the dog healing at my side. When we crossed the creek, my buddy decided to make the location on his phone. He couldn't hit the phone for a pin as he was shaking so bad.

When we got back to camp, the dog got so much praise...and treats! Not the first time my dog has been involved in a close encounter with a bear.

Cheers

SS

 

[magtech]

Kept and raised some babies rabbits we found when rabbit hunting. Had squirrels/birds on me.

Almost petted a spike elk i called in once.

Had a deer come in my blind when i was sleeping as a kid. Apparently it really wanted the carrots i stored in there.

 

[Valumpessa]

HIking back to the truck after a morning of steelhead fishing with a friend in the remote Oregon coast range. We were following an old grassy decommissioned forest service road and spotted a mountain lion walking toward us. He was a couple hundred yards away at that point and eventually saw us and moved into the brush. I figured he was long gone but when we reached that spot in the road, there he was, probably 5 yds away staring at us from the brush. Huge block head, mature tom, just staring, motionless. Maybe we should have kept walking but decided to hold our ground to not trigger any kind of chase response. We made as much noise as possible, jumping up and down, and a few minutes later he lost interest, turned and slowly slipped away.
I don't go out without a firearm after that experience. Can't help but wonder how many times that happens out there without us knowing.

 

[TheGDog]

but that shook me up for awhile.

Oof! Yes Sir they Do! I was just "la la la" walking along back to the truck out of this one canyon, on a dirt road, kinda huggin the side. As I walk by a very large Oak with a lot of leaf matter under it. I must have startled this Mature Rattler cause WOW was He Loud!!! Just straight to PissedOff Loud! None of this increasing in Volume and intensity as you near.

So I figure the wind was in my favor? So it musta really spooked him when my footstep nearby woke him up or something.

And he was PISSED Too! He was hidden under the leafy matter. But thankfully I was on the dirtroad so maybe 2.5ft away?

I just remember instantly jumping 2ft up and 3 feet over, HaHA!

And he stayed Pissed for quite a long time! The road wrapped around another Scrub Oak, while behind it, he no longer smelled me, so he hushed up. Minute I decided to pop out the other side of that Scrub Oak? And my scent wafted to his locale? BACK! To being Super PISSED!

All I can figure is it must've really startled him seriously bad!

In that area typically they're waiting for the Sun to go down, to then make their way back to the creeks that meander thru that canyon, to drink-up, and then wait for rodents to come drink.

 

[Snowwolfe]

Son and I were trying to call/rake a big bull moose in close. He was about 20 yards away but the alders were so thick we couldn't see enough to get a shot. All of a sudden we were surrounded by 4-5 wolves who were intent on getting the moose before we did. Hearing them howl around us made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

We were fishing for silver salmon off the coast of Alaska outside of Resurrection Bay. Trolling about 3 mph. All of a sudden a pod containing 4-5 Orca's came along side of our boat. They tilted to their side and each swam by our boat slowly as they looked over and made eye contact with us.

Friend and I were moose hunting and I was trying to call one in. We were sitting on a small hill about 10 feet from the top. We were both as quiet as a church mouse and spent maybe an hour sitting there. Neither of us heard a sound and I said lets pack it up. We stood up, put the gear we had out back in our packs, said a few words, then we both looked up and a 55 inch bull was standing on top of the hill looking at us. I cocked my 454 Casull Freedom Arms and shot it in the head. On the third shot it finally turned and walked away. This time I hit it with a quartering away shot and the bull collasped.

These are my three most memorable outdoor situations.

 

[Sooner]

I was sitting up against a haybale years ago rifle hunting for deer. A bobcat came out of the thicket and worked his way right to me. That dang thing ended up jumping up on the haybale I was sitting against and laid there for an hour or so. When I heard it stand up, I lifted my rifle barrel up and it jumped down, walked maybe 5 yards then just turned around an starred at me.

 

[philos]

While not nearly as exciting as some of these stories I did a have a bird land on my gun barrel one time when I was lying prone on a deer hunt.