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

[SaltySailor]

Parked my wheeler next to a alder patch and walked about 100 yards to a little spot I could call moose from and see down a swamp for a long ways. Called away for a few hours then decided to bag it an walked back to the wheeler. I slid my gun into the gun boot and flopped the end together to close it up, and immediately heard a loud grunt behind me that made me jump about a foot in the air. I jerked around and on the other side of the head-high alder patch, all i could see was the tips of ears and a rack facing my direction. Before i could even comprehend if it was legal, the rack started moving around the alder patch and the bull swayed into view 10 feet from my wheeler, eyes wide and bulging, drool oozing out of his mouth and he did the slow zombie sway towards me. I got on the other side of the wheeler in shock and he let out low glucks and proceeded to come right towards me, forcing me to circle my wheeler with him four times! At this point I was yanking my gun out as I passed by and yelling at him that I wasn't another moose, he did not care - didn't even seem to register that it could hear me, just kept swaying and glucking around the wheeler coming at me. He was a 2X2 in a 4 tine area, and I couldn't tell in my scramble if he was over 50", but at that point I did care, I just wanted to put more distance than the length of an ATV between me and the giant. At the 4th pass when i slid my gun out I scrambled backwards down the trail and made it to two large spruce trees growing close together, he followed me but decided it was time to sniff out the lady who had been hollering the previous few hours and wandered off, glucking out of view. I've seen a lot of moose dead on the ground and always marvel how big they are, but they seem twice as big when you are five feet away from one grunting.

 

[Outdoor Writer]

I've seen a lot of moose dead on the ground and always marvel how big they are, but they seem twice as big when you are five feet away from one grunting.

Bingo. They are absolutely huge, especially when you're looking up at them.

 

[long hunter]

Hunting black bear in northern Ontario I was on my way in too the area, was running a bit late and there was a large slash pile I had too go around it was just getting day light and I had a feeling there was something near me slid the safety off the 300 win. mag and took the next step fully expecting too see MR. BEAR there less than 20 feet away was a moose a big moose, how I did not see him before then is beyond me, well the moose just stands there looking me over kind of like a mo0se stand off. so I got out my camera and took his picture tell him that it is time for him too vacate the area and I was hunting bear not moose. Well he leaves I go on about my business (actually shot a nice bear about 2 hours later) any way get back too the camp with the bear and get too telling the moose story too the son in law of the guy we were hunting with, (he is a big moose hunter) and so he says I was lucky as a bull that close can be pretty nasty, and ask me what I done and tells me I was very lucky, too which I tell him if that was the case we would be eating moose steaks this night.

 

[minengr]

I had a black bear cub hit its head on the bottom step of my tree stand. Pretty close, but probably not what you are looking for.

 

[Millertime30]

Deer hunting in a ground blind and was looking through my scope at some deer maybe 50 to 75 yards away and the scope just suddenly goes dark. A little fork walked right in front of me and was about a foot from the end of my barrel.

 

[Outdoor Writer]

When we lived at Vallecito Lake, CO in the 1970s, the area between it and the lower elevations toward Durango and Bayfield were corridors for migrating deer and elk. One year, my wife Ellen worked for Redfield in Durango during the winter. On many nights her 20-mile trips home included weaving her way through a herd of elk crossing the road, which normally was covered with snow. Fortunately she never hit one.

The closest bad encounter I had was having a trophy buck bounce off my left front fender without damage to him or the truck.

Then this encounter, which was of the, 'youse gotta be sh!ttin' me' variety.

The first winter we were there, we had gone into Bayfield to watch my oldest son play HS basketball. On the way back to the lake, we came to the big right turn where a speed above 10 mph would put you into a ditch.

As I slowed down, I looked to the right shoulder and saw this monster 6x6 buck just standing there. So I stopped. He proceeded to walk right to the front of the truck and licked the big front bumper that held my Warn winch. Then he walked around to my side and stood next to the door just looking at me. When I rolled down the window he stuck his head in far enough that his antlers were hitting the rain gutter over the window. I started to tickle him under his chin, and he loved it, lulling his head back and forth. Ellen was sitting there cracking up. I was totally amazed and basically said, "This just can't be."

That winter, I happened to be working with a crew building very expensive houses at the lake. So the next day, I told them what happened. One of them said, "Oh, that's Pooh, the McCoy's pet buck." He went on to tell me the local game warden had found him as a fawn tangled in fence wire four years earlier. His mother apparently had abandoned him. The game warden took him to the McCoy's ranch so they could raise him. When he grew up, he was free to roam but never went far from his adopted home. The place we ran into him was about a mile away.

My co-worker lived only 1/4 mile or so from the McCoy's and said Pooh usually hangs around the house during the day. So a few days later, I took my youngest son Scott, who was about 10 at the time, down there.

Sure enough, Pooh was sunning himself in the yard, not far from the kitchen window, which was about 4' off the ground. Just as we stopped on the road, Mrs. McCoy opened the window and Pooh got up and headed over. He put his front hooves on the sill and she reached over and fed him something that looked suspiciously like a cookie.

At that point, I shut off the truck and knocked on the door to ask her if she minded me taking a few photos. She told me they also had a bull elk calf the warden had brought them that fall. He was in the pasture across the road with a few cows. One of them had adopted him. So we went over there to take a look. At first, he was quite shy and would run and hide behind his adopted "mother." Scott eventually coaxed him to eat hay out of his hand, though.

At first I was surprised Pooh had lived as long as he did because of the roaming freedom he had. Then I later found out that Carl McCoy decorated Pooh in lots of blaze orange when the hunting seasons rolled around. Most of the folks around him were well aware of the deer's pet status, as well.

 

[grfox92]

This wasn't while hunting but happens last week and was quite insane and though you guys might like to hear it.

I was with the family just outside of Red Lodge. We were driving up a switchback road in National Forest.

As we rounded a hair pin turn, luckily going around 10 mph, there was a steep, almost cliff to our left. All of the sudden 20 feet in front of the truck, an adult Cow Moose came airborne from the the cliff above us and landed in the middle of the road right in front of the truck.

The impact was severe enough that the moose's legs gave out and she hit the pavement with her legs bucked underneath her. She was immediately able to get back on her feet and started trotting up the road, we followed behind her for about 60 yards before she dipped off and side hilled back up into the timber.

We immediately started looking for a predator at the top of the cliff, but couldn't see anything. There was a mule deer about 40 yards from where the moose "jumped" which made us think that there might not have been a predator chasing the moose.

We will never know for sure what caused that girl to jump off that cliff but it was an amazing experience for sure.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

 

[Haggin]

New one for me, just last night.

Moving hay in out barn to get ready to add new alfalfa bales and make sure the kiddo uses up the old ones first. We stack our hay on heavy pallets to keep them off the ground and mold free. I get to the last bale essentially in the corner of the barn. I bend over to grab the twine and lift, under the bale and within the pallet was a skunk. My face couldn't have been two feet from it. Luckily it didn't spray, but I shuffled the hay back on top, made a bunch of noise and left for the evening. Explains why our chicken's eggs are getting destroyed in the nesting boxes.

It wasn't there this AM, but I rounded up the barn kitty and put out a enclosed trap I use for skunks (they rent not to spray if they cant see out like the can in a Have a Heart). Depending on quality of hide, since its been so hot here, we might have another 4H pelt project in the making.

 

[CHWine]

I was deer hunting with friends on Kodiak. We generally hunted in pairs. I had tagged out and was spotter/packer for my buddy. While hunting we jumped grizzly out of an alder thicket in a bowl below us. He was about 80 yards away just looking at us. There was a cross wind and he started to circle around to get our wind. Honestly I don't think he quite knew what we were. I did a quick calculation that by the time he would get our wind, he'd be 30 yards away. We started yelling and waving our arms, but he just kept walking. My buddy fired a shot right in front of him when he was about 50 yards away. He stopped, sniffed the ground where the bullet hit and looked up at us. About 5 seconds later.....which seemed much longer, he turned a trotted off.

 

[Where's Bruce?]

Full draw on this bull at 10' which is why I switched to a stick bow. I was on my knees and thought he was gonna step on me.

 

[kpk]

I stood and stared at a fallen down tree that was making all sorts of strange sounds early one morning while turkey hunting. Eventually 2 white stripes backed out of the log and turned around and stared at me. Luckily he scurried off without spraying.

 

[Semorbux]

Pack of coyotes running past me at about 5 feet when I was dug in Turkey hunting. They heard my calls and came running but didn't see me. I blasted a straggler.

Had a Bobcat come up to me last Deer season as I was leaned up against a tree with a primos 2 foot fabric blind Infront of me covering my shape so he didn't see me. I waved him off at about 10 yards because the thought of spooking him as he walked within 2 feet of me didn't appeal much to me.

One year while walking into the turkey woods in the dark I had a black shape come up to me in the dark. My headlamp was in my bag as I was on the levy and didnt need it until I got into the woods so things got a little tense for me for a sec.
I yelled at it to stop and it kept coming closer and prepared to shoot if it lunged but I refused to shoot unless I had too, especially without knowing my target. I assumed it was a coyote or a Mountain Lion.
When it got to about 8 feet it stopped long enough for me to grab my headlamp out of my bag with one hand while pointing my gun with the other. Thank God I didn't shoot, turns out it was a farmer's dog. Poor guy scared the hell out of me. We made friends after that.
Although I already knew it, it cemented into me to always identifying your target every time even when you think your in danger. Can't take a bullet back once it leaves that barrel.

 

[Semorbux]

I also had a Black bear come into camp in the middle of the night while the family was doing a summer camping trip up at Little Grass Valley this year.
I heard it pull our tarp off the bear box so I got up in nothing but my underwear and opened the tent to see it going through our stuff on top of the bear box (food was all locked up). We looked at each other from about 15 feet and I hollered at it and it ran off. Kids thought it was funny as hell that dad was up battling bears in his underwear.

Also had a fawn come in while I was taking a break in the shade this deer season. I had just taken a piss and was settling in to rest my legs for a few when I heard brush breaking, so I got ready for a shot incase it was a buck.
I saw movement and in walks a fawn at about 10 feet away. It saw me and it's eyes bulged and it noped the hell out fast. It's amazing how close you can get to game when the wind is in your face.

 

[loganwayne]

turkey hunting me and a buddy were walking a logging road, calling trying to find a bird, decoy in my hand ready to throw down and setup. come to a big bend and the trail goes like an "S" from us behind the next ridge. two coyotes come in hot and fast look across and zero in on the decoy in my hand they are maybe 35 yards away. they pick up the pace and disappear for a second tell my buddy to sit down and shot when they pop out on our side of the last bend. first one pops up and buddy shoots twice it slides to his feet. we wait for the second one for about 15 seconds, get a weird feeling and swing the gun up the hill to my right, my barrel about mid ways down it hits the coyote who is so focused on the decoy thats on my left didnt see me. he spun and i shot and he dropped.

Most exciting hunt i think ive ever had.

 

[Semorbux]

I also came upon a gaint rattler sunning himself in a creek bed one year when I had first started hunting alone in my early 20s. I was fascinated as I had never found one while hunting before.

I got the bright idea to make it rattle as I had never heard one in the wild. I grabbed about a 10-12 foot limb and processed to tap on him lightly so he'd rattle. Little did I know how fast a pissed off snake came move.

He came flying at me and I fell over trying to scramble backwards. Thank God he lost interest and stopped his charge cause he had me if he wanted me. Lesson learned don't mess with snakes. Then to add insult to injury, I got my ass chewed by my father in law when I told him about it. Not for being stupid but because I didn't shoot it and bring it home.
Apparently some people love fried rattlesnake but the thought of eating something that eats rodents didn't appeal to me. Plus the fact that that big sob didn't bite me when he could have gave him a free pass to do whatever he wanted with no more intrusion by me.

 

[Semorbux]

Dang Logan, sound like it man.

 

[Elk97]

About two weeks ago while I was elk hunting in MT I was standing on an old logging road entering a waypoint into OnX. Out of the corner of my eye I caught some movement and turned to see a grizzly walk out of the trees onto the road. About 15-20 yds away. Good looking bear, 150-200 lbs, honey brown with dark feet. We had a stare down and he didn't seem inclined to move on so I yelled at him (with pistol drawn). He eyed me and moved his head back and forth a bit, then reluctantly walked back into the trees giving me one last sideways look. He was small enough that I wasn't too worried but I was wondering if Mom was nearby.

 

[cjdewese]

Had two doe at less than 10 yards on Sunday.

Also had two fawns nursing from their mama at less than 15 yards with my wife 4-5 years ago. Pretty cool experience to say the least.

 

[FLATHEAD]

Had a Brown Bear sniff my face through the tent. Guess I was snoring and he was like WTH?
The sniffing woke me up. Inches from my face. Dos XX size pile of poo greeted us at the door
the next AM.

Got in to a disagreement with a Feral Hog in Central FL. once while riding my bike on a WMA.
Saw it cross the road in front of me about 20 yards. It never looked up. I stopped to give
it time to get by. 20 seconds late it shows back up in the road looking for me.
Saw the bristles go up on its back and here he comes. The only thing that saved me was
the bike. I used it as a shield to keep him off of me. We tussled for prolly 30 seconds before
he decided he won and took off. I ended up with some dented wheel spokes.
Was a 60lb? red/black spotted hog with NO EARS!!!
Started carrying after that 100% of the time.

 

[JakeSCH]

Had a Brown Bear sniff my face through the tent. Guess I was snoring and he was like WTH?
The sniffing woke me up. Inches from my face. Dos XX size pile of poo greeted us at the door
the next AM.

Had the similar incident with a black bear, fell asleep leaning against the side of the tent and woke up to it nudging me / sniffing. That sure wakes you up.