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

[mt terry d]

Could have grabbed a calf elf's leg as he walked by but I'd wrestled enough calves as a kid I knew better.

Had a big horned owl land about 3 feet away in my tree on a branch eye level and just behind the trunk. I slowly worked a hand around the trunk and wiggled my finger.
His head snapped around and his eyes locked on it like laser beams.
I pulled my hand back before things escalated.

Almost had an 8pt buck step on me as I was laying behind a log on a trail.
Never even got a shot with my bow.

Always fun.

 

[mcr-85]

Not super close but closer than the pic seems. I've been closer on archery hunts to healthy elk. My mule didn't like this bull standing on the trail.

He was bad sick with something. Blind and skinny. I got off my mule and booed him off the trail and rode on.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

 

[omicron1792]

Thought of another one.

Turkey hunting as a kid with my grandfather. We sat on a rock outcropping with leaves on it. Was a cool morning but was warming up.

My GF felt something moving under him. He stood up and he was sitting on a rattle snake in the leaves. Luckily he wasn’t bit.

Snakes in the south are real.

 

[StupidLightweight]

These were my closest and scariest encounters.

When coyote calling at night from a kayak on the tidal lowlands of the Columbia River, a big boar raccoon charged in so hot and fast that he wouldn't stop. I shouted a few times and then shot him at the bow of the 8-foot boat with a .222 Rem. Contender. It rattled me so much, I paddled home.

In northern Alberta, hunting bear over bait, crackhead looking bruin with a hug scar on his face came in. He wasn't a shooter, so I just watched and took photos. Eventually, he grew curious and walked over to my stand. I lost sight as he came to the base of my ladder. When the stand started shaking, I did the same. In a few seconds, scarface poked over the base of my stand. My muzzle was inches from his face, and my trigger was ounces from firing.

The scariest of all was a June bear hunt in Idaho, when a cow moose with calf came within 5 feet of trampling me in the willows. Stupidly, I had my rifle strapped to the pack, so my only defense was a hiking pole I wielded like a tiny spear as she charged. That was spooky. Five minutes later, I got a weird feeling and turned around. There she was again, 10 feet out and closing. Luckily for everyone, she veered off and we never saw here again.

 

[Haggin]

One nice mid November day, I was siting under a cedar tree waiting for does to start moving to fill the freezer. I was sitting essentially on a game trail and a covey of quail came along, almost like a pack of rubber bouncy balls (hard to explain their hopping motion but this is what they seemed like as they were all over the place), along the trail.

The largest one (he?) stopped and inspected from about five feet away, while the others and about 20 smaller chicks bounced around in the grass and sticks. He decided I wasn't a threat, peeped a bit and they all came along bouncing over my pack, legs, rifle, all paying me no attention as if I was a log in the road. I don't hunt birds at this spot, so i home they are still around.