We always talk about some of our best times in the woods. I'd like to hear some of the worst......

Mine aren't sooo bad...

1) This is the earliest I had...and I think it rather "cool" than "scary", but, ...was hunting with my dad as a kid (tree rat hunting), and we had one gun between us (.22 mag).to make it short....he heard a squirrel down the hollow, told me to stay put and I did. while he was gone..I heard a noise, and thought it might be a deer cause it sounded big..and so kept quiet and waited, as it made it's way down to me. It got right on me before I turned around..lol..and I came face to face with a coyote. (And we got the "german shepard" variety..lol). And he just sniffed a little, but, my dad was on his way up, and saw..so, he shot(up in the air). yote ran off.
Anyhow, that was cool.

2) Scary....
Wasn't hunting at all.......was in my yard (still a kid) ...and it was hunting season. At the time, I lived near the "line" that seperates the state land from my land. (Called it "red line") Well, it was hunting season....a WMA hunt...which can be dangerous.cause we get hundreds in the woods. Anyhooo.....I hear a shot not too far away...but far away enough, I figure. And guess it was seconds later.."Bing!" The bullet hit my house..lmao...pretty close to me. That was pretty scary.
(It's hard sometimes to hunt the hollows if you don't have much experience with it, and where the bullets can go while hunting them. I highly doubt his bullet went where he wanted it to go.)

3) Dumbarse award goes to this guy......
2 seasons ago...a new guy bought the neighboring lease to mine in the city. I was hunting mine....was in a stand, and before long I see the guy. He kept geting turned around...and wandering on ours. (There are no fences or lines...you just have to "know" where you're at. It's all owned by the same guy., so it's not a big deal) Anyhow, here it is rifle season......
this guy was wearing a green shirt (which is cool), no orange (which ain't)...and WHITE gloves(which would really suck for him if he encountered a "if it's white, must be a deer tail" kinda guy.) Guess what his pants were? Yep...brown khakis. (hope he never meets "if it's brown, it's down" guy)
Oh...and "we all" had a talk with him, so don't know if he wears stuff like that or not anymore..but we tried to help)

4) This is the most recent.
There are these punk kids that are gunning for "us"...cause we busted em riding ATV's on the property and all. And, you know punk kids.."I can ride wherever I WANT to!!".......
anyhow..the most recent stunt they (don't know if it was them, cause I didn't "see"...but, I KNOW, ya know....we've been playing this game all season)
pulled was....me and another went hunting. We have to drive by their house to get to the area...(public road)...and after hours of nothing...we head back to the vehicles. On our way out..we smell this real strong smell.......LAUNDRY DETERGENT. Them punk arse kids had poured laundry detergent on the path while we were in there not far from where we were hunting. And yep.....the wind was blowing just right...just enuff where it would low that scent all towards where we were at in the woods. Punk kids.

5) Last one.....
this is the most "gritting my teeth mad" one. Day before the laundry detergent issue...same punk kids...
as soon as I got in the stand...and I swear it to be true....they pulled out their guns and started shooting them in their yards. Started with .22's. Moved to rifles...moved to shotguns...reloaded rifles and kept shooting...shotguns....22's..and on and on...and I tell you this...they never stopped, except long enuff to reload..the ENTIRE time we were in the woods.
And this is the truth...lots of them even went over my stand (could hear the "Whizzzzzzzzzzzzzz" of em) They literally shot for HOURS. And started ight when daylight was creeping in.

anyhow...I'm not asking, by no means...to write a "page" like I did, but would be cool to hear some of your worst experiences.

Well, Hands, to begin with, if I hear shots "whizzing" by me, I can understand some idiot accidently doing it once, I've had that happen a time or two, but if it happened again, I would figure I was being shot at and would return fire.... As for bad experiences, probably the "worst" for me was once when running my trap line. I had just removed a beaver from a larger conibear trap and was setting it back when it went off and latched on to both my arms. I had been "trapped" before, but sooner or later managed to get loose. But this time, I was fair caught... If Larry had not been with me and over on the other side of the pond, I might still be there... As it was, after his laughing, and rude and stupid comments, he finally got me out... I told him to remind me to kick his butt later when my arms quit hurting.... Larry is a good ol' boy, but when Scott Bighorse gave him the nickname "Psycho" many, many years ago, it stuck for a reason.

Dang Mongo..that is some scary stuff. I'm very glad Larry was with you that day!! I remember when I took hunter's safety years ago...we had a speaker that was a trapper. He said he was trapping something in the water...don't remember what...but I do remember the part where he said that he was feeling around in the water and got ahold of a snapping turtle. (Or rather, the turtle got him!!). And to this day, he has no movement in the finger....he had to have it reattatched, I believe...and it points straight, can't bend it.
I don't know what that has to do with anything...lol....
just, trapping can be dangerous at times.

As for the shots of those kids.....I say "kids" cause the youngest has to be all of 14. I figure, they were shooting in their yards..and the angle of the property I was on....they probably shot a few up into the woods across from them (where I was) just to say "ha, ha, we'll teach em!!"
I honestly don't think they knew anyone was there....or even if that area is hunted. Don't think it didn't cross my mind to fire a shot in the air thataway...but, there's a couple of trailers there next to theirs...I was just scared I'd end up hitting someone, but I still think they just didn't know fully what they were doing when they did that..(feared jail too, mind you )
But, then again..lol...at that point, I was just ducking down, forgot completely about hunting, and radioing everyone to see if they all were alright...lol. (Freaked me out cause it was just days after the Vang shootings..so, got me edgy)
at any rate, I counted 16 of the "whizzy" kind. After that, they went back to targets.

I've got a couple for ya...

1) When I was 14 or 15, my old man had a Taurus 9mm that he bought for home protection. Anyhue, the target range is close to 2 hours away from his house, so he got the great idea that he'd just load some cases with primers, get some rubber bullets and go shooting in the garage. I was all excited at the prospect of being able to shoot pretty much whenever I wanted and went along to watch. He took a towel, set it up behind a target to catch the bullets, and commenced firing. Around 6 shots later, he shoots and I see this little black dot getting bigger and bigger in my line of sight. Closing my eyes at the last instant, the rubber bullet hit me square in my right eye. I jumped up and down, yelled and rubbed it a lot, but I was fortunate in that it only hurt. No shiner, no sight damage... By the way, being shot with a rubber bullet hurts like hell.

2) I was on a scout campout to Quivira Scout Ranch (If you EVER get the chance to go there to hunt or fish, TAKE IT! The place is gorgeous and everything is bigger there.) for a week and on the last night of the campout, a buddy of mine and I were fishing for bass on top and having fun with it. We heard some brush rustling nearby and thought it might be a friend who was supposed to be coming to fish with us. We joked around out loud and tried to taunt our friend into coming out and ending the "game" of his. Well, after 20 minutes, we got tired of it and decided that we'd just head back to camp and he could stay here by his lonesome. On our way back, we kept hearing something moving in the brush a few yards away. We'd shine our flashlights over there and not see anything, so we started freaking out a bit and walked back to camp at a very brisk walk. When we walked into the campsite, our friend was sitting next to the fire. Now thoroughly freaked, I turned and shined my light into the bushes again, this time seeing two shining eyes at about the height of a big bobcat. This was the beginning of a lifelong revolution against all feline kind.

3) Last one... My old man would hunt rabbits when he was a kid and always used a little .22 lr revolver. He was out hiking and looking for rabbits to mutilate when he came accross a very large mountain lion print. He said he knew it was fresh because it had rained that morning, the ground was wet, and water was still seeping into the print. Being a dumb kid, he decided to try tracking it. He followed that cat for 2 or 3 miles before he gave up, but he said he was always right on its butt. Looking back, he says he doesn't know WHAT he would've done if he'd have actually found it.

I'm sure I could think of more, but I'll save space for others.

Those are cool stories KS!!
And, omg, I bet it did hurt like all heck gettin shot by a rubber bullet..lol. specially in the eye!!

Here is my numb nuts award.

Where I hunt is dry high desert so the bushes are not real big so you hind in what you can. I was in a real good spot right by a deer hiway. I was behind a nice rock on my left and a good dence bush on my right.

I see a little doe walking south, from my left to my right. She was about 40-50 yards out. I did not have a doe tag so I enjoyed watching her just strole by. As she gets to the limit of my line of sight on the right I hear a gun shot and it was pretty close.

I am saying all sort of things under my breath. I see this little doe running back north at about 50000000 miles anhour. I hear another shot, then another, and another. I am think WTF!!!!! I see this idot running at a full sprint trying to aim and shoot. I was close to sending a .223 right into his back side, but did not do it.

I pack up because there are no deer any where near this stae after all of his shooting. I walk the 1 1/4 back to teh truck. As I am putting the gear away here comes Mr. brainless. He is out of breath and is saying he was attacked by a Mountian Lion. I enjoyed crushing his story.

As I was sitting ther watching the doe burn up the trail I saw a Bobcat running like a bat out a hell. I told him it was a Bobcat and he did not belive me. I told him he ran in front of me and I saw the whole thing.

Out here the Bobcats will just freeze in any cover they have. If you are walking twords it they will bolt at the last second and scare the hell out of you. This is what most likely happened to him and he freaked.


Scary one is when I was a kid of about 16. I was out walking the dirt roads looking for rabbits with my trusty ole bolt action .22. I had 3 rabbits on my belt as I start walking down hill the road goes through a cut. As I get about half way through the cut I hear a rathe large snarl. I am looking at a full grown mountian lion. I am about 30 feet away. He looks like he is the size of Texas. All I could do is remember that you should not run, and do not stop looking at them. I drop the rabbits and walk backwards. I was thinking that if I had to shoot, all I was going to do is piss it off with a .22lr. After I had backed up where I could take another road I lost site of him.

Those are the ones that stand out in my memory.


Dru.

I think that would be my greatest fear. Mountain lions. Bring on the bears, grizzleys too...bring on anything you got....but NO mountain lions. Those things are bordering on brilliant when it comes to "sneaky". I've known folks who were hunting open lands......following a trail..and after a while, get turned back around a mile or so from the place they were...and see a friggen lion...TRACKING them!!
When it was legal in Washington to use dogs..a guy I know loved to go, and he's had them danged lions get cornered on a cliff...the cat ended up pretty much "stepping out of the way" a few times (just like in some Bugs Bunny cartoon) and few of the dogs would go sailing over the edge, with a little pat on the butt...lol.
I just see how excellant of a hunter my yard cat is. He brings me squirrels for pete's sake. Can't imagine that...and possibly then some...but blowed up to a big muscle machine!!

Good stories Buzzard!!

Just a little interesting sidelight here. I thought of it while reading Buzz's story about the mountain lion and him only haveing a .22...... At one time, back in the 60's I believe it was, the 3rd largest grizzly bear to be killed on record was taken with a .22LR. ... It was in Alaska, and was done by a lady named Bella Twin. ... She and her boyfriend were walking a clear cut with dozer pushups on either side, hunting partigams when they spotted the bear comeing from the other direction. They retreated to the pushups along the side to let him go on by, but instead of going on, he came up to them and started sniffing at their legs. Miss Twin stuck the barrel of the single shot .22LR up to the bear's ear and pulled the trigger... It fell over and went to kicking, and she immediately emptyed the remaining shots she had into his head.

I heard a story of a guy being chased up a tree by a grizzly. All he had was a .22 revolver, which he stuck in the bear's mouth as it was roaring and pulled the trigger. It was supposed to have penetrated the roof of its mouth and hit the brain, killing it. I guess it could happen, but I'd rather have a very large belted caliber weatherby in my hand instead.

Hands, I have had my indoor/outdoor cat bring me a Jack rabbit that was twice my cats size. The cat brought it in to the house and proudly placed it on my chest as I slept. I woke up to a dead rabbit on a purring cat. Not the best way to wake up.

I look at it like this: If my little 3 pound cat can hunt, stalk, track and kill what they do, then the mountian lions would be ale to do it to us in thier sleep. We would be just a play thing for them.

They are 250 pounds of walking, jumping, tracking, sneaky death. They are awesome to look at, from the next mountian over.



Dru.

P.S. I take rattle snakes of the other ones because atleast they let you know they are there.

Buzz..lol..I totally share the same feelings about the cats.

And snakes...I adore em ...but, if it was an accidental biting....

MUCH rather be the rattler..cause then you have a 50-50 chance as to whether or not he injected you with enuff venom..lol. Water's (moccosins)and copper's(heads) just don't give a dang and fill you to the limit.