Not a hunting story, but one day we were out at the land doing some habitat work and we were driving out and my brother looks out across the field as says "Hey look! An Otter!" As he says this, me and my dad look over to where he was pointing and a rooster gets up. He still swears there was an otter there. He is also a veteran pheasant hunter which makes this soo much better!
Last season in a canyon a whitetail single fork baby, baby buck walked in on me after I stood up from the base of my lunch tree catching us both by surprise. He cocked his neck and blew, I froze in place not moving a muscle, he stomped his front foot and leaned forward blowing again, I remained motionless, he cocked his neck again then sniffed the ground....a solid five minutes of dead lock but he eventually turned and walked away. Coolest encounter never captured on camera thus far. I walked up on a range bull. My head was down, pack on, end of day, bottom of the canyon which I needed to climb out to get to camp. Walked within like 30 yards when I looked up at this big black range bull (Angus, free range). I stopped, turned and slowly started my ascent up the hill thinking, That was spooky. The day earlier two of them were fighting in the area and you could hear brush cracking .. it was something.
My middle sons first buck is a story that none of his friends ever believed . He was 13 at the time and had shot a couple of doe before this season . We had went to our stand in the morning and after sitting there for a few hours without seeing a single deer , decided to head to the truck to warm up and get me some coffee . As we neared the edge of the corn field, we seen a nice 8 pointer coming across the field at us . I got him set up and just as he was about ready to shoot , a truck came tearing across the field and the buck blew out of there . We went ahead and got back up and headed for the truck , the other guy pulled up and asked if we had seen anything (I was fuming but didn't lose in front of my son) , anyway while chatting with him , I noticed a nice buck that we had been chasing beaded just off the edge of the corn field . We quickly got rid of the trespasser and spent the next 3 hours trying to stalk up on this buck . We had got downwind and when we hit the 70 yard mark (the last tree that he could rest his gun on) I had hoped to get the buck up with a little calling but he buried his head in the grass and just hid . After15minutes or so , I decided that we'd go ahead and close the distance . We got to 30 yards and we sat down and grunted back and forth with him . I kept thinking he was going to get up at any time .... he was sounding pretty pissed off . We sat there and got an education in some of the sounds that deer will make and I couldn't figure out why he wouldn't get up but had warned my son that we could possibly get attacked . After sitting there for several minutes , I started having a low blood sugar and was out of food . The buck was 30 yards in front of us and the truck was 300 yards straight on the other side of him so we only had one move and that was through the buck . we started easing up on the buck and at about 10 foot I finally managed to pick out his rack in the tall grass , it took a bit to get my son to see it but when he did it was the first time he had seen the buck (I never could get him to pick the tines out of the tall grass during our stalk). I had him put his scope on the rack and told him to follow the neck down to the shoulder while the buck was getting up .... and shoot before it took off . Of coarse I had my pistol out and ready but as soon as the son was ready , I tossed my orange hat at the buck . It came up , my son shot , and as it took off I shot . Come to find out , the buck was beded with a doe . The buck piled up after barely making it to the edge of the corn field and upon inspection , our shots were an inch apart right behind the shoulder . One of my all time favorite deer hunts
Hunted pheasants all day once. Out the entire group I was the only hunter that day that had not harvested a bird, not to mention even having a shot. I was always in the wrong place.... Everyone was giving me a bunch of sh*t all day..... Toward the end of the day we spotted some birds on a fence line. The sun was starting to set, it was getting really cold and everyone was wore out. No one wanted to hunt it but me so they let me out and they are all watching from their trucks. Three steps in the ditch, a bird gets up and I drop it. I take another step and another gets up, two down. I retrieve both birds. Now mind you I didn't have a coat, vest, or gloves on. With two birds in hand and the shotgun in the other a bird gets up behind me, I drop the birds, swing on it, 3 down! I pick up the two birds, walk to the 3rd bird and another bird gets up. Boom, 4 down! I didn't walk more than 30 yards in was in the field for less than 2 minutes. "Game, set match (limit). Take that b*tches!" That is what I said to them as I threw the 4 birds in the back the truck and hopped back in the cab. To add icing on the cake I was the only hunter to limit out!
My first year bowhunting in a stand: Forgot my release. A few hours into the hunt, 2 doe come right up to about 10 yards. Did not know that, as a hunter, you need to be 'prepared'. Did not have an arrow on the bow. As I am trying to nock and arrow, I actually drop the arrow. This does not spook the girls. I get another arrow, get it nocked, pull back (as I mentioned) without my release. I am pulling back with my fingers. Take good aim, arrow flew about a foot over her back. She took a side step away from me, but doesn't run. Nock another arrow. This time (again with fingers) I aim 'lower'. Put it at her feet. She still didn't spook. Problem was, I only had three arrows with me. I looked down at the first arrow thinking, if I could only climb down out of the stand, I could take another shot. Ugh...Learned a lot that year. Lol.
My first turkey i never really shot. I was 12 and the jake was at 40 yards. I shot and the bird did the roll and flop. I went out to pick up the bird and as i was picking it up its eyes opened and started trying to fly away. When we were cleaning it there was not a single bb in the head or body. The only thing we can figure is that I hit it with the wad from the shell and knocked it out.
I was putting some more cold gear on and took off all my shirts I had on, two does walked in while I had no clothing on my torso. Shot a doe with no shirt on, freezing my butt off. I was hunting in the afternoon one day, and when it got to dark enough to start packing up the woods came alive, owls, coyotes etc all making noise, then I heard a Sasquatch howl. I'm sure the howl had nothing to do with the fact I had been watching a Finding Bigfoot marathon that week.
That happened before I had a computer , so no pics on here and my son has most of the pics of that buck . I do still have the head on my wall so I'll take a couple pics later and post them .
Surprises me that there is not more stories being posted . As I hunt way to much , I have a few so I'll share another one Sept. 30th 2010 , I had just arrived at the spot I was going to hunt and while changing into my hunting close , I started hearing a couple of bucks sparring . They sounded like they couldn't be too far from my stand so when I was done changing , I really took it easy getting to my stand . Before I made it to my stand I started getting the idea that there was more than 2 bucks sparring . I snuck the last 40 yards or so as they sounded like they were within 50 yards of the stand . I ended up sitting in the pitch dark for 20 minutes listening to 2 different sparring sessions . Once it got light enough for me to see what was going on , there were 6 bucks just trading off (2 buck sparring in 1 spot , 2 bucks sparring a few yards away , and 2 just waiting and watching ) . As if that wasn't interesting enough right after it had gotten light enough for me to see what was going on , more bucks started showing up . By time they were done arriving , I had 12 bucks split into 3 different groups all taking turns on whichever buck was winning . This all went on for about an hour and I was almost in disbelief sitting there watching it . All of the 2.5-3.5 year old bucks were on the side of a hill 60-70 yards from me and there was 1 buck that was really displaying it's dominance . He'd shove whichever buck that stepped in front of him about 10 yards before it would step away and let a different buck have a try . When they all started separating the more dominate buck in the older group just seemed to be walking away with an air of confidence . He just looked like he was extra pleased with himself and I had the idea that if I snotwheezed he'd probably come straight in . I went ahead and gave it a shot and don't think that 20 seconds passed between snortwheezing and having him shot . He had started to turn on release so I ended up hitting 1 lung and liver . Not the best shot but he paused long enough 10 yards behind my tree that I was able to place the second arrow through the heart . He ended up dropping 15 yards from the stand . That same day , I ran to town and purchased a camera that I now never go to the stand without . Wish I'd of had one to record that mornings event .
One deer hunt in AZ (unit 6A - near Mormon Mountain), I was on a small trail that split around a tree. as I got to the tree, I could hear movement up ahead. I froze up against the tree. about 60 elk passed on either side of me, less than 2 feet away on either side. Including some really nice bulls. every once in a while an elk would stop and sniff - they could smell me, but I was not moving. I was in full camouflage, including a face mask.
I have a couple of stories but I wouldn't say they are unbelievable. Last year, my wife and I were bowhunting. I was in a ladder stand and she was on the ground beneath it in a makeshift blind we had made. In Missouri, you can shoot both deer and turkey during archery season. We had not seen any deer and a flock of turkeys were making their way towards us through the brush. I was going to let my wife shoot first and then see if I could get a shot after her. The lead turkey had just stepped into the open at about 15 yards but before my wife could shoot, a doe with an 8 point in hot pursuit comes running at our stand from the opposite direction. They were literally crashing through the woods making all kinds of racket. Well, this spooked the turkeys and they turned back the way they came behind the brush and my wife didn't get a shot off. The doe and 8 point ran by so fast that neither one of us got a shot at the deer either. My wife was pissed that the deer spooked her turkey before she could get the shot off. Same stand. I was by myself this time. I could see a deer feeding in the brush about 60 yards away. I had been watching it awhile when a flock of turkeys (probably the same flock from the first story) came in. I decided to pass on the turkeys and wait the deer out. I had turkeys pass by my stand at less than 10 yards but I resisted the urge to shoot. None of the turkeys in the flock had any clue I was there above them in the ladder stand. The turkeys moved off about 50 or so yards to my left and the deer was still 50-60 yards in front of me. All of the sudden, the turkeys start alarm putting. I am thinking to myself that it can't possibly be me that spooked them since I haven't moved and they didn't see me at 10 yards so they shouldn't be able to see me at 60 yards. Turkeys started flying and running in all directions and one of the turkeys comes running past my stand with a bobcat in hot pursuit. The turkey and bobcat turn and run directly toward the deer I was watching. The turkey finally flys to escape and that spooks the deer. So no turkey and no deer that day.
One time, Hooker, Vito, Atlas and I all went whitetail hunting with our recurves........... Nah, you're right, nobody will ever believe it.
I don't have many, but people get a good laugh when I tell them about seeing a squirrel fall out of a tree, almost getting my head taken off by a hawk, and falling asleep standing up in the stand.
Pics of the sons first buck , taxi did the best that he could but said they didn't make forms big enough . If I remember right the neck was just over 27 inches at the base of the head . Kind of hard to see it real good with all the clutter around it
