..to you this year while bowhunting, that does not involve an arrow in flight. For me, it was during the early season and I was hunting a new set in an oak flat and I had just gotten in the stand and settled in. It was about 80 degrees so I wasn't expecting much early so I pulled out my cell phone to play Scrabble. As I was looking down at my phone I hear a loud SWOOSHING sound behind me and while I'm still looking down a huge Red-Tail Hawk dives right underneath my stand and is like a missile heading straight towards a chimpmunk messing around in the leaves20 yards in front of me. What I thought was the coolest thing is that hawk had to have watched me get up in my stand, but was so honed in on his target he paid me no mind. In fact, it almost seems as he used me as a buffer when diving underneath the stand to get the chipmunk. He didn't get the little rodent but it was beyond cool to watch. So what about you?
For me I was in a stand with a nice sized swamp near it, and it was just before dark when i see a long black cat type animal. I am pretty sure it was a fisher. I watched him for a good ten mins fooling around in the water and eating some cat tails. Anyways i also had two smaller does in front of my stand and the "fisher" takes notice of them and actually bolts after them and they both dart away, and i lose sight of them for a while but after about ten mins i hear kinda like a cat growl almost bob cat like and it was enough to make the hair on the back of my neck stick straight up. Then i see that long black thing out in the CRP field with some type of rodent in its mouth, it is the same CRP field i have to walk through to get to my 4-wheeler. And by the looks of it, it wasntt scared to chase down a couple deer, so I took the longer way around that night haha.
Either being trapped in my tree until 9:45pm with a cow moose under me (she charged a buck that was making his way in), or having a chickadee perch on my right shoulder (I felt like a woodland pirate!)
I would say watching a rabbit jump out of a ditch with a coyote right on it's tail. The rabbit ran down into a creek bottom 20 yards in front of me and the coyote stopped just shy of my shooting lane and went back where he came. It was a pretty neat experience.
The coolest thing to happen to me this season was being able to see the big buck I was after several times while hunting. No shot was ever offered though
Watching a hunter trip over a log while walking under my stand. While he was on his back he just laid there and looked up at me. We both got a good laugh that day.
Two experiences come to mind... Laughing my arse off at a young 3x3. He really liked my doe decoy but when the wind would cause it to move he would run back and stand by me ( 10 feet ). I was on the ground. He did it quite a few times He know something was up with the bloop ( me ) as I made noises, chuckled a lot, can called, grunted, smoked a cig and talked to him. The doe decoy would get him all antsy and I would get him calmed down so he got the guts to go check her out again. He wouldn't leave. I've seen button bucks do dumb things but this buck just didn't have a clue at all. The other was getting swooped by a curious owl repeatedly. It was fun at first but he wouldn't give up. Each time he would get closer and at the end we were talking within a couple feet of my head. I finally broke off a cattail end and threw at him. I didn't dare stand up and wave my bow at him as it was about time for the deer to start moving and I was afraid I would get busted. What a pest !! Tim
I remember hunting hard the first 3 weeks of October. Well I set up on some spot I picked off a topo. Right when I get to this spot it is covered with buck sign. I sit for 3 hours and nothing. Then 2-3 minutes before dark I hear the familiar crunch crunch crunch and it is loud! Man my heart started beating so fast I could feel it in my throat because I knew that "buck" was going to pass by over my left shoulder at less than 10 yards. I waited until the "buck" stopped behind the last tree between "him" and I, a big pine tree. I drew and waited. "It" stopped. I didn't move. 10 seconds later a flock of about 10 turkey look right at me and all take off in opposite directions...they scared the hell out of me! hahaha
I had a hen turkey walk past me feeding at 10 yards when I was 18 feet up in a tree with blaze orange on during youth gun season. I thought turkeys were supposed to be able to see colors.
Coolest thing to happen to me happened many times this year. I got to hunt with my 12 year old son in his first year.:D
Either seeing 7 different bucks in one day or getting to hunt the late season with my father in law, both were pretty cool.
I saw a lot of Bucks this year interacting, locking up antlers, Grunt snort wheezes, etc. that was fun. I'd say the squirrel that jumped on my shoulder while I was in stand was definitely a wake up call. I had No idea he was any where around and I know he didn't know I was there. When he landed on my shoulder he turned wrong side out gettin' out of Dodge. It startled me, but he was scared out of his wits :-) Dan
I've never had a squirrell land on me before, but I definitely know what you mean about them being scared out of their wits. Squirrells seem quite oblivious to whats going on around them and sometimes they get within feet of me in the tree. I'll move a little or twitch my shoulder to see how they'll react and they take off horribly scared.
I watched a bobcat swim across the river. I didn't know they liked water. She later came by my stand and I shot her. I got down and retrieved her and sat her at the bottom of my stand. 10 minutes later a buck comes through and stops and sniffs the exact spot where I found my cat. He then walks around my tree, jumps in the river and swims onto the same little island my cat came from. It's not often you get to see deer and cats swimming. I thought it was pretty neat.
