whats the funniest, and or strangest things you have ever seen while on stand, or anywhere in the woods for that matter!
mine would have to be the time i was seeing a bunch of deer behind my friends house. i decided to go back with my climber, and ambush them!
after i found a nice cherry tree and got settled in, i herd crunching in the leaves! i grabbed my bow and got ready for the shot.
turned out to be a guy and a woman, walking through the property. they passed by about 50 yds and dissapeared, ( i thought)
a few minutes later, i looked to my right and there they are!!! doing you know what!!!!!! :eek: :eek:
well, im trying to figure out what the heck to do,im in a cherry tree so its not like i can get down out of the tree quitly! so after a bit they
put there cloths on and procede to walk right past my tree, about 5 yds, and never even seen me!!! :knothead:
Been there done that! Wait make that been there seen that!
Bout ten years back I was camped up in the Wind river Basin in Wyoming on a do it youself muley hunt. There was another bunch og guys camped down the road a bit. From what I saw it was a dad and his four sons. They were from West Vaginia according to plate on truck. Kinda of a scary lookin bunch, dad kinda zztop look alike. Anyways couple days later this suburban with dark tinted windows pulls up to my site and this guy jumps out and flashes this FBI shiels at me. He pulls out a picture and says seen this guy round here? Guess who - zztop himself, anyways I tell FBI man he's down road in tent. Guy jumps back in suburban and outa knowhere comes cars, suburbans, blazers and lots guns. Musta been the unibomber or something. Nobody ever did tell me. Enough excitement for one hunt. Kinda makes me wonder knows anytime I'm camping in the middle of nowhere. Keep the Benelli handi!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v249/Killdeer/Hunting%20and%20Camp/2007%20November%20Hunt/Img_LogGoblin.jpg)
They are out there.
Killdeer
One day I was watching these two fox squirrels chasing each other around and around this big hickory tree right in front of me. This went on for about a half an hour until they were at the top of the same tree when one decided it would jump a span of about fifteen or so feet to another tree. There it is flying through the air and bareley makes it to the skinny little branch that was bending quite a bit from being blasted by this squirrel rocket right behind the first one the second had jumped also but instead of branch there was only the other swuirrel to cling to. Needless to say the twig snapped off and they both fell about 50 feet to the ground landing with a terrible thud. I was sitting there with my jaw hanging in disbelief when they jumped up and just stared at each other for about 30 seconds and around the tree they went again. I couldn't wait to tell someone what had happened probably they funniest thing I have ever seen hunting.
gaffey- that wouldn't have been half as funny a story: if you had been in an apple tree :)
Two things that I can remember; one was when my son and I were bowhunting; and saw a huge piles of apples. We noticed a treestand in a nearby oak tree.
So; we were standing there; in camo; talking; and these two squirrel hunters walked up. They did not see us.
They did see the pile of apples; and the little 1/2 inch sapling next to the pile. They tried a couple apples and then talked about coming back and digging up the sapling - after all 3 or 4 bushels for a sapling is a dang good tree !
I think one of the funniest things; was when I and 5 other guys went bowhunting together. We parked the vehicles and split up to look for deer.
I found a spot where the deer had a trail across a road; and set up there for a while.
Along comes a guy with a bow; and he was smoking a cigarette; and I stood up so he could see me.
When he got up to me; I asked " seen anything?".
Well he had not seen me; and about had a heart attack; and said he was NEVER bowhunting again!
Later on when I got back with my buddies; I told them the story and everyone laughed; because that poor guy ran into all six of us; and each of us: scared the holy stuff right out of him :)
If your the guy - I am sorry- it was not on purpose :wavey:
Had my neighbor's dogs trail me to my treestand one afternoon. The biggest one, a collie I think, sniffed all the way to the base of my tree and stood there for a few seconds, well long enough for me to get out a bottle of scent killer and try to drop it on him. I missed just behind his tail, BUT the bottle did bounce right back up and hit him square in the dog arse. That dog ran all the way home squallin like a banchee.
Another time, same dogs. I was ground huntin and saw them headed straight down the trail I was on. At about 6 feet, I took off yellin and chasin. He and the other one squalled all the way home. I never saw them in those woods again.
Brutus
One of the funniest things I have seen was my buddy Daryl and I were hunting down behund my parents house and we split up to go sit. It was early afternoon and he said he was gonna sit the pine tree stand.I reminded him there was no stand in the tree.(we used one limb as a seat and another as a foot rest). I went on my way, well about a half hour before dark it started to snow pretty hard. I sat until dark and headed out. I got back to the house and no Darryl, so I waited about half an hour and no Darryl. I got worried and went looking, as I approached his tree I noticed tons of fresh deer tracks inthe snow. No people tracks though. I shine my flashlight up into the tree and here he is all stretched out on two big limbs, covered in snow and snoring pretty loud. I started to laugh so hard I woke him up, it was even funnier to see a giant blast of snow come off of him when he almost fell out of the tree. It was even better when he climbed down and I showed him all those fresh tracks around his stand. We still laugh about it today and are amazed he did not fall out of the tree while sleeping. Shawn
I was out hiking around one spring looking for shed antlers and a lizard that had crawled inside a shotgun shell and was unable to back due to his scales. He had died because of his curiosity. :(
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v117/treekiller/lizardshell.jpg)
i saw to cows goin at it and the clumsy male fell on his rear when attemping to climb his woman when i was rabbit hunting
I had a sparrow hawk make a circle around me and I moved my longbow a little and that little guy went up about 60ft and went into a death roll towards me :eek: . Well, at about 30ft I realized he was focused on my beaver balls and I tore off my head net and waved my free hand at him and he pulled away at about 12ft from me :scared: !
Had a feral horse walk into camp in the mountains of Arizona...no saddle, no shoes, no bridle...and of course, no rider...
She just came over, I pet her flanks, and she walked right out of camp...my buddy grabbed his boomstick 'cuz he thought she was gonna stomp me...
I was walking a trail in a public park, on my way to a little spot, when I heard noise behind me...
Some "yahoo" in a blue jumpsuit was 30 yards behind me, compound in one hand, and one broadhead tipped arrow in the other...no big deal, right?
Well he was in a solid blue jogging jumpsuit, and his wife was in a solid red matching one...and she was holding four more broadhead tipped arrows in her hands...
They asked me if I had seen anything, just about as loud as they possibly could without yelling, so I simply asked which way they were headed, so I could quickly go the opposite way!!
You just gotta shake your head sometimes...!!!
A giant domestic billy goat.
He would slip the fence on the owners property whenever he wanted, and go eat white oak acorns beside the deer on the place I had permission.
The first time I saw his tracks, I thought they were huge deer tracks. I was convinced it had to be a turty pointer!
The first time he saw me I was sneaking in with a climber on my back, and here he comes. Running like he`s gonna squash me.(he was big enough to be a concern) He, and his long sweeping horns stopped short, and began checking out this thing on my back. Around his neck was a strap with a bell, missing the ringer inside. "Banjo" was written on the strap. I noticed he was watching my hands, and realized he was looking far a handout. All I had was a pack of sugar free mints.
I dug into my pocket to get them and he perked up. I offered the mint, and he gave it a sniff, sucked it into his lips, and crunched it loudly.
I offered another, and he simply turned away and went they way he came from.
I saw him from time to time over the next two years, and learned from experience that the orange circus peanut candies were his favorite.
I have a patch of woodland I hunt with the air-rifle, full of rabbits & skwerls. I was over there, I think it was August last year, just mooching around the place trying to spot a bunny or two for the pot. Anyway, I'm stalking around being as quiet as possible & I hear someone running. I had a look arund, couldn't see a thing but could still hear the sound of running feet getting louder & closer. The next thing I know there's a bloody great OSTRICH coming at me, hell for leather out of the bushes! :eek: :eek: It saw me at about the same time as I saw it & just swerved out of the way & kept on going. All I can think is that it had escaped from a farm or zoo, but I've never heard or read anything about it in the local paper. Wierded me out for a while!
Do I count?
I have a habit of attracting flying squirrels for some reason. I've seen many of them over the years while most people don't believe they even exist around here. Probably because they are so nocturnal. Anyway, this year one morning I climbed up in a stand that is on the bank of a small creek. Just when it was light enough to make out shadows I caught something coming at me from above out of the corner of my eye. It takes longer to tell than it took to happen, but the next thing I know "something" heavy landed in my lap, ran up my chest, across my neck, and into the tree above me. Scare the bajesus out of me, and while I don't remember and I'll never admit it anywhere but here, I'm sure I screamed like a little girl.
5 minutes later a second one tried to land in the same place. apparently they had found the web seat on the stand was a nice soft landing spot. I saw that one coming too and reacted accordingly. :scared: Let's just say it's a good thing I had a harness on. The second one tried to reverse engines in mid flight, and because he was a glider, well, let's just say it didn't work. It hit my bow and bounced off, ran up the tree and scolded me for 1/2 hour.
Never did see a deer that day..... :)
While bear hunting in the Adirondacks a friend of mine discovered a pile of bear scat as we were bushwacking to the top of a ridge together.He began to poke and prod it with a stick out of curiosity to see what the bears were feeding on.Never answering his own question we move on only to discover soiled TP on the opposite side of the log.All I could do besides laugh at him was think"Golly, Dese Here Bear Sho Is Sophisticated!"
Dang, Brent that was funny , man. I've been known to scream like a little girl on occasion.
I once saw a gray fox climbing trees. It appeared to just be fooling around like a youngster.It'd climb one then jump down and scramble over to another and zip up that one.
Pretty critter.
Rob's story reminding me of this. While hunting chukar on public land, a guy I know ran into some awfully big birds...
(http://www.hogsmack.com/random/Ostrich020.jpg)
He immediately called up NDOW and asked what he needs to do to get a tag. Sorry, they said, NDOW doesn't issue tags for them.
A friend of a friend of was hunting a farm with a few houses nearby. A young buck worked his way near his stand and he took the shot and missed. He kept taking shots and missing, the deer seemed unconcerned. When his quiver was empty, the deer was still unscathed and feeding under him. Shortly after he ran out of arrows a girl came out of the nearest farmhouse and yelled "FLUFFY" at which point the deer raised it's head and ran straight to the girl.
The guy said later he sure would have been sick if he had killed this girl's pet deer and was glad he wasn't much of a bow shot.
Instech.... that sounds like their way of trying to harass you (hunter)without the consequences. They are posing as hunters,so they can be out and about, but obviously are not. Seen that before.
ChuckC
I watched two squirrels one afternoon that were apperently in a domectic dispute.
One was gathering dry oak leaves and packing them to a knot hole as fast as he could. The other was in the hole and throwing them back out just as fast.
It cost me a shot at a deer later because I was ignoring the noise and a doe came past me at just a few yards. There I sat with my bow laying against a log.
Another time a friend and I were driving along on a Missori gravel road when we spot what appeared to be an Ostrich in a wheat field. Our comments at the time are not suitable to print here, but we drove on aways and spotted a whole pen full of them. We drove to the owners house and reported to him and his wife that we saw one of their birds wandering around loose.
It turned out that the bird was called a "Rea" and we drove them back to where we saw it. Of course it had wandered off by then. The man went looking for tracks, (he asked us to stay by the vehicle so as not to spook it).
My buddy, who had a twisted sense of humor, looks at the lady and say's "Lady, looks like you got gone-a-Rea now"!
Thankfully she also had a good sense of humor. :D
herk, thats a great story!! :clapper:
I was setting on the ground deer hunting one afternoon. I took my quiver and laid it on the ground beside me. A little while later a small hawk comes flying down and starts thrashing my arrows. After a few seconds he jumps up on a fallen limb next to me and just sets there looking at my arrows for a while. He had a puzzled look on his face.
while hunting for ground hogs one day my buddy and I stopped on a ridge line and ate lunch and glassed the other rim where some ground hogs had a burrow. About that time I noticed movement in the bottom and glassed to get a better look. I sure did it was two young beautys sunbathing in everything that the good lord gave them. After a while we whistled and they jumped up and reached for clothes they never knew that we where there. I was a kid then and thought wow!
I was hunting hogs in Texas many years ago. Early one morning I climbed a stand where I had sprinkled some piggy food. Not long after daylight I heard something moving through the thick stuff toward my position. To my surprise it wasn't a hog, but a......camel. That dude was wired. He caught a little of my scent as he walked beneath my tree and flew out of there. Later that day the landowner told me that one of the locals had released it to stomp on coyotes.
This has to be one of the best, funny threads ever! :)
Can I share an amazing tale of wildlife but it's not really "funny" in the ha-ha sense?
I'm in a tree stand' as many stories go. Below me and behind were several downed trees lyin on the ground... Chipmunks ran up and down them scurryin in the leaves and givin me fits all morning till I just stopped noticing.
About 10:30...I get this "sense" rather than hearing anything... so I very cautiously turn to find a redtail hawk perched on the fallen log closest behind my tree. He must've been watching the chipmunk antics.
He peers all around under the log, walking side step up and down the tree trunk... then, get this...he jumps down in the leaves and takes his big ole wing and stretches it all the way over the top of the log...and uses it to thrash the other side all the while peering intently under the log from his side...he moved up that entire log...with his wing over one side...tappin to run out a chipmunk!
He had no luck..and finally he got that queer look about him and turned his head up and saw me in full camo and face cover...and just flapped away.
One of those wonderous moments where "if only I had a camera" things... I don't know how that bird ever figured out that manuever, but I remain in amazement of that to this day. :)
I took a friend on his first ever bowhunt two years ago. We had spent the summer practicing and preparing his gear.
Opening weekend in Nebraska we are on a treeline that runs along a beanfield and then to a small pond. Our stands are about 50 yards apart. About 4:30 in the afternoon I see antlers above the tall grass and they are getting closer. It is the biggest bodied deer I have ever seen. He reaches the treeline and stops. The deer stays in the trees and checks out the area before proceeding. I have no shot but my friend does. The deer steps out and turns to walk away from me
I keep waiting for the arrow but one never shows. After the deer is gone I sneak over to my friend's spot and ask him why he did not shoot.
"Shoot what" he says. I went back to my stand in disbelief.
About 30 minutes before dark I see a big fat raccoon on a collision course with my buddy's spot. I kept quiet and watched. When the raccoon reached his hidey spot in the cedar tree they were both scared witless. I saw both run into trees trying to escape the other. My friend pays much better attention to his surroundings these days.
The funniest thing that has ever happened to me was just this past Saturday. Since it was just after the full moon, I decided to sleep in and head to the stand during midday.
I get to my tree just before 11:00 AM. I climb up and get settled in. The wind is blowing pretty hard, so I have to keep a steady lookout cause I sure ain't gonna hear em. At about 12:00, for some reason, I look over my left shoulder and see a guy about 35 yards away from me holding a compound at full draw. The first thing I'm thinking is "What the ....?" He's aiming in at what seems like the base of my tree. He eases the bow down and slowly takes cover behind a large oak tree.
I glance down to see what he might be trying to shoot. Then the light bulb comes on.......I had totally forgotten that I had set up my feeding doe decoy at the bottom of my tree. I just about fell out of the tree! I glance back up and the guy is still hiding behind the tree. I can tell that from where he is standing, he doesn't have a shot at anything but the hind quarters of the decoy. He stands behind the tree for a good 30-45 seconds. I realize that he is probably waiting for the deer to feed around a little bit and give him a shot at the chest. Slowly, he eases out from behind the tree with his bow up ready to draw. I wave my hand to get his attention. He finally sees me, waves back, puts his arrow back in his quiver, turns hit hat back around (he had it backwards so it wouldn't interfere with his bowstring), and continues down the dim road through the woods. He had spotted the decoy on his way to his stand and had pulled a beautiful stalk. Don't you know that had to be embarassing?!
I wish now that I had just watched the drama unfold. I would love to have seen the look on his face when his arrow zipped through that doe, and she never stopped feeding......
Tamure,
That picture brings back fond memories. A number of years back I was at the gun club, stump shooting one afternoon and I just happen to look over the corn field beside the club. Out in the field I see's this big head a bobbin up and down above the corn which was maybe 4ft high. I turned into hunter mode and started the stalk. At under 20yrds and between the corn rows I am confronted head on by this rather large EMU. Which I know for sure is tresspassing in that corn field. One arrow later and there is a good blood trail. Just then I hear one of my buddies drive up the lane and I go out to see him. I told him I had just made a great shot on the biggest gobbler I've ever seen. After him giving me $hit and telling me turkey season is closed I told him to go find it and I'll get the BBQ going and we'll have all the evidence cooked up for the rest of the guys in no time. Well he goes off on the blood trail and I hear him screamin when he comes upon that 60# gobbler. We carved it up and thew it on the BBQ it was great.
I have another. Do not know if it is real funny but we all got a laugh out of it. As a lot of you know I put on an annual bunny hunt and the proceeds go to the St. Judes Kids. We had about 30 Tradgangers pushing a piece for bunnies when we here someone yell a rabbit fell down an old well. well guys went over an started to try and fish it out, I forget who but they were lying on the ground reaching down in the well when another bunny comes running along and over their back and down the well. One more also met their demise there as well. We ended up using Little Joe's(Stoneknifes son) bow to fish them out. We actually killed 16 rabbits and everyone lauged when I said plus 3 committed suicide rather than face tghe wrath of the Tradgangs arrows.(over 150 shots taken) in two days. Shawn
Don't use a feather on your bow string for wind direction, or if you do, be careful. Hawks find them interesting enough to take a dive at. I got hit in the face with a wing as I opened up my eyes real wide at the bird as it dove at the feather. The heel of the bow was sitting on my toe so the tip was right in front of my face.
P.S. - same stand and weekend that BBassi was attacked by flying squirrels at. Thinking we have to move that stand..... Something smells like human... you know.
BobW
I was turkey huntin one spring and there was a longbeard a jake and a hen on a knoll in a clearing. Well this hawk started flying down out of a tree and would hit the jake and fly back up. He did it three times and on the fourth time I guess the longbeard had enough of it and he spurred the hawk and killed him. It was faster than a blink. I wish Id had a video.
Earlier this season, my son and I were putting our gear back in the car and getting ready to head home. We were talking and out of the corner of my eye, I saw this freaked out kamikaze pigeon zipping in straight towards his head.
It was one of those things that is so weird and unexpected, it's hard to know how to react. Anyway, the bird veered off at the last second, landed and started bebopping around all over the place. He lit on a pickup there and growled at us. I've never heard a bird do that before but it was cool. Anyway, here he is (note the tags on his legs)...
(http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff187/GingivitisKahn/too_brave_bird04_20070917_smaller.jpg)
About 3 years ago I was set up in a likely place for deer, walked in in the dark. About 10 am, things are going kind of slow when I hear something coming; wind is right. Eventually I see that it's a flock of turkeys (they can make a racket). But something is weird about the first turkey in the flock. Some kind of snakey neck? They all get closer and I put the binocs on them, and the snakey necked leader has a blue head and neck! Finally realize all these hens are being led by a female peacock.
My buddy and I went hunting together several years ago when PA had a separate doe season.It was really foggy,so foggy visibility was limited to about 10 yards.We went in on a trail at a field edge and split up.I went a little piece and sat down on this log because I couldn't find my stand in the fog.About 9a.m. the fog started to lift and I could just make out something sitting on the other end of the log.It turned out to be my buddy.He said he couldn't find his spot either.
I was hunting deer in KS a couple years ago. I climb a tree and set up my Loc-On windwalker in a good looking spot. Sitting there waiting for deer a whole herd of cows happen by the stand. I'm sitting there, disgusted, with about 20 cows walking around the base of my tree. Then one of the cows steps on my pull rope, that I have tied to my stand hanging down and laying on the ground. This may be interesting I'm thinking when another cow walks by and gets tangled in the rope walking away from the tree. That cow ends up stretching the rope and pulls the stand away from the tree. There I am with my safety on hugging the tree until the rope goes slack and the stand settles back. Just had to stand there and laugh to myself. Did,'t see any deer there either.
Seen Irish one day in TX with shirt and shoes off soaking in a water trough. Not sure if that was funny or scary.
WOW!!!! that was a good one 77!!
i bet alot of us have a funny story about when nature calls when were in the woods! my buddy was bear huntin one day in vermont and he just couldnt hold it any more, so he whipped down his bibs and went! the problem was he was so concerned about what was behind him that he forgot to pay attention to what was in front of him, and peed all over his bibs!! :scared:
so there he goes runnin down through the woods sheddin cloths like a swimsuit model was down there waitin for him! :scared:
in his haste to find a suitable spot to go, he neglected to look around for anyone hunting! there was a guy sitting 15 yds away! can you imagine what that gut wittnessed that day! that must have been horrible!
BUT FUNNY AS HELL!!!
My cousin and I had finished quail hunting and were walking back across my grandparents pasture when his Brittany comes running up to him and spit out a live squirrel. The tree rat takes off climbing the nearest 'tree' available which was my cousin's leg. I was really wishing I'd brought my video camera that day.
Dennis
A couple years after I started bowhunting, my brother and I are on this ridgetop just kind of relaxing mid day. I have a little fold up stool but was lounging in the leaves. All of a sudden, we hear a deer coming. I look at the buck as he tops the ridge and passes 20 yards away. I reached to grab my bow and would have shot him too if I hadn't grabbed the folding stool instead. He laughed as he walked away :)
Hunting one time in KY I had a doe bed about 40 yards away. As I watched her, she started sneezing. She must have sneezed 200 times. I felt so bad for her I wanted to jump down and give her a Claritin or something.
Again in KY, hunting on the ground, I hear a couple deer running right to me. They were being chased by a dog. The little 4 pointer passes me at 1000 MPH follwed by the doe. The buck jumps a fence and the doe tries it too but smacks her head on an overhanging osage branch, knocking her cold. The dog runs by me and just kinda stares at this doe until she regains consciousnees, stands up, shakes her head like she was sayin' "Dang, that hurt" and commenced to running. The dog was courteous enough to wait on her before resuming the fun. I think they were buddies. Can you imagine them laughing later over a beer as they recall that one :)
When I was fresh out of college I took a job working at an electronics factory, as a technician. Being the low man on the totem pole I was elected to work the opening weekend of duck season. That didn't make me very happy, but I needed the OT to make ends meet.
Late in the afternoon, I was working by myself in the back lot of the plant. At the edge of the parking lot was a large field with a pond on the far side. I could hear some ducks coming in toward the field from over the top of the building. Just to satisfy my need to go hunting, I put my arms up like I was holding my shotgun and led the lead mallard until he was in range, then I said, "Bang". Much to my surprise, that duck immediately flipped end over end and augered into the field.
Not believing what I just saw, I looked back and saw the power line swinging back and forth. That duck must have hit that line at about 40 mph. I got my first duck of the season without firing a shot.
And for just a second I had thought I'd developed an intense psychic ability.
A couple of summers ago I was hiking in the woods after a big time wind storm. I was mainly out to see if any of the trees that I place stands in each fall had been taken down by the storm. Only 1 was hurt and it was a big ole triple trunk ash tree. One of the trunks had peeled down like a banana skin and the other 2 trunks of the tree were okay. As I walked around the tree to survey the damage, here was a red fox laying dead, crushed by the trunk that had been blown over.
Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I have seen lots of weird things done bu animals in the bush and this is one of the things that make it so much fun but this is one of the strangest things I have found miles from anywhere.It was a chess set that the rain had uncovered.You never know what you might find.
Cheers KIM
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/kimall/P1020544_edited.jpg)