The strangest critter you've ever killed?

NBK · February 07, 2013, 04:58:00 PM

QuoteOriginally posted by NBK:
Couple of summers ago I was in the backyard when I heard my neighbor screaming my name. I ran to her front yard where she is struggling to restrain her large labrador from the mangiest coon you'd ever seen. Stick thin, bald in places and milky white eyes, just standing in her driveway at about 10 yards "looking" at us.
"It doesn't look right," she said, "should we call the police?"
"Nah, let's not waste their time," I replied, "I'll be right back".
A minute later with my longbow and one Snuffer tipped arrow I found the coon now standing in the street. Another female neighbor had heard the shouts and came over so now I had the opportunity to save the day infront of two witnesses.
I nocked the arrow and walked to within 10 yards of the coon, positioning myself so that the inevitable "passthough" would go harmlessly into the far woods. As I drew I reminded myself to still pick a spot even though this was the archery equivalent of fish in a barrel. Years of practice and thousands of arrows resulted in a clean miss of such a wide margin that my neighbor actually started to laugh a bit.
With shattered ego I retrieved my arrow, nocked the dirt off the broadhead, and did the only thing I thought made any sense... I walked up closer.
Perfect shot.

That's the strangest animal I've ever taken with my bow, and also the one story that keeps getting repeated at the neighborhood block parties.

Bowhunter4life · February 07, 2013, 04:58:00 PM

Might be the same critter that is in your's mouth Izzy... best I can recon it is a vole... have actually taken a couple of them and missed even more... Was when we lived in Oklahoma, infested at the back part of our property next to the woodline...

Izzy · February 07, 2013, 04:59:00 PM

Funny stuff fellas. I like that duiker, what a nice mount.

Izzy · February 07, 2013, 05:03:00 PM

Dang Jeff, they look like straight up Oklahoma rats to me. Them, cockroaches and ticks are the only critters that really give me the heebie jeebies. Too many Bronx memories I guess. I would'nt mind shooting some though, long as I was using someone else's arrow.

Safari Scott · February 07, 2013, 05:04:00 PM

Haha love the racoon story.

centaur · February 07, 2013, 05:06:00 PM

As long as we are showing rodents...We used to spend afternoons while elk hunting on the Great Mouse Hunt.

Ron LaClair · February 07, 2013, 05:10:00 PM

Not the strangest animal but the strangest circumstances.

Awhile back several of us were sitting in my Brother in laws hunting cabin when a mouse came running along the top of the wall. My strung bow was within reach so I grabbed an arrow from my quiver and swung on the running mouse. I was really concentrating on the mouse and was oblivious to the framed picture which I barley missed....but I centered the mouse. My Brother in law talks about that shot to this day.

wetfeathers · February 07, 2013, 05:16:00 PM

Ron LaClair, Awesome shot! Great story too.

Kapellmeister · February 07, 2013, 06:03:00 PM

Good thread! The only "strange" thing about an animal I've killed was a gobbler that had an 11" beard but no spurs - not even bumps. He did have an extra tail feather though (19 instead of the usual 18).

Hey Ron... is that a current picture of the mouse (did ya have it mounted like that)?

Biggamefish · February 07, 2013, 06:14:00 PM

Wet feathers I saw a blue frog once but I have to say it was on golf course and I think some of the chemicals might have produced it.lol Cool pic

4est trekker · February 07, 2013, 06:20:00 PM

I like shooting dragonflies with blunts. It's a hoot and a half.

wetfeathers · February 07, 2013, 06:24:00 PM

4est trekker, that's a great idea! You're gonna cost me some arrows this year!

Dendy Cromer · February 07, 2013, 07:53:00 PM

Where's RC? He drilled a teeny tiny mouse a few years back. maybe He's still got that pic.

Guru · February 07, 2013, 08:02:00 PM

Hmmmm...I gotta think about this one for a while :confused:

Trumpkin the Dwarf · February 07, 2013, 08:07:00 PM

Well...

Two years ago while hunting elk I saw a little pine squirrel on a log eating a pine cone. Being the genius that I am, I thought I should at least practice hitting full draw on a live critter.(At the time target panic was plaguing me).

I got to full draw with a random aluminum that I carried for grouse, and suddenly the arrow was on its way. Except, I had aimed low for reasons which now escape me.

The shot was perfect, and the poor squirrel dern near died of a heart attack as its lunch got plucked right out of its paws by my arrow!

ermont · February 07, 2013, 08:14:00 PM

Coaster, that is one cool mount. I shot a Duiker a few years ago but I only did a shoulder mount. So you know how small that is!

TRAP · February 07, 2013, 08:18:00 PM

No pictures, but I shot a Bullfrog once with a baby wood duck in his mouth.

Yours looks like a very unlucky Prairie Vole to me.

Trap

cahaba · February 07, 2013, 10:33:00 PM

I walked up on a big ol cottonmouth that had a big bream in his mouth. It's not really strange. It's perfectly natural. But watching snakes swallowing stuff gives me the heeby jeebies.

February 07, 2013, 10:51:00 PM

I think the strangest one for me would be the "Fishhook Doe". I had a doe that kept coming to a particular stand. She had some kind of string hanging from her mouth. I saw her several times and thought the string was just a piece of baling twine or something like that caught in her teeth. I finally got a shot at her one day. When I tracked her and found her I was stunned. The string was a 4' piece of 40-50# monofilament fishing line. It was not caught in her teeth. There was a big fish hook on the end of the line which was hooked inside her mouth just like it would have been in a fish. It was wild. I still can't figure out how she got into that one. like that.

Bisch

D · February 07, 2013, 11:12:00 PM

I have shot a chipmonk. Thats about the smallest thing I've managed to hit. Also my dad ran over a timber rattler at work and he brought it to me and I skinned it out and it had a half digested squirrel inside it. It was like a cut away out of a science book. The nose was mush then the skull then the muscle layers got thicker to the belly where the skin started then the hair. It was interesting to see how the digestion broke it down like that.