had a grouse brush the back of my head while he walked down a blow down i was leaning against.  had a doe nearly touch my knee with her nose, but she smelled something she didnt like inches from me.  for some reason when animals get that close i want to laugh so hard.  great stuff

QuoteOriginally posted by dougers:
had a grouse brush the back of my head while he walked down a blow down i was leaning against.  had a doe nearly touch my knee with her nose, but she smelled something she didnt like inches from me.  for some reason when animals get that close i want to laugh so hard.  great stuff

Ay, tis the magic moments we've all had. Be it a chickadee landing upon our arrow shaft, or watching a vanguard of blackbirds heading southwest above our hidden treestand. Counting coup? How blessed we are that they have touched  us .

A grouse landing upon a log, two metres from your thigh; you quiver inside and keen for her next cluck, knowing it shall come. A mere chirp she speaks, and inside you grin, counting your luck.

It does not get better than this.

I was walking by an old barn in a grown up field road and thought I stepped in a pile of dog doo, soft and squishy. I took one more step and looked back. It wasn't dog doo but a very large copperhead I had stepped on. It was coiled up and had let me pass without biting me. I don't know who counted coup on who that day.

Elk hunting Colorado and came to a small park. Watched a young coyote mouse for a bit and decided not to shoot him. He kept mousing closer and I had the wind. While he was keyed in on the field mouse he just pounced on, I slipped up behind him and tapped him on the rump with my bow. He jumped 10 feet high and yelped. Scared both of us! The best memory ever. He ran off wimpering with his gut low and tail tucked. I'll never forget that!

I have slapped a doe on the hind end on a deer drive in WI. I was behind a balsam on a trail and I could see her running down the trail and just slapped her as she was running by. I also poked a cow  elk in the but when five cow elk walked by the large ponderosa pine I was standing next too.

one time in western north dakota on an unusually cold november day, the chickedees were extremely active. At one point I had 10 birds land on my head, arms and shoulders. I had my bow laying accross my lap with an arrow on the string. A chickedee landed and sat on my broadhead!

Wow.....I am in a hotel room in a country foreign to me, just busting to go outside and sit for a while. Except, just not too thrilled about pigeons walking all over me.
Can't wait to go home.
Can't wait till spring.
ChuckC

While pig hunting I stepped between two trees and heard something trotting my way.  Hoping for a pig, a doe came walking in, turned my direction and passed to my right between me the tree I could touch.  Like others, I thought about patting her on the rump, but thought I'd get the snot kicked out of me.  She got about 5 steps passed me when she winded me and turned inside out!

Dressed in a ghille suit squatting against a tree along a river, I squeaked this fox in. He showed up within 10 seconds to my surprise. Lens cap was still on as he closed to 10 paces and sat down. I dropped the lens cap and the fox focused on it. Took the photo an instant before the fox got up to close in on the lens cap. Unfortunately, I was also out of film.
Sitting inside a corn field dressed in my ghille, a fox comes out of the woods and heads straight for me. He close to within 2 paces and without blinking he simply walked around me and went casually on his way. Guess his nose was on vacation. [/url] [/IMG]

At 5:00 am when you are quiely walking to your stand, and a skunk is walking next to you, and just sorta stays with you, like "hey, its just us critters headin' along the trail"... and the skunk just naturally crosses your path a couple of times..

do NOT nudge it with your toe to see if it'll freak out.

Just... don't... OK?

Dressed in total camo rainsuit, searching for a wounded buck, in a thunderstorm, looking toward the direction of my friend to signal we needed to get out of the trees...really bad storm.  I see a bobcat at a dead run heading straight for me. He jumped in a shallow ditch about six feet in front of me, then peeped up over the edge of the ditch to check his backtrail.  I gave him a pretty good physical as I was afraid at first he was attacking me. When satisfied he wasn't being followed, he shook himself off and in one motion jumped to land at my feet.  Nose to ankle distance 6 inches.  OK now he's really got my attention, and I'm sighting down beside my 7mm mag. at the top of his head, thinking if he attacks I've got to try to kill him in case he's rabid.  I'm also thinking uh oh! this is going to hurt (the concussion).  The stand off ended as soon as the cat's puzzled face looked up the lenght of the "tree" which had suddenly jumped into his escape path and saw my face!  He hit the same tree three times trying to go around it, screaming like a banshie.  He finally richoched off and turned on the afterburners. I'd give a lot to have that on film. pine nut

Dressed in total camo rainsuit, searching for a wounded buck, in a thunderstorm, looking toward the direction of my friend to signal we needed to get out of the trees...really bad storm.  I see a bobcat at a dead run heading straight for me. He jumped in a shallow ditch about six feet in front of me, then peeped up over the edge of the ditch to check his backtrail.  I gave him a pretty good physical as I was afraid at first he was attacking me. When satisfied he wasn't being followed, he shook himself off and in one motion jumped to land at my feet.  Nose to ankle distance 6 inches.  OK now he's really got my attention, and I'm sighting down beside my 7mm mag. at the top of his head, thinking if he attacks I've got to try to kill him in case he's rabid.  I'm also thinking uh oh! this is going to hurt (the concussion).  The stand off ended as soon as the cat's puzzled face looked up the lenght of the "tree" which had suddenly jumped into his escape path and saw my face!  He hit the same tree three times trying to go around it, screaming like a banshie.  He finally richoched off and turned on the afterburners. I'd give a lot to have that on film. pine nut

Had a doe walk into a thicket with me this year, and she didn't know I was htere till I put my right hand on her side. She bolted out to about 20ft away and then looked back with an expression like "What the %$#% was that, then trotted off. Almost gave another hunter a heartattach that same day. He didn't see me and walked right by. Then I spoke to him, and he just hung his head.

Had an owl attempt to count coupe on me.  I was sitting on a dove stool, leaning on a tree, bow hunting, with a rabbit fur hat on.  This owl comes from no where and tries to take it off my head.  I had to clean my draws!

Wow! Here's an example of why I love going back in old threads. This one was one I don't remember reading before and it was highly entertaining.

I was reminded of being out turkey hunting with a friend when I had a woodcock hen and two little ones walk across my legs. If you've never watched these cool little birds, you've missed a real treat. I swear they never stop moving even when standing in one spot.

Anyway as the two little ones were crossing over my legs I picked up one of them. Of course the mama went nutzso and pulled all kinds of acts trying to lure me away from her chicks.

I got up and walked over to where my friend was sitting not far away thinking he had his camera and could get a picture of my catch and release hunt of woodcock. He told me it was in his pack that he'd left in the truck so I went back to my spot, sat back down and released the little one. I got to watch as mama herded both of her babies down the hill and to safety.

A couple of minutes later my friend shows up camera in hand ready to take a picture. He says he happened to do a search for his mid-morning snack and found he had left his snack in the pack back in the truck but had the camera with him...lol

Go figure....lol

God bless,Mudd

How about  a doe counting coup on a hunter. One of the guys in our camp fell asleep on his ground stand. a curious doe snuck up behind him and when she realized what he was, she snorted. He came back to camp with deer snot on his back what amazed us more than this happening, is that  he told us about it. We still razz him about it, 20 years later.

I've had alot encounters with animals and birds while being out doors.Deer,shunks,squirrels and coons.
The one that stands out the most.While turkey hunting one evening had a decoy set out.Heard something coming from behind me thought it was just a coon.Few seconds later could see something crawling up beside me like it was stalking my decoy.Looked down very slow to my surprise it was a bobcat.When he went to cross my leg he realized that it was not log.He nearly jumped out his skin.He ran about ten feet stopped and set there and watched me and then look at the decoy for about 5 mins. before leaving.

I was playing ball with my grandsons and I was the pitcher.  Nick the batter got wide eyed and yelled "Ben, look out!"  I turned around and a doe was charging across the lawn heading right for Ben in the outfield.  I ran to put my body between the doe and him and the doe turned off at the last second and ran into the woods.  It never hit us but scared the crap out of me.

I have gotten close to several different animals.  Including turkeys, deer, and I seem to get within less than 5 yards to squirrels all the time.  But then you cant move and shoot at them!  

Dad has brought back deer fur before.  Says he took it from the back leg of a small buck?  He told me that he almost got kicked when he pulled it off.  And this last season he had a little piney squirrel use his shoulders as a runway.  Kinda freaked him out a bit

I have easily done this with armadillos for some reason. They can't deal with camo at all and are slow to start with, but man are they attracted to me. At least 3 times armadillos have come right across me while hunting in full camo as if I wasn't there. Squirrels have a thing for me while I'm sitting in a treestand in full camo too. This year while in a ground blind I had quail, and mice scampering across my feet practically every morning. That was cool.

The best coup was a "reach out and touch someone situation" as I called it. I was hunting a Central Texas lease belonging to my Dad's buddy. I learned to hunt there pretty much, starting when I was about 12-13 back in the early/mid 80s. I wanted a big buck, after shooting two average ones, the fever had me and I was ready to be selective. Of course I saw nothing on this trip, the weather was too warm, etc. and it's my final morning to hunt, and they put me in some POS ground box blind, so I was a bit po'd. I'm in the stand 3 minutes and a buch of cows show up! I didn't want those cows to spoil my hunt and waited them out. All but 2-3 moved on. I tried everything I could to get them to move without getting out of the blind and spooking the area. Finally I couldn't take it anymore.

I stepped out, picked up a rock, and chunked it in a Hail Mary, very high arc towards the cows and the feeder. It was a good 50 yds away at least. The rock smacked the lead cow DIRECTLY DEAD CENTER BETWEEN THE EYES. They hauled ass 'outta there and I coincidentally shot the biggest whitetail I have seen at that place maybe an hour later.

Coup counted.