Brother had an owl snatch his hat from behind two seasons ago. He had a talon scratches on his temple. To this day he's scared to death when he sees one.

A buddy of mine's Dad had to get 6 stitches afyter getting hit in the head by a Redtail hawk...seems it was attracted to the little fuzzy top knot on the man's knit cap (LOL)!!!!
I've had a owl to buzz me...a solid black fox squirel to climb my arm....several chickadee's to land on my arrow at differnt occasions....had a young coon to climb my ladder stand with me in it , but the best one was a black bear scratching herself on the tree i was sitting in....that rank's right up there with the wasp nest i ran into while climbig into the same stand, different day.
I abandoned that stand after that....bad mojo.

Over the years...I have had a few..

A pine snake coming up the tree I was in...

A doe wondering about that strange bush next to a big tree while sitting in my ghille suit... Stompin her way to 3 yds...

A pair of bald eagles trying to home in on the hen as I was tring to call in a gobler...

A bobcat easing through the pines coming to about 5yds staring at me in my ghillie suit while leaning on my tree seat...

meeting a doe in the dark while trying to sneak under a roosting tree about an hr before first light as this fella had me fuzzled for weeks...

Had a coopers hawk bouncing to limbs within 5 yds trying to figger how that bush got up into the tree...

This year, I had another hunter ( a buddy bout 200 yds down the same hard wood bottom, stand and stretch) get busted and a momma and her two yearling came right towards me and I could've stuck out a hand and hit her as she came bounding bye...

Had a buddy get schat upon by a big ole coon while in his climber...

I have seen so much more by wearing a ghillie suit and hunting on the ground the past few years, than many of the years before that...

 

1. Not a tree stand, but I had a bobcat come up onto a low stone wall that I was sitting against in the predawn darkness.  The wind was from him to me, and I had been trying my hardest to be still while I waited for the opening of turkey season.  I didn't know the cat was coming.  I first heard him when he landed on the wall about four or five feet from me.  He discovered me very quickly and flung himself off the wall in shock and horror at finding me there.

2. Not a tree stand, but I had a deer run across my chest while I laid in very tall grass waiting for a SAR dog to come find me on a training problem.  I heard the dog coming and at the last instant realized that it was two deer, not a dog, coming hellbent for election. I flung an arm up to protect my throat and face; one of the deer stepped on my arm as it crossed over me.

I was hunting in Colorado several years ago. A pond dam had broken and beavers had patched the dam but there was a big hole below their patch. I was sitting in the hole using it as a ground blind. A weasel would pop out of the patch and stand inches from my feet and stare up at me. After popping in and out of his cover several times, he jumped on my boot and stared up again. I thought it was cute till he decided to go up the inside of my britches legg. I grabbed my legg and stopped him just at my knee. Luckily he exited the same way and went back in the beaver dam.

a hen turkey landed on the limb behind me. Damn!

I remember your post with the squirrel Kathy, that's pretty cool.

Dennis

When my oldest, Matthew, was 8, I took him with me on a turkey hunt.  I set him up next to a valley oak about 10 yards away from my tree.  It was a warm day, and he promptly fell asleep, rolling over on his side.  No turkeys responded to the calls, but soon a blacktail doe, trailed by a fawn, came up from down-wind.  She walked up to the boy, sniffed his face, stepped back, then came forward and sniffed again.  It disturbed him enough that he brushed his hand across his face, popping her on the nose.  She jumped back about 20 feet in one hop, blew, then ran off blowing repeatedly with the fawn following, but hanging back and looking curiously back at the scene of the farce.  I had been sitting still during the events, but eventually laughter took over.  Matthew slept through the whole thing, and even when I showed him the tracks, would not admit that he had been that unconscious.

Once about ten years ago, I was on an all day sit
at the peak of the rut. I was on a saddle in some open hardwoods, with a rubline running right down the runway I was guarding.

To my surprise, I watch as a giant Beaver comes along, dragging a fresh cut popple branch down my deer run.

I KNEW that area very well, and he had a LONG way to go before he got back to his pond, or ANY pond to store that branch for a winter snack.

I think he was newly divorced, and was starting over, carrying all the judge left him.

Well, letsee here... Almost got hit in the face with an owl on a couple of occasions, but they were just cruising through. Had a squirrel come right up next to my head, then notice I was there, bark at me, swap ends and run. Several woodpeckers... then there was the fawn that stuck her head in my ground blind and licked the fletching on my arrows and sniffed at my quiver for awhile.

I remember one afternoon in Colorado, I was leaning up against an Aspen tree watching a deer trail about 20 yard up the mountain when all of the sudden I hear rustling leaves to my right about 20 yards off...I drew my bow slowly and found what was making the noise., a big greyish bobcat had been bedded down in an huge pile of leaves taking a nap...As he was stretching, I eased my bow down(not sure of the regs on bobcats),I watched him and then he moved right towards me! He was about 3 feet from me when he decided to move down the mountain, he was just ambling along until he caught my scent downwind ...then he was outta there...It was upclose and personal for a litle while...never forget it...

It was about 10 degrees and the wind was blowing 25 to 30 pmh while climbing into a blind made of wooden legs with straw bales around it to get away from the cutting wind.  I was about to sit down when through my thick hat and the wind i heard a loud hissing noise.  Pitch black dark and stuck in a 3x3 area with a 10 pound possum.  It took a stick and a little coaxing but he wasn't getting the blind over me.

Got in a stand my dad and I had set up in a swamp well before daylight one morning.  I think I was 13 or 14, anyways it still wasn't quite light enough to see when I hear a the most god awful racket directly above me.  I've never been more scared than that morning that a turkey decided to roost in the tree my stand was located on.  My favorite hunting memory though stems from a hunt involving my dad, brother, and I.  One of the few we all three went on.  We were set up on a power line about 250 yards away from each other.  Across from my stand on the other side of the power line and in the top of a dead tree is a red-tail hawk.  Behind me, is a group of squirrels oblivious to this predator and making a whole bunch of racket.  Well after about 10 minutes the hawk takes off and flies North and gains altitude.  It comes screaming back and I've got a front row seat to nature's dive bomber.  He nails a squirrel and takes off down the power line towards my little brother and dad.  I'm sitting there going back over the whole thing when I notice the hawk coming back over the top of the hill to my south.  My stand was on top of another hill so while the hawk was 20-30 feet off the ground in the valley, he was dead on eye level with me in the top of my stand.  I'm getting pretty nervous as he gets closer and closer with no change in altitude and I had no idea what to do if he flew into the stand with me.  But my fears were unfounded because as he closed to within 5 feet of the stand he suddenly veered up, over, and back down the other side and continued on his way.  Man talk about an adrenaline rush.  WOW!  I don't think I will ever experience something so cool again.

Last year I had a small hawk mistake my eye movement for some thing else. I saw it swoop across in front of me, then it disappeared.  Suddenly I'm looking into 2 big yellow eyes with a pair of talons only inches from my face. I ducked my head just in time as the hawk also realized the error and bounced off my head, fluttered around me and flew off. It was easy to laugh after the fact, but I almost lost my eyes.

I was sleeping on the mountainside in CO mid-day and had a very large sow and 2 cubs wake us up, ending up 5 yds or so away...luckily she ran

A fisher let me get within a few feet to check him out. Never saw a human??

Got charged by a 6 pt after I missed him, shot him the second time at 7 yds w/ longbow and scored 93 P&Y. Good old 6 pt. Only deer I have had scored.

Shot a carp out of a creek while deer hunting and had a fox respond to the water thrashing, couldn't get a shot.

A box turtle came from out of sight right up to my boots while turkey hunting, turned and left. What a slow critter. Damn near ran me over!

Just heard a story yesteryday about a guy that switched stands midday on opening day of bear season in PA.  He got to his stand, and there were three levels for him to climb up.  When he got to the second level he heard something wierd, but kept going.  when he opened the door to his tree stand a bear paw came swatting at him.  He fell back and took a shot right through the bottom of the treestand.  The bear then climbed out a window and fell to its death.  At least it was bear season when he found a bear in his stand!

I too have had similar encounters with small critters and raptors from the air.  But the wildest thing i ever was allowed to experience was while i was hunting a private piece near Duluth, i watched a young doe and buck work their way out in front of me.  The small buck walked within 5 yards of me but i was waiting for the doe to follow so i could put a little meat in the freezer.  After five to ten min. she failed to pass by, however i spotted a brush wolf working the area where i last saw her.  As soon as the brush wolf stepped off the trail there was an explosion of movement.  It only took a few moments to relize there were four brush wolves and they had jumped my doe.  They caught her less than 30 yards from my stand and did what God created them to do.  It had went to dark when i relized i had to climb down as they ate just to my left.  That was the quickest exit to my truck ever.  WOW!
What a wonderful outdoors we get to experience.

Do rattle snakes count? I've had a couple of close encounters. I swear, when I hear that rattle the hair on the back of my neck... well you get the picture.

The usual squirrel about scare me out of the tree running down past me.  Once had a Owl land a few trees over trying to decide what I was. That Owl did a 6" "fly by" of my head...

The best was last May when a 250 pound black bear climbed up to take a look at me.. Scary!! We had a stand off at a distance of two feet. I did pull the mace but "talked" the bear down. What a day in Alberta!!!

John III