The most dangerous animal on public land

SIontheHunt

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jun 16, 2020
Messages
102
I was hunting antelope in a walk in area in Wyoming with a buddy. We had spotted a group of lopes in an opening near a fence line. As we planned our stalk we found a washed out gully that would keep us out of sight until we got to 400 ish yards. A perfect situation. As we slipped along this gully we spitted a group of cows above the gully on our right side. Well.. we thought they were all cows. Anyways, we made eye contact with the cows and everything seemed fine, they stared at us bug eyed as cows do, but unlike all the other cows we had encountered this trip they did not move away. We did not pay much attention to them until we were about 25 yards beside them. Then I hear my buddy, in a loud somewhat panicked whisper, say "hey man, those cows are coming towards us", I responded with some choice expletives and said "that one in front is a bull". As most of you know, Angus bulls do not have horns it is another part of their anatomy that tipped me off. Their pace quickened to a trot as they came into the gully we were exiting on the other side. We backpedaled out of the gully, across a flat, toward a hill. Shouting and waving our hands did nothing to stop their advances. The bull in front was now 15 yards away. Instinctively I fired a .308 round just a few feet in front of the lead bull's hooves. He stopped for a second bewildered before continuing his approach somewhat more cautiously. We turned our quick walking pace into a full run and beelined it to the nearest fence. After we reached the safety of the other side of the fence we looked back to see the bull cresting the hill with the rest of the herd several yards behind.

Once in the truck, a quick google search revealed that cows kill abut 22 people a year. A sobering statistic about an animal we regard as somewhat innocuous compared to all the other hazards we face in the woods.

Has anyone else had this happen to them? Do you think we overreacted?
 
Joined
Mar 26, 2017
Messages
720
Location
NM
Had a moocow bull come in to a distress call on a fox pro when hunting coyotes. We heard him moaning as he walked up the canyon to it. He was pissed off, foaming mouth and shaking his head. My buddy was on one side and I the other.
Ranged the bull and got ready to send an arrow into it when it turned towards my friend. Buddy trusted his camo for a bit then switched the foxpro to a lion sound. Gave him enough time to bail up the ridge.

Genuinely thought my buddy was going to get gored. Just hoped a slick trick would bleed the bull out fast enough if it did go at him, or make him turn off when it hit.

Sketchy animals. No fear of us. We walked past the bull when we hiked into the spot. He looked irate to begin with, so we gave him a wide berth. I've had a few encounters like this with public grazing cattle. No issues with private land herds.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Dec 27, 2012
Messages
4,807
Location
Colorado
There’s a ton of cattle on the public ground I hunt during the early seasons. They are rarely happy to see humans. I’ve been chased on several occasional and alway get mean mugged by them.
 
Joined
Aug 7, 2017
Messages
349
Location
Colorado
Cruising timber in the Book Cliffs, 1999, we had seen lots of bear during the day. Late that evening, after we had gone to bed, the entire wall tent started shaking and moving. As we grabbed our handguns and lights certain a bear was making his way inside, we found a young steer had caught his hoof in the taughtline hitch for the stakes on one side of the tent. Steer was NOT a happy camper, probably severe PTSD from the last time he was hoof-roped in a corral.

Luckily (?!?) we had taken in some liquid courage earlier that evening and dropped the guns and in channeling our inner cowboy began a steer wrestling campaign before the steer ripped out the entire tent and brought it down on the wood stove trying to prevent a real calamity. Ended up cutting the rope after it was apparent we did not have enough steer wrestling juice in us.

In the Roadless area of the Books, rogue wild bulls would usually run from our horses but if surprised in the willows would often charge the horses!

Lots of interesting tales of stock encounters in the woods. But the worst experience had to be getting in the middle of a flock of sheep on the La Sals on my motorcycle and upsetting the Great Pyrenees that were guarding the flock. Absolutely the worst time in the world to miss a gear on the Honda 250 enduro. Damned near had to replace the seat after the grip my rear had on it trying to pedal faster and get away from the puppies trying to chomp on my heels!
 
OP
SIontheHunt

SIontheHunt

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jun 16, 2020
Messages
102
@SlontheHunt just curious do you spend much time around stock?
barely any. My aunt has a couple cabannina (very small strain of italian cow) and a couple horses. But its a small farm and the animals act like pets.
 
Joined
Jul 30, 2015
Messages
5,614
Location
Lenexa, KS
barely any. My aunt has a couple cabannina (very small strain of italian cow) and a couple horses. But its a small farm and the animals act like pets.

Cool. I ask because, I've had a lot of experiences with cows and some bulls. Hundreds, thousands maybe. They can indeed be curious. They are certainly unpredictable. They never go where you want them to go. I can maybe only recall one "aggressive" incident in my life. Cows that are too curious can usually be charged and that'll scare them and they'll run. Sometimes they'll just keep following you because they think you're going to feed them. Just depends. I've tried to touch or pet multiple and I can never get close enough. It's a bucket list item of mine to slap a bull in the nose but I've been too chicken sh*t to try it so far.

I think, more than likely, firing the rifle was unnecessary, but of course it's tough to tell. Cows can ruin a hunt, that's for sure. Glad you didn't end up a statistic!
 

st59

FNG
Joined
Aug 15, 2020
Messages
24
We’ve got this piece of public ground around here that’s got some longhorns on it... they will chase you off. Never been scared of cattle until I can across these guys
 
Joined
Mar 30, 2017
Messages
628
Location
Kansas
I've lived all of my life in Western Kansas and the state has a population of around 6.5 million cattle and only 2.9 million people, with about half of that population of people in 4 of the 105 counties. We are outnumbered! I'm around cattle every day and as said above they are at times unpredictable. They are curious and will follow you out of curiosity, or if they think they will get fed. I've had them lick my truck when parking it in a pasture for a few hours. Most of the time if you try to make yourself look big by waving your arms and shouting they will get out of your way, even if only 10-15 yards. Most bulls will do the same, but not all. A cow with a calf will be protective just like any other animal. It's good that you were in the daylight and not in the dark!
 

TomJoad

WKR
Joined
Jul 13, 2020
Messages
407
Location
CO
I had one experience on private land in eastern CO hunting deer... I was getting settled into my spot at the edge of a field about an hour before shooting hours overlooking a nice section of the S Platte. I may have dosed off but when I woke up we were right at shooting hours and about 20 head of cattle had surrounded me and were skyline giving away my position. They were in a perfect semi circle all facing directly at me. It was basically like having a neon sign pointing "threat here, avoid this area" to all deer below. I just stood up and walked through them but they definitely blew my cover that morning! 😂
 

FLAK

WKR
Joined
Jan 22, 2014
Messages
2,287
Location
Gulf Coast
I dont trust 'em for sure. Even when we had our own cattle.
Esp. feral, out on the range cattle.
One flick of their head will take you out.

Once one of our neighbors had a 3wk or so old get out and into our pasture. I was eventually able to sneak up on it and grab it/ pick it up to get it back to their pasture. Dang thing like to have killed me. Went to bawling and throwing his head ,chipped one of my teeth and beat the crap out of my legs kicking. Never again.
 

30338

WKR
Joined
Jun 2, 2013
Messages
1,863
Have had two buddies who are long time cattle guys stomped the last 2 years. One angus steer cracked the guys ribs and he got lucky enough to climb on his truck to escape. The other had a momma cow grind him into relatively soft ground inside a corral. She decided not to kill him after stomping his head and shoulders for a bit. Otherwise he would not have escaped.

As a youngster I got treed by an angus bull. Have had other close calls in various states hunting around them. I for sure keep an eye on them when I am in a situation where they are present.

Huntsman on here has a rather violent steer roaming around too. Some close calls there apparently.
 

jmez

WKR
Joined
Jun 12, 2012
Messages
7,404
Location
Piedmont, SD
Pretty normal reaction for cows in a pasture. If they spot you they most often will come over for a look. Generally running to get there. Would be very rare, even with a bull, for one to actually harm you in a pasture.

Sent from my moto g power using Tapatalk
 

hobbes

WKR
Joined
Jun 6, 2012
Messages
2,409
Running from them typically provokes the chase. I learned that as a kid with my grandfather's cattle. I did the run from them thing once or twice, but learned that's asking for the chase. In most cases, walking toward them would have turned them. Throw in an arm wave or two and a loud voice and they are running the other direction. I try to just turn them and not actually run a man's cattle.
 

Tick

WKR
Joined
Jun 2, 2017
Messages
322
They were just curious to check out something new in their pasture. When a bovine really wants to get you there is no doubt of its intent. Wild cattle will run off like deer and try to kill you when you catch them.
 

stonewall

WKR
Joined
Jul 29, 2016
Messages
715
Location
TX - Texas
Had a moocow bull come in to a distress call on a fox pro when hunting coyotes. We heard him moaning as he walked up the canyon to it. He was pissed off, foaming mouth and shaking his head. My buddy was on one side and I the other.
Ranged the bull and got ready to send an arrow into it when it turned towards my friend. Buddy trusted his camo for a bit then switched the foxpro to a lion sound. Gave him enough time to bail up the ridge.

Genuinely thought my buddy was going to get gored. Just hoped a slick trick would bleed the bull out fast enough if it did go at him, or make him turn off when it hit.

Sketchy animals. No fear of us. We walked past the bull when we hiked into the spot. He looked irate to begin with, so we gave him a wide berth. I've had a few encounters like this with public grazing cattle. No issues with private land herds.
watch the aussies hunt scrub bulls with archery...it takes a while for one to go down
 
Top