What the closest face-to-face encounters you've had with animals while hunting?

[mercerbear]

Still hunting whitetail in TN I sat on a downed tree in dense cover and got very still.

30 minutes later a bobcat came by and checked me out.

He jumped onto the loat the other end and walked all the way down it to almost arms’ reach of me.

Then he jumped off and circled me downwind.

I slowly reached for my phone as he was coming in and got my coolest hunting video ever.

I’ve had whitetail within 10 feet of me on the ground multiple times. Mostly does, fawns and yearlings.

I would/have shot mature bucks before they get that close.

 

[HbDane]

Had a buck get spooked from out of my view and basically ran into my ground blind I built. We were basically staring into each other's souls. He took off as I was reaching for my bow.

Had a mountain lion circle another one if my stick blinds, didn't see me until I stood up and literally scared the shit out of it.

 

[MattB]

Had a cow elk touch me in the lower back twice trying to smell what I was. Also shot a charging black bear at 8 yards with my bow.

 

[Maverick1]

Mountain lion: 6 yards. Over a water hole.

Bear: 3 yards. (Shot it with the bow, from the ground, that was intense!)

Calf elk: called into a couple of feet.

Deer: right under the tree.

Bees: stung 9 or 10 times in the head and neck one time. That sucked.

Bull moose: 26 yards.

Owl swooped at my hat once while I was in a treestand.

Bird landed on my arrow once.

Fed the goats and giraffe at the zoo a couple years ago, too!

 

[N2TRKYS]

Arm’s length from a bobcat, had turkeys close enough to kick leaves on me, and had a young deer touch my hand with its nose as it smelled me.

Nothing really outside the norm, I guess.

 

[Beendare]

delete

 

[Red Letters]

I climbed a small cliff, used my hand to move some grass and came face to face (within 12”) with a 5‘ rattlesnake, fortunately he was asleep/sunning.
Years later on a South Texas deer hunt, I took an afternoon to hunt dove. I got at the tank a little too early walked to the other side and felt a slap on my pant leg, brain kicked into gear in no time. I jumped out of the way and could hear the rattles as I landed. No fangs got me, but that shook me up for awhile.

 

[Shraggs]

Way back when I chewed red man, and was spitting quietly on the tree, a doe came right to the dripping under me and licked up that molasses.

couple years ago was archery in the gravelies when all those cattle died from a flower. We got stopped at top of ravine before heading, ranger wanted to be sure we were armed cause they counted 9 bears by helicopter. That was fine, but friend had to leave unexpectedly so I hunted alone next day. Decided to walk less alone and set up on some dark timber with sign, called with a decoy. Damn if a big bear didn’t get down wind of me 50 yards. Didn’t have clear line of sight but glimpses of him breaking limbs and stomping on logs while huffing like a gorilla. Glock 20 in one hand packed up with left…

4 or 5 years ago was sitting a wallow on hot day. Early this moose came strolling in to drink. RF side 21 yards even tho pic looks far. Then he dug a hole for about 30 minutes, then stepped up and pissed in for an eternity, then stepped back and dunked his head and he came up dripping. I’m up wind concealed in some downfall but he started coming right for me and I’m devising an escape plan. But he ended up raking the pine tree on right edge of pic for what seemed like another 10 minutes. I really wanted to take a pic but I didn’t dare move a muscle - his eyes were yellowish and bloodshot. Finally sauntered off. He did catch my wind while behind me distance a bit later and buggied out.

 

[Shraggs]

This second pic of him dunking his head

 

[*zap*]

squirrel on head, trees tand,

multiple times whitetail doe inside 2' sitting on ground.

couple of bucks/doe walking right under an stand set @ 8' or so.

crawling under a big cedar to finish a arrow wounded turkey with a knife..

good times..

 

[Vegas777]

Bull elk came up to about 3 ft of me laying on the ground. Was cow hunting, watched the big guy destroy a few trees, then walk right up huffing and stomping. I'm sure he smelled me , but never saw me or I'd prob be dirt

 

[TheGDog]

I climbed a small cliff, used my hand to move some grass and came face to face (within 12”) with a 5‘ rattlesnake, fortunately he was asleep/sunning.

Ahh man... this reminds me of a story. I'm getting back out of this Bear spot that's like 7mi all downhill to get into it. Which means it's all uphill when you're leaving! At some point, during the final sorta leg of the trail back, I apparently missed a turn and must have kept travelling upward up a natural drainage line. But as the growth kept coming in thicker and crowding in... I realized I was no longer on the trail line. Dang it. Meanwhile the thin and fit young man half my age is already on the switchback line of the trail... a certain amount of ways up above me (Remember all downhill coming in, all uphill going out) So I pass on the idea of back-tracking and decide "Fuggit... I'll just pioneer up that way and meet back up with that trail line up there!".

1) I'd screwed up and forgotten my boots in the rush of the drive-out at butt thirty in the am.
2) In some Nike Running Shoes, I'm quickly realizing how traction on this fairly steep hill, with not a lot of growth in this particular area, is tricky to find, so using dirtbikes experience I start placing my feet on the backs of clumps of grass or weeds sticking out. And that helped quite a lot with the climbing, especially with a fairly heavy pack on.
3) Ah.... but then...but then!.... right as my face is about to crest over the last part of the steep part of this hill I decided to pioneer up... BAM!!! Seriously!? A freaking young Rattler sounding off like maybe 2-3 feet from my face.
4) And freaking now I gotta just stand there, on this like 45 Degree or steeper slope... I'm all breathing heavy from the sketchy climbinb.... and my calves are burning and trembling with each passing second it gets worse. And this young BuzzWorm is soo nervy he's like waiting forever before he finally relaxes a little bit and tries to go away. OMG!!! It was torture waiting for that little sh*t to finally go! By the end I'm like chastizing this damn snake "Just Go!! Go Already!!!! What are you waiting for??? Obviously I gave you distance, so get your sh*t and lets GO ALREADY!!" (Me all motioning to the snake to go that way, over there, opposite me, hehe)

Thankfully the younger dude was there and saw this go down so he was super nice enough to climb down that lil bit and meetup with me at the point the snake standoff went down so he could take my pack up to the trail line. After standing on that flattened crest where it all went down long enough to get some blood back in my calves... I loafed my utterly burned out calves up onto that trail line above. It was still darn hot so we hiked just a little down the trail to go around a bend for shade. First place I quickly saw that looked wide enough and didn't seem to have insects, I plopped down. To drink and let all that heat get out from that fiasco. And right about then "OW!!!" Sigh... Fire Ants... somehow in my tired state and being in the shadow I somehow managed to not notice where these Fire Ants where going into and out of a hole a little bit off the trail, cluttered with quite a bit of dead plant matter around it so maybe why I didn't key-in on it before sitting. So yeah... then Fire Ant bites me just above the pants line in the back, that was lovely!


And then there was this other time... during General Season in D15, on my way in I come across the cutest tiniest little BuzzWorm I've ever seen. Must have only been about 7" long. Looked like he got caught out there in that trail water-rut in the open the night before, and probably is just way too cold to move right now at beginnings of first light. So I just smiled and stepped over him.

 

[Jethro]

A cool one that I never experienced until last year in NM is hummingbirds trying to get nectar from the nocks of my arrows while I was holding my bow.

 

[Drenalin]

Had a turkey (hen) peck my boot once when deer hunting in early archery season. That was cool, but the skunk at 15 feet on a different hunt seemed miles closer than that turkey.

 

[Laramie]

Many encounters through the years. The one that sticks out in my mind right now is a hen turkey. I was sitting on the ground calling a tom for my buddy. She came from behind. As she walked through she brushed my back and left side. Her boyfriend got an arrow a few minutes later. Pretty cool experience.

Have had numerous other big and small game inside of 5 yards.

 

[Boarmaster]

I was sitting on a bucket along a powerline easement back in the 80s. The small clump of trees sort of stuck just a few yards out in the easement so I could see down both ways if I leaned forward a bit. It was was early in the morning and foggy so I was sleepy and I was drifting in and out and leaning against a small tree. I got woken up when I felt something bump the tree. When I looked up I was shocked to see a big old boar hog stand two feet away. He just stood there. I waited for him to take a few more steps away and I let the air out of him.

Some years later I built a ground blind in the same place. A hen turkey walked by and looked over the front of the blind. She looked me then just slowly walked away.

I have had a few occasions were doe deer have walked passed me sitting in a ground blind just a few yards from me and in one case two small ones grazed for twenty minutes 5 yards from the front of the blind.

 

[WCB]

About 20 years ago a Coyote ran over/into my legs while calling once. Early fall/late summer saw a coyote sitting in a pasture. sneaked in to about 250 yards and set up. Started doing a pup in distress call...about 10 seconds later my dad who was laying right beside me yelled "to the right" as I rolled on to my left side the male coyote basically slammed into my legs. Apparently we moved in on a den with surprisingly young pups for that time of year and the male must have thought we had a pup and were killing it or something.

I have had countless encounters with deer, elk, moose, bears, coyotes, fox that were literally within arm distance while hunting.

 

[hutty]

1. Tuskless cow elephant at 12 yds and could not get a shot (go figure)
2. Had a duck land next to my lay out blind, reached out and touch him through the arm hole hysterical
3. Black bear when blowing a predator call 11 yards
4. Cape buffalo at 10 yds in the bush

 

[Elk97]

Snuck up behind a blacktail buck just to see how close I could get. One more step and I could have slapped his butt before he bolted. Watched my wife walk up a trail on the other side of a little stream from me and meet a black bear coming the other way at a sharp turn. They both did an about face and just walked away like they'd practiced it.

 

[tuffcity]

Couple of notables.

7 yds from a very rutted up bull moose my buddy and I called in. He came in fast and was standing there blowing snot and foam and looking at me. It was in a tine restricted area and he didn't make the grade or would have worn an arrow.

Predator black bear encounter that ended with a 10 ft stand off. It's surprising how long you can keep a recurve at full draw when sufficiently motivated.

Hunting Dall sheep with my wife and we had lambs and ewes pass us at mere feet as we were reclining in a small boulder patch.