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

[JeffP_Or]

Have had mice and chipmunks run over my boots while seated and glassing.
Had a mouse run up my pants leg leaning against a stump while glassing.
Had a coyote, come down a hillside into a draw I was on a stand in overlooking a game trail; hit my trail and then followed head down sniffing the entire route I had walked - right up to my boot as I sat there watching. Finally moved a hand and he jumped about 10 feet - but stood watched for a second and started coming back. I moved a boot and he backtracked to the game trail and moved on.

 

[JakeL]

A grizzly bear chewing on my arm…..


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I’d say that was a pretty close encounter.

 

[Mike Islander]

Last month while scouting, 4 baby armadillos wandered all around me. No apparent fear of humans. Kept coming up and sniffing my boots. Reached down and scooped up this little guy. I know they are pests but all babies are cute.

 

[Finch]

Put a stalk on this bear last October just to see if I could. Lost him in some broomsage and was easing my way along when I looked up and he was smelling a young pine tree. I ducked as he started coming right at me. I thought he was going to walk right over top of me but turned at the last sec. I shot him at 8 yards from the ground. First bear... not really crazy about taking another one for now.

 

[EastHumboldt]

Stilll hunting along a 9000 ft high ridge into the wind and into the rising sun when 3 coyotes trotted out from behind an outcropping in my direction. The lead dog stopped about four feet from me and stared. I could see the color flecks on his irises. He couldn’t smell me and he was blinded by the sun at my back. I said “Hey little buddy” and he just turned with his pack and trotted back the way they had come. Maybe a little faster but not panicked like I expected. I guess he figured if I was gonna shoot I would’ve already.

 

[Lionhound1975]

I had a mamba pop up out of the grass about chest high maybe 8 feet away, look at me, and then book it in the other direction. That stopped my heart for a few.

 

[AZmark]

Buddy of mine had a squirrel crawl up his pants and stole the left nut.

From that day on he used to say "I'd give a right nut for ___________"

 

[AndyB]

Last month while scouting, 4 baby armadillos wandered all around me. No apparent fear of humans. Kept coming up and sniffing my boots. Reached down and scooped up this little guy. I know they are pests but all babies are cute.
View attachment 318231

They can also carry Leprosy!

 

[Outdoor Writer]

I've had a bunch of incidents with critters over the years of both huntng & photographing them. Some have been just of the close encounter types while others have been more of the sphincter clenching variety. These are a few of the latter with moose, which I have written about over the years.

*************

About 35 years ago, I was on a deer/elk pack-in hunt back near the Hoback River in the Grey Mts. of Wyoming. There were about five other hunters in camp and one of them had drawn a moose permit. As I often did, I opted to hunt alone one day. I had rode to a place the outfitter had told me about, tied up my horse and walked up a small ridge. There was a game trail right on top, so I decided to sit on a stump a bit because it afforded a good view of the valley below.

I was there about 15 min. when I heard a shot from a heavily wooded area to my left. Five minutes later, I had a bull moose barreling down the trail toward my stump, and I could see blood pumping out of his side. I had my .264 across my lap but quickly raised it just in case. The moose kept coming. When it was about 10-12 yards from me, I shot it in brisket. He dropped immediately. As I was wiping my butt, the guy with the moose permit and his guide appeared to claim his prize.

**************

This incident also happened many, many moons ago when I was personally hunting moose in northern B.C. My Slavey indian guide, Jimmy, and I had left the main camp and set up a spike camp about 10 miles away near a lake . We spent six days searching for moose & caribou wthout much success. Then one day, we were riding across the side of a ridge in a light rain, and I had to take a leak. After I was done, I decided to glass across my saddle down into a valley below us. Within a minute, I saw something light-colored move in a big stand of alders. When it moved again, I could tell it was the palm of a bedded bull moose. I told Jimmy, and after he found it in his binoculars he asked me if I could shoot it from there, which was about a 1/2 mile. I just laughed, then told him we're heading down there. So I took off my rainsuit, hitched up my socks and we were on our way.

What I didn't realize was the alders lower down were much taller and thicker than they looked from above. We began to push our way thru them, and all of a sudden, the moose busted out, running along an open hillside about 125 yds away, above & broadside to us. I told Jimmy to bend over. While he covered his ears, I rested my elbows on his back and got off three quick shots. I heard each of them hit, and puffs of dust verified it. Jimmy heard them, as well. After each of the first two, he confirmed them with, "You got 'em." In turn, I said, "stay down" so I could keep shooting. Problem was the moose didn't seem to know I had hit him. He took off, racing over the top where we lost sight of him.

About 15 minutes later, we had worked our way thru the alders and over the hill. My moose was about 50 yards away, lying amid a lot of blown down jackpine-type trees with brush on either side. His head was fairly upright & moving. While Jimmy, who didn't even have a gun, stood off to the side, I moved around in front until I was about 10 yards away. I planned to shoot just under his chin, but when I raised the rifle, it was still on 9X; all I could see was hair. I lowered the gun to adjust the scope. When I did the moose gathered his legs, stood tall and started toward me.

Uphill from me, he seemed huge -- like I was looking up at his head ten feet above me. I turned to run, but tripped on one of the deadfalls. Both me and the rifle went flying. As I covered my head with my arms, I yelled to Jimmy to tell my wife I love her. Then I heard the crash.

The moose had fell dead about 10 feet behind me. When we skinned him, we found all three of my bullets against the far-side hide in an area about the size of a pie plate They had pretty much wiped out the lungs but had missed the heart. And I survived!

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A moose incident from a photo safari at Yellowstone NP.

I had located a decent bull that was meandering between the road and the shoreline of Yellowstone Lake. So I parked my truck, grabbed my cameras and proceeded to get into a good spot to take some pics. I was doing just fine; I snapped the shutter and the moose continued what he was doing.

That all changed when a bus load of Japanese (maybe Chinese) tourists also saw the moose and dismounted the bus in mass. Within two minutes they had the moose's attention as they closed in on it from behind.

Then he started toward me; he didn't appear real happy. I couldn't get to the road so I quickly backed up to a very large downed ponderosa that had been propped up withe lower part about 3' above the ground. I was able to duck under it to the other side just before the moose arrived, reared on his hind legs and hammered the downed tree with his front hooves. I was literally shaking in my boots. It seemed like a very long time, but it was probably only two minutes or less before he got bored with me, moved down to where the tree entered the water and walked around the tree to my side. That's when I ducked back to the other side and ran as fast as I could to the road and my truck. I sat there and watched while the tourists loaded back on the bus as if nothing unusual had happened.

 

[TheGDog]

I have had multiple encounters while elk calling. I've had calves walk up to within a few feet more then once. I was calling for my buddy and a calf walked so close to him that it knocked his arrow off his bow string. I have also called in black bears at least 5 times when cow calling. The closest one was at less then 5 yards and I shot that one.

I was sneaking through the reprod during a November storm a few years back and snuck up on a bedded blacktail buck. I shot him in his bed at a distance of 5 or 6 yards.

Last year, I was tracking a blacktail buck I had spotted through some heavy reprod in the snow and ended up in a stare down with a head on cougar through the brush and limbs at less then 10 yards. Of all days to not pack my pistol.

reprod = ???

 

[TheGDog]

I have a friend who lives in NM he was hunting Elk in bow season a big bull Elk came up oh him his right side and before he knew it the Elk landed in and sniffed him. He said he felt kind of bad shooting it, not real bad just kind of bad.

RE: "before he knew it the Elk landed in and sniffed him."

What does "landed in" mean in this sentence?

 

[Outdoor Writer]

For about 15 years running in 1980-90s, I always spent 3-6 days in YNP taking photos during the elk rut. This sphincter clenching elk encounter took place during one of those times when the bad boy pictured below tried to tear a hunk outta my butt near the campground in Mammoth.

When I started shooting, he and his harem of about 20 cows were 30-50 yards away, but the cows kept coming my way. Finally one of them meandered over to me and stood less than 5 feet from me. The bull didn't like that one bit. He pinned his ears back and came at me on the dead run as I scrambled to get a tree in between him and me. I dodged behind a pine with about a 6" trunk, put my hand on it and stood back at arms length as he butted up against it with his antlers on either side just missing me. My legs were literally shaking, and I had to keep control of the two cameras strapped around my neck. We did circles around the tree for about 3-5 minutes until he just turned and meandered off. My buddy was standing on a bridge above us and took quite a few photos. He gave me one, but it's an unscanned 35mm slide buried in my files somewhere.

 

[TripleJ]

reprod = ???

Reprod = thick dog hair 2nd growth timber 15-20 years following a clear cut…‘reproduction’ timber.

 

[Zdub02]

I was turkey hunting and noticed a baby cottontail between my feet after sitting for a few minutes. Also had a chipmunk about run up my pants leg while waiting for Old Faithful to spout off

 

[Ridge Ghost]

Called a spike bull elk in to about three steps. Spikes aren't legal in this unit, so if was fun just to see how close I could get.

 

[Drenalin]

Whitetail hunting a few years ago, I scraped some leaves away to get a quiet spot to sit on the ground. After being there a couple hours, I looked down to see a small snake head poking out of a hole between my legs that I hadn't initially noticed. No idea what kind of snake it was - I smashed it to hell with the butt of my muzzleloader before the question of identification ever entered my mind.

 

[Dos Perros]

I've had closer encounters with all sorts of things, but the one I'll most remember:

Slipped in on some feeding elk in some timber. Got kinda caught in the open, more open timber, and a group of cows calves and spikes fed into me and my buddies. I was kneeled on a knee and they were lying flat on the ground. Closest one got was maybe 8 feet. I could hear all the breathing and sniffing and biting and chewing. I got so amped I almost passed out, vision started closing in, and I had to flex my abdominal muscles like a fighter pilot to keep it together.

 

[Opah]

Got me a twofer one year, shot the dear and 10 minutes later shot the Bear smelling the blood of the dear I had shot.
Climbed down the ridge I was on to go collect my prizes, when I got down there was these tall bunch of bushes with a game hole thru them, so I get down on my hands and knees and crawl thru, just as I get to the other side I bumped my head on something, I look up and I am touching nose to nose with the Bear I could smell his breath or saliva , I closed my eyes and whispered please be dead please be dead, and thankfully he was.

 

[Opah]

Whitetail hunting a few years ago, I scraped some leaves away to get a quiet spot to sit on the ground. After being there a couple hours, I looked down to see a small snake head poking out of a hole between my legs that I hadn't initially noticed. No idea what kind of snake it was - I smashed it to hell with the butt of my muzzleloader before the question of identification ever entered my mind.

That poor snake was just looking up thinking to its self what an ASS and then the lights went out!
Say it did bite you on the Ass, think your Hunting buddy would have sucked the poison out ?
You know that is how the Lone Ranger died, got bit taking a dump and Tonto told him to go to hell !

 

[AKSandman]

Was calling moose one late September morning and all the sudden heard the loudest crashing coming down the ridge above me. I get the gun up thinking it is a bull coming in hot and it’s a calf running full tilt! Then another calf comes running up followed by a cow. I freeze and they come right up to me, maybe six feet max. I could have touched the nose of one calf. A birch tree in front of me with the two calves at 10 and 2 and the cow is now behind me at my 6. I can feel the breeze on my neck as she is breathing heavily through her nose from running. I was pretty sure I was going to get stomped if I moved and the cow realized I was between her and her calves, so I just stand there frozen and hoping I don’t get the piss kicked out of me. The four of us just stood there motionless for about 5 minutes or so and then one of the calves sees me blink and takes off running and the cow and other calf spook and run away as well.
Pretty neat to see them calves up close and see how easy it is to blend in to your environment (at least from an animal’s perspective) when you don’t move.