Weirdest thing you saw/heard when hunting or fishing

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Originally Posted by T. B. Turner

Around 20 years ago or so I was doing some target shooting S.W of Sedalia back when it was still legal to shoot in that area. I was getting ready to leave when a group of young people showed up in a jeep Cherokee. I spoke with A young fellow with blond hair and I told him I was just leaving so that they could use the area. He was polite and respectful but something about him creeped me out to the pint of being glad that I had a loaded gun in my hand. It was like there was something going on under the surface and made me wonder if they were up to something. I have hunted and fished most of my life and met many people in the field and none had ever caused me to feel that way.
I had forgot the incident until a few years later I saw a picture of a person on the cover of "Time Magazine" And I wondered where I had saw that person before. It turned out to be Dylan Klebold.

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So, he would have been about 12 years old?

Scariest was a mountain lion I caught stalking me about 20 yards away, I drew my bow, he crouched and we stared at each other for what felt like an eternity, maybe 10 seconds when my yelling and hunting partner spooked him off.

weirdest was a dead deer we found partially eaten, mostly its face. Most likely a lion kill but no sign.

grossest was a dead cow (moo kind) that had been in the sun forever, horribly bloated like a massive balloon.

Cool one was in Canada fishing and we caught a northern that got attacked by another much bigger one while reeling it in. Small one was 20+ inches and the big one was 36ish. Biggest fish I caught that trip was 44 1/4 incher

Sniper's story reminded me of my scariest.

Walking out behind my grandparents cabin early one morning to go deer hunting. Came around a corner of the trail around a big rock and was staring at a bobcat 5 yards away. Luckily we both scared the hell out of each other and we both went our separate ways.

Also had a big rainbow trout on the line one time and had a 21"ish Pike swipe and hit it about 4 times before I could get it reeled in. Ended up getting two quarter size chunks taken out of its back and the top of it's tail was gone. I usually catch and release but ended up eating that one as it wasn't going to make it back in the water and live.

I was sitting on a log on Missionary Ridge in the late '90's when a weasel was working its way up slope. As it progressed, every squirrel would chitter abuse at it. Finally, it reached the clearing I was in, and saw me and bounded toward me. It began to run up my leg like I was its long lost buddy, and I gave it a kick to send it flying.

I was hunting elk up at timberline with a bow one year. I built a makeshift ground blind in some of the shrubbery that was there hoping A bull I had seen the day before would walk by. As I sat there and waited for daylight there was a pine squirrel jumping arsound in the shrubbery with me and I was kind of messing with him with my glove like I was another squirrel or something. He stopped and chattered at me when out of nowhere an owl with about a 5 foot wingspan came in talons first and grabbed him in front of me. Scared the crap out of me!

Better him than your hand!

It's more of a childhood camping story than a hunting or fishing one, but was still pretty scary at the time.

I was about 11 or 12; my step brother would have been 9-10. My family would drive over to The Sequatchie Valley, where my step father grew up, once a month to visit "Pop". My step brother and I would challenge each other to tests of bravery and would regularly sleep in the back of the pick up truck instead of in the house, knowing full well that a pack of coyotes came out at night. Well, on one such night when he and I were out there, we heard the chitter of 'yotes pretty close, so we turned on one of those really huge old red flashlights and saw 8-9 pairs of eyes reflecting back at us, 5 of which were close enough (55-60yards) to see their size and silhouettes. Looking back on what I remember about it now, I'm pretty sure they didn't care much about us and certainly weren't hunting us, but we were terrified nonetheless.

I was archery hunting in Mt. Zirkel Wilderness and caught some movement to my right. I guessed a path and re-positioned very slowly to be able to have a good sight line on a clearing, ranged a few tree trunks and got into position looking at the clearing edge about 25 yards away. I hear some noise and footfalls but it sounded odd. I saw some tan flashes in the bushes and then, into the clearing jog 2 women wearing just Nike running shoes.

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Originally Posted by MarkCO

I was archery hunting in Mt. Zirkel Wilderness and caught some movement to my right. I guessed a path and re-positioned very slowly to be able to have a good sight line on a clearing, ranged a few tree trunks and got into position looking at the clearing edge about 25 yards away. I hear some noise and footfalls but it sounded odd. I saw some tan flashes in the bushes and then, into the clearing jog 2 women wearing just Nike running shoes.

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Wood nymphs, fantastic! Did you call them over and tell them they were prancing around in a hunting area? [Coffee]

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Originally Posted by MarkCO

I was archery hunting in Mt. Zirkel Wilderness and caught some movement to my right. I guessed a path and re-positioned very slowly to be able to have a good sight line on a clearing, ranged a few tree trunks and got into position looking at the clearing edge about 25 yards away. I hear some noise and footfalls but it sounded odd. I saw some tan flashes in the bushes and then, into the clearing jog 2 women wearing just Nike running shoes.

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And then your gun went off? Also how did you know they were Nikes?