Strange Happenings, While Hunting. Stories.

[Bryce]

most of us while hunting, see and hear things that are ordinary. common, everyday things. then there are times when we see and hear things that we've never seen or hear before.
now before you get the wrong idea about me. i know there is a logical and realistic cause and effect for everything. but there had been times in my like where i could not explain what i saw and heard. even as a kid, my parents would tell me it was my imagination and i would chalk it up to that.

i will share 2 of the most recent stories with you guys and i would also like to hear yours

1. a few years ago in the Coast range of Oregon. behind the town of Mist and the community of 'Fish hawk" lake. there is a wide expansion of old timer and reproduced timber that no one ventures into because of its steep terrain.
my half adopted brother and i decided to do a 10 day survival excursion where all we would bring is our sleeping bags and knife.
being late summer it was easy to find berries and with my branch bow we got rabbits and grouse.
our shelter was a lean-to made of doug fir and ferns.
it was the early morning of day 9. still dark sometime around 1:30am. when i woke up to what sounded like short 'hoots' back and forth between 3 different owls. i listened and they didnt sound like any owls that ive ever heard.
then my heart started to beat really fast. because the noises where getting closer then i hear a twig snap!
i frantically tried to relight the fire. then i grabbed the flashlight and shined it in the general direction of the twig snap. then i saw something i still cant explain.
what i saw looked like a Large eye, peaking from behind a very large doug fir tree. 25 yards away. the eye had that shininess like when you see deer in the road.
i saw it for maybe 1 sec. then it slipped behind the tree. i never heard a sound (other than frogs).
i did not dare go back to sleep. i stayed awake all night with that flashlight.


2. this is the most recent story that involves one of our own PA members but will remain nameless. (we'll call him Jim)
once again in the Coast range this time outside Coos Bay, Oregon.
it was august, 2013 we where in the range looking to bag us a couple black bear for the fall season. lots of sign.
our tents where spaced about 20 yards apart because jim snores quite loud and violently. jims tent in front of the trail and mine butted against the blackberry bushes.
earlier that afternoon i was trying to get some game birds to fly into camp by throwing some bread chunks between the tents. so dice.
the second to last evening the clouds came in low and the trees drip and everything gets wet. being a little tired from traveling such rough country we turned in a little early.
2:30am i heard jim walking around camp. by the truck and then he walked around behind my tent(between the blackberries). had my ear to the ground and then he stopped at the door to my tent. just before i was gonna ask him "whats up?"
i heard jim start snoring. IN HIS OWN TENT!
my heart began to beat at a rate i didnt think was humanly possible. felt like my chest was going to explode. adrenaline raced.
i listened closely to the ground and only hear 2 sets of feet.
i heard the 'thing' walk over to jims tent.....jim stopped snoring.
then it walked through camp. then walked across the gravel road at that moment i decided it was far enough away i might get a good look.
my tent door flew open! flashlight blazing. the fog was so thick i could barely see the road....but nothing was there.
the next morning. just for kicks i asked Jim,"hey did you get up last night and walk around camp?"
"no... i thought that was you." Jim replied.
i said,"no..that wasnt me."

now i know it wasnt a bear or anything like that because i only heard 2 feet. and the bread was still on the ground.......


Sasquatch???

not sure.



                                                              -Pinecone

[JW_Halverson]

D.B. Cooper.

[Pat B]

I was hunting a tree stand at an edge between a cane break and planted pines with a copperhead skinned osage bow. I was in full came with a face mask and it was just after sunset, still and cool when all of a sudden a Brown Thrasher(a ground bird) flew up and started squawking and buzzing me. This went on for a few minutes until I figured my evening hunt was over because the bird would not quit. I headed back to camp. The next evening I was in the same stand and that waskelly bird started it up again. Over and over again he attacked me and again I got down and headed back to camp. As I walked back to camp contemplating what had happened I realized it wasn't me the bird was attacking but the copperhead skinned bow across my lap. Being a ground bird I'm sure a copperhead was one of the brown thrasher's worst enemies.

[JW_Halverson]

I love those long tailed bush dwellers, Pat.  They don't generally tolerate much human intervention, I think you got to see some rare behavior with that bird.

But then, that's the beauty of spending time out hunting.  It affords us chances to see these things.

[Pat B]

A friend of mine was in his tree stand fully camoed with face mask. When he looked up there was a red tail hawk only few yards away, talons first, zeroed in on his eye movement. Richard threw his arms up just in time and the hawk swooped to one side. I guarantee you don't want a red tail attached to your face while you are 15' up a tree. 

[JW_Halverson]

A friend of mine was in his tree stand fully camoed with face mask. When he looked up there was a red tail hawk only few yards away, talons first, zeroed in on his eye movement. Richard threw his arms up just in time and the hawk swooped to one side. I guarantee you don't want a red tail attached to your face while you are 15' up a tree. 

And I might add, you don't want it happening on the ground either!  Don't ask me how I know this.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Good stories Brycey boy. I have seen lots of cool stuff in the stand over the years. But my coolest event has to be the Hoot Owl attack. That little bugger smacked me in the head on two different dives, it actually stung a little with those mini talons. I waved my arms on his 3rd attack and thwarted his efforts for the morning. That was weird and cool.

Pat I had an immature and mature Redtail within 15-20 feet of me this year, eye level. Neither had a clue I was there, and I was good with that. I can only imagine the damage and pain an adult Redtail could do compared to a little Hoot owl.

[Pat B]

On one hunt when I liver in Bluffton, SC while on stand it began raining feathers. This went on for 10 to 15 minutes. I never did see what was above me but I guessed it was a sharp shin hawk.
 At the same GMA as above my buddy, Richard thought he'd try rattling for the first time. This was back in the early 1980s.  After a few minutes of rattling Richard thought he heard something and when he turned there was an old man sneaking up behind him with his double barrel shotgun, stalking the fighting bucks. This was on a bow only GMA and Mr. Peacock owned the property next door.
  I used to use fox pee on my boots as a cover scent. On one occasion I walked into my stand one morning and shortly after day light I spotted 2 red foxes with their noses to the ground following the path I walked in on. When they reached the base of the tree I was in they both looked up, saw me and quickly each ran off in a different direction.
 Another time I was gonna try my new fawn bleat call. I sitting on the ground at the base of a large pine tree. I wailed on that bleat call for about 15 minutes and finally gave up. As I began to get up the doe that was standing behind me blew and I could feel her breath on the back of my head.  I never heard her come up.   

[osage outlaw]

Bryce, those stories give me the creeps.  I hope you take a gun for back up when you go camping.  Maybe put up a  trail camera and point it towards your camp.

I haven't had anything to strange happen while hunting except for some odd animal behavior.  One evening a squirrel in the valley I was hunting in started screaming like I've never heard before.  Like a wave at stadium all the rest of the squirrels followed his lead and made the same sound for just a few seconds and then it went dead silent.  For the rest of the evenings hunt not a single squirrel moved or made a sound.  There must have been some kind of predator in the area.  Another time I saw a big possum walk by my stand.  A while later he came back by with a stack of leaves wrapped up in his tail.  I watched him make two trips to go get those leaves.  I guess he wanted a certain type of leaf to line his nest with.
And one year I heard an elk bugling while hunting.  The source of the sound moved and came from different ridges and valleys.  I thought I was crazy until my brother in law and neighbor heard it also.  There shouldn't have been any elk in SE. IN at the time.  They have been introduced in KY since then.

[Pat B]

Clint, the elk bugling might have been an elk hunter practicing for an upcoming elk hunt. 

[osage outlaw]

That was my first thought Pat but it was moving around.  If it was a guy practicing I would think he would probably stay in one spot.  I have heard there are elk farms in Indiana.  Maybe they had a runaway.

[bubbles]

That pretty creepy Bryce.  Was there any sign in the camp the next day? tracks/hair?

[Danzn Bar]

Hey Pearl,  I may have to play my BS card on the hoot owl attack.  If that little bugger smacked you in the head with it's talons, you'd have some scars to prove it.
DBar

[Bryce]

That pretty creepy Bryce.  Was there any sign in the camp the next day? tracks/hair?

The long grass was all laid flat, where I heard the walking.

[Peacebow_Coos]

While hunting between bend and eugene this last year, it was raining pretty crazy and we were walking down a drainage me and my buddy split up, him having a GPS, me a compass.  Needless to say they got to the truck before me, but I found this area that just looked different, huge logs all fallen down in rows on top of others like a lean to, but with root balls on them…I was pondering over this and something thudded about ten feet away, I looked and saw nothing.  Kept stalking, and another thump in the same direction,  I thought what the hell and went to investigate, being in the semi-open and with an arrow nocked…it was a rock about the size of a baseball.  I thought it was for sure my buddies messing with me so walked out and when I got to the truck and they were there….and after I asked them they said they'd been at the truck for about 45 min.  It's out there, no reason for every culture in this area to have stories about them if they weren't real.  Glad you got out alive, that's weird about the grass…sasquatch, or maybe crystal meth tweekers dragging a body?