You may not believe this. Helping my nephew on his junior hunt on Friday he takes a couple of shots at a giant coues. We split up and look for evidence of a hit. After five hours of looking, nothing. I decide to take a drainage back to the trucks.
At dark, I was thinking of putting my headlamp on, when I step on a rattlesnake. Thinking fast or slow, idk, i dive off the snake into rocks 3 or 4 feet down and 6 feet away. Hitting my right side in those rocks and knocking my sidearm another 6 feet in front of me. I put it back in the holster, go a few yards father. Grab my headlamp and start looking for snakebites. Quick once over and I'm okay.
Now fully dark and my headlamp properly placed on my head. I see a set of yellow eyes looking at me maybe 15' higher 40 or 50 yards down the drainage. I get closer, only watching the eyes the whole time with them moving out of sight a couple of times only to go back to back to it's perch. With me yelling at it the whole time I am now 20 yards away. My brother and nephew get back to the truck and give me a call. I tell them what I am looking at and my brothers yells SHOOT!
Ironically, the pistol i brought was only for snakes. The heritage revolver with a 22 mag cylinder. With my brother on the phone, I pull the trigger back and click, again, click and again. Finally when I stopped aiming i get a round to go off. Peppering yellow eyes with rock shrapnel. It finally turns and I don't see yellow eyes anymore
Now it gets dangerous. I go further and come to a dried out waterfall, 12 or 15 feet high with Cliffs on both sides. Instead of going back through snakes and demon eyes, i decide to scale down. Takes me awhile and couple of different descents only falling when I am 6 inches from the bottom.
I get to the trucks, drop my pants and have my brother and nephew check for snake bites. I had my nephew google what north american animals have yellow eyes. There are two. Mt lions and raccoons. This wasn't a racoon. The next morning I find this on my boot.
Oh and couple of days later, my nephew gets his first buck!