THIS HAPPENED TO ME!!!

[Elkhunter1]

When my wife and I got married back in 96 our honeymoon was a three week trek all over the state camping. Our first stop was my Elk spot in 5BN. As we drove down Lake Mary road you could see a trail coming out of the trees across the meadow to the south of the road. After several days of talking her into it, I had her sitting with me up against some small pines down wind of the trail. As we sat there she had her left hand on the inside of my thigh, and a video cam in her right. She squeezed my thigh when she saw a skunk walking down two track about 35 yrds away.I told her he won't bother us as he walked by. A few minutes later she squeezed my thigh again and whispered there was something behind us. I turned a saw a yearling standing, neck stretched out about 15 yrds away. I told my wife not to move! In doing so the mother moved closer, like 5 yrds right behind the trees we were leaning on. 10 seconds later the cow Elk snorted and my wife jumped so high I thought she was taller than the trees. The only problem was she still had a hold of my thigh!!!! I think you can still see the claw marks.

 

WHAT STORIES DO YOU HAVE?

[WHT_MTNMAN]

When I was about 18 I believe I was still hunting the thick pines through 4a for deer. I spotted a group of cow elk moving up the same trail I was getting ready to walk. I watched about 8 of them go by at 15 yards or so. I then started down the trail from where they had come. I noticed a young 2-3 year old cow elk moving up the trail and I was stuck out in the open except for some tall grass. I slowly moved to the ground and was stretched my legs out across the trail, this cow walked up the trail stepped over me, smelled my stinky self and did a quick pivot turn on my calves and thighs. She trotted off as I stood up and circled around me. I was non worse for wear except a couple small bruises.

 

Back in the 90's when calling for elk worked I "called" in a good bull by reving up the engine of my ol 69 ford with a hole in the muffler, that bull was crazy and came within 40 yards of me in the truck.

[WOODSAZ]

A few years back I was sitting a draw that these deer were moving through. It was just in the V were two trees had fallen. I soon saw a group of does with 3 fawns coming my way so I just hunkered down not to spook them. They fed over to the logs I was sitting and and those three fawns bedded with there moms literally on the other side of the log I was behind. I sat there admireing this for about 15 mins when i got a horrible leg cramp from sitting there. I slowly eased up on my knees and peeked over the top of the log right down of the bedded fawn. That little thing looked up at me and I swear its eyes turned the size of dinner plates. They blew out of there but it ranks with one of the coolest experiances ive had.

 

The story about your wife reminds me of a time camping with my wife. She was about 6 months pregnant and we were just sleeping in the back of our explorer. She wakes me up in the middle of the night a says she has to pee. I told her to just go ahead and she swore there was something outside so she wanted my to go out too. Reluctantly I told her OK and I said " Theres is nothing out there" and as soon as I swung the door open and hit the flashlight and sure enough there was a bear standing there at 40 yrds... So I ate my words and the bear scampered off into the dark. We both get out to do our business and while we are a pine cone falls out of the tree and lands next to my wife. She screams and frantically scrambles back into the truck his her pants around her ankles. I didnt sleep a wink that night because I couldnt stop laughing... Shes gonna kill me if she finds out I told that story on here.

 

Jay

[200"mulie]

my late bull elk hunt in 05' opening evening walking around behind some meadows....all of a sudden i stopped thought i heard something to my left. As i stood there it was silent ...... then a cow elk appeared that was on a path that was going to run right in front me. Then another and another and another think i counted up to 20 cows ...thinking ok there has to be a bull in here with them. Out of the blue a nice 5x5 appeared at the very end of the line....my blood started pumping and was stuck in the shadows between couple trees(they were just started to slow down to a walk right in front of me). If i raise my gun they'll turn and bolt the other way. I thought of waiting till they past the trees in front of me i'll step out, cow call, and shoot if there is a clear shot. So seemed like forever but finally the bull went behind the trees. I take one step and hear a big crack back to my left where they orignaly came from. Looked back down and it was couple lazy cows i guess cause they were just feeding far from the herd. Anyway the wait continues so i dont scare any of them away. As they keep feeding torwards me, i start to hear cows right behind me feeding!(dead wind and sprayed myself also)...ya you can hear them breathing chewing up the grass or whatever they were eatin. Now it's been 30 minutes at least sun is setting fast if i still have a chance it's now. I spooked the elk around me by making some sounds. I continued to make my way around the group of trees...can't see anyhting all the elk theat just went that way are gone. Then some cows are at a dead run coming straight at me. This time i had my gun raised and ready for a shot....just saying cow...cow...cow...where is the bull come on...cow...cow. All of a sudden they make a hard right turn away from me an i'm still saying cow...cow....cow....the bull just straight up disapeared.

 

Later that hunt all o found was cows and one spike...and had to cut the hunt short by two days because of a big blizzard.

[200"mulie]

Had another one but ti is much shorter!!

 

So hunting coues couple years ago in 30B...It was one of the warmest hunts I've ever been on highs still getting in lower to mid 80's. I havent seen a deer all opening mourning was frustraded making my way back to the main road so i can get to camp. walking threw the cat claws that were as tall as me..happened to look down and saw a rabbits foot!! One single rear foot....i picked it up and said my luck is going to change. Just couple minutes later i stepped on to the road and heard a big yelp. A doe jumped out of this bush right along the road and nearly ran me over...i could of close lined the poor thing. So i thought picking up the foot was really good luck we saw deer the next couple days we were there, but i didn't get a buck. Think my buddy did get one though so there was some luck.

[deercrazy]

When my son turned old enough to hunt,he and I went squirrel hunting. We were walking down a 2 track and saw a muzzle loader hunter sitting in a blind. We backed out and made a wide circle around him to not disturb his hunt. What happened was that we kicked up deer to him and he shot and the whole herd of about 20 deer ran straight back to us. there were deer running into trees and we had to take cover not to get run over. One of the deer dropped within feet of my kid. I walked out and found the hunter, he never saw us, and led him to the deer. We still talk about that squirrel hunt every year as small game season comes around.

[billrquimby]

In my humble opinion, wild sheep (and especially desert bighorns) definitely are not the most intelligent of all of God’s creatures. A solo Coues deer hunt I made above Arivaipa Canyon several years before I retired more than a dozen years ago is a case in point.

 

Both of my hunting partners backed out at the last minute the week the season opened, but I was able to convince my wife that I would not deviate from the map I left her, and that I would call her on my cell phone every couple of hours to assure her there was no need to send a rescue squad for me.

 

I rented a motel room in Willcox, then got up in the middle of the night and drove to where I planned to hunt, arriving there just after first light. In less than ten minutes I’d found a good whitetail buck and a desert bighorn ram feeding on the same cone-shaped peak about about a half-mile away. I watched them for about an hour before they both bedded down.

 

The buck chose a spot in the brush below a steep, rocky cliff. The ram’s bed was in an open spot about 50 yards below the deer.

 

After making a wide circle, I finally worked around the peak and quietly moved to the top of the cliff. The buck still was in the brush below me. When I purposely made a noise, it jumped up and I shot it from about 30-40 yards as it was looking up at me.

 

I’d forgotten about the sheep, and I was gutting the buck when I heard something rattling rocks on the cliff I’d just left. I looked up to find the ram looking down at me. We watched each other for a while, then I cut my buck in half and started relaying the two parts off the peak and down to a two-track 4x4 road at its base.

 

The ram followed me all the way down to the road, and waited while I retrieved my truck and loaded the buck. It was still watching me as I drove off.

 

I was somewhere on the wrong side of 60 then, and it hurt me a bunch to realize for the first time that I no longer could pack an Arizona whitetail off a little peak in one trip. It was the last time I hunted Coues deer.

 

Bill Quimby

[200"mulie]

bill thats some story...big horns have very few predators and it was probably curious. interesting wow imagine if you had photos!!

[Elkhunter1]

Thanks guys they are some great stories, keep them coming.

[CouesWhitetail]

I am really enjoying these, good idea for a topic elkhunter1!

[AntlerObsession]

I was bow hunting in 27, making my way to the edge of a small clearing, and decided to sit down and take a rest. As I was sitting there, with my bow held in my hand, a hummingbird decided it wanted to take a rest as well. He first tried to land on my riser, but due to its bigger radius and smooth surface, that poor bird kept losing its balance and sliding off. It was like he had a few too many drinks! He finally gave up on the riser, and landed on one of my carbon arrows. It must have been "just right" because he stayed there and preened for like 10 min. Very cool to see him at such close proximity!

[Elkhunter1]

OK I'll add another one to the list. My dad and older brothers went squirrel hunting up on Mt Lemon way back when I was about 10. My dad and I went down the right side of Marshal Gulch and my brothers went down the other. After about what seemed like miles I told my dad I wanted to sit for a while. He said he would walk down the trail about another hundred yards or so and sit himself. He also told me to sit still and quiet, maybe I would see one or two. I sat on this stump about 20 yards up the ridge from the trail. After about 10 minutes I fell asleep sitting there with shotgun in hand. While I was asleep a squirrel came down the tree right behind me. I guess he was about ten ft up the tree and ten ft away when all of a sudden he started barking at me. I fell off the stump rolled down to the trail gun still in hand, he started running up the tree as I turned and fired getting my tormentor. Guess I got the last laugh. Well maybe not my dad was walking back to check on me and saw the whole thing.

[AZantlerhead]

Awesome Stories Guys, now this is good Campfire talk..

Heres one I don't think I've shared yet on here..

I was about 7 yrs. old and me and my buds were " hunting " with our sling shots in the foothills behind a subdivision on the American River..... We came around a bend in a drainage and there was a huge flock of turkeys.... Being that age and thinking We were all the best hunters since Danielle boone( and not knowing much better ) we let it rain pebbles at the flock..

I had aimed for the biggest gobbler and aparantly hit the Tom ...This Old Tom simply just wasn't haveing it...He flew the 20 or so feet straight at me, with no time to " reload" I simply ducked and covered my head... The tom continued attacking me from above for a a good time.. to a small boy this was like a caveman faceing a terridactle, at least in my young mind it was...He finally jumbed off my head and hands and began circling me " for the kill ".

At this point I was over being scared/shocked and pretty much mad, I stood and relized I did have some size advantage, I kicked hard at the Rageing Tom, he was to quik though and dodged my blow, I began waveing my fists at him and got ready to kick at him again, I called his Bluff and He turned tail back to the rest of the flock, dissapearing through the brush on the slope....My bros were just standing there in awwe of what had just happened to me..." dude your bleeding, bleeding bad" my friend says, I looked down and my hands and lower arms were cut bad from the Tom.... My buds started flipping out, I was still mad, it really did look as like I had fell through a glass table though, this was serious bussiness now... we got home quik.

I luckily stopped bleeding, Mom patched up my arms and hands. I probly needed a few stiches but butterfly bandages did the job, I still remember the look of amusement and maybe even a hint of pride on pops face as he listened to me and my buds tell what had happened, on our great hunting adventure... and I still have a couple scars on my hands to remember my life and death battle with the Giant Man Killing Thunder Chicken.

[Elkhunter1]

Come on Amanda I know you have at least one good story!!!!

[azslim]

In the late 90's we took a Girl Scout troop down to Ruby to camp. The old caretaker Tommy had a big, black Lab that ran the town. We put our tent up a couple hundred yards from the girls, we were walking from it towards the girls' camp in the dark. I saw a big, black figure in the road trotting towards us and I hit it with the flashlight. My wife had no idea it was coming or what it was, dog, bear or chupacabra. She let out a violent quiver, grabbed my arms and SHOVED me in front of her, the only thing missing was the words "here, eat him first". We laugh about that time a lot and I don't believe she shoved me in front of her to protect her, I still think I was the offering.