THIS HAPPENED TO ME!!!

[Broken Wheels]

Back in 1997 I was sneaking along a game trail along the north facing slope (because everybody said thats where the critters are) when the typical Unit 27 nooner hit and I wasn't sure what was louder, the thunder claps or the sound of what seemed like 30 Elk dropping down off the top of Middle Mountain crashing past me. I had just slipped under a spruce bough to stay sort of dry when a pair of really nice bulls stopped just above my spruce and were foaming and panting and steaming things up! Man my heart was beating really fast and of course the camera was safe in its waterproof case where I couldn't get a picture of these two awesome bulls!

 

One last story on same mountain. Had my older brother and a jarhead friend walking the south side this time of this same mountain with me on an old logging road and they were slightly above me walking the same direction. I was of course all scented up and camo'd out moving slow when I see this black bear sneaking down the same 2 track but right towards me. So I stopped to contemplate what to do but all the while Yogi is getting closer and closer to me! So I raised my bow and hands in the air and started doing my best imitation of Clyde from The Clint Eastwood movie Every Which Way but Loose and Yogi stops finally about 20 feet from me and raises up to check me out better! Finally he leaves and next thing I hear is the jarhead calling me on the radio asking me what the heck I am doing as I look like a dork and "might" scare the critters away! I just left that one alone and we pressed on but was an exciting moment just the same!

[200"mulie]

here is another...anyone ever glassed up deer right below other hunters??? i'm sure there has.

 

Well couple years ago a buddy and i were workin a finger we saw a huge buck ran up. Stopping and glassing other fingers...we saw couple doe's and one spike. Neither of us were going to shoot at it 1). Was to far. 2). Our thoughts were on the big buck... Plan A. So we keep an eye on the spike just in case we scare the big buck into the next county...just call it plan B. Plan B was spoiled after two people made there way up a road just above these 3 deer (keep in mind the hill side the deer are one has maybe 20 bushes total). They guys literaly stop right above these 3 deer...guessing 20-30 yards away. Now we are still on Plan A. These guys are now glassing a pocket in the directon we are moving..so what ever they see we will be on top of so there plan is spoiled. We never saw the big buck again...and the 3 deer w/the spike all laid down in a bush right below these guys for about 3-4 hours easy and never heard a shot....thought it was really funny and probably happened to most of us.

[Pixman]

2 years ago I went up to help a buddy with his bull elk hunt. He had his son and another friend there as well. We got up at 3am to get ready and we had a half hour or more quad ride to his spot. We are riding down a dirt road on quads my buddy about 10-11 o'clock in front of me and the other friend behind us with his son in his Rhino. It is pretty cold so riding a quad makes it colder and it is still very dark sometime before 4am. All of a sudden I see a moo cow come running from my right and I hit the brakes and manage to not go over the handlebars. The cow runs right in front of me and hits my buddy on his right side he saw it at the last second and braced for impact! It nearly knocked him off his quad and his bow case was barely hanging on as well. After the shock of what just happened we had a good laugh and the other friend said I have never seen a cow run into a quad before! He did have a sore shoulder for a couple of days!

[Shooter McGavin]

I wanna say this happened in the late 80's not to me, but to my best friend. A buddy and I went dove hunting where Fantasy Island is( a mountain biking area) @ Irvington/Harrison in Tucson. To this day my buddy always says "I hope I don't run into any snakes", well with that being said I happened to come across a 6' Gopher Snake that day. Since I am a nice guy, I decided to catch it and give up on hunting and give my buddy a sweet surprise. I headed back to the jeep and proceeded to stick the snake in his soft gun case. As the sun began to set he came strolling up and of course we compared how we did, I told him 5-6 and replied that he got his limit. As I went to the back of the jeep I patiently waited for him to get his gun case out and lay it on fold down tailgate of his jeep. At this time I stepped back off to the side and watched him unzip his case, he then flipped over the flap and HOLY$&*% this snake I swear grew wings because it came flying out, my buddy jumped straight backwards and at least 10' upwards, I fell to the ground peeing my pants and rolling around hysterically, I believe I was called every name in the book twice and I think he even started to speak Chinese because nothing made sense. To this day I call him up and just start laughing at him and he knows exactly what I am laughing about, good friends+good memories last a lifetime.

[pinalhunter]

Archery elk hunt in 6B with my oldest brother who lives out of state. We are in camp eating lunch and my wife calls saying the baby is sick. We live in Globe and her doc is in Mesa. Now as hunters, brothers and fathers some of you can understand that while I needed to get home I also couldn"t just leave my brother by himself. So I decide to hunt the afternoon with him and then drive four hours home so that I can take my little one to the doc the next day. One of the best afternoons I have ever spent in the woods, up to my neck in elk. Ended up missing a cow at 40yrds. after being in the middle of the herd all afternoon. So I make the truck a few min. after dark, no brother. Fortyfive min. later he shows and says grab your flashlight. We were on bloodtrail till about 10:30. After finding where this cow had beaded and that she was still alive we backed out two miles the wrong way. Lost in the dark we finally hit a road we knew, we make Flagstaff at about 12:30am. I have another brother that lives in Flagstaff who was off the next day so he could help recover the elk. Grab a bite and lots of coffee and head for home. There was no moon, pitch black but yet there was game everywhere. By the time I made clintswells I was freakin out narrow misses with both elk and deer are scary. So about three in the morning I make it to Pine and I think thank-god at least threw this little town I get a break from all the elk in the road WRONG. These cows come right out of someones front yard, I locked up the brakes but it didn't matter. Ford ranger meet cow elk. She does a front flip over my hood and I think for sure I killed her, and my truck. So I call my wife, and highway patrol who says their eta is over an hour. I'm standing at the back of my truck talking to dispatch and I lookover and the dang elk is standing there 5 feet away just staring at me like so your A-hole huh. Then she turns runs threw another yard jumps a fence and vanishes. The only happy ending here is my little girl still made it to the doctor without me, back then my grandpa had a place in pine so i crashed got up the next morning smashed the hood down as far as I could and drove home. As for my brother he never did recover his elk. My wife and I had only been married for a year, she hasn't asked me to leave a hunt early since.

[Basser15]

Story 1: Jay (WOODSAZ) and I had archery bull tags and had hiked up to a meadow early one morning. When we got there we flipped of the headlamps and sat down on a fallen log to listen to some bugles while we waited for the sun to come up. Not sure how long we were sitting there when all of a sudden Jay starts a dead sprint into the meadow yelling "Holy $#%^, Holy @#$#...." Instinctively I started running after him thinking that there was something behind us ready to attack, and according to him there was. A skunk. Thankfully no one got sprayed but it is funnier then heck watching a 6'4" dude scream like a girl even if he was leaving me out to dry with our stinky friend.

 

Story 2: We were archery deer hunting in some of the low country in Unit 9 and opted to take our lunch break on the side of a ridge that had a trick tank at the bottom of it. While we were sitting there we heard the rumble of a diesel truck coming up the draw, and it was loud. After several minutes the two guys in the truck arrive and park next to the fence and get out to check out the tank. We are only 125 yards or so above them but they have no clue we are there to see them walk around the tank several times, go check out the handful of cameras hung on the water source, and hear them talking loudly. After about 5 minutes one of the guys goes back to the truck and grabs a cow call from the front seat and proceeds to start blowing on it. Well I couldn't help myself...and proceeded to let out a cow call of my own with my mouth (which is a horrible impersonation). Anyway, the guys hear this and instantly squat down and start looking around for the "elk". They blow their call and I answer. They call again and a answer again. This goes on for several rounds until Jay and I can't control our laughter and we both loose it. Well once these guys heard their "elk" laughing at them they got a little pissy and stormed out of there. It was all in good fun but these two guys didn't think so. If one of you are reading this, I'm sorry....sorta.

[cardawg]

In the early 80's I was on a Elk hunt, up near Meeker Colorado. On the first day we had to ride in to camp on horseback,it was about a 4 hour ride,anyways were going along this steep part of the trail,dropoff on one side and sheer cliff on the other,finally we reach the end and the trail takes a hard right,just then the guide whos in the lead,his horse spooks and jumps over to one side and almost looses him.He's yelling and screaming at the horse,trying to figure out what the heck caused all the excitement,and at about the same time we all seen the cause,about 20 yards up the trail,about 20 feet up in a tree,we see about 5 ft of toilet paper flying around,and yep! sure enough theres a guy in a tree stand trying to get his pants up,guess he didnt hear us comming and when we made the turn at the top of the trail , and we rode right in on em.

[Mathews]

It was a few years ago, (acutally about 26 years ago) but I was up on Kiabab for the archery deer hunt. Young at the time and not knowing too much about deer hunting. I seen some deer moving up theis draw in the morning. I decided to sit that the draw the next morning. I got up there early and was sitting next to a large pine tree. I thought that I was doing good just sitting in front a large pine tree. I didnt even constuct a blind of any sort.

A lot of critters came up that draw that morning but nothing worth shooting. I was thinking about getting up and moving to another area when another hunter started up theis draw. He was in full camo and just walking up in my direction. He was an older gentleman ( I could see some gray on the sides). anyways, as he got closer to me it appeared as though he seen me and started toward me. He walked up and set his bow down on the ground and leaned against the tree that I was sitting sgainst. he then started to sit down next to me.

It was then that it happened..... I asked him how he was doing. Wrong thing to do!!!!!!! It was at that point that I realized that he had NO idea that anyone was within miles of him. He jumped up and startd to run,,,,, then turned around and started to call me every name in the book!!!!!!! Told me that it was not nice to scare the @#$% out of people. He then picked his bow up and his hat and stomped back down in the direction that he came. I often wonder what stories he has had to tell about that day. Who knows he might read this and have a reply.

This one made me laugh the hardest by FAR!

[skeeter]

Good stories. Back a few years ago I went night fishing alot on Canyon Lake. One night I was at the very back where the sand bar is,& they were pumping water back into Apache so the current was real strong going the opposite direction it normally goes. I keep hearing some pebbles falling into the water on the other side & I shine my light over there to see two young bighorns bedded on a ledge about 15' above the water. Then I notice one is slowly sliding down the slope toward the edge & can't stand up. If he falls in the water the only place to get out is all the way across the other side. I am thinking I can 'herd' him to safety with my boat if this happens & continue fishing. I then later hear the splash & grab my light but can't see it anywhere. I turn the trolling motor on hi & go around the corner & can see something floating ahead. Sure enough there's the sheep floating dead in the water. It must have gotten sucked under due to the strong current & hit its head or something. Now I'm thinking, do I drag it into the boat or up on shore or what? Who's going to believe me? Then I've got this sheep in my boat in the middle of the night. I left it & called G&F when I got home, the guy I talked to sounded like he didn't really believe me but thanked me for the info anyways. I have more stories, my mom says I should write a book. "You have the craziest stuff happen to you when you're out"

[superdave]

I was working on my uncle's property just south of Anchorage in September of 01. I was building roads on a mountain side with an old Catapillar D-8 so my uncle could subdivide and sell some lots. I had gotten the dozer stuck on a spruce stump half way up the mountain, and was walking down the mountain to get shovels and chainsaw(another story). As I came to a "T" intersection in the road I had just pushed in, I looked to my left and saw the rearend of a juvinile bull moose down the road. I could see horns sticking out on both sides of his rear end, but there were too many horns... Then I saw that there was another bull on the other side of him, they were sparring. My first thought was to get closer to see better. I walked quickly along the edge of the road trying to stay in the tree line, and got to a big dead spruce tree, and figured it was a good place to hide behind the tree. At this point the 2 bulls are about 30 yards away from me. This is when I noticed the bigger bull is on the other side of me. Sure enough, he started pushing the lesser bull backwards, right toward me. Even though they are not mature bulls, these guys are the size of clydsdales. When they are about 15 yards away, I looked at the dead spruce, and realized the branches were way too close to try to climb, all the while thinking "he won't push him this far"... about 10 seconds later, the 2 bulls were right next to the spruce tree that I was behind, I could have reached out and touched either one of them on the antlers. Then the bull getting pushed smelled me, he turned his head to look at me and snorted, now they were both looking right at me. At this point, I did the only thing I could do, I pulled my 454 from the holster and cocked the hammer very quickly, and leveled it at the bull that had the best shot of hooking me. They must have been more surprised than I was, they both trotted off about 40 yards and stopped and looked back. I ran back to the cabin and got a disposable camera and returned to get some glamour shots...

[Kevin H]

A few years back, two buddies and I were hunting around the area of my cabin in the Chiricauaha Mtn. My buddy Jerry shot a buck in the morning and we took it back to the cabin to skin it out and hang it up. After skinning was done and deer hung high in a tree, we went into the cabin and had lunch and all fell asleep for an hour or so. My buddy Jim woke me up and said lets head out. we all got up and stimbled out toward my truck which was parked next to the hanging deer, still all half asleep. I was walking in front and Jim and Jerry started calling out to me from behind. I stopped and turned around to see them pointing at me and backing up saying bear! I turned around and there was a bear less than 15 yards from me. I ran toward the cabin (my rifle was in the truck) and the bear ran 10 yards away and turned around and started woofing at us and pounding his front paws on the ground. We all yelled at him from the porch and he eventually walked off. Jerry decided to stay behind to "guard" the deer until we got back from out evening hunt. Jim and I joked about coming back and finding a big pile of bear crap with his hat sitting on top of it, and left to try to kill our bucks.

 

We returned a few hours later after dark to find Jerry sitting on the porch and he was white as a ghost! The bear came back just shortly after we left and came up to the side of the porch where he was sitting, scarring him half to death. He fired a shot into the ground and scarred the bear off. An hour later, he was sitting on the porch and his nerves finally had calmed down. Out of nowhere, our neighbor's big black rottweiler quietly strolled up onto the porch without him seeing it until he was a few feet away and Jerry had another heart attack!

 

When we got back he was still shaking and told us he would never stand guard like that again! We still laugh at the story every time it is told!

[couesntime]

I was turkey hunting in the gila with a friend of mine that had never been hunting before. I have been going to the same place for 15 plus years at the time. We know just about everyone that hunts the area. It is kinda like a family reunion. It was the first afternoon of the hunt, and I take my buddy to the top of a ridge to listen and call just before dark to see if it is where we want to be in the morning. We sat there for about 1/2hr, when we heard a 4 wheeler coming closer and closer. The 4 wheeler stopped just out of sight from us and turned the bike off. I peeked around the corner and noticed it was Bruce (a guy I knew very well), I went back to my buddy and said this could get interesting. So with about an hour left of light, bruce starting making some hen yelps. I waited a minute, and with my voice made my best gobble. Bruce again did some yelping, again I gobbled. Bruce grabbed his gun off the rack and did an Elmer Fud slow walk in the direction of the "gobble". I gobbled again, and bruce got a little lower and slower. My buddy and I were trying to keep it together and not laugh our rearends off. when Bruce got close enough, I let off another gobble and I jumped and said dont shoot Bruce, Its me! We laughed for 20 min. and headed back to camp. The best part of the whole story was when the whole canyon caught wind of the story, and Bruce (the almighty turkey hunter) was out played by me. I wish we had the video camera, for we would have won something on Americas funniest videos! Every year we still laugh at Bruce for his Elmer fud like hunting tactics. My buddy loves coming with me on the annual turkey hunt!

[COOSEFAN]

This great thread needs to be brought back up!!!

 

 

I've got tons of crazy stories, don't know why other than because I spend a lot of time in the woods I guess.

 

Probably the craziest thing that's happened to me was when I got attacked by several Coues does. My brother had a late season rifle deer tag and I had the archery tag. We were bored mid day so while sitting on a small rock bluff surrounded by cactus and shin daggers we used a fawn in distress call to see what we could call in. Immediately 3 does came haulin' butt towards us, blowin' and stomping the whole way. They eventually came up to my side of the bluff and began to climp up individually to get at me! There was just a small spot in the boulders that they could climb up and that put their heads within arms length of my face! I knew if they got up with us we were either going off into the cactus or getting our butts kicked bad. I was actually scared enough that I was yelling at my brother to shoot em'! The first doe was clawing at the bluff and blowing in my face just as I hit her square on the head with a rock! As she slid back down a second doe came up and was getting higher and closer to me so I just started swinging and hitting her with my fist. She then slid down and all three does started calming down a bit but were still bristled up, stomping and blowing violently while walking in a circle below me! I stood up and just started throwing more rocks at them. The whole time that this took place, while fearing for my life and limb, my brother was rolling on his back trying to breathe because he was laughing so hard. Those does were lucky the rifle wasn't within reach of me!

 

I've since used that fawn in distress call while hunting to bring in deer and it's worked several times but never with the same intensity those Coues does had! Thankfully!

[COOSEFAN]

Here's another....

 

While scouting for Antelope with my bro n' law we found this young bull. He was miles from the nearest trees and it was scorching hot out! The fence you see in the pics is what was keeping him from making it to the shady treeline and nearest water source. His health appeared bad enough that he couldn't jump the fence and acutally couldn't stand when we first found him.

 

I opened a gate not far from where he was laying and then went back to get em' up.

 

 

 

 

Once I got em' up I tried to splash water on his face and mouth.

 

 

 

 

He was gaining strength but instead of running from me he just stood and growled, sounding just like a dog! I finally got him to drink out of my hand and his comfort level with me grew. He actually started getting aggressive with the bottle of water so I just stuck it in his mouth! He amazingly held it with his lips and tipped his head up and drank from the bottle!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that I taught him to drink from the bottle, we gave him all the bottles we had and then started filling bottles with the melted ice in the ice chest. Once he finally drank every last drop of water we had, I held up an empty bottle and showed it to him and said "All gone, No more buddy"...and he didn't like that!!! He started growling again and charged me! I put my hand between his spikes and with him pushing as hard as he could and me running backwards I somehow managed to clear the fence to safety!

 

 

 

 

We packed up all the empty bottles while the bull just paced back and forth on his side of the fence growling at us! We got back in the truck and left the open gate for him and drove out of sight. We gave him about a half hour and came back to check on him and he was gone with only elk tracks visible thru the gate headed for the trees!

 

That was an amazing experience and one I'll never forget. I've always wondered how long that bull survived, I do know that he at least made it to the comfort of the shady treeline with restored hope! JIM>

[couesobsession]

Couesfan, out of all the threads so far, yours is the most unbelievable. If it werent for the pictures, I would probably called BS (at least in my head). Anyways, thanks for sharing! It was a fantastic read and very interesting. All these other stories have also been great. Keep them coming!