Weird deaths!

[ggpwr]

About five years ago, my dad and I were hunting a private ranch around Bayfield, CO during elk season. The whole week we were running across bears. Some on the trails, some in the woods and a big cinnamon one came down near camp and watered in a tank for about 30 min while we all stood and watched. Saw 13 bear that week. All that aside, the best story of the week came while we were sitting about 80 yds above a game trail. About 8-10 turkeys emerged from the scrub oak on the trail and were moving along. As they got right below us, a 200lb+ black bear dove out of the bush and pounced on one of the largest turkeys. An explosion of feathers and dirt erupted. When it cleared, the bear just moseyed away with a gobbler in his mouth. Not a bad dinner for him! So watch out for those Ninja black bears in Colorado....

[THE RIFLEMAN]

I saw an indian pull a dead lizard outa his keaster at the army induction center! The draft was on and Vietnam war was blazin!

[sjvcon]

Back in '93 or so, my buddy and I were archery hunting the Kaibab. After a few days of no luck, we ventured down into a deep, narrow canyon hoping to find some fresh sign and a well used game trail. All we found at the bottom was a 3x Mulie Buck impaled on the branch of a downed tree. Looked like it tried to jump higher and farther than it could. Was probably dead for weeks before we stumbled on it.

 

Should have tagged it....was the only Buck I got close to that trip.

[ready2hunt]

About 6 years ago I was helping my dad with a cow tag. I left him and went hiking to scout out an area so he could save his energy and knees.

 

Lo' and behold I stumbled upon a decent size herd feeding and milling about. There were only a couple of bulls and one decent size 6 pt. I sat there and watched them for a bit to see if they would move and was trying to figure out how I was going to get my dad up there for a shot at one of the cows.

 

At the time the 6 pt mounts a cow he was trailing and starts going to work makin' elk babies....out of no where I hear the boom from a rifle and see the cow fall to the ground dead, shot right out from under the bull. The bull looked down at her and then appeared as though he was trying to mount her on the ground. When she didn't respond he ran off with the rest of the herd. I looked around to see who would have shot a cow out from under this bull right in the middle of all that. Sure enough there was my dad on the edge of the clearing pulling his tag out of his wallet as though nothing had happpened.

 

I couldn't look at him at church the next day haha....it was a weird death.

[6ANut]

This lil burro would have been a weird death, but a pair of tin snips saves the day. The mom was making the wierdest noise and caught our attention while quail hunting near Lake Pleasant.

[skeeter]

A few years ago while fishing in the back of Canyon lake in te middle of the night I heard some scuffling on the ledge above me. It was pitch black that night & I put my spot light on two young desert rams bedded on the ledge. It soon became obvious that one was slowly sliding down the slick rock covered with loos pebbles with every move, At that time they were pumping water back into Apache lake & the current was very swift below them & there were steep sides on both sides of the lake. I figured if it went in maybe I could heard it toward the only place it could climb out. I anchored the boat & decided to try & get some sleep figuring I would hear it fall in. I soon heard it splash & jumped up w my spotlight but couldnt see it anywhere. I pulled anchor & turned the trolling motor up high, went around the bend in the direction of current & found the ram floating dead. I figured the powerful current must have sucked it down & drowned it almost insantly. Now I'm trying to figure out what to do with it, I don't want a dead ram on my boat in tha middle of the night!

I decided to leave it & i called g&f the next day but the guy sounded like he didn't believe me. Always wondered what became of it. Weird.

[elkiny]

Once when deer hunting in 19a I heard a terrible scream. I went to see what it was and it turned out to be a baby calf (moo cow) that was being attacked by 2 coyotes. The mother moo cow was chasing them around but one of the 2 coyotes would nip at the baby cow while the other was being chased by the mom cow. I set up for a long shot and blasted one of the coyotes, the other one ran away. That will teach them, I'm sure the rancher was happy.

[galiuro mountain man]

One August archery hunt about 7 years ago I was watching a whitetail doe and two fawns come into water. The doe and both fawns made it to the water and the doe got a drink, while the fawns ran around in the tall grass around the tank, it was funny, you could see the grass move and sometimes the tips of their ears. The doe finished and started off the water with fawns right behind her and it sounded like a small jet over my head. I looked up and a golden eagle was darting across the pond. The doe turned the direction it was coming from but it was too late. It hit the fawn that was about 10 yards to her left, and hit it so hard it popped like an arrow hitting ribs. The doe and other fawn took off. I could see the eagle and fawn good, it was only about 60 yards away, but looked through my binos to get a better look and before the eagle even started eating on the fawn, I noticed the fawn was nearly torn in half from the force of the eagle. I had seen eagles like that before, but never that close, it is a BIG bird.

 

On another trip to the same area I was watching a small group of mule deer does walking along a trail that goes to the bottom of a canyon that holds water year round. There is a section of the trail that goes about 5 feet from the edge of a 60 foot bluff for 50 or so yards. As the doe in the lead got to the end of the bluff she spooked and jumped up a 4 ft rimrock and all the deer exploded up the hill, except one, it exploded the wrong way, 60 feet head first. It was a nasty thud at the bootom and I still remember the sound like it happened yesterday. At least she died intantly, I went to the edge of the bluff I was on and she was done.

 

One of the saddest deaths, well two, I have come across is just south of my house. I hunt mule deer there a lot and I have never seen anything like this. There is an old homestead with an old concrete pool. It has always been pretty full and when we find animals they usually drown. Over the past few years with no water in the area and the well running low, the water dropped to just about a foot in it. We had just been out to the area two weeks or so before and we always check it for animals, we have saved four mulie does and one buck from it in the past, so it gets checked every time we are there. This time when we got there we could smell rot so we went to the pool. What we found was a fawn that had started to rot in the pool and a doe that the front end of her was tore up. the fawn we figured drown but we couldnt figure the doe out. She was fresh dead, not stinkin or bloated but dead. It took us a minute but we figured out she was trying to jump out but was slamming herself on the side of the wall. We found hair and blood in a corner, she had a broken leg and her chest was ground to burger. There was also an iron wood tree with a branch that dropped into the pool and there wasnt a leaf or twig left on it that she could reach, so she had ate on it for a day or two. We think she finally got too weak and gave up and drown.

 

Later that day we ran into a ranch hand and told him what we found, he had been there the day after us and the doe wasnt there, but they were going to build a way for animals to get out. I went back there after a month and the old pool was empty and they had a plastic holding tank and the pipe was pulled from the pool. Since then, nothing has been dead in it. We had told the previous ranch manager we would build an escape for the pool if he wanted, but he told us that he would take it out and to leave it alone. Im glad there is a new manager.

[muledeerarea33?]

This past weekend I was walking out the door, gun on my shoulder, binos around my neck, call in hand. Headed out varmint calling. As I exited the house I catch 3 coyotes about 100 yards away (I live in a remote area) I set all my stuff down on the steps, hurry inside to get the 22 rifle I keep by the front door and go after them. These same coyotes have been killin my outdoor cats the past few weeks, and destroying my rabbit population. I caught up with them just as I saw one grab a jack rabbit!!!! Another decided he wanted half of that rabbit and 50yards from me I watched them tear a live rabbit in half!! Yes, the rabbit in distress call sounds like a real rabbit, for sure!!!! I got a shot off on one of them head on and managed to shoot the butt end of the jack out of his mouth but no dead coyote.

[5fishrs]

Years ago near sycamore canyon in unit 8 we found a 6x6 bull that had a hind leg wedged between two small tree trunks that crossed. He had been dead for a few weeks but had thrashed so much he had dug a heck of a crater where he lay. He moved a lot of earth trying to get out.

Secondly, happened to be looking out the back window at dusk when an owl swooped down to grab a pet rabbit at a friend's house. That's when I learned about real rabbit distress sounds. And they learned why rabbit pens are important.

[azshtr]

Cool stories. Other than the usual stuff we all find while poking around the outback this is one that comes to mind: In 5bn walking the edge of a steep drop off, on a game trail, my brother and I stopped to listen to a rapidly growing sound coming at us. An elk calf came running past us so fast we had to quickly step aside or we would had a collision. She actually brushed us. The poor thing looked very panicked and winded. It clearly didn't care we were in it's way. Seconds later here come the coyotes. They see us and hit the brakes. It's didn't take long for them to regroup and duck into the forest to go around us. We could hear them go around to get back on the trail. By this time I'd guess the calf got an additional 50 yards distance, I like to think we gave the calf enough distance that she survived. Not a death story but it was cool.

[towerhouseclan]

My cousin and I were hunting up in unit 27 we were spot and stalking. After hiking all day we headed up the big hill fallowing a fence line up just when we hit the top we saw a nice coues buck tangled in the fence by his neck to bad it had to die slow

[joelpresmyk8]

Finally I have a story for you guys and I have forgotten it for a couple years!! Lol a few years back I was elk hunting and during the day we were going to check a fence line on the Polaris ranger. I was driving and had a buddy beside me. We were cruising down the dirt road at about 35 miles an hour and I hear my buddy yell "deer!!!!" And I look to the right and a huge muley buck is running towards us! Before I can even hit the brakes he runs in front of us and we literally miss him by inches. As he is hauling butt he jumps and kind of stumbles on a log. He slows to a trot and stops about 65 yards out. As we are staring at him he starts wobbling and falls over. We are in total shock and don't know what's happening. So we sneak up to him closer and closer until we are standing over him dead as can be. We go back to camp and call g&f to come look at it. When they got there they let us help guy it and man was it bad. He hit the log so hard his guts exploded ruptured a lung and the whole chest cavity was filled with blood!! I could not believe it!!

[bigorange]

My hunting partner and I found a whitetail buck in Texas and a mule deer doe on the North Kaibab that were both still alive after tangling a leg in the barbed wire fences they had tried to jump.

 

We released the whitetail, but it was so exhausted it couldn't get up. When we returned an hour later it was dead where we'd left it.

 

We ran two coyotes off the Kaibab doe when we drove up to a waterhole, and she still was bleating when we walked up to her. The coyotes had eaten on her rump and pulled out a section of her intestines. She died before we left.

 

I also found the skeleton of a big bull elk that had been caught by a rear hoof in the top two strands of a fence on the White Mountain Apache Reservation near the Big Bonito years ago when AZGFD still managed its wildlife. The fence ran around the side of a very steep hill, and the elk had died stretched out with his rear leg five or six feet above his head. He may have starved to death there.

 

Nature can be cruel by our standards.

 

Bill Quimby

 

Interesting thread...I missed this thread the first time around. We were scouting for elk in 27 watching a large herd in a meadow, listening to the cows talk as they started moving out of the meadow over the fence. Suddenly the whole herd stampedes the opposite direction and we hear the loudest, most intense cow talk I've ever heard...a cow had gotten hung on the fence and we could see her thrashing around on the ground trying to get loose. Wondering what to do about it, and whether we should try to help and the cow got loose. Whole herd moved off as if nothing had happened.

[Jo Hunter]

while sitting in a blind deer hunting i wached an owl swoop in on a squirel and miss, that poor squirel didn't come out from underneath that rock for at least an hour..