I was sitting peacefully in the stand and viewing some oncoming deer. Completely focused on the set up I suddenly felt a large pressure on my head. A over grown male fox squirrel had jump on my head from an overhanging branch, at least that what I thought after I had scared all the deer off and shot the big ol' sqir out of fear and frustration. Well, that was buy far the craziest thing that had ever happened to me in the woods...

Tim

A few years back, I was walking into a thick swamp area in Pike County PA for an early morning deer hunt with my bow. No light with me as I knew the trails leading to the swamp very well. My buddie and I had just split at the break in the trail.... each going our own way. About 50 yards up ahead the trail went on a steep uphill incline. In the faint lite of the brightening sky I could see movement... so I froze... something did not feel right... maybe just the darkness... maybe a smell in the air.... just a weird feeling. So I decided to just stand there until the woods got a little brighter. Still seeing movement, I begin to realize this is no deer ahead of me.... it is a very large black bear. We are about 30 yards apart and this guy is not taking off like they have done when I have walked up on them in the past. Now I am wondering if it is a mama bear with little ones nearby... or why it is not moving.
Needless to say, I began to back track and believe me.... those little hairs on the back of the neck are standing up at this point. Just a week earlier in these same woods I had an encounter with some coyotes.
So ... after an unsuccessful morning hunt.... my buddy and I meet up to swap stories.... he told me he had 2 bears walk by him right after light.... and when I told him about what I saw... he wanted to check it out.
So we went back to where the trail I was on took that steep up hill turn, and there at the top of the hill was a downed deer that this bear had been camped out on top of. He was not there when I returned with my my friend, but there was sign all over the place. This was the only time I ever hunted and saw more bears than deer.
DW

When I was about 17 or so we were out hunting coons in the daytime. We would hunt old farm sites. We were in a old two story house.(The one with slanted walls upstairs and a real small attic.) I was the lightest one so I was elected to be hoisted into the attic. The attic was eight ft wide and 3 ft high. A little tight to say the least. Well it is dark so I flip on my trusty flashlight and look around. I see nothing so I try and turn around. I look the other way and there is a coon staring at me about 8 ft away. No big deal. I was using a marlin semi auto 22 that day. I put the sights on him and let one go and he just roles on his side. I thoughtI hit him in the head but I was wrong. I missed to one side and after the shock wore off he was really mad! Well he charges me and I am trying to get the gun back on him and to get off my knees. I am now sitting on my but and he hits me in the chest. I am screaming like a girl by now and my two friends are freakin out down in the house.He crawls under my right arm and is biting my coat and sqealing like crazy.(As was I) The whole time I am beating him with my flashlight and yellin at him. He finaly lets go and runs down the attic the other way. I regained my self and found my gun and put a few rounds into him and it was over. I had blood all over my flashlight from hitting him and the gun gained a few scares from being thrown about but I was without a scratch exept for my pride from all the screaming and sqealing. I am glad I was not useing my pistol that day or I would have shot myself for sure!!

Pretty funny stuff, keep em coming

I was in FL Hog and Alligator hunting. We were sitting in the blind on night and a herd of hogs came up the game trail and i stuck one with my bowof course it and the surrounding few darted off but the ones that where bringing up the rear stuck to the trail. So the gentleman that i was down there hunting with handed me the shotgun and said to take another. So i picked out about a 120 pound boar and shot. After the shot gun roared everything was gone. The one i took with the gun didnt go far so we grabbed a light and took to tracking the hog that i stuck with a bow. we had tracked the hog for probably 60 yards in the thick FL swamp when the flash light went dead. So i stayed with the blood and wayne went to the truck to get another light. he returned shortly but this time without a gun. Now we were around 90 yards back in the swamp and it was getting late. Suddenly a BlOOD CURDLING ROAR sounded just yards ahead of us. Wayne imidiatly shut off the light and said "stand still and be quite" so we stood there ears ringing from the listening so hard. after 30 secounds there was a rustle in the brush followed by another heart dropping roar. i was starting to get a lil scared now cause id been told how bad a hog could tear u up. so we started to sneak out of the swamp. Suddenly i stepped on a stick and we herd a heck of a comotion and another roar wayne wheeled around with the light to see about a 450 lb boar standing just a few yards away. all i herd next was RUN!! i come to a stop laying face down in the water under the truck wayne was right at me heels. the boar never did come into the open and neither of us got hurt. Afterwords wayne looked at me with a big grin on his face and said" u know u only had to be faster than one person". we came back in the mourning and found the hog that i shot just a few yards from where the boar stopped us. but a bear had beat us to it and it was pretty well cleaned up

Well mine happened while I was running the trap line. I had set a dirt hole set for a yote or a fox. I could see where the trap was from about 400 yards. I was so excited that I had nabbed me a yote (trapped 21 in all that year). Problem was he had to of his buddies standing there with him. Well they took off when they saw me. As I am approaching this yote he goes nuts. Ends up pulling the stakes from the ground (18 in. stakes in frozen ground). Im about 10 yards away and this thing is free now. I about $*!# my pants. I all had was6 shot 22. Thank God he decided it was time to get out of there.

Good stories... Grouse give me a start sometimes, and when you walk up on a bedded deer and it lets out a loud snort and starts crashing through the brush.

One time I was walking through an apple orchard, not hunting, but just going for a stroll. The orchard was pretty overgrown, hadn't been cared for in about 10 years. There were raspberries and blueberries everywhere. Well as I walked under this one apple tree, that had alot of tall grass and raspberries growing around it, I hear something let out a grunt about 5 feet from me and storm off towards the edge of the woods about 15 yards away. It gave me quite a start, and as I looked I saw a little black furball of a black bear cub running off. My brain registered what it was immediately, and I knew that momma bear couldn't be too far, and my guess was that if she saw her little cub all upset, she wouldn't be to happy about it. Needless to say I hauled @$$ outta there pretty fast.

I need depends! lol

Tom

I thought of another that didn't really spook me, but it sure did give me a jolt of adrenalin real quickly. I was set up to the back right of my buddy who was kind of side saddle with his right shoulder pointing at me. He was about 15 yards in front of me. I was the turkey caller and he was the gunner. We had set up near the edge of a field we'd seen birds in before. I was back in the pines. I'm calling with the mouth call when I saw my buddies eyes get big and with his thumb signal something was behind me. I turned and found myself eyeball to eyeball with the biggest coyote I ever saw. He was hunkered down just boring holes in me from about 10 yards. My gun was just leaning against a fence and tree junction. I reached up slowly and grabbed the barrell. The coyote stood there staring at me until I had eased it through the strands of the barbed wire and got my other hand on it. At that point I figured he'd never seen a turkey with a browning and switched ends going into blur. I blew a lot of fur out of his butt but didn't get him. Afterward we figured out he was intent on eating the sweet sounding hen he'd heard.