fgdcd

This last weekend I was out hunting and I was sitting in a brush blind in some pine trees. I was looking over a field and all of the sudden I saw a flash of white out of the corner of my eye and I looked over to my right and saw a skunk about 4 feet from me. It was just walking around looking for something. It scared the living hell out of me I figured if I shot it it would spray its stuff so i just sat still and he walked into the brush and I couldnt see it. I thought about running but I couldnt find any easy way to get out. But luckly he turned around and walked back across the field. Any one else ever have encounters with skunks.

TreeDreamer

I am a trapper also...I have had more bumpins with skunks than I care to remember. Not shooting that skunk with an arrow was the best decision you made on that hunt, that is, if you wanted your arrow back.

Jackson Bowner

Last year walking into my stand on opening morning of bow season I just about stepped on one. I was walking down my old abandoned railroad grade. I had no light on because there there was enough moonlight when out of my peripheral vision i see some white reflection right at my feet. It startled me because it moved so i stopped and froze, turned on my flashlight and there he was...Phew! close call.

Best thing to do is just not panic. It is unlikely that a skunk is going to spray just for the heck of it. Spraying is a defensive mechanism and a response to an immediate treat. However, if you had walked towards it, maybe. Just sitting there or standing there is probably not going to result in getting a blast 9 times out of 10. Then again, are you a gambling kind of guy?..haha

Matt/TN

skunks are the animals that make me weary of the dark and im not joking a bit [:'(]

Ken/WV

Walked up on 1 or 2 in the last few years going into the stand on dark mornings. Definetly grateful I have never been sprayed.

pjhunts

I came upon a family of skunks this summer on our road, and I got the bright idea to try to catch one of the young ones (I've always heard that they make good pets if you have them descented)They weren't very big , about the size of a 2 month old kitten, Ididnt' think they could spray at that young age. Well to make a long story short, I WAS WRONG! I think all 7 of those little stinkers sprayed me.

crzy4hunting

Twice, once well walking in to go Turkey hunting..saw something coming down the trail at me under the moon light so I put my light on it and froze (me not the skunk) I stood still pointing my shotgun at it and at 10 yards it saw me and just turned and ran. The second was going in for a morning gun hunt. Walking along the edge of a field and out of now where one comes out of the shin high field. I stopped and it just walked right past like I wasn't there at only 5 yards. I don't want a third time, because the third is a charm and with my luck it will be the skunks charm.

chiefks

I've had them under my deer stand more than once. Had one come by a field edge about 6-8 feet away, I was hideing in honey suckle. None ever knew I was there.

c_str

Went spring gobbler hunting one morning, real foggy morning. Did my usual calling and walking bit. Started walking to a new spot, and saw a big gray squirrel on the ground. Kept walking, and thought to myself, damn, that squirrel is BIG! Nice big fluffy tail. It was so foggy that I coudn't tell it was a skunk, until I was close enough so that there was absolutely no hope of even thinking about running away. He was standing statue still, with his tail up and his back end pointed directly at me. I remember thinking Oh My God I am in point blank range of a skunk, loaded and aiming right at me. I almost pissed myself, has to be without a doubt the most I have ever been scared in the woods, and I've seen rattlesnakes, copperheads, a black widow spider, been chased up a tree by a blank angus cow fishing, have had wild dogs track after me, seen a dozen bears out in the wild, nothing scared me like this.
There we both stood not moving, him aiming at me, and I had my shotgunaimed at him, not sure what to do. From my trapping days I knew if I shot, spray was coming out for sure. So in the end, I slowly backed away from him, praying up a storm, and he slowly lowered his tail. Never got sprayed, lady luck was on my side that day. Boy was I shaky once I backed up enough to get safe.

c_str()

dkbs

I remember when I was sixteen on my very first whitetail hunt, my dad showed me a spot and left. As I sat on the ground I heard ruslting in the leaves at dawn. I look and here comes this skunk who walked right next to me before heading offas I sat deadly still.Probably the stillest I've ever been on stand.
I always joked later I don't know what scared me more, the skunk spraying me or the 110 mile walk hunt if he had. Luckily he just went about his business.

Dan