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There is a lot of wildlife where I hunt, including Jackrabbits and these suckers are huge as far as a rabbit goes. They won’t move until you are almost right on top of them, and since I'm walking with my head down and they blend in to the grass so well, they always startle me when they take off running. I'm curious to hear stories of critters found while hunting.
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Kevin - North/Central Texas -
Great topic
Look to the ground for it holds the past! -
A friendly male pit bull who decided my hunting companion, a Standard poodle, was just too gorgeous to resist. His amorous advances defied my walking stick, direct hits from oyster shells, and even a kick in the butt.
Unfortunately we were a half mile from my Jeep and Guinness literally dragged him down the beach. I laugh when I think about it now, but at the time I was ready to shoot that dog. He ruined a really good hunt. 😂Child of the tidesComment
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Agreed...great topic. I hunt grain fields almost exclusively so there are not any wildlife encounters that I can recall. I have always thought about the southern and western hunters that run across some slithers and other creatures as well. That jackrabbit blends in pretty darn good.The chase is better than the catch...
I'm Frank and I'm from the flatlands of N'Eastern Illinois...Comment
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Baba, I was hunting with two friends. I was a top a hill and looking down on a bench that looked good. (It was a great camp )
so I started down the hill at a faster pace than normal. I took a step and heard the rattle of a viper underneath my feet.
not sure but was walking backwards on air more like a triple back flip which got me six feet away I saw the snake and my footprint about a foot apart. I shot six times and did not come close my friends came running and laughed at my shaky hands and the snake in a standoff.Look to the ground for it holds the past!Comment
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I've run into all sorts of wildlife and such, but the biggest spooks were an angry wild turkey, an angry beaver (beavers can kill, look it up!,) a plain old garter snake, and even a toad -- when you see something jump when you're not expecting anything to be jumping, even a toad can spook you.Comment
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I do see a lot of critters when I'm out searching but where I actually look is grain field. Ya know come to think of it I did have a fawn scare the pants off me when I was crossing a creek to another field and about stepped on it. Couldn't have been more than 3 days old but it took about 3 years off my life...Last edited by BabaORiley; 02-23-2018, 02:53 PM. -
Was walking a creek in the summer and spooked a turkey resting in the bushes beside me. I was about 5 feet away and almost fell over when it erupted from the bushes
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One time when I was working as a ground magnetic oil surveyor I had a line I was walking in North Dakota. I got to a base of a hill and the sagebrush was tall and the ground was with knee high grass I started across it and got half way when a rabbit under foot ran at the same time a June bug made its rattling sound. I thew my ten foot ion staff which I was tethered to and took off only to be jerked back and landing on my south end. After collecting my thoughts I realized what happened.
that job was great they paid me to walk all day and hunt artifacts I just had to take a reading from the magnetometer every 16th of a mileLook to the ground for it holds the past!Comment
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Many Thing's and People. I have found big track's, one time with blood but here's a Critter that I made a Topic about.
https://forums.arrowheads.com/forum/...t-my-best-spotLast edited by JoshinMO; 02-23-2018, 03:30 PM.Comment
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You took a nice pictureSouth DakotaComment
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The strangest animal encounter I ever had while point hunting was when a spirit deer walked right up to me and started talking to me. Not sure what he said but did a bunch of grunts and just stared at me. This deer was not just partially white but was black and white. Have seen pie balds before but never a black and white deer.
N.C. from the mountains to the seaComment
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More than once I've been startled by a deer. I was checking trail spots one day when I had to retie my shoe. I happened to be on a flat area at the top of a somewhat steep 8ft hill. I was crouched down with my back to the hill about 3 and half yards away from it when I heard rumbling animal feet quickly coming my way, as I turned to look, three deer hit the top of the hill at full speed straight in my direction. They saw me, stopped on a dime, then turned around and ran the other way. Happened pretty quick. Gave me a moment of jitters.Comment
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Coming up on a really big animal den . That always makes me back up slowly .
always invest in a pair of good snake boots . It may save your life .Comment
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Where to start. The rabbits do spook you. Walked right over a rattler once, good thing was he was sound asleep in that nice warm sun, didn't budge. Three times dogs have run up on me and and I never saw them or heard them, they weren't little and scared the ____ out of me as they came into my line of sight.
Two raccoons walking toward me in the same row. We get closer and closer, I yell, I stomp my foot, I wave my arms one runs off the other keeps coming. We finally both stop, feels like high noon. I start chucking dirt clods, didn't do a good job of hitting him but he finally gave way.
A horse in the middle of an eighty acre field! Walked right up to him with my head down of course. Looked up and like! What? Sweet talked him and rubbed his nose. figured, okay, turned and started back down the next row, who decides to follow me? the horse and for two more rows after that!
Occasionally walk this little creek that borders a pretty good field for finds, no luck yet but hey you got to keep the faith right? Following it down into a area with some wetland and in the brush eight feet in front of me up pops an eight point buck, we are face to face and he's snorting. I'm thinking this ain't good. We stand there looking at each other for what feels like a long time, him still snorting, my mind racing, what do I do? what do I do? I decided to make myself look big, spread my legs, raise my arms, jump up and down, yell. Glad to say that worked, he took off in the other direction. That one scared me good.Searching the fields of NW Indiana and SW MichiganComment
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Had forgotten about this one.... The land I hunt has goats, lots of goats. I haven't figured out why there are so many goats in that part of Texas, but there are lots of goats. So I was walking down a goat path with my head down and I hear whats sounds like a herd of buffalo running through the thicket. I look up and here comes some 50+ goats charging directly at me. Now I'm not scared of a goat, I'm not scared of ten goats, but 50 goats at 20 yards running at full speed directly at me got my attention. Your first instinct when 50 of anything is charging you is to be somewhere else, but I really didn't have anywhere to go. The leaders of the pack got about 3-4 feet from me, and slammed on the brakes and the other 45 circled me. At that point I wasn't sure if I was their god or their dinner. turns out it was neither, they thought I was there to feed them. I shewed and the rocks at them for the next 30 minutes trying to rid of them.Kevin - North/Central TexasComment
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On my last artifacting hike here in AZ I encountered 5 Javelina. They were headed west and I was headed north, so to speak. They were as surprised to run into me as I was to be crossing their path. They are very intimidating as they stop and stare at you momentarily, while assessing the situation, before letting out a loud WOOF! (like a large dog) then taking off like a herd of buffalo.
If you're not familiar with Javelina, think wild boars. Intimidating, yes, but for me, encountering any wildlife in their natural habitat is definitely a treat for me.
As CTex was describing above, I encounter a lot of Jackrabbits as well. They can stand 3 feet tall and unlike Cottontail rabbits, they stay vertical when fleeing as opposed to running on all four.Winters in Arizona, summers in Michigan's UP. What could be better?Comment
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