I've had a skunk almost crawl in the brush blind with me once. A goat came through the swamp to my calls and I have to assume he had escaped somebody's farm and just lived wild.
How about you, had any unusual mammal encounters when you're hunting turkeys?
Jim
I had a mink come running down a logging road packing a baby rabbit. He got within few feet of me and dropped it and ran off.
Mine would have to be some crack heads that had been up all night in some public land, that's why I always carry more than three!
No mammal story,but I was hunting Wisc. several years ago with a River not to far away from where I set up. Between my calls I heard something slowly making its way in behind me thinking maybe it was a Gobbler sneaking in. It was heading right up alongside of me from behind.When it got right by me and about the time i was thinking wow this is going to be good I moved my eyes to see what it was. Ohhh Crapppp no Tom Turkey it was a Great Big Snapping Turtle.
Great topic.
I swear this story on my life. I was deer hunting about nine years ago with a buddy around midwest GA and we jumped a kangaroo (no pun intended). We both saw it look right at us and hop away very quickly and dart through a barbed wire fence. Even left some hair on the fence. Front legs never touched the ground. We both know what we saw and still get ridiculed to this day. And yes we were both sober and it was around 11am. There are farms that raise wallabies and kangaroos in GA but my research found nothing in that area. We know what we saw that day and I can't explain it.
Quote from: KentuckyHeadhunter on April 23, 2018, 10:20:42 PM
Great topic.
I swear this story on my life. I was deer hunting about nine years ago with a buddy around midwest GA and we jumped a kangaroo (no pun intended). We both saw it look right at us and hop away very quickly and dart through a barbed wire fence. Even left some hair on the fence. Front legs never touched the ground. We both know what we saw and still get ridiculed to this day. And yes we were both sober and it was around 11am. There are farms that raise wallabies and kangaroos in GA but my research found nothing in that area. We know what we saw that day and I can't explain it.
I've seen some roos in a paddock down the road from some public land I hunt. If I ever see one while hunting, I'll know where it came from.
Quote from: Cut N Run on April 23, 2018, 09:40:44 PM
I've had a skunk almost crawl in the brush blind with me once. A goat came through the swamp to my calls and I have to assume he had escaped somebody's farm and just lived wild.
How about you, had any unusual mammal encounters when you're hunting turkeys?
Jim
Had emu come in someone had turned loose
Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk
Also not turkey, but during rifle season I was sitting up against a rock wall. I saw something move out of my peripheral and turned. Fisher cat walking right towards my head????. Stopped dead when he saw me and ran back a few yards up and 15 feet up a tree and sat there and watched me for a minute. Was happy he didn't get any closer.
Would love to post a picture of him, butt i aint tha smert,
Otters - the "bunny huggers" think they're cute but they can be quite aggressive. Last turkey season had to dodge a family group of them while crossing a small creek. Big surprise when I heard the clicking chatter.
Quote from: 1iagobblergetter on April 23, 2018, 10:06:41 PM
No mammal story,but I was hunting Wisc. several years ago with a River not to far away from where I set up. Between my calls I heard something slowly making its way in behind me thinking maybe it was a Gobbler sneaking in. It was heading right up alongside of me from behind.When it got right by me and about the time i was thinking wow this is going to be good I moved my eyes to see what it was. Ohhh Crapppp no Tom Turkey it was a Great Big Snapping Turtle.
I've also had a snapping turtle come through my setup, not what what I was expecting.
Called in a mountain lion while hunting New Mexico. Knew no one would ever believe me unless I got video.
https://youtu.be/5OV52TL1A1E
Keep that lion bro, I only had a skunk sniff my boot before. I guess I can stay still, cuz I wanted to run, lol. Ended well, my buddy Joe's daughter shot a nice tom right at that spot not 10 minutes later :turkey2:
Saw an alpaca on public land while bow hunting once.
WOW.....I am boring as hell. Kangaroos, mountain lions on video.....I had what I fear may be a small timber wolf come out and messed with my flock out of range of me, they putted and it loped out of the field. He had coloration of a coyote, but his stride was "loping" not a short legged trot like most my yotes do in my area. They have been sighted in our area. I have been scared by sneaky house cats, and an occasional farmers dog wanting an ear rub. I once was woke up by a fawn pulling my bootlace. That little thing woke me up, and I was able to harvest a turkey that was strutting right behind it.
Called up an elk and a bear on the same trip to TN a few years back. A big black bear at 80 yards makes you take notice!
Quote from: Happy on April 24, 2018, 07:05:47 AM
Saw an alpaca on public land while bow hunting once.
Nawww.. That was probably mine. I use him to pack my turkey hunting gear.. :funnyturkey:
Hunting a beech ridge a few years ago, I had a bear come into less than 30yds before I knew it was there. As soon as it got my wind it was outta there.
Quote from: KentuckyHeadhunter on April 23, 2018, 10:20:42 PM
Great topic.
I swear this story on my life. I was deer hunting about nine years ago with a buddy around midwest GA and we jumped a kangaroo (no pun intended). We both saw it look right at us and hop away very quickly and dart through a barbed wire fence. Even left some hair on the fence. Front legs never touched the ground. We both know what we saw and still get ridiculed to this day. And yes we were both sober and it was around 11am. There are farms that raise wallabies and kangaroos in GA but my research found nothing in that area. We know what we saw that day and I can't explain it.
You good ol' boys needs ease up on the moonshine!
1980 or 81. My cousin was down from West Virginia. We were in Green Swamp WMA in central Florida where I grew up. We were close to the Withlocoochee. I see what I thought was a small gator walking towards us. My cousin being from WV was terrified of gators and was nervous about them the whole trip. When this thing got closer I could see it wasn't a gator but some type of lizard about 5 foot long. It walks to within about 15 feet of us and sensed something wasn't right and made a turn into some palmetto's, may have smelled my cousin! My cousin nervously asked me what was that, and I told him it was just a lizard and they help keep the gator population in check. I have no idea what kind it was but it was definitely some type of lizard.
Quote from: 1iagobblergetter on April 24, 2018, 01:13:31 PM
Quote from: Happy on April 24, 2018, 07:05:47 AM
Saw an alpaca on public land while bow hunting once.
Nawww.. That was probably mine. I use him to pack my turkey hunting gear.. :funnyturkey:
Well tell your alpaca to quit looking at people like they are idiots. I swear when I talked to it it just stared at me like I was beneath it and walked off.
Last year I was not going to be able to hunt due to shoulder surgery so I went out a few days before the season started with my camera and just about the time the light was coming up a skunk came straight up my trail and was heading right at me. May not have been so worried but because of the way the ground was I was not able to stake the blind out (Chair blind) so the skunk could have come right in.
I did not know what to do so I slapped at my blind a few times and slowly closed all the windows I could without upsetting him.
He started to advance at me again so I slapped at the blind again and yelled "Get" at him, that is when I really got worried as he turned and lifted his tail. This happened twice and I thought I was done for. The only 2 things I could think were even with the windows closed I am not going to get out of this smelling to good." The other thing I though is "that I love me girlfriend and I am thankful she bought me this blind for my birthday but she is going to get mad at me because if this blind get's sprayed it is staying right where it is!"
After what seemed a lifetime the skunk finally went back the way it came which was the only trail down and I just said screw it and tossed my stuff in my hip pack that I had repacked as all this unfolded tossed it down the hill to the road edge and slid down the hill. No way I was going to follow that trail out!
Other than that a chipmunk on my boot back when I was still able to sit on the ground, He was fun to watch.
Oh my GF had this clay skunk made for me right after so I would not forget the altercation.
I was hunting Spring gobblers in southern NY with my cousin one year and we heard a large animal running through the mountain laurel toward us. It got close and winded us and made a mad dash and made a sudden stop in the open when I called again. Lo and behold, it was a wolf. We have well over 50-years of hunting experience between us and we knew what we saw was NO coyote. It was huge and residents in the nearby areas have trailcam photos of wolves from the area. And yes, we were sober and it was only 10 or 11 am when we experienced this encounter.
Very many years ago, before cell phones and digital cameras, I was hunting some public land and was calling with a box call I made. The area I was hunting was near a pond within a couple of hundred yards of a road. I heard a car door slam and figured some idiot heard my calling and was going to bust my setup. A few minutes later a young woman approached the pond, looked around and took off her clothes and started taking pictures of herself with a Polaroid.
Best mammal I ever saw in the woods...and NO, the call ain't for sale. :drool:
Quote from: CrustyRusty on April 24, 2018, 03:32:17 PM
Very many years ago, before cell phones and digital cameras, I was hunting some public land and was calling with a box call I made. The area I was hunting was near a pond within a couple of hundred yards of a road. I heard a car door slam and figured some idiot heard my calling and was going to bust my setup. A few minutes later a young woman approached the pond, looked around and took off her clothes and started taking pictures of herself with a Polaroid.
Best mammal I ever saw in the woods...and NO, the call ain't for sale. :drool:
:z-winnersmiley:........what type of wood?.....the combination on the box that is :TooFunny:
Quote from: KentuckyHeadhunter on April 24, 2018, 03:39:58 PM
Quote from: CrustyRusty on April 24, 2018, 03:32:17 PM
Very many years ago, before cell phones and digital cameras, I was hunting some public land and was calling with a box call I made. The area I was hunting was near a pond within a couple of hundred yards of a road. I heard a car door slam and figured some idiot heard my calling and was going to bust my setup. A few minutes later a young woman approached the pond, looked around and took off her clothes and started taking pictures of herself with a Polaroid.
Best mammal I ever saw in the woods...and NO, the call ain't for sale. :drool:
:z-winnersmiley:........what type of wood?.....the combination on the box that is :TooFunny:
:z-winnersmiley: :agreed: :TooFunny:
Quote from: CrustyRusty on April 24, 2018, 03:32:17 PM
Very many years ago, before cell phones and digital cameras, I was hunting some public land and was calling with a box call I made. The area I was hunting was near a pond within a couple of hundred yards of a road. I heard a car door slam and figured some idiot heard my calling and was going to bust my setup. A few minutes later a young woman approached the pond, looked around and took off her clothes and started taking pictures of herself with a Polaroid.
Best mammal I ever saw in the woods...and NO, the call ain't for sale. :drool:
As the young folk say..... That's epic.
Quote from: KentuckyHeadhunter on April 23, 2018, 10:20:42 PM
Great topic.
I swear this story on my life. I was deer hunting about nine years ago with a buddy around midwest GA and we jumped a kangaroo (no pun intended). We both saw it look right at us and hop away very quickly and dart through a barbed wire fence. Even left some hair on the fence. Front legs never touched the ground. We both know what we saw and still get ridiculed to this day. And yes we were both sober and it was around 11am. There are farms that raise wallabies and kangaroos in GA but my research found nothing in that area. We know what we saw that day and I can't explain it.
4 of us saw one dead on the side of 16 one year and other than us four, no one believes us. I asked my Dad what he thought it was and he said," what did you think it was" I said a kangaroo and he said "that's exactly what I thought", so I called my cousin in a truck behind us and posed the same question, got the same reaction of him not wanting to say it first, I said kangaroo and that was his thoughts too.
Not turkey season but in early bow season for deer, I was sitting on a ridge above Lake Allatoona and saw a couple slip into what they thought was a secluded cove and begin to get busy.
Quote from: deerhunt1988 on April 24, 2018, 05:20:42 AM
Called in a mountain lion while hunting New Mexico. Knew no one would ever believe me unless I got video.
https://youtu.be/5OV52TL1A1E
Yours wins... But I would have stopped calling.
I jumped a lion from an old abandoned mobile home last year... I have a habit of looking in and checking it out, and I do so far more cautiously now... I popped my head in, and he ran out the back window... It was a good thing I had on brown pants.
My most unusual encounter was watching a doe drop a fawn... I was in my 20's and very centered on killing a bird, but I stuck around to watch this experience with curiosity.
Back in the same time period, I used one of those hens with the moving head (you pulled on a string)... I called in a bobcat that attacked the decoy... When he hit that decoy, it startled him, and he jumped straight in the air... Would have beat any olympic high jumper.
Woman on a horse & a man leading his came right by me on a log road a few years ago. Kinda ticked me off because they seen my decoy in the log road but kept right on coming anyway.
Well in the UP of Michigan I called a wolf in to our set. My dad had a Emu come in. Not while turkey hunting but traveling to my hunting cabin up in northern Wisconsin, brother and I had just made a stop for gas and snacks, left the little town and a couple miles out of town we seen a elephant, well WI doesn't have a elephant population so we swung back into town, elephant got loose from a traveling circus and was not found.
MK M GOBL
Quote from: MK M GOBL on April 24, 2018, 10:24:32 PM
Well in the UP of Michigan I called a wolf in to are set. My dad had a Emu come in. Not while turkey hunting but traveling to my hunting cabin up in northern Wisconsin, brother and I had just made a stop for gas and snacks, left the little town and a couple miles out of town we seen a elephant, well WI doesn't have a elephant population we swung back to town, elephant got loose from a traveling circus and was not found.
MK M GOBL
There is a story around here about a guy that was the noted drunk in the area at the time and he was driving home one night and saw and elephant and right there swore on the spot he would never drink again and never did. There was a set of barns about 3 miles from there that a circus kept their animals and it had escaped from there. I have been in the barn in question a few times but well after the animals were removed.
Fox, skunk, coon, yotte, buzzard, and two turkeys.
The other day I pulled up to a gate on a powerline we have permission to hunt. The birds had been staying in a swamp bottom right off the lightline. So anyway I get out trying to strike a bird and hear crows raising cane across the field. I look and here comes a red fox across the field with a rabbit in his mouth. This went on for 45min. They run him in one block of woods and chased him till he came back out and went across the field with the rabbit in his mouth three times. Beats anything I seen.
Quote from: KentuckyHeadhunter on April 23, 2018, 10:20:42 PM
Great topic.
I swear this story on my life. I was deer hunting about nine years ago with a buddy around midwest GA and we jumped a kangaroo (no pun intended). We both saw it look right at us and hop away very quickly and dart through a barbed wire fence. Even left some hair on the fence. Front legs never touched the ground. We both know what we saw and still get ridiculed to this day. And yes we were both sober and it was around 11am. There are farms that raise wallabies and kangaroos in GA but my research found nothing in that area. We know what we saw that day and I can't explain it.
A couple guys I know were duck hunting in the fog, and heard some "weird" honking... Out of the fog came a flamingo... Apparently the bird came from an aviary, and the siting was verified by multiple other people...
One year pulled into a remote parking area on public land and saw a car already there and thought oh crap, but when my headlights went across the car a young lady jumped up bearing all. Being a gentleman I turned around and went to another spot.
Hunting west of Lake Okeechobee in Florida years ago, I jumped a couple of elk one afternoon. Didn't believe what I had seen until I told my host. He said elk had been planted on the property by the landowner decades before and that there were supposedly a few left, but rarely seen. The next evening right before dark I saw another bull elk close to the same area.
Another lion story: Here in NM, I was deer hunting across an open slope with trees and low-growing oak brush. I was walking along and out of some brush ten feet away, two young mountain lions suddenly sprang out and ran down the hill into a little ravine,...and didn't come out. I went down into the ravine where they had gone and they had backed into a small cave and just sat there looking at me with a "what do we do now" look on their faces.
I backed away and turned to walk away down the ravine. I walked about ten yards and the mother lion was coming up the ravine towards me, apparently looking for the yearlings. When she saw me, she turned and ran. ....Exciting stuff!...glad I had a rifle at the time!
I was running and gunning on a powerline this morning. My buddy and I had glassed some nice birds down the powerline that were gobbling their heads off. The only problem was that there was a fairly large wetland separated us from the birds. We skirted a half mile around the big wetland and saw a group of 3 beautiful longbeards up on a hill above us in the powerline probably 150 yards away all alone. There were some wet brushy area between us and birds so we got down on all fours and did our best to crawl as close as we could to them. My buddy has never been turkey hunting before this week so I've been calling for him. We get set up behind a pretty big tree stump that offered good protection from being spotted. Birds were 120 yards or so away now up and across the fair side of the powerline from us. I whipped the Bill Baublit purple heartwood over mahogany box out and gave the birds a series of nice soft yelps. They went off, they couldn't stop gobbling. Slowly and surely they were strutting their way down to us gobbling their brains out. They get at 80 yards and my buddy just says, "To the right!" I slowly swivel my head over to peak and there's just this black blob coming at us 30 yards away. Initially we both though it was just the fan of a turkey coming....not so fast. Big black bear was making a bee line towards us, and closing in fast. By the time I stood up and started yelling it was 20 yards away. It just sorta stopped and looked at us. It finally decided to turn around then casually made its way back to the treeline on the opposite side of the powerline and disappeared out of sight. Of course, the birds turned around and walked back where they came from. Did not putt or run, just sorta fast walked it back from the hill they were on. Darn shame too, one of them was an absolute monster for up here in Maine. The bear was a dandy as well, I bet it weighed around 300lbs. That's spring time weight too after hiberation, I bet in the fall that bear would go 400-500lbs. I've never seen a bear that big before in the woods. Ended up getting my buddy a double later around noon time on a couple of nice birds. Easily the most memorable hunt of my life for all species.
(https://i.imgur.com/jnCYVX3l.jpg)
Before I scared him off
(https://i.imgur.com/PnNelRUl.jpg)
Once he figured out we weren't a little hen to chow on
I saw a doe run across the road with a fawn hanging out the back of her. Just its front legs neck and head sticking out. Then had to explain to a five year old what we had just saw!!!