Spooky experiences turkey huntin........

[Tail Feathers]

strutnva, I had a somewhat similar experience one evening.  I was getting off the deer stand and a pack of 'yotes was yipping, howling and cutting up something fierce that evening.  They sounded REAL close too.
I got to my 4 wheeler and cranked it up, certain that sound would deter them from coming my direction.

It was full dark now, and I was riding along in 3rd gear or so, having put a half mile between me and the 'yotes when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye.  Something was running right on my back tire!  COYOTE!!!!

I did a dang wheelie on that 4 wheeler I tell you.  When I was confident that I had hit a hundred mph or so (on a Yamaha 250 ) I turned to look back and laugh at the creature I had left in the dust.

Rut Roh, he's still with me!!!
Concerned he may bite my face off, I courageously turned around, hoping to be able to identify the man eater should I happen to survive the impending mauling I was certain to receive.

Even on my adrenaline filled, heart pumping ride, I realized it was....a dog from a nearby farm. 
Guess he was afraid of the  coyotes too, he was flying right along with me to get the heck out of Dodge!
I loaded him in the back of the truck and dropped him off in front of the house I figured he belonged to.  He didn't waste much time heading under the front porch either.

[Neill_Prater]

Oh, i forgot to tell you, that was not the last of our encounters with that thing, they got worse, but I'm going to stop here or i'm going to have to take typing lessons.

Man, you had better tell the rest of the story, or I'm really going to be ticked!  I don't believe you mentioned what year this was? Just curious. Neill

[Neill_Prater]

Okay, I know this isn't technically on topic, but I just have to share it. I regularly turkey hunt on a military reservation in the South. I am pretty good friends with one of the game wardens. A couple of years ago, as he was patrolling during the night, he said a man crossed the road in front of him wearing a WWII uniform. The warden immediately stopped and called out to the man and searched for him with a flashlight, but found no sign of anyone. Makes you wonder, doesn't it? 

[tomstopper]

You need to carry more than three shels. Plus I would have shot the cat and would not have had to worry with him coming back.

My story took place in PA during spring gobbler season when I was 13. I had just got permission to hunt this farmers land down the road from my grandmothers and was used to hearing stories from my grandpa and his friends about having mountain lions in the area. Some people say that they are not in PA & NY but their are to many stories out there for them all to be just "stories". Anyway I had all of those stories in the back of my head that morning when I made my way across the cut in the middle of a corn field that was about 300yds long. Just hearing the corn rustling and thinking that at any moment something was going to jump out of the corn and grab me was spooky enough but I managed to stay on task and made it to the woods and up on the ridge. Turkeys started to gobble about 60yds on the opposite ridge just like the farmer had told me they would. I let all the fear leave me after hearing this and knowing that daylight was on the horizon. At about 7:30 I had been calling to this one gobbler since he flew out of the roost and had him coming in and was ready for him to come into view when all the sudden he just shut up. I went silent thinking he would break his silence first. Wrong. At about 8:00 i hadn't heard him for about 20min when i started to hear noise behind the tree i was sitting in. I thought it was him so at first i didn't move but after hearing it continue in my direction curiosity got the best of me and I started to peek around the tree to see what it was. I about pissed my pants. Less than 20 yds to my rear and moving at an angle was the biggest cat I have ever seen. It was orange-ish color and had a huge black tip at the end of its tail. I clicked the safety off my 12gauge and started to yell at it (truth be known I was probably screaming like a school girl). I immediately fired all my shells into the dirt knowing that the farmer would be up to pick me up when he heard them. This is when I realized that if the cat came back I had only my knife for protection. When the farmer appeared I ran to the 3 wheeler and was never so happy to leave the woods. To this day I always think of this when entering the woods. Some people still think I am making it up to this day but the farmer that picked me up that day believed me and said that he has never seen a 13yr old boy shake so badly in his life. Just writing this has given me goose bumps.

Thanks for the advice. That experience has taught me so much. Today I carry more than three shells but even if I had them with me then I am not sure but my thinking is that shooting that cat with turkey shot would have just pissed it off and I dont want to deal with that. I would like to think that I scared it to death like it damn near did me. 

[Crawdad]

Man, you had better tell the rest of the story, or I'm really going to be ticked!  I don't believe you mentioned what year this was? Just curious. Neill
[/quote]  Neill, I believe the year was 1982.

[tomstopper]

Great scary story.

Oh, i forgot to tell you, that was not the last of our encounters with that thing, they got worse, but I'm going to stop here or i'm going to have to take typing lessons.

X2..... But I would like to hear about more of these encounters please!!!

Please....

[saltysenior]

  scouted a grown over forest service road for the first time around parksville, s c one afternoon...decided to sit in a little oak grove alongside the road the next am...got to the grove in the dark and sat in a little depression while waiting for daybreak...a flat rock was hurtin' my butt so i laid it aside.... after it was good lite ,i noticed some scratching on the rock and about the same time a gobbler let loose about 100yrds away...i looked closer at the rock and it had a name and a dates etched on it....i'm sittin' on top [or in] this dudes grave and can't move....called and then sat real still waiting for the turkey....i swore i could feel movement under me....well, nothing else happened ,and when i got up, i observed many[about 8] grave size depressions in the grove w/ fallen or scattered rocks or pieces of slate w/ writing on them...   

the funny part, about a year later,i told the story to a FS ranger at a FS office....he said not to tell anyone about this place because of trouble the FS must go thru to protect and maintain site like this within FS lands....

[Jay]

Man, you had better tell the rest of the story, or I'm really going to be ticked!  I don't believe you mentioned what year this was? Just curious. Neill

Neill, I believe the year was 1982.
[/quote]
Well that creature couldn't have been my ex M-I-L, because I know where she was in 82, but probably the same family.

[hootn]

this didnt happen to me,
but many years ago at the railroad some of the old heads was telling the young guys then, about seeing some bobcats in the cut of the mountain here in birmingham. well one night on third one of the young guys was working a track near the cut an just so happens that he was thinking about the cats. well as he bends down something jumps on his back, under the coupler he goes and starts running back to the shanty at the other end of the yard over half mile away. of course he is a smoker and couldnt run far at a time. well he goes a ways stops and hears something gaining on him in the ballast. off he goes again. all the way back he slows down and hears"it" running behind him. when he hits the door to the shanty he tells everybody something is after him. the other guys go outside to see and they see ''it" ' a beagle puppy. ole gaylord took a ribbing for a long time about that.

scott

[Cove]

I've had more than a handful of spooky experiences. . . . a few that come to mind.

My first year hunting the South Florida swamps, I was 19 and had made the 12 hour haul alone on my college spring break. It was the 2nd morning of the season and I had walked through he!! and high water to get to a cypress head that birds were gobbling in the previous morning. I was there early and had to spend some time on a sandy bank along a buggy path in a palmetto flat. I kept hearing things move in the palmettos and for a boy unfamiliar with the likes of what all lived in the swamps I was nervous. Then the thicket came alive with crashing and the sounds of something smacking. Closer and closer it came and I was up with gun at ready. Totally forgetting about the birds I had hoped I was nearly under, I kicked the nearest palmetto and said HEY! The "thing" squealed and made a hasty exit. Now I'm used to the hogs. LoL

Two years later, South Florida again, Big Cypress NWR- several miles deep in the Glades, my buddy and I had hit the gold and were within 100 yards of a couple gobbling Osceolas in an oak hammock. The birds had entered our hammock and were closing the distance, we were trying to make them out through the staggered trees when I heard the faintest footsteps just over my shoulder. I turned my head to watch a huge panther, less than 10 yards away, sneaking through on his way to breakfast. I sat there with my mouth open not believing what I was watching. He foiled our sure thing but we never found any evidence that he was successful. We returned the next day to whack one of longbeards minus the cat interruption.

Last May I was in Arizona set up one evening over a pond where I'd been attempting to outwit the big boy in a flock of Merriams that were using the area. I had 4 hens around the pond in front of me and it was getting dusky dark. Thats when 20 yards away the most awful screaming you could ever imagine began, and continued. I was up to my knees and pointed that direction knowing I was dealing with a cat again. Sure enough, out the mountain lion came and we stood face to face checking each other out at 15 yards. It didnt seem concerned with me. So I put my gun down and took some pictures. It eventually made its way around me, continuing to scream. That raised some hairs. LoL

[deerhunt1988]

Two years later, South Florida again, Big Cypress NWR- several miles deep in the Glades, my buddy and I had hit the gold and were within 100 yards of a couple gobbling Osceolas in an oak hammock. The birds had entered our hammock and were closing the distance, we were trying to make them out through the staggered trees when I heard the faintest footsteps just over my shoulder. I turned my head to watch a huge panther, less than 10 yards away, sneaking through on his way to breakfast. I sat there with my mouth open not believing what I was watching.

Last May I was in Arizona set up one evening over a pond where I'd been attempting to outwit the big boy in a flock of Merriams that were using the area. I had 4 hens around the pond in front of me and it was getting dusky dark. Thats when 20 yards away the most awful screaming you could ever imagine began, and continued. I was up to my knees and pointed that direction knowing I was dealing with a cat again. Sure enough, out the mountain lion came and we stood face to face checking each other out at 15 yards. It didnt seem concerned with me. So I put my gun down and took some pictures. It eventually made its way around me, continuing to scream. That raised some hairs. LoL

Awesome...I hope to encounter a mountain lion/panther one day in the wild..Very cool experiences!

[Neill_Prater]

Come on, Crawdad, I've been waiting for more than a week to hear the "rest of the story."