What's your most curious mammal sighting when turkey hunting?

[1iagobblergetter]

Saw an alpaca on public land while bow hunting once.

Nawww..  That was probably mine. I use him to pack my turkey hunting gear..

[vt35mag]

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.

[Meatseeker]

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! 

[guesswho]

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.

[Happy]

Saw an alpaca on public land while bow hunting once.

Nawww..  That was probably mine. I use him to pack my turkey hunting gear..

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.

[Sir-diealot]

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.

[Dr Juice]

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.

[CrustyRusty]

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.

[KentuckyHeadhunter]

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.

........what type of wood?.....the combination on the box that is

[1iagobblergetter]

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.

........what type of wood?.....the combination on the box that is

   

[Sir-diealot]

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.

As the young folk say..... That's epic.

[Sixes]

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.

[Sixes]

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.

[Marc]

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.

[grayfox]

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.