Has Anyone Survived A Close Encounter With An Animal?

[Rick]

Just wondering if anyone has had any close calls with animals? My son was back packing in South Africa and spent a couple of nights in a small hut in the outback. A local farmer gave him permission to stay there but told him to build a huge bonfire at night to keep the leopards away. The first night he did as he was told and built a huge bonfire, which the farmer neglected to tell him attracts monkeys. He fixed a cup of tea and sat down on the step of the hut to enjoy the fire. Instead, he was greeted with a blood curdling scream from the other side of the fire. He jumped up to see a leopard taking a monkey just on the other side of the fire. He spent that night and the next locked inside the hut.

My closest encounter was with a squirrel that thought he was Rambo. Not nearly as exciting as my son's adventure. I chuckle every time I see Exploding Earth's avatar 'cause it makes me think of that blasted squirrel. As far as I know, that squirrel still owns that part of the woods.

[carcajou garou]

Was approached by a small dog that was "ghost dancing" while I was in the bush, I gave him the way and it still veered towards me so, SSS to much rabies that summer to neglect it to its suffering.

[Sarge47]

There was this one time with my ex-wife......

[nell67]

There was this one time with my ex-wife......

I KNEW someone was gonna say that LMAO!!!!!

[mbarnatl]

I have had many close encounters...way too close with raccoons, rattle snakes, sea cow, shark, monkey, lions, elephant, bears, and a nine foot gator.

[Stealth]

haha, those sea cows are nasty:P

[mbarnatl]

sea cow (manatee)... not allowed to touch them... I had one bump my foot when fishing on a dock one day. Had my feet hanging over the dock. A marine patrol officer was ten feet away from me when it scared the crap out of me... he laughed. They are so gentle, to bad they are getting killed by boats. Damn thing almost gave me a heart attack.

[FVR]

Here is a short story about an experience I had with "Mr. Bull." Wrote this up for an archery mag. awhile back.


I’ve always been sort of a trader. I would rather trade than sell any day. It was the mid 70’s and the compound bow was making a mark in the archery community. It was the “future” of bow hunting and everyone had to have one.

Not me. Matter of fact, I kind of profited a little by the influx of compound bows in the local stores. One store was K-Mart. They stocked their new bows for the upcoming archery season and they were all compounds. Last year’s recurve bows sat in the corner in a bin with a price tag of $20.00 each.

Well, I had a job and, upon seeing this bin, I quickly purchased their last three bows which consisted of a Bear Panther, a Ben Pearson, and a Bear Kodiak. I instantly started shooting the Kodiak and the other two adorned my bedroom wall.

Ken, a good friend and hunting buddy, came over and immediately wanted to own the Ben Pearson. Now, knowing that Ken had an uncle who owned a farm in North Jersey, it was time to trade. We settled the deal for $20.00 and a guaranteed North Jersey farm deer hunt in the fall.

Fall soon came and we loaded up his truck and headed north. It was a pleasant trip as we drove on the Pennsy side up to Washington’s crossing then to Frenchtown. I’ll be darned; it was a real farm with corn, wheat, silos, and a bull, a big, black mean bull with long horns.

Saturday morning found us splitting up, Ken went into the hardwoods and I ventured in the opposite direction, bow in hand hoping to sneak up on a deer. It was a beautiful fall morning, a slight chill and a breeze in my face. I slowly worked my way up and around the hedgerows hoping to find an unsuspecting young buck. That did not happen, but I was amused for close to an hour watching this doe with her three fawns. The spots were almost completely gone but even a greenhorn like me could tell they were fawns. Maybe it was the way they were chasing each other around the corner of the field or maybe it was the way they jumped straight up in the air for no reason, it sure was a great morning.

Ken and I met at the farm for lunch and talked of our morning adventures. We soon finished and decided on how to set up for the evening hunt. We decided to cross the pasture and head down to the stream that came down from the mountains.

We headed toward the pasture and I noticed a mess of cows at the far end. Those critters must have been two, maybe three hundred yards away. “Ken, what happens if the bull comes charging us?” Ken replied “Ah, don’t worry about it. This is what you do. Stand your ground; wait till the bull gets about five feet away, and then jump to the side. He’ll run right by you and you go the other way.” I responded “Oh, okay.”

We jumped the fence, bows in hand and started our little trek across the pasture that the cows called home; the cows and one big, black, mean Bull. About the middle of the pasture, I mention to Ken that the bull is coming our way. He reminded me what he had told me, if the bull charges. “Oh, okay.”

I just happen to turn and about 50 yards away Mr. Bull (capitalized for a reason) starts pawing the ground and snorting. Bulls snort? I thought that was only in the movies. I stand there, Ken behind me, standing my ground.

Mr. Bull starts off at a slow sort of trot; he then speeds up, much like my adrenalin level. “Ken, Ken, the bull is charging.” No response. “Ken, the (can’t say these words) bull is charging.” No response. I turn around and my good buddy Ken is hoofing it half way to the other side of the fence, bow in hand.

It did not take me long to figure out that it was time to get out of Dodge, quickly. So I start running. Ken is yelling, “Don’t turn around,” just like in the movie Jaws. I ran harder than I have ever run in my life, bow in hand. It was a short flight. Neither one of us knows if I managed to jump over the barbed wire fence on my own or not, but I did clear it, very nicely. I don’t really know if Ken saw the whole thing because all I saw of him was how he was doubled over laughing so hard that he could hardly talk.

Moral of the story: I don’t know. But I’m never hunting dangerous game with him. He can outrun me.

[Rifleman]

I woke up one morning and there was a possum on top of my washing machine. It had gotten under the house, then came up by the dryer vent.

Just poked it with a stick til it went back out.

They arent the brightest creatures. I've had them walk across my feet while I've been hunting.

[MCBushbaby]

I was soloing one time and after I ate I took all the precautions towards food that anyone with a lick of sense would but I didn't account for the bag of gorp I had in my tent. I woke up around 2am to a large animal outside my tent sniffing around, poking its nose against the side of my tarptent. Apparently peanuts, cashews, raisens, almonds, and M&Ms give off more smell than I thought. I'm not saying it was a bear or a dog (bigger than a coyote or fox to be sure), but I keep it at bay by gently grunting and humming for a couple minutes, then I'd pass out for a dozen or so minutes before I'd repeat it until a few hours before dawn. Just my luck too because I had a nice comfy grass mattress I took time to make before I settled in for the night. Didn't get much use out of it

[Beo]

One time I band camp... lol...

[Sarge47]

This didn't happen to me, but to my life-long friend I wrote about awhile ago that wanted to go to Alaska looking for gold about 39 years back, married my cousin, and died of bone Cancer last June. A few years after the Alaska fiasco he'd bought some land in the backwoods of Missouri. At the end of his property there was a bluff about 20' or so straight down that led to a running stream. We were exploring everything and down we went. As he tried to stop his descent, he placed his hand on the side of the bluff, only to feel something move under it. He looked down as he jerked back his hand and saw a Cottonmouth/Water Moccasin...and, to top, all that off, he had a deathly fear of snakes. Apparently the snake had a deathly fear of us because he left us alone, but for a moment I thought my friend was going to have to go home and change his shorts!

[trax]

I woke up around 2am to a large animal outside my tent sniffing around, poking its nose against the side of my tarptent. Apparently peanuts, cashews, raisens, almonds, and M&Ms give off more smell than I thought. I'm not saying it was a bear or a dog (bigger than a coyote or fox to be sure),(

Um...that was me Mitch, those mushrooms I tried really gave me a case of the munchies...

[FVR]

While living in Md., I set my treestand about 6' off the ground, right over a holy bush. I was hunting deer with a bow during the rut.

I proceeded to rattle and grunt.

5 minutes later, a freight train of an 8 point buck proceeded to attack the holy bush under me. It looked up, snorting, steam coming out of it's mouth and nose. I dropped my arrow, nocked another, shaking, did not get off a shot.

Once he left, I just had the shakes for an hour. Waited till noon, and slowly got out of the tree, AND RAN OUT OF THE WOODS!

Went back a week later for the treestand.

[Ole WV Coot]

We had problems with packs of dogs a few years back. Seems everyone thought they could drop of unwanted animals at any wide spot in the road and of course the strong survived. They killed a few dogs and weren't afraid of people. I was forced to shoot 3 out of a pack of 6 that wanted to chow down on me. The scary part was until I must have shot the pack leader they didn't seem to fear me or the gunshots. This was on the hill behind the house under 300yds. Now we have coyotes of all things, but they don't last long.

[Rifleman]

I've had packs of stray dogs come across my property before. None of them ever seemed threatening to me directly. They usually leave the area after shooting a few of them. Just the other day I saw a group of six dogs running down the road about a half mile from my house. Havent seen them since.

One evening the coyotes were going crazy probably 100 yards from my house out in the trees. I went out in the yard and shot a rifle off. Just a few seconds after that, one came out of the trees about 50ft from me and just was looking at me. Before I could swing my rifle up and get a good aim (scoped rifle) my dog hit it at full speed and it took off back into the woods.

That was the only time I had ever seen one come and investigate a gunshot. Was kinda eerie.

[LadyTrapper]

Had a couple hair-raising episodes with a mama bear and cubs that I told about in my blog.
Had a few with young juvenile males(bears)who had big egos thinking they was gonna take over my back step. They were "educated" ! (no harm to the bears however other than thier oversized egos)

[dull antler]

I was squirrel hunting a few years back in good stand of pin oaks Cat squirrels were evrey where and I had already taken a few with my 12 g. 1100. I had just shot another from a tree and watched it fall ( it flopped a bit as it hit the ground ). Instead of picking it up right away I watched the tree top for another when I caught movemnet from the corner of my eye. I turned to watch a coyote run and grab my squirrel up and just as quick run off with it. I don't know if he had been stalking me and waiting for an oppertunity like that or if it was just coincidance. I would never have believed a coyote to be so bold but I let him have the squirrel and chalked it up as a great experiance.

[Stealth]

squirrel hunting with a 12 gauge? i dont know much about guns but how wouldnt the squirrel disappear after that?:-P

the animal run-ins ive had was getting abducted by sasquatch.

[dull antler]

yeah, believe it or not you can buy different loads for a 12 g. for dove hunting, duck, squirrel, deer, just about any animal you wanted to hunt. just my opinion but the shotgun ( 12 gauge for my taste ) is the best all around tool for getting meat for the table or for protection.