Whats the strangest thing you've seen?

[kitchue]

All aside, just relating to hunting.

Whats the strangest, stupidest, dumbest, most amazing thing you've seen when it comes to hunting in the great state of Michigan.

I was hunting up in Alanta/Hillman during the rifle season and was watching the deer come into the DNR station. This guy came in with a 4 point that was radio collared. I asked him why he shot a deer that was obviously in a research program.

His answer, " After a case-a-beer and a fifth of wiskey, I would have shot anything".

To this day it give me a eary sense knowing there are people like this out in the woods

What are your stories?

[Gr8 Scout]

This is a good one. About twenty years ago I was duck hunting in Florida at Cape Canaveral. At the Ranger's checkout station, a guy came in holding a huge 'Snowgoose' he bragged loudly. The biggest he'd ever seen and he'd kilt it.

Without a word, one Federal wildlife officer relieved the hunter of his gun, and another took from him the extremely rare, way, way off course, and very dead Trumpeter Swan...

[outdoor junkie]

i was pheasant hunting with my german shorthair, it went down into a swail, and came barreling out with a nice six point on his tail, that deer chased him around me for about ten minutes. eventually it gave up thank god before i wet myself. the whole time they ran circles around me within 25 yards.

[Huntin Horseman]

LMAO @ Gr8 & Junkie :D

[stevebrandle]

I had my oldest son in the deer blind with me one perfectly quiet morning. The windows in this blind were fogged up and I slid all of them open to clear them.

As we're sitting there in the dark, there was a little rustle in the ceiling of the blind and my son looked up just in time to have a red squirrel come flying out of the insulation right over his head and bolt out a hole in the wall. Well, he hollored so loud, I think the deer in the next county heard him.

[rabbit whacker]

Was deer hunting with a friend during highschool. We met up around 9:30 am on a very cold late November day. We have a Consumers Energy Power line running through the middle of our property and we were sitting near it, looking over a small field. We started hearing this funny noise: errrk, crrrzzzzzzk, crrrrzzzzzzkk, errrrrrrzzzzzzzk. We started out with the usual, did you here that? We peared around trying to figure out what it was. The noise quit and after a few moments we heard another noise, phhhhhttttt thud! A large morning dove landed within feet of us and was still smoking. Another good reason to have a Dove Season - they are dangerous.

[redwinger00]

Traveling home from a deer hunt in Evart going south on 10 I was following a white camero. On top of this camero was a doe strapped to the top. The doe is gradually sliding down the back of this car. The deer slides off the back of the car and is bouncing in the road as I pass it. The camero never stops. HE KEEPS GOING. I try speeding up to catch him, I'm flashing my lights-nothing- he just keep going. As I am trying to catch this car my "check engine" light comes on so I back off and get off in Clare to check the engine. I called the MSP and told them what I saw and that I thought the deer probably had a tag on it with a name on it. I never did find out what became of the deer but I did find out that I had a cracked block on my engine. Pretty expensive repair!!!

[Trushot_Archer]

My buddy hit a Buck 6-7 years ago in his old ford pickup. Up on the hood, through the windshield and into the passanger seat!

He tried shoving it out the passanger door but it was jammed when the deer snapped out of it and started freaking out. Gored the living crap outta the roof)clean through in dozens of places) hoof prints all the way through the glove box...that truck was demolished.

He had to grab him by the horns and PUNCH him into unconsciousness again (this took a while as he explains it) before he could get him out of the truck.

I didn't see it happen but saw him and the truck 20 minutes after. He'd broken his hand in 3 places and was bleeding all over from battling with the bruiser in the front seat! Lucky he didn't get killed!

[Heybeerman]

while fishing I saw a man cutting his grass on the lake and this hen turkey started to stalk him. he had no clue she was there till he turned around and she started to attack him. I rowed to shore to help him but by the time I got there she had ran off into the woods. he was pretty scratched up but he said he was alright. we looked around for a nest but couldn't find anything so I went back to fishing and he kept cutting the grass. well I looked over at the man and there is that hen stalking him again. I yelled to him just as she started to run at him and he turned around with the lawnmower tilted back for protection. she stopped about two feet from the mower and turned around and went back into the woods and he went inside and grabbed a shotgun and slung it over his shoulder and finished cutting the grass. I never did catch a fish but I was in tears from laughing.:D

[Banditto]

How bout this. My hunting buddy was down in Tennessee and walked up on 2 VERY nervous guys finishing up brewing moonshine. After making it clear he wasn't there to bust them they gave him a tall glass of the pre-stilled moonshine which he said was very refreshing after a long hike through the woods.

[jimbobway]

I was deer hunting one season with a buddy in his motor home ,and was parked in a large clearing.We were having lunch and heard a series of shots from a woods about 300 yds away.I saw about 7 deer heading in the open field about 100 yds. away .I put the sights on the first one,then noticed one was wounded,I put the sights on that one and shot ,it went down in a heap. We went up to the deer and saw it was a button buck,and noticed a hunter coming out of the woods where it came from,I met him halfway an asked if he was shooting,he said his wife shot at a big buck . I asked if he or she had a doe tag ,he said no , I told him I shot a button buck that was hit, he said that's my deer. You said you didn't have a doe tag ,I told him(I would have given it to him if he did) .He said '' if it has balls it's legal ''.Sometimes I think I should of let him have it ,because he was very serious ,and we were cracking up.

[Gr8 Scout]

These tales are getting stranger and stranger..

[Barry]

I was about 17 and sitting on the edge of a field deer hunting and watching the morning sun rise. I heard a noise like a dragon blowing fire. The noise would last about three seconds and repeated itself several times and was moving closer to me each time it blew. I could see frightened deer scattering accross the fields. My heart was racing and I had no clue what kind of monster was hovering over me. Finally, just as I was about to jump out of my skin, a hot air balloon came into view just above me flying slightly above tree level.

[chrisjan_81]

i cant say its strange, but about 3 times when i was younger, i would be hunting about a half mile from my house, and about a half hour later....my dog was at the base of my tree. He would follow the path i walked to a T. Was a bit annoying, but each time i could only smile and walk him home.

[4x4_Hunter]

Well, our one hunting buddies has worked 30 years for Ford in the welding department. His eye sight isn't real great. He has never gotten a buck and I think we found out why. Well we drove the truck around one day and saw a buck off in the distance. We got out and snuck up on him and told our buddy to go ahead and shoot since he had never gotten a buck. He pulled up on it and he we are just waiting for the 'BANG'. Waiting, waiting... all of a sudden the deer runs off. We asked him why he didn't shoot and he said, "I never saw the damn thing!'

Then the next evening we hear a shot come from his direction and then another shot. We went out there to help him track one and he had said that he shot a big doe, it went down back behind the tree and then got back up, so he shot it again. We walked over to where he mentioned to find out that he had two deer laying there neither one dressed out over 70 lbs. I could go on and on about the funny thing this guy has done up there but I'll stop here and maybe post a few more another time.

[vandermi]

First year of Bow Hunting as a teenager. Myself and hunting buddy are in the woods about two hours before light.... real excited you know. Up in my tree stand waiting for daylight and the huge buck that I know I am going to get..... Start hearing this fluttering that I know is the huge buck coming...pitch black out... leaning forward listening to the sound and something slams into my chest that I assumed was a monster of some type... it had claws of some type as the beating and screaming could not get it off me... I took the express route out of my tree stand and was rolling on the ground screaming as my buddy ran over and saved me from the very, very almoust huge Bat that landed on me.

Well I thought it was huge!

Never saw a deer that morning!

[Dawg]

I was helping a friend hang a new stand in a swamp last year. He spends most seasons re-conquering his fear of heights so I hung the stand and sat in while he cleared a couple of shooting lanes. I was about 16' up a cedar tree observing which twigs were obstructing and we agreed that a dead tree 10' in front of me should come down if possible.

It easily broke at the base but lodged in some nearby tops and stayed pretty much upright. A gray squirrel emerged from it's hollow stem and looking very groggy tried to run down the trunk to where he met my friend and retreated back to the top. I had hollered for my friend to give the squirrel passage and was laughing 'cause I thought he was going right down his sleeve. As I looked back up laughing all I saw was a blur and ducked.

The squirrel landed on my head and his momentum/claws peeled the knit cap right off my head. As I'm told, I barely touched the top 3 rungs of the ladder and I definitely have a new appreciation for squirrel season.

[brokenarrow]

Walking out of the woods one snowy night I noticed fresh bear tracks in the snow. I told my self, "cool must be out looking for gut piles. As I came around a bend in the trail I said Crap!!!! As I was 15 feet infront of a very large and sleepy 300 pounder. Instinctively I raised my gun and felt the pressure of a prairie dog comin on, at this point the bear releived himself as he looked right in my eye's. LOL He walked off very calmely. Now who was more scared? I just about crapped my pants but he would of urinated in his if he was wearing any!!! My buddies told me I was crazy !!! Till the next day when the tracks and the sign in the tracks said it all!!
Brokenarrow

[stevebrandle]

That's going to be a tough one to top. :D

[Worm Dunker]

Back in the early 60's we were in a bar around the third day of season and this guy came in who allready had drank to many and was bragging about this big buck he had tied to the fender. The more he drank the bigger it got. Just happened a C.O. was having lunch so he asked the guy to show it to him. Half the bar went out and there was a rabbt with sticks tied to is head tied to the fender. The guy didn't have a small game licence!

[mihunter]

This story is 100% true, The names have NOT been changed to protect the innocent. The main character is Weird Dave, well just Dave to his face but Weird Dave to all who know him. While sitting in a spearing shanty one winter afternoon, a pike comes in and my friend Pete throws the spear and misses then the rope on the spear breaks and the spear is now sitting on the bottom of the lake, now what? At this point Wierd Dave volunteers to strip down and retrieve the lost spear (with just a little encourgement).
We all figure he'll jump in feet first, grab the spear, swim back up and we'll pull him out. No, Dave puts his hands over his head in a prayer type motion and proceeds to dive in head first in the most beautiful dive you've ever seen.....and then with one strong thrust of his arms proceeds to disapear into the abyss.....Holy S**t!! At this point we're all in a state of shock and panic starts to set in, only seconds have gone by and we start yelling and splashing in the water when a guy who was fishing a few yards from us sees him go through his hole!!!! After what seemed like minutes but was probably only 15-20 seconds goes by we see a flash of white and someone reaches in and pulls Dave out by a leg. After much throwing up by Dave we get him back to a truck and finally warmed up where he can talk and he says as soon as he hit the water he blacked out and the only thing he remembered was someone yelling to "turn left, turn left" which no one ever said. By the way, Dave never got the spear!

[jpollman]

About 20 years ago while hunting up near Atlanta, a guy hunting down the road from us got a FOUR POINT DOE ! I kid you not. We all saw it. It had doe plumbing but a four point rack that was covered with velvet. Only one of THOSE I've ever seen. :) From then on in our camp it became known as "The Queer Deer". :D

[stevebrandle]

Well, I'll give Dave the Dumbist award right now. It's a glass of ice water......:p

[PITBULL]

Wow he was lucky that you were able to get him out. Also lucky that the voices in his head told him to turn left:D

[Belair]

Funny one that happened to my father-in-law and his buddy last year:

They drove out to colorado to bowhunt for elk. My FIL is hunting out of a ground blind near some water and his buddy is about 100 yards away doing the same. A cow walks in on my FIL and he shoots it. The arrow blows through and the elk apparently doesn't even know it is hit. It continues to graze (while spurting blood out) and walks towards the other hunter. All of a sudden a small bull comes out of the thicket and mounts the cow. The other guy shoots the bull while in the "position".
They both got the elk.

[jimbob]

heres one i was driveing down 10 at around 8am and this cop was on my ass for atleast 20 min i kept looking back thinking what the hell then out of the corner of my eye i saw 3 turkeys crossing the road and i just mist them then out of noware one hit my windsheld fliped over my truck and splat right on the cops hood then he pulls me over you'll never guess what he gave me a ticket for flipping him the bird lol

[stevebrandle]

errrrrrrr :(

[Banditto]

Finally thought of a good one. I found a feeder on state land that had corn in it, but no top. I don't know why, but I glanced down inside it and saw a family of squirrels in various states of death and decay--no way to get out. But two were alive. So I dumped the thing over and fished them out. I fed the one snow being it was in a serious state of dehydration. He was aggrivated to have me so near, but grateful for the H2O.

When I let him go I found that he had webbing between his front and rear legs. The healthy one lept from tree to tree like a bird. They were flying squirrels and I didn't even know we had them in MI.

When I left I put a large rock on the feeder to keep the critters out.

[Whit1]

Steve,
I agree with your comment about Dave. It sounds like he could be an up and coming candidate for the Darwin Awards.

[Ron Howard]

About 8 years ago I was bowhunting on my parents 40 acres in Livingston County. I was in a white pine on the edge of a hay field. About an hour before dark a doe & 2 fawns worked their way out from the swamp browsing on the alfalfa. They gradually worked they way out about 50 yards and I was just watching them. All of a sudden the doe starts looking real intently down the field to the east. She kept bobing her head up and down and getting real nervous. I was thinking to myself that this is it. I should get ready. This is probally a buck. I stood up in my portable tree stand, hooked my release to the string, and waited patiently. Being in the last tree in a row of white pines facing west, I couldn't see behind to the east because of the branches of the pines. I was trying to look through the branches to see what was coming. I could see some movement, but could not see what it was. After a few minutes, a flock of 5 or 6 turkeys came into view, heading right towards the deer. One of the fawns (a button buck) was very curious towards these turkeys and started approaching them with his nose down sniffing the ground. He was being very cautious. He got with-in a few feet of one of the turkeys, put his head down sniffing again, when all of a sudden this turkey stood up as high as it could and started flapping its wings. The button buck must have jumped 5 feet off the ground, spun around and ran about 5 yards, turned around and started sniffing the ground again walking closer to the turkey. The turkey did the same thing, stretched up and flapped its wings, and of course the button buck jumped off the ground and spun around again. The doe took off at a dead run back into the swamp, I'm sure because of the loud sound of laughter coming from the row of pines. Of course that laughter was from me.
I have been bow hunting for 15 years now and this image I will remember longer than some of the kills that I have made.

[PineHillBoy]

About 15 years ago a friend and I were walking along the top of a hill near dusk.
I was about 75 yards ahead of him and at one point I heard an odd noise and turned around to see where he was but couldn't spot him even though we were not in thick brush and still had pretty good light.

I gave a quiet whistle call and he responded with one ... he sounded like he should be straight in front of me ... but I still couldn't see him.
Even though I was a little surprised at not being able to see him, this fella (who was pretty small to begin with) was so well known for being able to blend into the woods that he had gotten the nickname 'the rock' after a couple gals nearly gave him a shower when they chose the exact spot he was on the ground at to drop their pants and crouch down to relieve themselves (he actually had to roll out of the line of fire to avoid getting showered ... they ran screaming ... we were incapacitated for nearly half an hour over that incident) ... so I wasn't too surprised that I might not be able to see him ... I had seen him do some pretty impressive disappearing before.

I waited for a couple minutes and then slowly made my way back ... whistle-called again ... he reponded .... sounded like he was directly in front of me ... still couldn't see him.

Got a bit closer ... whistle-called ... he responded ... couldn't see him. He sounded at this point like he was standing literally right next to me and for the life of me I couldn't see him ... I was really impressed!

I finally called his name, when he responded "yeah" I realized why I couldn't see him:
He had been walking along and had startled a racoon who (he claimed) had lunged toward him ... and when he lept to the side to avoid the racoon ... he lept right off a 30 foot cliff.

So he's sitting at the bottom of the cliff with a fractured arm. I asked him why he just didn't speak up when it happened ... he said that we had been moving so well, and that he had managed to fall so quietly that he didn't want to ruin it and break the silence! ..... Now that's dedication.

PHB

[brokenarrow]

When I was a teen, my friends Glenn and Nate were out hunting a fields edge at just about dusk. I figured it was real close to quitting time so I started walking towards the 2 of them. When I got about 20 yards away they perked up and one of them yelled, "Tom, >>DUCK", Knowing these 2 idiots (That I loved dearly, I hit the ground and from that position I watched 2 mallards fly over my head about 20 yards above. I kid you NOT!!
They were laughing SO hard neither could lift a gun.
For the next 4 years in school the standing joke in the halls was, HEY TOM DUCK!!!! Heck I had people I did not know, 3 years after it happened yelling it at me in tha halls. I am 38 years old now so you must imagine what a impact and how funny it must of been if I still remember that today!