An earthquake while I hunted 2 years ago on new years eve... Not in a stand but in camp, weather was getting rough and looked to the southwest and a big ol' 'nader was headed straight for the house. Grabbed the dogs and we hightailed it down to the bottom of the hill and hunkered down. Tornado lifted just enough that it didn't destroy the house, thank goodness. Also saw the space shuttle explode above me.

Wow what an interesting thread, really enjoyed reading all these.

About 25 years ago Ihunted a large company lease near San Saba. On the way in one morning I saw the biggest buck I'd ever seen to that date dead in a barbed wire fence. I walked up to it and realized it was alive, but barely. I pulled out my Leatherman and cut him free. He stood up and staggered away. My rifle was right there within reach, and don't think I didn't think about it!

On y current place Navasota Valley Electic cleared a powerline ROW years ago, leaving the brush piles. For several years after that every season I'd see a mamabobcat and her kittens living in a brushpile right in front of my stand, about 20 yards out. They were always fun to watch. I guess the brushpile finally collapsed enough to no longer be a good den.

A few years ago Iwas sitting on my late father's stand watching a couple little fork-horns sparring, and getting pretty aggressive. A nice 8-point that I'd seen before busted out of the brush, knockd both little fork-horns to the ground, and trotted away. That was funny.

Another time I was sitting there watching a doe attempting to wean her twins. THAT was hilarious. She'd whirl around to paw and bite at one and the other would grab a teat. When she'd whirl to paw and bite at that one the other would latch on. I felt sorry for the old gal.

So, I thought I'd try to resurrect this thread, and ask if anybody saw anything interesting this past season.

We had a bunch of owls hanging around our camp this year. Come to find out they were living in an abandoned RV that was moved off to the side of the campground. One night I got to the lease late, and after a 3 hour drive I needed a little time to relax before going to bed. I set my lawn chair up outside my camper, facing away from camp out into the dark with the camp lights behind me. I watched, 3 owls, I think, fly around swooping into the lighted area and out over my head. I shined my flashlight on them a couple of times when they got pretty close, and they'd kind of backpedal away from me, just hovering over me for a second or two. They were probably 15-20 feet from me, it was pretty cool. I found one of their feathers and hung it from my rear view mirror.

that feather can carry a fine in some places (stupid, bird of prey)

Probably 25+ years ago I fell asleep sitting in a clump of big mullie grass (nature's lounge chair) on the very edge of a ridge. I was watching the valley below before I dozed off. I woke up and there was a golden eagle hovering about 6' above me, trying to figure out if I was dead or soon to be.

One morning I was sitting in a tripod at my lease in Archer County. Out of the corner of my eye I see some movement and its a bobcat putting the stalk on a rabbit. After he caught that rabbit he came and set right under my tripod and started chowing down on that rabbit. I could hear the bones cracking. When he got through there wasn't even a tuft of hair left to let you know what had just happened.

One time when I was fishing by the biological station in Buncombe Creek area @ Texoma a grey fox came out of the woods. He walked the shoreline as I was fishing my way down it towards the back of the creek. He did this for about 15 minutes then disappeared back into the brush.

Two from when I lived in Massachusetts.

First was seeing my first fisher cat. It is closely related to a marten (a type of weasel) that lives up north. Pretty rare to see one. Here is a video of it running along one of those random stone walls you see in the woods all over New England:



Second was stumbling upon a moose while turkey hunting in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. My dad and I came across a giant pile of fresh scat and we thought it was from one of the many black bears that live up that way. Twenty steps later and the brush in front of us erupts as a cow moose shot up from her bed about fifteen yards away and skedaddled. Still remember my dad yelling "bear!" and unholstering the bear spray before we realized it was Bullwinkle's lady friend (or maybe Bullwinkle himself after antlers dropped).

Scimitar horned oryx

Yeah I am originally from MA and hunted a lot up there too. I seen a couple of Fisher Cats while up in my stand. Those darn things don't fear any animals and are pretty vicious. I seen one hop a small fence, grab a small duck and jump back over the fence in the blink of an eye. One of my buddy's sons ended up getting one in a live trap and it looked all calm till you got near the trap and then it would freak out and start trying to eat the cage to get at you lol. Remember when they had that sick moose walking on rte 9 in Brookline heading towards Boston. It got that disease where it couldn't create body fat and was moving south as it got colder during the fall. I used to get free private hunting land to bowhunt on through putting up posts in the Farm and Garden section of Craigslist. You know just like I do that there is no limit to the numbers of hunters that can hunt a WMA area and other state land up there and you can get an area flooded with hunters on the weekends. A couple of times while turkey hunting up in Townsend MA, I had hunters come in on me from my turkey calls. You take your life in your hands hunting up there sometimes and even getting up to NH and ME has gotten bad because they all go up there now too. Plus the deer are small up in MA compared to down here. The only good thing about it was the practically unlimited amount of $5.00 doe permits that you could get for zone 10 and most other zones. You could buy one or two a day even if you haven't even harvested one yet. Now they have an honor system and closed all the fish and game check stations lmao. Liberals bled the state dry and within the next 10 years the turkey will be near extinct again up there.

About 10 years ago me and some buddies were hunting in Rusk county and decided to go sit on a pipeline one night in the suburban with a predator call going. We had the sunroof and all the windows open and within minutes of turning the call on we start hearing what we all concluded was no doubt a pterodactyl screeching. It leaves it's perch down the pipeline and we can hear it's 20ft wingspan swooping towards us as it proceeds to dive bomb the suburban every few minutes. It was pretty awesome to sit there and listen to. I'll admit, we were all a bit freaked out and still tell the pterodactyl story when we get together.

A few years later I'm settling into a tree stand nice and early in the dark and hear the same swooping sound as another pterodactyl flies what seemed like feet from my head and lands in the tree above me. Luckily it never screeched because I probably would have cut that hunt short.

Similar for us hunting SW of San Saba about 25 years ago, only it was 3 C-130's flying maneuvers so close to the ground that we could see people standing in the open rear cargo hatch. They can scare the poo poo out of you sneaking up like that......

Seen some cool stuff over the years:

-Stalking my way through a creek bottom one day, caught motion way up in a giant old live oak. Turned out it was a grey fox, had to be 15 ft high. Upon seeing me he ran down the trunk as gracefully as any cat could.

-Watched a Red Tail Hawk and a Squirrel play cat and mouse in a mesquite tree one day for about 10 min. The hawk would come in fast and hit the tree with so much force that I could see bark fly off. The squirrel would dodge to the other side just in the nick of time. The hawk eventually gave up and later I noticed that squirrel had scars from previous close calls.

-One day, was hunting a pop-up blind in bow season. Had a group of three big gobblers come in. About 10 min later 4 of 5 crows came in too. Well, the gobblers were having none of that! Heard a big "rushing" noise, saw a turkey come in at full speed and flush the crows. The crows would circle and try to land, and each time the turkeys would run them off. Have a video of that somewhere.

-Another time, was stalking a creek bottom hunting for pigs in early summer with a buddy. Came upon the biggest Bull water moccasin I've ever seen, was 5 ft long or so and thick as a log. Creek was low, he was cruising puddle to puddle. Funny thing was he had zero fear. Upon seeing us, he actually started coming towards us. I was carrying a .22-250 and didn't want to blow out the bottom with noise so we went around him and he made it another day.

-A couple years ago I was Spring Turkey hunting one evening. Had two gobblers answering from different directions, and they converged about 30 yds from us. They were both big old toms, and they were not happy to see each other. What followed was one of the most viscous battles I've ever seen in my years outdoors. The big boys would fly up, lock feet, and slam each other to the ground repeatedly. After a few minutes of this, one bird got the advantage and got a few more "body slams" in than the other. The beaten bird took off, and the winner went looking for his female prize. The funny thing was, both me and my buddy were so enthralled watching the fight that we never even raised our shotguns.

-Bow hunting one day, was walking back slowly right at sunset. As I passed a big cedar I happened to notice a shape underneath it. Turned out it was a bobcat, sitting stone still. He was probably only 15 yds away, must have thought I couldn't see him. I stopped and we just just watched each other for a few mins. I eventually kept walking; he never moved a muscle other than blinking.

I have debated, with myself, posting on this topic off and on for several days, every time I go out I see/experience things that are amazing blessings. Big ones sometimes and often small ones. Choosing just one or two: Mountain lion confrontation in AZ at 8 ft. no dogs, he was cornered and on the same level as me, I won with .357 mag. Black Hawk. Caribou encounter in Arctic Quebec actually within arms reach of a large bull, he was more shocked than I was. (let him walk run actually) And, of course every sunrise and sunset regardless of weather. I appreciate it all.

Wow awesome stories! Coolest thing I have ever seen in my deer stand that wasn't a targeted animal had to beaver building his little house out of wood from the back of the creek. This was when I was hunting in National Forest. I watched the little guy for hours build a home. Something about how he engineered the place just fascinated me.

Climbed a tree at lease outside of Hico...still dark while I'm setting in for deer and 30 minutes later hear the scariest screams and ruckus. Sounded like the tasmanian devils you see on nat geo, but when I hit the flashlight I realize it's 3 raccoons fighting over my deer corn. Same tree and same morning just before first light and I hear what sounded like a tornado land right on top of me. Scared the snot out of me!! Swing around to look up and there's an owl damn near on my shoulder. Between the raccoons fighting with all that shrieking and the dang owl almost scaring me clean out of the tree, I had enough and moved to another tree

Fishing the river north of Lake Whitney, I watched 2 mountain lions cross the river less than 100 yards upstream. They crossed and immediately disappeared into the woods. All i had was a fishing pole and NOT being able to see those 2 mountain lions spooked me enough to pack up and head out

Dropped a bag of that apple crush for whitetail set in early November (just outside of Kerrville) and soon learned that stuff is a dinner bell for cows smh Had a cow literally stick her head in my pop-up blind and refused to move. I even gave it a smack on the nose with the butt of my 30.06 and still wouldn't budge. Finally got so aggravated I pulled my .380 off my hip, poked the pistol past her head and out the window and shot 2 rounds in the air. She moved a total of 5 feet smh Finally just gave up and crawled out of my pop-up to let her and her friends devour my apple crush

Finished the evening hunt (again outside of Kerrville) and walked to get my wife out of her pop-up blind. By this time it's completely dark as we're walking back and all the sudden the bushes right next to us explode! I spin and hit the flashlight to see a bobcat scurry 10 feet away then turn to look back at us. Thought we scared him but nothing compared to how much he scared my wife lmao I turn to look at her and she's already 50 yards ahead of me running top speed in the total darkness. I laughed so hard I almost peed myself

I was hunted by two cara caras once while ground hunting in a folding chair behind a bush. They landed near me and then they walked around for 15 minutes, getting within 2-3 feet of me and watching me closely. I think they were wondering if I was edible. Aggressive birds. I kept my side arm in hand.

An evening after deer hunting, I went to check my pig trap (open top kind so that deer can jump out). While standing in the trap dumping corn and about to set it, about a dozen pigs came running up and started walking around the trap. I never opened the door as they were so aggressive that I thought they would come in. It was dark and really windy so I think they were not certain of my presence. I finally climbed out and got my rifle from the golf cart and shot one, they scattered. I thought it was ironic that they had me in the trap.

I had a domestic cat walk out near a feeder one morning. The deer went on alert. The does started stomping the ground and walking aggressively at the cat. I thought I was going to have a front row seat to a kitty stomp. The cat wised up and split.

seen a bunch of squirrels chasen each other up & down the trees one day whilst deer hunten.. next day went back & sat with me squirrel gun & seen deer... i got cheap posts. ..

Dove hunting one morning using a Mojo dove, I had a Sparrow Hawk buzz the decoy. Feathers flew everywhere when it hit the spinning wings. Saw the hawk a few more times that year but never close to the Mojo.

great stories, guys, keep 'em coming. I particularly liked the fisher cat stories, those look like pretty cool little critters.

Once in the Amazon, I was out hunting for Agouti Pacas (a Delicacy. Yum!) and I heard a heard the long low lonely whistle of Great Tinamou (also delicious!). Having mastered mimicking the call of Great Tinamou, I responded back. For about a half an hour I sat silently in the dark calling back and forth with the Great Tinamou. An ominous feeling came over me all the sudden and I flicked my flashlight on just in time to see a Great Horned owl that was diving on my head. The light stunned the owl and it veered up at the last moment knocking my ball cap off my head.

Needless to say, I never again mimicked a Great Tinamou at night. LOL!