I think its been awhile since we have had a thread like this but what is the strangest thing you have seen or happened to you in the woods? For me it was a weird physical phenomena that occurred while I was hunting. I had placed a small ol-man climber in a medium height tree at the confluence of two creeks. I could only climb about 8-10 feet but I had good back cover and the tree was in full foliage. So I had been sitting in the tree about an hour and all the sudden I felt 3 0r 4 20 -30 second super quick vibration. The vibrations were supper fast frequency and they were coming from the tree. I thought I had climbed over a bee hive....then the leaves started falling. Every dang leaf on that entire tree was cast off. Tens of thousands of leaves all fell at once. I have never seen anything like that again in the woods...how about yall?

Had a deer a member had shot fall out of a tree... bout the strangest thing id say has ever happened to me.

Confluence = Well educated

Every dang leaf on that entire tree was cast off = You smoke crack

One of the funniest things I believe I have seen:

Was bowhunting about 10-years ago and after the sun went down, I climbed down and began easing my way towards my friend who was about 150-200 yards away. As I got closer, I heard a couple of deer take off running - and my friend starts cussing (loudly). My immediate thought was that I had spooked the deer that he was about to shoot and he was cussing about me scaring the deer off.

As I approach his tree - I notice 5 or 6 arrows stuck in the ground directly under his stand. As it turned out - when he would nock an arrow and lean over to shoot (apparently the deer was directly beneath him eating acorns) - the nock would release from the serving and the arrow would fall to the ground. The final straw was - the doe had raised her head and was was looking my way, when the final arrow released and fell beside her scaring her off.

Choctaw county around 18 years ago. I was leaving my stand and a came upon a vehicle, parked just inside the road to the stand I was hunting. Well there sat a man with a big Ole girl fooling around and bit, Ole guy said damn man I'm sorry if we ruined your hunt! I replied naw no harm done, well the Ole guy said "Buddy if you'll be quiet about it u can get some too!" Damn big girl just smiles looking like a damn jakolatern About the time she got her lips back over teeth, I hear my buddy coming in his big Ole 4x4, I told the nice people thanks for the offer but there's my ride

Buddy ruined it for didn't he?

Maybe

had a hawk nearly take my face off.

I was sitting in a ladder stand on the edge of a large pasture. I'd been watching a hawk circling across the pasture. He kept landing in a tree about 300-400 yds away, and then flying back down to hunt some shoulder-high grass.

well after a while, I watched him fly out of the tree, coming toward me. I thought, hey this is cool, he's coming this way

about 200 yds out (halfway-ish), I think "hmm, wonder what he's after"

about 50 yds out, he's now over the short (ankle-high) green field planted in the corner of the pasture, I think "man, he's about to fly up in my tree!"

he get's about 15ft out and I think "Holy crap, he's about to land on this limb! [coming off the tree just over my head].

Now, up until this point, I'd not moved an inch b/c I wanted to see what he was up to. he'd come all the way across this field never once flapping a wing, but he was moving quick.

at this point, he was probably less than 5ft from my face, so I duck down in my seat as fast as I can. He freaked out when he realized I was there and started back-peddling and flapping his wings like crazy and flew up over my head. Close enough I could feel the wind coming off his wings.

All I can figure is maybe from across the field I moved my head slightly and he thought it was a squirrel on the side of the tree or something and was coming after it.

I guess BamaBart is the strangest thing I have seen while hunting.

Climbed a stand one cold blue bird morning. Saw smoke coming from down in hollow and it get's darker and darker. Smoke seems to be coming toward me. Walked toward smoke and woods are on fire. Look past fire and see a car with shotgun size holes in it. Someone had an ex that they didn't want them to have the car, so they burned it. Law had to call in bulldozer to drag a fire lane to stop woods from burning up. A few things came to my mind when I saw that, but main one was to get the heck out of there!

Climbed a ladder stand one frosty morning with gloves on. Pulled up my rifle that just had had a trigger job to lighten it. Not thinking, I rested the butt of the gun on my crotch and quietly bolted a round with my gloved hand with my pinky extended. My pinky brushed the trigger, and believe you me, I caught the full recoil right in the 'ol unit.

lucky that's all you got.

I seen a deer once. ok that was a damn lie

I hear that cocaine is a hell of a drug!

Yep, cheap lesson, it was pointed skyward, thankfully.

I had a similar thing happen to me in Clarke Co. a few years ago. I was sitting in my climber 30 feet up when the whole tree started shaking. I looked down thinking a bear or something was coming up the tree. Later that night the news reported a small earthquake in my area. Could be what you experienced.

I have a mature creek bottom with huge oak timber I hunt near the house. It has a creek running through it that Cuts into an Indian Mound. I have trouble keeping folks from digging in the mound every year. Last winter I was hunting the split in the creek and noticed something slinging dirt about 100 yards away. I eased down and snuck up to see what was going on and a crackhead had dug a hole over 6 foot deep trying to uncover the graves. I was seeing him sling dirt from the hole with his shovel..

I knew the boy and he is truly a sad case of what dope can do to a person so I just ran him off with him knowing if he ever sat foot in the bottom again he was mine. About two months after this happened he was arrested for manufacturing meth n his home with children present. I just could not tell what in the world was throwing dirt from the hole. I really thought it might have been armadillos.

So are yall inferring that drug use affects my grammar or that a tree doesn't vibrate and then drop leaves? I watched the leaves vibrating back and forth and then all drop off. I looked liked a sky lit Idot after they all fell.

I was scouting/stalk hunting down a creek during December two years ago in hopes of finding a good crossing. This creek was about three lanes wide and had a lot of small sandbars. I walked out onto one sandbar to look at the deer tracks and noticed what I thought was a boot print. I thought well crap somebody else has the same idea I do (this was on public land), but after giving this thing a second look I can make out the first three toes of the print as well as a slight arch. My mind then went into what is somebody doing out here in thirty degree weather walking barefoot in a creek. I look further out on the sandbar and see the opposite footprint as well as a third footprint before it goes into thigh deep water. So not only is this person barefoot, but they must have got in the water. At this point I'm real confused, so I try to get a size one these things. To match the stride, I had to hop off one foot to reach the next footprint and the print itself was about the same size as my rubber boot which was roughly 14 inches by about 5.5 inches. On top of that, I could not get the same depth into the sand as these prints even if i jumped and pushed down hard upon landing. So this was a big, heavy barefooted man walking across a creek in thirty degree weather during deer season. I decided I didn't like this spot too much and walked back to the truck.

hallucinogens

Not a hunting story, but down in my goat pen, there's a big Poplar tree with a Cooper's hawk living in it. Every time I'm outside, he follows me around my place or my oldest son's place (next door). He does the same thing with my son, but nobody else. Pretty much any time I'm outside, I can stop what I'm doing and look around, and he's usually within 25-30 feet of me, on a low limb, fence post, whatever, watching. I've turned around a few times and had him fly by within a foot or two of my face before. I have several pics of him hanging around, but can't post them from work, but 'Huntress has several, too.

While hunting, about the most startled I've ever been was right at daylight one morning when a huge flight of wood ducks came whistling by a few feet from my climber at about mach 3! Must've been 20 of 'em, and in the quiet, they sounded like a 747 landing on me!

I was sitting 20 ft or so up a tree in my Summit climber at the base of Bishop Mtn overlooking a vernal pool at dusk. There is a really thick limb coming out of the tree right above my head. This massive Barred Owl, wingspan 35" to 40" swoops in and lights no more than 5-6 feet from me. He sits there for 10 minutes or so while I'm frozen, watching and listening. Oh my gawsh at the pure power in his hoot. The whole danged tree would vibrate along with me, an utterly fantastic experience in my book

I believe you...I've seen very similar. Didn't hear/notice any vibrations, but I've seen a tree lose all of its leaves, and I mean ALL of its leaves, within a minute or 2. just all of a sudden, it starts raining leaves until the tree is pretty much totally bare. It freaked me out the first time I saw it happen.

I also had an encounter with a hawk. Back around 8 years ago i was sitting in a climber about 18' up in a white oak that overlooks a creek bottom. Now i had previously patterened a few deer that would come up and out of the bottom and pass to the side of the oak at 15 yards and follow the trail to a green field close to dark. Well one day everything weatherwise just clicked into place so i went to go sit all day. Well after i ate lunch up in the tree i dozed off and was suddenly awaken and startled to a gust of wind by my head and wouldn't you know it what seemed liked the biggest hawk I'd ever seen landed less than a foot from my head. That joker didn't even flinch believe me or not when i woke up,jumped and looked at him. What seemed like eternity but was probably 3-5 seconds he just cool as all get out just flew off. I swear it was thinking and said to itself"it's practical joke time,hope he's wearing a harness."

Probably this guy

I had to fight off and end up shooting three raccoons that had previously decided my shoot house was theirs. That was quite an event when they came "home" and found me there. To this day, I'll shoot every raccoon I see regardless of whether or not it ruins my hunt. It only takes one run in with a raccoon to realize you never want to do that again.

Another time I walked up on a man and woman, I presume was married but not to each other, going at it on the trunk of one of their cars.

I saw a huge meteorite come over one time about an hour before daylight just as I was about to get in my stand. I ain't talking about you're ordinary shooting star neither. I actually didn't see the ball of fire that others saw.....I only saw the sky light up and everything around me look like it was instant daylight....but a neon bluish color. I specifically remember looking across the cutover I was hunting and could see all the way to the other side. It lasted about 5-10 seconds and then went pitch dark again. I didn't know what the hell had happened. Scared the hell out of me. I ended up seeing it on the news later.....some gas station cameras had caught it on tape. This would have been around 15-16 years ago.

I bet " He had Beautiful Hair"

Back a gazillion years ago, when I worked at Andalusia PD, I had a guy flag me down in front of his house one day. This guy's right hip and thigh are all bloodied up, and I asked him if he was okay and what happened. He, in turn, asked me if birds carried rabies. I told him I didn't think so, and he said he'd been attacked by one. So I'm thinking rooster, or something...we walk around his house, and there's a dead Peregrine falcon laying on the ground. This old fella tells me that he was watering his flower beds, and all of a sudden this falcon swoops out of nowhere and slams into his leg, talons first, and starts biting him. He said he knew it was a falcon and that they were protected by law, so he'd turn himself in, but was worried about the rabies thing. I told him that if he got arrested for killing any animal that attacked him, it wouldn't be by me! We ended up calling the game warden who came and took the falcon away...I think they had it mounted and displayed it at the biologist's office...all we could figure was that the falcon fixated on the waterhose the man was holding, thinking it was a snake, but when he hit it, he was all in!

It was real "squatchy". Limb falls...prolly a bigfoot over there.smdh

Thats really cool.

I was bowhunting and some does came in right at too-dark-to-shoot time. Then some more deer came in and one was an albino (or mostly white piebald). One doe in the 1st bunch would snort like hell and tried to run whitey off.

Reminds me of that crazy meteor shower last year. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen. My buddy and I sat on the golf cart (where you and Otis parked) top of that hill and watched it for 10 minutes or so over a cup of coffee before going to stands. Truly amazing to watch

This was one single meteor that passed really close to the Earth and they apparently didn’t know anything about it until after the fact. It could be seen from multiple states across the southeast. When I say it cut the lights on….it was literally like flipping a light switch. I was looking at the horizon at the time and noticed a weird glow. No sooner than it had time to register “What is that?”…..it was like Whoooooof!!!!.....Total dark to instant daylight. I mean light enough to see for several hundred yards too…..5-10 seconds of neon blue daylight then Whoooooof!!!!....back to total darkness. Keep in mind that I’m out in the middle of the woods and don’t have a clue what just happened…..It would have been more settling to have actually seen the meteor. All I saw was the light it put off.

that is crazy.

Y'all keep these stories coming. I love threads like this.

Not a hunting story, but...

Mrs. Irish and I grilled out and ate till we were full as ticks up at the cabin. Of course we had been drinkin' [Surprise, I know. ] and I'm up on the back deck about 2200 hours and I hear this sound like a man walking through my woods in the dark. Tromp, tromp, tromp...

So I walk over to the small cabin and get my high intensity flashlight and my 30-30 Carbine I keep in my truck and walk back over thinking this is a bear or Bigfoot, and I might just get to be in the 6:00 news. [One way or another... ]

So I start shining the light in the woods trying to get a bead on whatever it is and nothing. Mrs. Irish is peering over my shoulder, eyes wide. Still the sound... Tromp, tromp, tromp... Through the leaves. The light didn't scare whatever it was. It didn't care. Alright dammit!

So we walked around the cabin and into the woods in our flip flops, drink in one hand flashlight and 30-30 in the other until we get into a heavily wooded area and can barely see a few feet in any direction. Still the sound... Tromp, Tromp, Tromp... Whatever it is ain't skeered! We both looked at each other and realized that this would be a great place for an ambush.

It is about this time that discretion became the greater part of valor and we decided to back up towards the cabin and leave whatever it was alone.

Still don't know what that was that night.

I do not post much but had to tell this.I hunted for years off hwy 41 in dallas county,close to the boys ranch.I was hunting close to the hwy early one mornig and heard a vehicle pull up close to where I had parked.Rap music blaring very annoying but thought it was loggers because they were cutting across the road.
Well,they stole my truck.I am 2 miles from clubhouse and no one wants to pick up someone with a 30/06 over their shoulder.
FINALLY AFTER WAIKING A MILE OR SO I GET A RIDE.I am hot as hell because I think some of the young guys I hunt with were playing a joke because they knew I always left my keys in the floorboard.
Truck was found in Lowndes county.And no I don't leave keys in the truck anymore.

It was da big feets

Anyone ever had the moon trespassing on your land?

CNC ,, sound like what i saw . looking north at about 11:00 it ran straight across west to east . elmore county

saw a fox squirrel grab kill and carry off a ground squirrel .

saw a horned owl knock the orange hat off my nephew's head .

saw the air frozen .

heard my BIL shoot five times then yell bring my a knife or shells . i got there he had shot all four legs off a doe and had her in a bear hug with his legs wrapped around her .

me and my BIL saw the same big black cat at 15 yards .

not while hunting > me and my pocket dog walk up on a hen and her chicks . the hen just layed down . when we got closer my dog went over to see what it was . the hen jumped up and just plowed right over him dragging her wings . my dogs gets up looks at me as if to say WTF!!!!

i got more , lol

I learned that armadillos like Green Apple Jolly Ranchers when they're under your tree stand. I also learned they crunch 'em instead of putting them between cheek and gum like a regular person. He didn't lick his fingers, so I didn't say anything.

At our land in Wilcox, MIL was hunting a short distance from me. She unloaded her Browning BAR and started hollering. I go over to her stand and she has the 4 wheeler winch unwound and wrapped around a 6 point buck's neck.

So Irish your story reminded me of a buddy and myself adventure. We were base camped at 11500 feet on the flattop wilderness area and had just found out that we were sleeping in the nuisance bear release area. Everybody else had hawgirons strapped to their legs but we just had our recurves. About 3AM I'm awoke by this violent crash and then a strange sound begins. gaaahh -lump gaaaahhh-loomp gaaaahhh-loomp. OMG I'm freaking and I ask my buddy if he's awake and he looks at me with huge frightened eyes ands says SHUTUP..... The sound continues I freak and he say F-inn Shutup. The only thing between us and the monster was a cheap tent. We literally hugged each others like babies as the beast continued to make noise for another 20 minutes or so....finally the noise stopped. After about an hour we went back to sleep but both slept with one eye open.

The next day we got brave enough to venture out. Much to our surprise the monster was THERE! There had been about 40 mph winds that had blown over a 5 gallon water jug. The water jug had burped air gahhh-loomp for about 20 minutes till empty. We both new that monster was in trouble if it messed with us. SO sad so so sad.

It happened again just in the last few years. I caught it on the news. The one I saw in my story happened back around 1999-2000 ish time frame around 4:30-5:00 in the morning. I was huntin in Russell Co around the old Yuchi Golf Course in Seale. Where I was standing would actually be smack dab in the middle of 431 these days. At the time it was a cutover where they had pushed it out to build the 4-lane and then apparently abandoned the project for a good number of years.

This should keep ya busy for a while

http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=57236

same thing ,,,,,yep two season ago i was on my tractor planting my green fields , saw that one too bout 4:00 in the evening if i remember right . look like the size of a soft ball

"I rough talked him!"

Buddy of mine told me that he used stay down off Troy hwy in an old house as a hunting lodge. Well one night they are all asleep and he feels something grab or touch his legs (one of the two) and he figured it was his friends. It keeps happening so he looks over and sure enough his friend is in bed asleep. Then the next time it happened he jumped up in the bed screamed and ran through whatever it was. He drove home right after that and hasn't stayed there since.

Who was it that posted that video of the naked dude running through the the woods? To me that takes the cake.

Agree

Had a hawk take two very blatant passes just over my head during turkey season this past April. If you've ever seen a mockingbird dive bombing a cat or dog that was what it felt like.

You saw the track of a young yahoo. Back when I was growing up near the Cahaba river we use to catch them when squirrel or coon hunting. We should have made some pics, but we had no idea they would later become such a big deal. Grandpa didn't care anything about them because they weren't fit to eat, but we always shot them out because the farmers hated them so much. They stunk worse than anything I've ever smelled.

My Grandpa thought they lived most of the year up in the hills of the Talladega National Forest, but when times got tough in the winter they would move down along the river to find food. They had a taste for veal and would get calves right after they were born. The cattlemen wanted to eliminate them, and I guess they almost succeeded.

It was hard to knock one out of a tree with 6 shot, but once they hit the ground they belonged to the dog. He was part bulldog, and Bully hated a yahoo and they didn't last long on the ground. I wish I could've made a video of one of those fights, but of course no such technology existed back then.

You and your yahoo's.

Chased turkey all morning at our old club up in Stevenson when I got to the far back corner of the property and got on a good gobbling bird around 11 am. Met my dad who wasn't far away and we setup on him and in about an hour get him kilt. Well on the way back to my dads 4 wheeler we hear a very loud explosion and felt the ground shake. I looked at dad and asked him just what in the heck that was and he said it sounded like the 4 wheeler blew up or miners were blasting out stuff at the coal mine. Well it was neither and we had no clue what it was. Fast forward 3 days and there was an earthquake that was centered in DeKalb County (2002 or 2003?). Dad calls a geology office up on Chattanooga later that week and they said there was a recorded "pre-quake" right under the mountain we were hunting on.

Had a big owl light on a limb beside me while on a ladder stand in Tuscaloosa County. Was hunting in a high fence club in a shooting house before daylight when all of a sudden the whole thing starts shaking. A Bison had slipped up behind me and decided he needed a scratch and was rubbing on the post of the house.

Didn't happen to me but a story as told by one of my old hunting partners Hank(RIP)

Hank was telling the story about how he came across a Parker-Hale 308. Hank has been known to embellish a story so I'm not really sure exactly how much is true.

Seems he had found a really hot scrape line of a Buck we all called the Homestead Buck. He said he set up in his climber about noon to wait on the monster buck to come back thru a check the scrapes.
After a couple of hours he said he heard bushes rustling and limbs cracking, he readied his gun for the shot when this man eased out of the gallberry thicket. Hank watched him stalk hunt up to about 50 feet from his climber. The fellow stood silent and motionless as a cypress tree for what seemed like another hour. Finally the hunter leaned his rifle against a pine tree and sat down against the same tree, took out a skin magazine and started thumbing thru the pages. Hank said he reckoned he found the pictures he wanted because the fella unzipped his britches and started vigorously choking his chicken.
Hank said it was like a fatal car wreck, he knew he shouldn't look but couldn't help himself. After a minute or two the fella finished and put away his willy and started to put away the skin magazine and that's when Hank hollered down asking him if he could borrow the magazine if he was through with it.
Hank said the fella jumped up and high tailed it outta there leaving the Parker-Hale 308 behind still leaning against the tree.
Hank climbed down after a half hour or so and the guy never came back after the rifle so Hank grabbed it expecting the feller to atlesst be waiting at the truck but nobody was there.
Hank posted a sign at the entrance of the dim road he was parked on saying that if you lost something in the woods call him and describe it. He never heard anything from anybody.
He still had that rifle when he passed away.

Foldemup and that is the winner.