Getting Attacked

While fishing on the Big Hole river in Montana I came across an angry mother moose and her calf in some willows on a small island in the river. Didn’t realize how big those moose can get or how fast they can run.

I’ll bet that you didn’t realize how fast YOU could run either!
 
I have had wounded bull moose and wounded bull elk come for me. The elk when I was tracking it in the dark with a flashlight. Very close and happened very fast! Somehow put him away with a neck shot. The moose appeared to be down and incapacitated. I approached a bit too close for coup de gras with the last bullet. He got up and turned in an instant. I shot him in the head before he could take two steps. In Africa I shot an unwounded gemsbuck incoming at very close range. Was she charging or was I just in her way? Don't know but we were in the open and she was obviously looking right at me when she broke from the acacia thicket. Shot her twice in the heart, the second time as she ran by at twelve paces. Gemsbuck can be dangerous. I sure as hell was not going to wait for her to stop or change her mind. Not at that range!

After I shot my first buffalo, a culled cow, the herd bull came for us twice bringing the rest with him. Fortunately, we were over 100 yards away and granny gave two death bellows which called him back. Then he went after the truck that came out to load her up.
 
Hunting...
Years ago I had a bobcat attack a hen decoy and he and I had a standoff at 7-10 paces before he moved on. That same turkey season, a guy hunting in a National forest here had a bobcat attack his head.
The cat attacked the sound of his
diaphragm call. Did a real number on his face, had to have numerous reconstructive surgeries.

Had a few snakes strike my snakeboots sneaking into the swamp before dawn while turkey hunting. Felt like someone hitting the boot with a stick. Copperhead and a couple of moccasins, never a rattlesnake.

Had a setter bite me on the back of my right calf on a quail hunt. Son of bitch just bit me out of nowhere, I've always loved setters too.

Had a poacher try to climb up a stand i was sitting in early one morning when I was a kid.

I started diving when I was 12. On my first open water dive I came face to face with a ten foot tiger. He looked me over and swam off. Couple of years later got rushed by a bull diving another wreck..
I always got a little nervous when barracuda would come in cruising a wreck due to my main stage having a chrome face on it.

Numerous "bumps" while surfing, some small some big.
 
On my first African hunt we were charged by an unwounded but very determined elephant bull that was in musth. We were at Deka, trying to kill the bull as he was a good one, but the entire herd was fleeing with us in pursuit. Finally, the bull turned and came back to deal with us. No trumpeting or threat, he just pinned his ears back, dropped his head and came silently. My PH, Roy Vincent, and I shot at the same time, stopping the bull at 9 yards. Afterward, Roy apologized for shooting but said he wasn’t sure I’d be able to stop the bull on my own and it was determined to kill us both. It went 58x54.

A few years later we were hunting on Charara and charged again, this time by an unwounded buffalo cow from close range in very thick bush. The buffalo appeared in front of me as I was kneeling in a game trail, at about 12 yards, she let out a bellow and came. I managed to jump to the side and fired my 470 from the hip as she went past and was trying to hook Roy with her horns. He shot her in the face despite nearly having his rifle knocked from his hands. The buffalo disappeared and while we were asking each other if we were OK, we nearly got flattened by the buffalo’s yearling calf that ran right between us! It was so thick we didn’t realize there was a calf with her! The next 30 minutes or so got a bit ‘western’ as were chasing the wounded buffalo around in super thick cover (our shots were all inside 20 yards) and shooting whatever patch of black either of us could see. It all ended well as nobody got hurt and we had a good lion bait.

Geese… A number of you mentioned geese. While I haven’t been attacked by any wounded honker, my yellow lab Buddy has had his share of run-ins with wounded honkers. The first one was standing with its wings spread and hissing as he approached it. He stopped about 10 yards from the honker and looked at it, then broke into a sprint like a blitzing safety after a quarterback. He body slammed the goose, tumbling with the goose’s neck in his jaws. When he got up he was carrying a dead honker. I always got a kick out of watching him tackle honkers that wanted to fight. Sometimes he’d come back covered in blood but it was all goose blood.

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Years ago I was working as a repairman for the phone company in Utah and had a problem with a open wire circuit out in the east desert near the Colorado boarder. I had to climb a pole which wasn't a problem but one pole away was a golden eagles nest with mom, dad, and a few youngsters in it. Well, that day I put on my heaviest coat even tho it was over 100 degrees and pulled out my insulated gloves to wear as I ascended the pole to check on the trouble. When I started up the pole one of the adult eagles was flying over me and I could tell that it wasn't happy. I got to the top of the pole and as I was trying to work and keep a eye out both of those eagles started to dive bomb me. I don't know if any of you have been up close and personal with a golden eagle but I can tell you that they are huge and those talons looked even bigger when they are pointed at you. They took a few passes near enough to me that I could of reached out and grabbed one, but I wasn't that stupid.

I quickly got what I needed to do taken care of and got down off of that pole as fast as I could. All the while both eagles were flying too close for comfort. While it wasn't a actual attack and no blood was drawn it was as close as I want to come to one.
 
What happened ? if you dont mind me asking.
 
My wife shot a zebra in Greater Krueger area. We tracked all evening then ran out out light, at first light we got on the track only to find a pride of lions had claimed her trophy!! We got to the spot 50 yards away and the male made a 10 yard dash and slammed on the brakes, a little sketchy but exciting to see. My ph had us slowly back out and all was well. She lost her zebra but we will never forget that memory!
 
Walked up to "dead" gray squirrel I knocked out of a hickory tree with my Remington Speedmaster .22, noticed the eyes were closed and tapped it on the noggin with the muzzle, then the squirrel jumped on the barrel and bit it a couple times then ran off. Not too far after I put another Winchester Dynapoint into him.
My other traumatizing incident involved a hen Ruffed Grouse with chicks, was walking a gravel road with fishing gear when she charged out of the long grass with a bizarre hissing sound. Dropped my gear right there! I think my fishing bud pissed himself from laughing so hard. Do these qualify?
That reminds me of an incident that happened way back when.
I was squirrel hunting with a buddy, 1984 time frame. He shot a squirrel way up in a tree. I saw the wad hit the squirrel, the shot column missed the squirrel. The wad knocked the squirrel out of the tree and knocked it out.
I scooped it up and put it my buddy’s game vest. A couple of minutes go by and my buddy starts squirming and hollering. He gets his vest halfway off and out comes an upset squirrel, right up his arm and launched off his shoulder.
I about passed out from laughing.
 
When I was a kid, maybe 7 or 8, my dad and I went out shooting rock chucks. We walked up to survey our work and we could hear a chuck chirping his head off. Loud and fast. We went over to see what was going on and found a badger furiously digging at a chuck wedged in a little crack in the rocks. As soon as the badger saw us, he came full tilt. Dad was behind me but stepped up, pushed me away, and shot him when he was 3 or 4 feet away.
 
No good deed goes unpunished.

Growing up first we, my brother and I, had, had being the key word, pet geese, then pet ducks, both were given to us as Easter presents. One year it was geese, the next year it was ducks. The damn things would attack us everytime we would go to feed or pet them. The respective preceeding Thanksgiving dinner those birds were the guest of honor, cooked.

Still a youngster tried to put a baby bird back in its nest. Momma bird didn’t seem to appreciate my assistance and preceeded to chase me away, several yards away.

Taking a not so "youngster", youngster hunting for his first time. Short version: I tried to rescue an injured young deer and the damn thing superficially cut across my belly with its hoof.

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Living and hunting in North Carolina buckshot is allowed for hunting. This particular area I loaded up my Remington 870 slug, buckshot, slug, buckshot, slug, with good reason. It was getting late in the day and I was headed home. Stopped called it a day and lit a cigarette. Just as I was exhaling the first puff a doe snuck up behind me on my right side. Only chance to shoot her would be firing offhand. I slowly ejected the slug in the chamber replacing it with a load of buckshot. I shot, hitting her but not killing her she turned and ran for the only thick cover nearby. I tracked her to the cover expecting to find a dead deer. She came charging at me head on from about 20-25 feet. Slug, buckshot, slug, I had to turn sideways for her to pass me I put the last round, another slug into her 2-3 inches from the muzzle of the shotgun. She collapsed about 80 yards away.

My two hunting buddies were already back at my house when they heard the shooting and came back to see and lend a hand to find and recover her.

Her entire insides were mush. How she made it as far as she did is still a mystery.

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On one of my lates Africa hunts with my first outfitter, the video won't attach/upload/post of, the first porcupine night hunt, while in the blind had a herd of wildebeest come stampeding pass. That same night, at about the same time the wildebeest came by the blind I realized a cape buffalo had snuck in close, (there's a lot more to this regarding the previous night while going to my accommodations), left his liquid calling card, with a relatively soft/ calm bellow, he calming walked back the same direction he came in.

A couple of nights later a different event. A very pissed off buffalo (a different one from the previous encounter) was thrashing and crashing its way through dense brush about 100 or so yards away before he charged up close to the blind. Yeah, that was heart racing to say the least, as I had literally no where to go armed only with my 22 Hornet. Fortunately for me he stopped, pawed at the ground, snorted boldly several times then turned back the way he came thrashing and crashing his way back through dense brush.

After that second encounter I made it a self imposed rule never to go to the blind without my 458WM as back up. Unfortunately, never took the opportunity to return to hunt the porcupine as our last days of hunting were full of other hunts.

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Other close encounters were with: wild geese, turkeys, a rattlesnake, 3 black snakes, 2 opossums, a boa constrictor, a tralanchla, numouerous house cats (pets my ass, holy terrors in my book), a or (2?) bushpig, a warthog sow with piglets, an African dove, (hey, it looked like an eagle in my scope coming dead at me), another doe deer, a tense situation with a or (2?) bushbuck, and (familiarity breeds contempt) an encounter with at least one wildebeest, within inches, in total darkness, while heading to my accommodations at a regular Africa outfitter. Since my last visit years ago the outfitter has installed dim walkway lighting. IMPO there was no real threat; we just "spooked" each other as these wildebeest are accustomed to visitors and somewhat docile around the lodge area. Word of Warning: Consider them a threat and Not so docile away from the lodge area.

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On my second trip to RSA we were technically (maybe? It was sort of) charged by a black wildebeest. I opted not to shoot from the hip as it came running towards us, all the while my PH kept saying: shoot! Shoot! SHOOT!. Staring into the black wildebeest eyes, as it past safely, within a very, very few feet of us, shooting from the hip would have only endangered us (my PH and I). With being the only one armed, with a 30-06 loaded with SST ammunition which IMO&E are inferior to the task, on a thousand plus pound animal running at me, with horns and a justified reputation for being Thee [animal] "Clown of Africa".


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This herd was between 30 and 50 yards from the doorway of my accommodations. And this is after our previous encounter of a few inches, I could feel their breathe, as I was heading to my accommodations. I came back out to photo them after dropping off my gear in the room.

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Lengthy,.... Yes!......but having 6+ decades of hunting and outdoor experiences, in multiple (US) states, and in foreign countries. I do have a (more than) "few" stories to tell and several (although few) witnesses, even some although very, very, few videos and photos to verify some of my more profound hunting stories.
 
Incredible story on our own @Philip Glass and is why although rare I will not take my leopard my final of the big 5 with hounds. just me
 
Only yellow jackets in a deer stand....
Have hunted in Africa 15 times and Alaska 5 times.
Yellow jackets are mean as heck...
 
Only yellow jackets in a deer stand....
Have hunted in Africa 15 times and Alaska 5 times.
Yellow jackets are mean as heck...
They like my front porch for some reason. Just the other day got popped by 5 of them coming from under the porch.
Bug bomb tossed under it took care of them
 
A friend of mine shot a flea-infested javelina here in South Texas and we were looking at it trying to decide how to pick it up. All of a sudden, the rest of pack came back squealing and popping their teeth. We made it back to the pickup with those mean little bastages right behind us.

I was in Vegas once at the MGM Grand and was stalked by a couple of cougars. One caught me and left me maimed with claw marks. :cool:
 
Got my butt handed to me by a (supposedly) dead turkey. Ripped my jeans from crotch to knee with his spurs before I could break his neck. Fortunately they were heavy jeans with long underwear underneath. No lasting damage to anything but my pride.
 

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