Elkwoods Confrontation?

[WapitiTalk1]

The wolverine thread I posted in the Other Big Game forum (and the bear attack movie I watched last night) got me thinking... Have you ever been in a close quarter confrontation with a wild critter while out in the elk woods that turned "physical" (meaning that it required action on your end to diffuse a potentially bad outcome) ? I've had a good handful of bear encounters, a few big cat brushes, but they all ended without forcing my hand.

How about you folks, have you had any encounters that necessitated a physical reaction on your part?

[Trumkin the Dwarf]

Every snake I encounter tends to "force" my hand. I always find myself jumping backwards and firing rapidly at the same time, even as they try to slither away.

[Swede]

Yellow jackets and hornets have been the meanest things I remember running into.

[Elkhunttoo]

Yellow jackets and hornets have been the meanest things I remember running into.

They can be no joke too... they made me miss the last day of the season in 2015 because my wife and I got into a nest and she ended up getting hives all over her body so we ended up rushing home. I got stung on the hands a few times pulling them off of her and my hands were swollen for a week, nasty little buggers

Lots of years ago early one spring while looking for moose sheds my dad and I saw a wolverine. It was one of those once in a lifetime experiences, it ended up coming to about 40 yards and lucky the wind was in our favor and we were able to back out of the area when it went the other way. Luckily no physical contact ever though, a couple of long nights but so far nothing ever physical.

[Roosiebull]

i'm guessing you mean attacked, I have not physically been attacked....think I was close as I could have come to it last year about this time...i'm thinkin' if it would have got physical, I wouldn't be typing right now. I learned killing a dying buck should be something done very carefully, almost learned that the hard way (2 years in a row, my buddies deer tried to disfigure me)

not in the elk woods, but at work I have had to physically fight off sea lions several times, been bit hard a few times...if they are close enough, I am trying to bash them in the face as hard as I can...I don't trust those sketchy things, and they are always around. here is a little video we got a few years ago, we were doing biomass surveys for ODFW, when we are harvesting, we are solo down there, and it seems like the sea lions are more of a PITA when there is just one of you....these guys were being pretty mellow.

https://youtu.be/bPbW9uynvVo

[Swede]

Trust me Elkhunttoo; I wasn't joking. These critters are mean and aggressive especially after an early Fall rain. I have been hit by a swarm of them and needed to take a break to get to feeling close to normal again. I know for some people they can be deadly. I just have never been charged by a bear or cougar.

[Lefty]

While picking grapes as a kid I stepped in a woodchuck hole and my pant leg filled up with "sweet bees" I ran and jumped off the river bank and landed in mostly mud, my brother thought it was funny.
While visiting some oil field worker a skunk attacked my brother,.. I put a clip( 10/22) into the skunk
Twice Ive had momma moose put me in trees.
A pack of dogs attacked me while squirrel hunting I was able to scramble up a tree. I decided I would start shooting and the dogs trotted off.

I had a standoff with a young bull moose, that one had me scared. I backed into a thicket of maples. The bull was ripping things to shreds with hooves and horns, Twice I was ready to pull the trigger, another bull called him off of me.

The cats Ive seen were just curious or slinked off

We use to toy with badgers, they were always a kick in the pants. Im sure there are more

[Elkhunttoo]

I'm with you swede, they can definitely ruin a hunt.

[TimeOnTarget]

Bout the worst I've had is owls swooping at my head in the dark as im walking into my deer stand. I swear those dang things are about the size of a 6th grader!

[saddlesore]

I had a badger come up a draw that I was sitting in.The badger would not give ground, I had to move.

We had a bull elk charge us in Yellowstone. He was between us and the truck,but I had enough time to get my wife up a tree,but he had me trapped behind a big pine. He was on the other side.His antlers were on both sides of me. He kept butting the tree ,but finally got bored and went after some other photographers that were up a tree,but not as high.
After about 30 minutes,he moved off far enough that we felt safe enough to get back to the truck.

I had a stand off with a mama moose and calf. I was on a mule,and I'm sure if I was afoot, things would have turned out different

[>>>---WW---->]

I was walking on a log once. Didn't know it had a bumblebee nest in the end of it. They weren't to happy. Dang things can fly a lot faster than I can run!

Had a herford steer run me up a tree once.

When I was younger, I used to run coon hounds. One night the dogs got on a hot track and all of a sudden, they went quiet. Wasn't long, here came the dogs with their tails tucked and they hid right behind me. Then I hear this thunder of hooves coming. It was a herd of Angus cattle. Now I'm only 5'6" but I jumped a 5' fence and never missed a stride running full speed to get out of that pasture.

[olympushunt]

The 2014 season I had an interesting encounter. I needed a shorts change afterwards. My buddy and I hunted hard all day and for the last hour of light we sat at a well used wallow until dark. We were about 2 miles from camp down deep in a canyon. As we were losing shooting light we headed up the side canyon back to camp. By the time we got to the top of the ridge it was dark. There was a bit of last fading light off to the west but it was pretty dang dark. I put on my headlamp but my buddy said he wanted to see how well he could do without it for as long as he could. I just shook my head. No need for me to bust a leg falling. It was pretty loose shale rock, the size of plates, on top of the ridge. It sounded like a guy walking on plates even. So it was fairly loud walking. I was probably 200 yards in front of my buddy as he was having to go slower. I got to the edge of the ridge on the camp side and was looking for the game trail that worms down in between the rocks and I finally see the trail right below with two flashlights coming up the trail towards me. I thought "how odd....it is dark and two guys are coming up my way???" That was the split second my brain figured it was. Well....it wasn't.... As my light focused on the "flashlights" coming up the trail to me things became much more clear. I also thought it was an odd color of flashlights...yellow and creepy. As my brain recalculated this figure was LARGE with a LOOOONG tail and coming up quickly to me. It was 10 yards and closing. Uh oh! Cat.....BIG kitty cat. He must have heard what he thought was a deer on top walking on that shale and it was pretty close to dinner sooo.... BTW, My father in-law had seen this cat few weeks before and said it was one of the biggest toms he had seen. He used to hunt cougar professionally with hounds so he knows cats.
Anyway....as my brain registers what this was I go to quickly set my bow down and upholster my side arm. It was at that moment Mr. Kitty figured out I was not a deer and he was in deep doo doo as well. He opted to live to hunt another day and was haulin kitty cat, exit stage left as I was raining on his parade. They move pretty fast when properly motivated. lol My buddy comes running up to me to find out what in sam hill is all the racket about. We looked around and for the next morning for signs of cat damage even though knew I didn't hit him. Balls and fur where FLYIN. I still felt satisfied he didn't want any of that action. I hope I get another crack at him someday. He is a dandy cat. Scared the pee out of me though when I realized some critter thought I was a snack. Yikes.
That is my second cougar interaction where we both saw each other at the same moment and had the same words come out of our mouths...."OH...Fiddle Sticks!" It might have not been fiddle sticks...I can't remember.

[CurlyTail]

My dogs found two rattlesnakes mating while retrieving a Dove. Snakes were so distracted they left my dumb dogs alone. Shot em

Encountered a rattlesnake Turkey hunting last year - scared me to death, but let that one go - we were sneaking up on some Toms at the time.

Ran into a Black Bear mom with 3 cubs in the dark one morning Elk Hunting. They were munching raspberries in the burned area. Luckily, they just turned and ran.

Many black bear encounters in the Canadian Wilderness - but they were just after our food, not us

[adamds22]

Spooked a decent size bull moose in some heavy brush at about 10-15 yards with only a bow in my hand, froze as the bull tried to figure me out and eventually the bull kind of walked around me and then took off but as I had my eye on him moving up the trail backwards, crested a small hill and spooked a cow and calf moose at about 10 yards in an open grassy area.

[Swede]

I had a close encounter with a bear one time, but I never considered it a confrontation. Oly's story about the cougar reminded me of an earlier encounter of my own.
My pastor friend and I were hiking a narrow trail through a dense thicket of sapling pine trees. The limbs were to the ground and all that could be seen was pine, sky and the trail ahead. I was out of my friend about 10-15 yards when a very large bear came around the corner heading my way. He was very close, so I threw up my arms immediately, ran forward and hollered loudly at the big boar. The bear instantly left the trail and broke through the saplings. When he left the trail, he was close enough I could have kicked him.
Almost immediately, pastor ran forward to see what was the matter. I told him and we ran back to a point where we could watch the bear climbing the adjacent hillside. As we stood there pastor said to me, "don't worry. If that bear had attacked you, I have a big knife and would have come to your help." I looked over at him, and said, "I wasn't worried. If that bear had come any closer, I was prepared to quickly run back and leave you and your knife to deal with the bear." What an irony. For some reason pastor was speechless for a minute.

[Tigger]

I just listened to a Randy Newberg podcast with Fred Eichler. Have you seen the video with Fred in a raft in Alaska when the sow Griz charges out of the brush at him? His buddy shoots a warning shot at 8 feet. It is a great video. Huge pucker factor. Anyway, what isn't shown is that the gun jammed! All they had was a pistol for a club at that point. Luckily the sow turned.

[WapitiTalk1]

I just listened to a Randy Newberg podcast with Fred Eichler. Have you seen the video with Fred in a raft in Alaska when the sow Griz charges out of the brush at him? His buddy shoots a warning shot at 8 feet. It is a great video. Huge pucker factor. Anyway, what isn't shown is that the gun jammed! All they had was a pistol for a club at that point. Luckily the sow turned.

Yep, that was a good pucker factor event. Don't remember the gun jamming tho?

[NorthIDTLH]

I'd rather be buck naked facing a bear than be anywhere near a snake! Kill every last one of those!!!

[Roosiebull]

I had a pretty close call last spring, end of April, I was bear hunting. that day felt really weird walking in...I vividly remember having a feeling I couldn't pinpoint while walking through an area that later held the answer.

once I got on top, everything was normal, I was glassing and looking for sign, or bear...about 7 it started raining, if I hadn't seen a bear before it started raining, I figured I wasn't going to while it was raining, I started back out. it was about 3 miles back to my rig, a big flat on top of the ridge, then a steep half mine downhill to my pickup.

the majority of the walk, up on the flat part of the ridge, i'm always paying attention, I see lots of game walking that ridge top, was holding my rifle and watching around every bend, the last half mile where it goes steep downhill, it's all choked out with reprod with lots of road side scotch broom.

as I approach the downhill, I sling my rifle over my shoulder, put my hood up and pick up my pace, it is now starting to get a little dark, and raining harder. out of habit, I was still walking down the side of the road in the grass (I annoy myself walking straight on the gravel road, making racket for no reason)

I come around a corner, head down walking, probably daydreaming about big bears when I am startled by a loud guttural scream, where I could hear the raspy mucous sound in the scream. I didn't look up, just took my rifle off my shoulder slowly, and deliberately took the safety off....the sound instantly turned to a steady popping growl I have never heard anything like, in the couple seconds, I knew what I would be looking at, and knew it was close.

I raised my rifle as I lifted my head and am looking at a lion croutched down, quartering towards me, ears pinned, and every muscle in the whole front of it's body bulging. I strangely had no fear for my safety, I just wanted the cat to not run off, as I got my cross hairs on it, it bolted up the hill, through very deep salal. it got to the top of the little ridge, maybe 15 yds away, looked at me and slowed to a walk, it was going to my right, through 4" diameter fir trees and salal, it came up on a little rise, and I was following it in the crosshairs, as soon as the body was visible I shot.

through my scope I see I almost blew one of the fir trees in half "$#**!!!" the cat takes off and quickly disappears. I stand there completely sick, I just had a cat at less than 20 yds, and centered a tree. the cat had ran just a bit, and then got quiet, then sounded like it came back a little, then silence....I was in denial looking at the tree, and decided to go make sure my bullet didn't make it through (even though I knew it didn't)

I took about 2 steps and see what the confrontation was about, here was a half buried deer, just the front part of the deer was uncovered, I could see inside the spotless rib cage, not a smear of blood, perfectly clean. I decided to see if it was a buck or doe, it's head was under some ferns....but what the heck?

the neck looked very odd, this wasn't a deer, the neck was spotted...WTH? I lifted up the fern to uncover the mystery....OH CRAP!!! I am looking at a little tiny cougar cub, body just over a foot long, curled up looking at me.....thank goodness I missed that cat!

I wanted a picture, all I had was my video camera in my pack, I dropped my pack, unzipped it and had a reality check.....this is a really dumb situation, I am standing over a cougar cub, the mom is right there, it's getting pretty dark, and it's dense reprod all around me. I zipped up my pack and got out of there.

a couple days later I went back to make sure I didn't hit that cat, my bullet didn't make it through the tree, and when that cat got silent, it was all deep salal, so it was for sure right there still. I have a bunch of pics of that cat on cam, it even ate one of my cams....she is the prettiest cat around here (I just got a close up of her the other day) she no longer has a cub with her, so she is fair game once again.

I didn't even think about being scared until I was walking out of there, then I realized how good of a situation that was to get attacked...I walked right up on her, on a kill, with her cub sitting on top of the kill, at no more than 5 yds.....I would have never seen it coming.

my scariest "wildlife encounter" to date, still is a freaking domestic cow....those things hate me.

[Tigger]

The gun jamming wasn't on the video! He talked about that in the podcast. Easton didn't want to show that because it was a revolver. He was using handloads that had the primer pull out causing the jam.

[WapitiTalk1]

I took about 2 steps and see what the confrontation was about, here was a half buried deer, just the front part of the deer was uncovered, I could see inside the spotless rib cage, not a smear of blood, perfectly clean. I decided to see if it was a buck or doe, it's head was under some ferns....but what the heck? The neck looked very odd, this wasn't a deer, the neck was spotted...WTH? I lifted up the fern to uncover the mystery....OH CRAP!!! I am looking at a little tiny cougar cub, body just over a foot long, curled up looking at me.....thank goodness I missed that cat!

Holy hell, that coulda turned out bad.

[WapitiTalk1]

Ten(ish) years ago, I was hunting a WA wilderness area with my friend Joe. We were doing what I call a sweep hunt. We dropped one pickup off at the bottom of a 5 or 6 mile chunk of wilderness and drove the other to a high access trail. We would walk in the trail, drop into the area, and hunt through to the other truck. After a few miles in on the trail in the dark, we dropped down into an area I knew well (lush meadows, water, previous elk encounters) and started our hunt... it was Joe's turn to call. He received an immediate hit in response to his locator and I adjusted my setup a bit as we started moving in (60-70 yards down and to the side) on the small bull. The upstart 4X4 Roosey paralleled my location, gave me a brief visual, then bumped outa there a bit too quickly for some reason. Joe was above me off to the side of a little finger ridge I was set up beside, he had no idea what was occurring below him when the fun began. I held my setup for a few more minutes to see what the little bull was going to do... As I heard the small guy throw a locator back from several hundred yards away, I figured the jig was probably up. At that point I heard a very light splashing in a swampy little creek down to my left. “Odd”, I thought.. but perhaps another elk coming in to the bugling. I moved closer to an intercept spot, readied myself for a possible shot, and here they came; two of them, very small, very black, and moving "quickly" across the trail right below me 20-25 yards.. . Uh, oh.. I've been here before. As the two little buggers starting scurrying up trees, here came mama running sideways (if you've never seen a bear false charge, they oftentimes run kind of sideways, quartering slightly away)... she came right at me up the tiny ridge game trail, seemingly knowing exactly where I was at, and me in my best camo patterns . HEY, HEY, HEY, I yelled loudly, waving my bow above my head (the only weapon in my possession that day). She stopped, retreated, and repeated her initial intimidation charge. The second time she came way too close for comfort and finished her false charge with a few seconds of jumping up and down on her front legs and popping her jaws (probably 15 yards from my position). She was a really big mama bear and did not like me at all. I repeated the yelling, and slowwwwly, starting backing up the trail. She eventually moved off the trail towards her cubs and I moved back and up the finger ridge and found Joe. The look on his face was priceless.... he didn't know if I'd shot an elk, got accosted by a bigfoot, or, had just completely gone bonkers on the mountain.

[cohunter]

The closest thing I ever had to a confrontation in the elk woods was 4-5 years ago in a rifle season. I had a cow tag, had killed a bull a week earlier and had to be somewhere later that night, so rather than hunt hard the entire day, around evening I worked my way to a spot over a small bowl not to far from the road that I could glass. After about 5 minutes a group of deer fed through followed almost immediately by a large black bear. I watched the bear for around 30 minutes at between 50 and 80 yards before he fed out of view. Just after he left, I heard something approaching from behind and to my right. At first I thought perhaps it was an elk, but then realized it was too big and loud. Probably just a moo cow. Nope. A man in in blaze orange pops out of the brush about 20 yards upwind of me, takes a quick glance below into the bowl and then plops down on the ground. He proceeded to pull out a cell phone and an empty beer can and start playing some sort of game. He'd finger the screen for a while then spit in his can. This continued for maybe 15 minutes - all the while he kept looking up in brief glances only. Another group of does fed through the bowl - he never noticed. Finally, he glanced my direction and somehow spotted me (I was sitting totally exposed to his point of view). "What in the **** do you thing you're doing here!" he said. "I been here for 'bout 2 hours and now you think yer just gonna sit right next to me?"

I just said, "I think I'll call it a day" and walked back to the truck. Last season I was within 5 feet of an adolescent black bear armed with just my bow. That didn't scare me as much as some of the 'domesticated' 2-legged animals I see in the woods. Wild animals are a whole lot more predictable.

[Roosiebull]

Cohunter, that reminds me of an elk woods encounter...it was 5 or 6 years ago, I had already killed an elk, but had a deer tag, but I don't get too amped up chasing early season blacktail( I love the late season hunt)

An older friend of mine I fish with a lot, and took him hunting a few times rifle elk season, wanted to go on a hunt with me...good time to go for a walk, he wanted to go, and I had a deer tag.

I had a good spot in mind, I figured we could go see some elk, and maybe a deer...more of a walk, but with my bow.

Off we went, we got out to this point where I thought we would see some elk, sure enough, big herd of cows, a couple spikes and a little 3x4 bull.

We watched them for a bit, then I got antsy to go look for a buck...a couple draws back towards the rig, late evening, I glass up a really nice 3 pt buck...lucky!

My buddy stayed above and watched as I snuck in, it was a pretty good stalk all things considered. I got within 39 yds, and had a spot I wanted to reach to shoot, it would have been 26_28 yds (I got over confident)

Some where in that last few yards I got busted...fun and as successful as I wanted to be that night...perfect hunt for the situation.

We were walking back down the trail, got to my rig and was startled by a person standing at the trailhead.

It was a young guy, about my age, with a Jan's port backpack, old school camo shirt, very old school bow, and blue jeans...almost a refreshing appearance...not into gimmicks.

He was very awkward in character though, I broke the ice and said hi.

This is when things got weird, he slowly reached down, and un clipped his knife sheath and was holding the handle of the knife, I didn't look, but I was looking...

I made small talk, and went and set my bow down casually, but was on very high alert, I kept talking to the guy and stayed close to him without crowding him...he finally ended the conversation and walked down the trail we had just came up, as last light was fading.

My buddy asked if I saw what he did, I said yeah..we were happy to be leaving...I got in my pickup, started it, got turned around, and thought "crap!" Where is my bow? I looked in the pickup, it wasn't there....got out, and found it in my tire track...yep, I ran it over...ugh

Good news was, new quiver, new arrow rest, and some more arrows, I was back in business...no harm done to the bow.

I have since given that bow to my wife's dad, he dry fired it, new strings and cables, and it's still tickin'

The alien x is a legit weapon...