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Close encounter stories

megalomaniac said:
Was walking 500y to my stand several years ago dragging a tarsal gland off a buck behind me through the open field, while talking to a buddy on the phone. I got about halfway to the stand when I noticed a 2.5yo 8 following on the scent drag bristled out and ears laid back. I stopped with him staring at me 100y away and he just kept coming. I thought it was hilarious until he got to 50y and still coming for a fight. Told my buddy I've got to get off the phone as I may have to shoot this buck if he doesn't stop. I yelled at him, failed my arms at him and he finally locked up at 40y, bristled down and just stared at me. After another 45s of yelling at him to go away, he just turned and walked off slowly.

I wasn't ever scared, but I did think I was going to have to waste a buck tag on him.
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I never cease to be amazed at how worked up and crazy bucks can get during the rut.
 
Was running on the Harpeth River Greenway in west Nashville in mid-November, right during the peak of the rut. I'm running through a section of the Greenway where a finger of woods comes out of the adjoining suburbia down to the wood-lined river when I hear crashing coming through the woods. An estrus doe is coming out of the neighborhoods down the finger of trees and she is being followed by a big 3 1/2 year-old 8-point, a decent 2 1/2 year-old 8, and a yearling 6 (in that order). Assuming the doe and follow bucks are just going to cross the greenway in front of me, I keep on running towards them. Just as the doe reaches the Greenway she turns and runs past me so close I have to jump back. And of course, right behind her is the big 8. As he runs past me at touching distance I have to stop myself from grabbing his antler beam. Don't know why I reached to grab it. I still wonder what he would have done if I had. In his rutted up state he probably would have killed me.
 
I have 3. Still hunting in pre rut. I'm walking slowly and hear the gruuuuunt. I stop and hear a deer walking. Can't see it. Finally see the horns coming around the oak tree I'm standing behind. Shot him at 5 yards.
Second I was in a 24 foot ladder stand. Heard a deer behind me. Finally saw him in the cutover. Directly under me. Shot him straight down.
Third walked up on doe that had to be I'll. I could touch it. Very weird. It was bedded and would not get up.
 
Was doing some survey work at Fairfield Glade, around the fire station. My partner walked by a hedge row maybe 4' wide, jumped a doe that was laying down, then after gathering himself he took about 5 steps and scared out the buck that was chasing her. Both ran across the road to the fire station, stopping traffic along the way.
 
Biggest deer I've seen while hunting came by at 30 yards. I had one of my twins with me on a friends property I had never deer hunted on, but had turkey hunted a few times. Picked a spot on a steep hill overlooking a bottom and sat behind a big red oak. We had seen a deer up on the hill opposite that was maybe 200 yards away a too far to shoot for her. I take the gun from her to look at the deer through the scope, and as I'm looking I hear my daughter whisper deer and I hear a deer walking at the same time. I pull away from the scope and there is a true giant of a buck walking right down the trail towards our shooting lane…with me holding the rifle! I try and hand off the gun as best/fast I could with the deer getting ever closer. She finally gets the gun and aims and rushes the shot because he's getting ready to get out of her line of sight and missed. That was the only truly big buck I've seen while hunting in my life. I'm not an expert by any stretch but I'd say it has to be 150-170 inch deer.
 
Ok, never spoke of this but here it goes. I got into hunting many years ago. I bit into all the promos for deer hunting from shows. I bought a cross bow, rattle, grunt, cloths, Doe in heat bomb and went out behind my fathers house. As i was walking I remembered about putting the scent down and they would follow it to me, per shows. So I devised my plan of attack. Mist it on the ground as I walk a little at a time and then spray around where I was going to set up. Now here is where it all goes down hill.

As I started this journey into the wood line down an old logging road, the dang can hung wide open. Now being short on cash and just plain cheap I started running to where i was going to sit. This thing was spraying all over we and I was getting soaked but there was no way I was wasting it. As I got to the downed tree, seemed like a mile, I threw the can and heard..tink...tink..tink then a fizzle as I watched it roll down some rocks. At this moment 90% of it was now on me. and I was sick because I believe I digested most of it, why you ask. Because I am fat, was out of breath and running like the ice cream truck drove by me without stopping.

Now, while I sat there in disbelief, I went to grab my grunt and it was gone. Apparently it had decided to jump ship and escape the fresh smell of a woman in heat. So I got my rattle out, knocked an arrow and prepaired to get that big buck like the Buck Commander Crew. I started rattling and shaking bushes and about thirty minutes later.......I hear beennnnnn....beennnn. Now my name is Ben and I thought someone had seen me and felt like pranking me so I sat still and played deaf. But this is where it gets interesting. It got louder and then I felt the wind off something directly behind me. As my necks hair was standing up like a spiderman tingle, I turned and there was a buck behind my tree licking its lips. What i know now, was grunting and sent checking. Covered in deer pee, pissed off and ready for action I about started crying.

Now first time hunting, seeing youtube videos i Prepaired myself for an all out war. I took an arrow from my quiver and decided if this thing jumps the log, I am going to ride across the field while prison shanking it because I am not going to let my family see me being man handled in the woods. Oh I didnt mention, there was a family get together and the big bay window was facing directly to me about 200 yards away. Before I could stop to catch myself, It walked beside me and thats when my natural born predator reflexes kicked in.

Your guessed it, I screamed like a kid and then made a highly educated decesion, I bolted. Needlessly to say, we both went our seperate directions. I ran across that field like once again chasing down an ice cream truck, out of breath and one mission in mind, not being dry humped by that moose. I got to the back door and realized I had left my bow. I sat on that back porch and ate some beans, you guessed it as nobody was letting me in smelling like that, until I could get someone to go get my bow. That following week, I bought a climber, found this forum, made my screen name and have been in a tree while using wicks. The only time I hunt the ground is when it isnt rut and inside a blind.

I hope nobody looks at me differently lol.
 
Long story short; HS Junior year and I was at friends house about to go bow hunting. School bus comes down the road and about the same time a squirrel jumps from a limb and smacks the bus. Knocked him out cold turkey. Like a stupid teenager, I walk up to it and grab it. As soon as I picked it up he came too, like a scene out of Christmas Vacation we lock eyes, I go to throw him just as soon as he goes to bite me. He latched down on my thumb and wouldn't release. I had to literally beat him to death to let go.
Later that night after I got done hunting I started to feel horrible. My thumb was swelled so I had to tell my parents. Over night in the ER and they decided to give me the rabies sequence, luckily right before it all went down they got the squirrel to the state lab for testing…no shots for me.
I'm so lucky the digs didn't drag that squirrel off before my friends dad could scoop it up.
I also wonder if it was the same squirrel 🤔
That's been almost 25 years ago so I'm good…
 
I was hunting a ladder stand one time and an 8 point came up the trail that I was watching. I shot the buck. He fell in his tracks and started kicking. I heard something else running toward the buck. I thought it was another deer. It was two gobblers. When they arrived they took turns flogging the deer until he quit kicking. Then they went back down the ridge where they came from.
 
DeerMan66 said:
I was hunting a ladder stand one time and an 8 point came up the trail that I was watching. I shot the buck. He fell in his tracks and started kicking. I heard something else running toward the buck. I thought it was another deer. It was two gobblers. When they arrived they took turns flogging the deer until he quit kicking. Then they went back down the ridge where they came from.
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That's a crazy one!

I shot a 2 1/2 year-old 8-point along the edge of a 1/4 acre food plot. Knowing my hunting buddies wouldn't be back by for more than an hour to pick me up, I just sat in my stand. About 30 minutes later another 2 1/2 year-old 8 comes by. Once he gets downwind of the dead buck he runs over and starts try to fight with him. He actually locked antlers with the dead buck and tried to get him to spar. That instinctive behavior is really strong.
 
Had a bum try to make camp 30 yards from me right after, and I mean right after I shot at a small buck years ago. There is no way he didn't hear the shot or smell the gunpowder. I had barely stopped seeing the white smoke myself. When I hollered at him he looked around then finally straight at me and began rummaging through his hobo bag while staring at me. It seemed like he was oblivious to my presence at first and that I had startled him as much as he did me. I got on the phone to the landowner and he took off. That encounter has always stuck with me.
 
I was still hunting one time on windy day during muzzleloader season. A doe came running down a ridge into the hollow I was in. I shot the doe and she ran back up the ridge where she came from. I reloaded the muzzleloader, waited a little while and started tracking the blood trail. I tracked it about 75 yards and saw the dead doe. I started walking toward her and another deer stood up about 10 yards from the doe. It was a very good 8 point that had been tending the doe and bedded down next to her. He just stood there about 30 yards from me and looked at me. I shot the buck. He ran about 40 yards. I was not expecting a buck to be bedded next to the dead doe.
 
DEER REPELLANT said:
Ok, never spoke of this but here it goes. I got into hunting many years ago. I bit into all the promos for deer hunting from shows. I bought a cross bow, rattle, grunt, cloths, Doe in heat bomb and went out behind my fathers house. As i was walking I remembered about putting the scent down and they would follow it to me, per shows. So I devised my plan of attack. Mist it on the ground as I walk a little at a time and then spray around where I was going to set up. Now here is where it all goes down hill.

As I started this journey into the wood line down an old logging road, the dang can hung wide open. Now being short on cash and just plain cheap I started running to where i was going to sit. This thing was spraying all over we and I was getting soaked but there was no way I was wasting it. As I got to the downed tree, seemed like a mile, I threw the can and heard..tink...tink..tink then a fizzle as I watched it roll down some rocks. At this moment 90% of it was now on me. and I was sick because I believe I digested most of it, why you ask. Because I am fat, was out of breath and running like the ice cream truck drove by me without stopping.

Now, while I sat there in disbelief, I went to grab my grunt and it was gone. Apparently it had decided to jump ship and escape the fresh smell of a woman in heat. So I got my rattle out, knocked an arrow and prepaired to get that big buck like the Buck Commander Crew. I started rattling and shaking bushes and about thirty minutes later.......I hear beennnnnn....beennnn. Now my name is Ben and I thought someone had seen me and felt like pranking me so I sat still and played deaf. But this is where it gets interesting. It got louder and then I felt the wind off something directly behind me. As my necks hair was standing up like a spiderman tingle, I turned and there was a buck behind my tree licking its lips. What i know now, was grunting and sent checking. Covered in deer pee, pissed off and ready for action I about started crying.

Now first time hunting, seeing youtube videos i Prepaired myself for an all out war. I took an arrow from my quiver and decided if this thing jumps the log, I am going to ride across the field while prison shanking it because I am not going to let my family see me being man handled in the woods. Oh I didnt mention, there was a family get together and the big bay window was facing directly to me about 200 yards away. Before I could stop to catch myself, It walked beside me and thats when my natural born predator reflexes kicked in.

Your guessed it, I screamed like a kid and then made a highly educated decesion, I bolted. Needlessly to say, we both went our seperate directions. I ran across that field like once again chasing down an ice cream truck, out of breath and one mission in mind, not being dry humped by that moose. I got to the back door and realized I had left my bow. I sat on that back porch and ate some beans, you guessed it as nobody was letting me in smelling like that, until I could get someone to go get my bow. That following week, I bought a climber, found this forum, made my screen name and have been in a tree while using wicks. The only time I hunt the ground is when it isnt rut and inside a blind.

I hope nobody looks at me differently lol.
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This is gold!
 
Have told this here before but will add it again as it's my "wildest" tale from the woods.
With just my .270 I decide I'm going to sit on the side of a ridge overlooking a hardwood bottom. Find a big doublestump chestnut oak and sit down and lean up against it. Well the way the tree sat on the hill one of the trees blocked my view to the left but no big deal because I'm not expecting to see deer from that direction. Sitting there and can hear the faint sound of footprints in the damp leaves. Not overly concerned but they steadily get closer and closer. It finally gets so close I don't dare peak out from behind the tree. A few more seconds pass and then a coyote walks right by my outstretched legs. I could have pulled the trigger without ever raising my rifle and wasted him. He got about 40 yards away before I got him to check up and dropped him.
 
I was hunting along the edge of a small creek when a six point followed by two does came along the edge. I shot the buck which fell stone dead into the creek. The water barely rippled and just covered the buck. The two does looked around for their boyfriend but he disappeared without a trace. They wouldn't leave until they found him. I waved my arms and spoke to them. Still they wouldn't leave. Finally, I climbed down the tree and got to the ground. Again, they just stared. Finally, I walked toward them at 20 yards and waved my arms and yelled and finally, they left so I could retrieve my buck.
 
Bowhunting from a treestand in Cumberland Co. I was on the side of a laurel covered bluff. I could here hogs grunting, and sounded like fighting at times. They were so close, I thought I'd eventually get a shot at one. But, never saw them . The next morning I hunted the same stand till noon. Never heard, or saw a hog. I lowered my bow with a rope, and climbed down. I barely got one foot on the ground, and a hog ran out of the thicket, and charged me. It got about 10 yards from me, then turned and ran back into the thicket.........Several years ago, I shot a hog while deer hunting the same area. It ran into the woods, and I found a blood trail. I was bent over looking for blood, and smelled the stench of a hog. When i turned around the biggest hog id ever seen was standing in a thicket, staring at me from 50 yards away. I aimed my 30-06, and shot at its chest.. The hog turned and ran. I felt pretty sure I'd hit the hog, or a tree😁 After searching for about 15 minites, I found a sapling the bullet had cut half into. Last year while deer hunting I got a second crack at him, and he wasn't so lucky...
 

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BSK said:
Muzzleloader season, near peak of the rut. Hunting a long narrow ridge and end up shooting a nice 2 1/2 year-old 8-point. This is before the days of game carts or ATVs, so I've got about a 100-yard drag to get to the closest road I can get my truck in on. Woods were very dry and dragging that buck made a huge amount of noise. In between drags I hear something running through the woods straight towards me. Up onto the top of the ridge runs a little fork-horn. He runs right up to me and stops staring at me. I'm standing there with this dead buck's antlers in my hands and don't really know what to do other than freeze. Eventually the yearling bucks gets bored and slowly wanders off. Giving the buck enough time to get a good distance away, I start dragging the dead buck again. Crash, crash, crash, here comes the yearling buck again. Again we have a stare off at about 10 feet. This pattern repeats itself 2 more times before I get the dead buck to the road.

It was that experience that taught me 1) yearling bucks can be dumb as bricks around the rut; and 2) ANY noise in the leaves, no matter how loud, during the peak of the rut can cause bucks to come running, thinking they are going to get in on an estrus doe chase.
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That buck I killed on the arsenal in 2021, I'm convinced it was me stomping and scraping leaves as loud as I could is what brought him out of the thicket, and not the grunt call.

When I tried the grunt alone, he just snort wheezed. When I scraped leaves, he came running.
 
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EastTNHunter said:
Not nearly as exciting as some of y'all's stories, but one season I shot two bucks during ML season within 3 days of each other, and when I shot them they both turned and ran to fall over and die directly below my tree stand
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First time my wife accompanied me on a hunt, she said she was up for it, but didn't know how she would feel about watching an animal die. Normal concern for a new hunter. I reassure her that its quick and usually uneventful. We sit for a bit, watch several deer come and go.

Then, a buck comes out at about 75 yards. She gets all excited. He's broadside, eating. I said "ok, I'm gonna shoot". *Boom*.

Deer takes off running this big arc that ends up.... basically directly at us and crashes maybe 5 yards in front of the stand. Thing flops around and makes terrible death noises for about 30 seconds. I thought it would never stop. Front row seat. Could not have planned it any worse.

I thought for sure that was the end of her hunting career.
 

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