Re: Scariest thing you ever saw in the woods
[Re: uplandpointer]
#7485303
02/04/22 10:21 PM
02/04/22 10:21 PM
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Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 1,512 Louisiana
AirportTrapper
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 1,512
Louisiana
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I seen Wolfdog91 one night fishing
If it makes a track on this earth , I can catch it.
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Re: Scariest thing you ever saw in the woods
[Re: uplandpointer]
#7485496
02/05/22 07:36 AM
02/05/22 07:36 AM
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 2,445 revillo, sd
cohunt
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 2,445
revillo, sd
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I lived in Northern Wisconsin for 30 years in the late 1900s and hunted and trapped the area North of US 2 extensively. During the time I lived there, timber wolves became re -established and I saw tracks become more and more common on the sand roads of the Chequamegon National Forest, saw an odd wolf cross a road from time to time, heard them howl several nights and held one wolf in a coyote trap. Mostly just considered them a curiosity. After I moved to South Dakota I returned to WI each fall to hunt ruffed grouse in the northern part of the Chequamegon National Forest, just south of Lake Superior. One fall in the early 2000s, we had just purchased a young trained female lab that was a bit of a head case. She had been sold twice and returned both times. My wife basically rescued her from the owner/trainer at a reduced price with condition that she could not be returned. She was very abused and fearful but exhibited great skills at hunting and retrieving. To get her into the back seat of my pickup I had to lift her in.
This trip we had hunted several days with some success. My normal technique was to quietly walk isolated sand roads that wind through the forest amid mixed poplar and jack pine stands and follow old overgrown logging roads that loop to former cuttings and back to the more main roads. The area south of Lake Superior has no dwellings and gets very little traffic. On this day, my wife visited friends and the dog and I drove to an area I was very familiar with that once had contained farms and the remains of those farms included some clearings with ancient apple trees which often produced a grouse or two. I parked the truck, took my double, opened the rear door and let the dog out. She had performed well the previous days except she proved to be shy of gun shots. She listened well and generally followed commands. As we walked the sand road that day the popple leaves were raining down and the sun was golden shining through the leaves that remained. The odor of wet leaves on the ground was amazing. Just a few hundred yards down that road we encountered two sets of large canid tracks that had come onto the road from the forest. The edges of the tracks were still crumbling and they had obviously just been made. The dog was curious and smelled the tracks. The two sets of tracks proceeded down the road in the direction we were walking for 50 yards of so and then left the road on the opposite side from which they had entered. I explained to the young lab that several of her ancestors were about and she had better be on the lookout. I thought that I was making a joke. As we walked further along the road the lab began to act nervous and would glance into the woods from time to time. Then she began to stop cold on the road, turn and face into the woods and edge closer to me, she even growled faintly a time or two. I explained to the woods at large that I had two loads in my double and more in my jacket but that did not seem to impress any thing at all. After a couple hundred yards like that, the dog was so glued to my side that she was almost tripping me and she had made me so nervous that I was no longer enjoying the hunt. It was certain by now that we were being tracked as we walked and that the trackers were of great concern to the dog, I decided to retrace our tracks back to the truck. As we walked back the dog would increasingly halt, turn around and growl into the woods. When we got to the truck, I opened her door and she, for the first time, eagerly leaped in. By then I was just about as happy to climb in the front and get the door closed.
In retrospect, I find the experience enjoyable and memorable. By myself, I almost certainly would have just hunted and gone on my way, perhaps with a bird or perhaps not but I would likely not have been aware that the wolves were there also. Or perhaps, without the dog they may just have gone on their way and not tracked us. I explained to her as we drove to a different location that she had managed to convince me that I was not as brave as I had previously thought. It was rather like several children frightening each other in the dark by conjuring up monsters. As a side note, she learned we would not hurt her, that guns were good and that when we had them she would get to hunt and work with us. She became a great friend and she and my wife had many memorable hunts together where she made some outstanding retrieves on pheasants and ducks before she finally passed.
Last edited by cohunt; 02/05/22 07:40 AM.
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Re: Scariest thing you ever saw in the woods
[Re: uplandpointer]
#7601221
06/09/22 06:13 AM
06/09/22 06:13 AM
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Joined: Aug 2013
Posts: 8,355 Firth, Nebraska
jabNE
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Aug 2013
Posts: 8,355
Firth, Nebraska
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Danny clifton...that was disturbing to read. I've found all kinds of odd things in my flashlight beam while checking traps. Underwear way out in woods where it probably shouldn't be, shoes, stuff like that. Found what I think was an old meth lab once, that was disturbing. Called that in. Also came up on one of my dirthole sets for for coon one very early AM check, and had a really big boar in it. But, it looked like this below. Now, a big boar coon isn't exactly a pushover softy creature to take out. And with trap on only one back foot they can still put up a decent fight with the other three fee plus teeth, right? Was a little unnerving to walk up on in the flashlight beam.
Last edited by jabNE; 06/09/22 07:52 AM.
Money cannot buy you happiness, but it can buy you a trapping license and that's pretty close.
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Re: Scariest thing you ever saw in the woods
[Re: uplandpointer]
#7601230
06/09/22 06:28 AM
06/09/22 06:28 AM
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Mark June
Unregistered
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Mark June
Unregistered
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I was a young man, in college and running mink traps any chance I could in the late 1970's to make "real money." I had a pocket set under a bridge abutment in a creek about 10 foot across that had a very large culvert under a county road about 5 miles outside a town of just a few hundred people.
I slid down the bank, with my hat nite light casting a pretty low beam, but I was used to it, and as I approached where my mink set was, I noticed a big ol steak knife - handle up - sticking outta the water. Well, I thought, in that low light 5:00 am time frame situation.... "what the Jimmy Dickens? What's this knife sticking up above the water line for and where'd it come from?"
So I grabbed the knife, pulled it up, and CRAPPPPPPP, it's stuck in a body. And about that time, a bit of a body, (I think it was a younger guy) bobs up a bit in the couple feet of water. He had been submerged or I just didn't see him.
CRAP! I just grabbed a knife stuck in a dead body and rational thinking took over in a nano second. Drop the knife. Yep, I have my gauntlets on. No finger prints on the knife. Geez. Pull the set (no mink).
Ok, call the authorities! No wait, do I call? No cell phones back then of course.
So I drove to town and in the days of phone booths made an anonymous call that there was a dead body at _______ road culvert.
I never ever set that spot again and read in the papers later ( I watched for the news article) that it was a drug dealer who'd been killed by another druggie buddy and his body dumped.
I got a bigger headlamp after that.
Blessings, Mark
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Re: Scariest thing you ever saw in the woods
[Re: ]
#7601361
06/09/22 10:53 AM
06/09/22 10:53 AM
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Joined: Nov 2018
Posts: 698 Ontario
Saskfly
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Nov 2018
Posts: 698
Ontario
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I was a young man, in college and running mink traps any chance I could in the late 1970's to make "real money." I had a pocket set under a bridge abutment in a creek about 10 foot across that had a very large culvert under a county road about 5 miles outside a town of just a few hundred people.
I slid down the bank, with my hat nite light casting a pretty low beam, but I was used to it, and as I approached where my mink set was, I noticed a big ol steak knife - handle up - sticking outta the water. Well, I thought, in that low light 5:00 am time frame situation.... "what the Jimmy Dickens? What's this knife sticking up above the water line for and where'd it come from?"
So I grabbed the knife, pulled it up, and CRAPPPPPPP, it's stuck in a body. And about that time, a bit of a body, (I think it was a younger guy) bobs up a bit in the couple feet of water. He had been submerged or I just didn't see him.
CRAP! I just grabbed a knife stuck in a dead body and rational thinking took over in a nano second. Drop the knife. Yep, I have my gauntlets on. No finger prints on the knife. Geez. Pull the set (no mink).
Ok, call the authorities! No wait, do I call? No cell phones back then of course.
So I drove to town and in the days of phone booths made an anonymous call that there was a dead body at _______ road culvert.
I never ever set that spot again and read in the papers later ( I watched for the news article) that it was a drug dealer who'd been killed by another druggie buddy and his body dumped.
I got a bigger headlamp after that.
Blessings, Mark Wow, that would get the heart rate up.
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Re: Scariest thing you ever saw in the woods
[Re: uplandpointer]
#7601371
06/09/22 11:07 AM
06/09/22 11:07 AM
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 15,718 MN, Land of 10,000 Lakes
Trapper7
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 15,718
MN, Land of 10,000 Lakes
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I would call this more strange than scary. I used to own some land in northern MN that we used for deer hunting. One of the guys had built a deer stand that bordered state land. It was about 3/4 of a mile from any road. He set up a camera several weeks before opening of deer season to see if any deer were moving through by his stand. When he checked the camera several days later there was a photo of a man walking through at 3:00AM. That was weird! What was he doing that far off any road at that time?
The difference between animals and humans is that animals would never let the dumbest ones lead the pack.
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Re: Scariest thing you ever saw in the woods
[Re: uplandpointer]
#7601417
06/09/22 12:42 PM
06/09/22 12:42 PM
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 3,018 USA MN
Snowpa
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 3,018
USA MN
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African Lion Next door neighbor had two and they were loose the small one was declawed and fangs removed but the mother was fully equipped .
Never Confuse Stupid With Crazy
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Re: Scariest thing you ever saw in the woods
[Re: uplandpointer]
#7601479
06/09/22 03:37 PM
06/09/22 03:37 PM
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 13,110 Central Pennsylvania
Nittany Lion
Don't call me Mister, Mister
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Don't call me Mister, Mister
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 13,110
Central Pennsylvania
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The Mark June story would be tough to top.
I got myself a seniors' GPS. Not only does it tell me how to get to my destination, it tells me why I wanted to go there.
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Re: Scariest thing you ever saw in the woods
[Re: uplandpointer]
#7601505
06/09/22 04:31 PM
06/09/22 04:31 PM
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,089 Cheyenne Wyoming
Castormound
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,089
Cheyenne Wyoming
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I once ran into 2 Californians walking around looking for land to buy and relocate to.
Antelope, the original fast food!!
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Re: Scariest thing you ever saw in the woods
[Re: uplandpointer]
#7601509
06/09/22 04:36 PM
06/09/22 04:36 PM
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Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 3,576 Kentucky
ky_coyote_hunter
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 3,576
Kentucky
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Heard a noise behind my deer stand one afternoon, and turned just in time to see my mother- in- law "backlit" by the sun, "relieving herself" in a small woods opening...Still carry the mental scars, Lol.
Member - FTA
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Re: Scariest thing you ever saw in the woods
[Re: uplandpointer]
#7601769
06/09/22 10:19 PM
06/09/22 10:19 PM
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Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 10,404 Northeast Oklahoma
Mike in A-town
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 10,404
Northeast Oklahoma
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Nothing really scary, but got startled a few times...
Pretty sure I was still trapping out of a car at the time. Had to park on a two track that ran alongside the creek I had set along... It got too rough to drive all the way in. Carrying all my gear in a pack basket with my .22 rifle in the crooks of both elbows across my chest. Traps were checked and I'm walking back to the car... Trudging is more accurate... Don't remember if I had caught anything. All of a sudden to my left a coyote busts out of the brush along a fence line. He is hauling too... He sees me and tries to stop. He starts skidding. He gets stopped, looks at me, and takes off in the direction of my car. This all happened in the space of 2, maybe 3, seconds. He skidded quite a ways before he got stopped... I could have reached out and tapped him on the head with my rifle barrel. I cursed myself for not taking a shot at him. But it happened so fast I was just stunned by it. Not scary, just startled me... Also a "what the heck just occurred?" type of thing.
Another time I was making a set along a treeline. I had dug the bed and was trying to get the trap settled in. There was a high spot somewhere and the trap was rocking... So I just balled up my fist and gave the dirt a few punches. It made a decent thumping sound. As I went to grab the trap I got a few "reply" thumps to the ones I had just made.
I was like, "What the heck was that?" And jumped up...
A buck busts out of the treeline a short distance away and takes off across the field. Guess he thought he was having a showdown with another buck until I jumped up. Pretty comical after I realized what had happened... But the reply thumps creeped me out for a second there. The strangest part is my buddy Jake was with me. He was leaning against a tree and we were talking while I made the set... And that buck still came that close.
Mike
One man with a gun may control 100 others who have none.
Vladimir Lenin
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