Strangest thing you've ever found/seen while hunting?

Not so much in the outdoors, but...

I heard a noise in front of the house one day, looked out and saw a rabbit fighting a crow in the front yard. when the crow would swoop down, the rabbit would jump up at it. they were both squeeking and squawking. as i watched, i noticed baby rabbits there too. this went on for about 5 minutes and the crow left. a few days later, i saw the same thing happen behind the shop.

another time, i was driving on a dirt road about dusk. i saw a big copperhead in the road so i locked em up and slid over it. i noticed a popping sound as i did. i backed up and shined the headlights on the spot where the snake was, but saw no snake. i got out and was looking, when i realized there was little squiggly things all around my feet. i thought it was snake guts til i noticed them moving. then i realized i was standin in a mess of BABY COPPERHEADS ! i wish now i had paid more attention to how many, how big, etc., but that didnt occur to me at the time. i must have looked comical there in the headlights doing a "snake dance" on them baby snakes
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: HidenseekproI used to work down around Deming, NM. One of our office ladies knew a houndsman that worked that area. She had a photo he gave her of his dogs with a sure-'nuff jaguar bayed up down in the New Mexico bootheel.

Warner Glenn. Google him and find out all about it.

I've spent my whole life (48 yrs old) in the outdoors, either hunting, as a wildlife biologist, or as a rancher. I really haven't seen that many odd things- a few things that made me take a second glance and then go "oooohhh.. so THAT'S what that is!!" but nothing totally unexplainable. The things that come closest, though, are the busted fences.

Down at the south ranch, we once had a busted barbed-wire fence where whatever it was took out 6 posts (approx 30 yards of fence) and laid the fence out on the ground. That is, the fence didn't just break and drop, but was strung out perpendicular to the standing fence, all 5 strands of barbed wire busted. You'd think "cattle" BUT neither we nor our neighbors had cattle. The ground was rock hard, so no tracks, but as I got to looking at the fence, I found some reddish brown hairs about 12-14" long in the wire. It looked like horse mane or tail but no horses were to be seen and they'd surely be bleeding after hitting that fence, too. The only thing I could think of was Barbary sheep. There are Barbarys not far off and they've been sighted occasionally, incl a herd of 6 that stayed in one of my canyons for a few days (which I missed, but my mailman saw).

I had a similar thing happen here on the north ranch. Got a call one morning at dawn that a bunch of my cattle were on the highway, 12 miles away! Fortunately, my south neighbor was able to open a gate and herd them to his pens right there. When I drove down there, I found the gate in the corner busted open and when I checked, there was cattle hair strung for 100 yards along the fence along with blood on the gate posts. Something had REALLY spooked those yearlings to drive them that hard into the corner and then hard enough to keep going for 12 miles down the road! I suppose it could be a lion or a bear, but I have trouble spooking yearlings enough to drive them 1 mile, much less 12. Plus, when we gathered in the fall, I came up 15 head short in that pasture.

At that same place, I was driving home one evening when something strange did happen. Driving from the highway to home, there are two rises separated by 3 miles- one drops down to the creek and makes an S shaped curve, the other drops down to our house. Both of these are "blind"- as you go up the slope, you can't see the country on the other side. When I left the highway, I re-started a new CD and was driving along listening to the words. As the second song started, I started up the slope to the first rise. When I crested the rise, I saw some lights off to the right which looked like a cattle truck. "That's odd", I thought, "why would they be unloading in that pasture in the dark?" The 2nd song was still playing. Suddenly, a green road sign came into sight and I realized that the lights were our house. What I thought was the first rise was actually the second rise. Right about then, the 2nd song ended. It's 10 miles of dirt road from the pavement to the house, takes 15 minutes. There's no way you can do it in the space of 2 songs.

I had to stop and think about it and I had absolutely no recollection of ever going down to the creek and thru the S curve (you have to slow down to 20 mph to do this and there are usually deer there, so I'm alert). It was literally like I'd flown from the 1st rise to the 2nd and skipped 3 miles of dirt road, including a creek crossing. The only logical thing I can think of is that I'd hit "Back" on the CD player after the 1st rise, the song hit the same spot on the 2nd rise, and I was tired enough that I just blanked out the journey.

 
I once found a bra and a pair of panties......but there was a woman in them..

When I lived in Alaska I got up real early one rainy, windy Saturday morning to go duck hunting on the flats in Juneau. The rain was pouring so hard when I got there I was wondering why I was doing this but I grabbed my bag of decoys and flashlight and headed out. About 150 yards down the path well off the road I shined my light right into the face of a man laying on the ground. I just knew I'd found a dead guy. I put my decoys down and the guy finally put a hand over his face to block out the light. He was drunk and apparently wandered down the path and passed out. I picked up my bag and continued on my way.
 
While javelina hunting in unit 22 just above Saguaro lake I saw a couple parked in a cove getting after it in their boat. My main hunting partner found a murder victim in the desert while riding a dirt bike back in the 70's.
 
my son jake and i where walking up a ridge back to the truck and came up a rise and i see this grouse walking up the trail in front of jake. so she stops and turns around and starts attacking jake boots. she was making noises that i never thought a grouse could make, had her feathers rolled forward, so while she is doing this 4 or 5 little one start flying off. but the best part was jake asking me want to do, so i told him she wasn't going to eat him. laughed all the way to the truck
 
Last edited:
Hidenseek, you guys sure got your work cut out for you, don't you? Looks like one of those predator drones would work real well for you in that open country.

Regards,
hm
 
Back
Top