What’s your spookiest hunting experience?

[tigerrose01]

Had a similar thing with a big Horned Owl. The wife (pre wife) and I were rabbit hunting and came across an owl with a broken wing….likely hitting some Sage Brush when going for a kill.

I grabbed a wool blanket from the truck, made several wraps around my arm, picked him up to take him to the G&F. When I grabbed him, his talons latched onto my wrapped arm. He didn't penetrate the wool blanket…..but, it felt like my arm was in a vice with someone turning the handle!

That was almost equal to the pressure I got from the game warden for capturing the owl! He was most unhappy and didn't mince words telling me about it! memtb

My game warden knew my grandfather who was the local taxidermist. I was told it was amazing that I caught him and that they would keep me updated! Lol! I am happy I didn't get the talon pressure at all. It was bad enough to see that huge beak just a few inches away from my face as I held the wings. His wingspan was just short of 5 feet.

 

[BigDon]

That is an unwritten rule pretty much everywhere I hunt!

Got thrown off a ranch in Northern California that my wife and I had a lease on. We were deer hunting. Flat meadow, deep grass, off a 2 track. A corral in the distance (1/4 mile.) While glassing, wifey sees a fluffy tail above the grass line, has me look at it. I see that the tail is attached to a large tawny cat! Mountain Lion! This is well after the law changed that made mountain lions the new California house pet. Cat is headed towards the corral. There are cattle in the corral. We lock a round each and start following the cat. The grass is way to tall for any kind of shot. About 100 yards from the corral, the rancher comes up the 2 track. We wave him over, tell him about the cat and point him in the right direction. Our good deed for the day. Wrong! He bails out of the truck, climbs the bed and can see the cat moving in the tall grass on the back side of the corral. He is not happy. No real shot, because he'd be shooting right across the cattle. He is stomping mad about the whole thing, then gets mad at us for not killing the cat. (We never had a clear shot.) I reminded him that it's a felony in California. He reminds us of the rule of SSS. Then he canceled the lease and told us to leave asap. We did so. A week later I called him and said he owed me the lease money back, since he said we couldn't ever come back. He actually sent me a check! That was the end of that!

Side note: we followed that cat to the corral to see what would happen next. If the cat HAD attacked the cattle in our view - and we were shown a clear shot, we would have taken it. It would have been a legitimate DLP situation and no laws would have been broken. The rancher, though, was highly emotional and didn't really care about out story.

 

[victor3ranger]

Got thrown off a ranch in Northern California that my wife and I had a lease on. We were deer hunting. Flat meadow, deep grass, off a 2 track. A corral in the distance (1/4 mile.) While glassing, wifey sees a fluffy tail above the grass line, has me look at it. I see that the tail is attached to a large tawny cat! Mountain Lion! This is well after the law changed that made mountain lions the new California house pet. Cat is headed towards the corral. There are cattle in the corral. We lock a round each and start following the cat. The grass is way to tall for any kind of shot. About 100 yards from the corral, the rancher comes up the 2 track. We wave him over, tell him about the cat and point him in the right direction. Our good deed for the day. Wrong! He bails out of the truck, climbs the bed and can see the cat moving in the tall grass on the back side of the corral. He is not happy. No real shot, because he'd be shooting right across the cattle. He is stomping mad about the whole thing, then gets mad at us for not killing the cat. (We never had a clear shot.) I reminded him that it's a felony in California. He reminds us of the rule of SSS. Then he canceled the lease and told us to leave asap. We did so. A week later I called him and said he owed me the lease money back, since he said we couldn't ever come back. He actually sent me a check! That was the end of that!

Side note: we followed that cat to the corral to see what would happen next. If the cat HAD attacked the cattle in our view - and we were shown a clear shot, we would have taken it. It would have been a legitimate DLP situation and no laws would have been broken. The rancher, though, was highly emotional and didn't really care about out story.

Try to do the right thing and get the shaft that sucks

 

[victor3ranger]

Had a similar thing with a big Horned Owl. The wife (pre wife) and I were rabbit hunting and came across an owl with a broken wing….likely hitting some Sage Brush when going for a kill.

I grabbed a wool blanket from the truck, made several wraps around my arm, picked him up to take him to the G&F. When I grabbed him, his talons latched onto my wrapped arm. He didn't penetrate the wool blanket…..but, it felt like my arm was in a vice with someone turning the handle!

That was almost equal to the pressure I got from the game warden for capturing the owl! He was most unhappy and didn't mince words telling me about it! memtb

The grip pressure they have is insane for not being any bigger than they are

 

[AGGRO]

My game warden knew my grandfather who was the local taxidermist. I was told it was amazing that I caught him and that they would keep me updated! Lol! I am happy I didn't get the talon pressure at all. It was bad enough to see that huge beak just a few inches away from my face as I held the wings. His wingspan was just short of 5 feet.

We found a wounded owl in HS while hunting ducks. We tried to get it to the vet by stuffing it in a bag. My buddy tried to block it out with his shotgun stock and it put it's talons about one inch in each side. Unreal power.

 

[victor3ranger]

If he just killed 65 of my chickens, there wouldn't be a need to call a neighbor ..... just S-S-S.

Yep
Doesn't just about everything taste like chicken?
Invite the warden over for a nice home cooked meal, problem solved

 

[tigerrose01]

We found a wounded owl in HS while hunting ducks. We tried to get it to the vet by stuffing it in a bag. My buddy tried to block it out with his shotgun stock and it put it's talons about one inch in each side. Unreal power.

Ouch! Yep, I'm glad I was lucky enough not to find out.

 

[memtb]

Yep
Doesn't just about everything taste like chicken?
Invite the warden over for a nice home cooked meal, problem solved

That reminds me of a joke. A known local poacher was being closely watched by the game warden. The poacher was out fishing in his boat when the warden pulled up and wanted to check his license and equipment. Once the warden got into the boat the old poacher reached into his tackle box, quickly lite a stick of dynamite and tossed it to the warden!

The warden had a look of fear, disbelief, and amazement on his face…..when the poacher calmly asked, " ya gonna sit there all day or do some fish'n! memtb

 

[Ol' Red]

Yep
Doesn't just about everything taste like chicken?
Invite the warden over for a nice home cooked meal, problem solved

Actually, owl tastes about half way between carrier pigeon and whooping crane.

 

[victor3ranger]

That reminds me of a joke. A known local poacher was being closely watched by the game warden. The poacher was out fishing in his boat when the warden pulled up and wanted to check his license and equipment. Once the warden got into the boat the old poacher reached into his tackle box, quickly lite a stick of dynamite and tossed it to the warden!

The warden had a look of fear, disbelief, and amazement on his face…..when the poacher calmly asked, " ya gonna sit there all day or do some fish'n! memtb

lol

 

[FrogFire7]

We found a wounded owl in HS while hunting ducks. We tried to get it to the vet by stuffing it in a bag. My buddy tried to block it out with his shotgun stock and it put it's talons about one inch in each side. Unreal power.

I remember one time on a work trip we stopped at a nature center. They had a rubber hose about 2.5" in diameter and on one end it had a gauge showing pressure inside. Next to that was a placard with a list of birds and their grip strength. I was just out of college a couple years, athletic and pretty active and had great grip strength. I could beat out most birds pretty easily (sounds pretty silly when I say it that way ) but I'll never forget the great horned owl beat my best efforts by about 25% more than I could grip

Realized then and there I wouldn't be messing around with any of them!

 

[MtPockets]

Great Horned's are no joke. A lady down the road had one get in her brooder pin, killed all 65 of her chickens. She called me to come get it out so I put on two pairs of thick welding gloves and went in after it.
I thought I was doing pretty good until that freaking thing got a hold on me
I had it by one leg and it had me by one hand
It sunk those talons right through the gloves, the more I tried to get control the harder it would squeeze.
I finally had to have another guy help me peel it's talons out of my hand and keep control of that foot.
I will never try that again with a horned owl

The local Game Warden paid us a visit after we had a black bear in our yard last year.
We have all kinds of critters, including chickens, and he told us in no uncertain terms that if we see a bear(or any other animal, including the neighbors dog) in the yard and feel our animals are at risk it is fully legal to kill said animal.

On the other hand, we had a young fox in the chicken coop a few years ago. I shot it and my wife posted what happened on facebook.
There was one lady in particular who roasted my wife for not letting it go!?

 

[C-130 Dude]

The local Game Warden paid us a visit after we had a black bear in our yard last year.
We have all kinds of critters, including chickens, and he told us in no uncertain terms that if we see a bear(or any other animal, including the neighbors dog) in the yard and feel our animals are at risk it is fully legal to kill said animal.

On the other hand, we had a young fox in the chicken coop a few years ago. I shot it and my wife posted what happened on facebook.
There was one lady in particular who roasted my wife for not letting it go!?

Bet shes a non chicken owner, her idea is the local food store. Let it go so it can come back for another easy meal? I don't think so.

I had to dispatch the neighbors cat. I warned them not to let it on my property and that I would have no choice but to dispatch it if I caught it in the act. Well I caught it in the act after it killed 5 of my birds. She called the cops on me. They responded and told her to keep it off my property. Neighbor tried to bs me telling me that there was no leash law here and the cat could go where it wanted to. I told them go ahead. You know what comes next. The cops never filed any action. I actually feel bad about the incidents. They could have been avoided. All I told them was to keep control of their animals. Lots of predators here. Fox, coyotes are plentiful. But they insist that cats must be allowed to roam. Oh well, I tried.

 

[victor3ranger]

The local Game Warden paid us a visit after we had a black bear in our yard last year.
We have all kinds of critters, including chickens, and he told us in no uncertain terms that if we see a bear(or any other animal, including the neighbors dog) in the yard and feel our animals are at risk it is fully legal to kill said animal.

On the other hand, we had a young fox in the chicken coop a few years ago. I shot it and my wife posted what happened on facebook.
There was one lady in particular who roasted my wife for not letting it go!?

There are those types everywhere, what ever try's to get my chickens will meet its doom