What is the strangest thing you have seen?

[jesus5150]

I found this weird (Cat lovers look away)


My grandma lives on a ranch where she keeps 3-7 wild cats (Domestic house cats that were released generations ago to keep mouse population down. She feeds them a bit so they don't die, but they are by NO means tame. If they get ANY hint of you, they're gone.)

So some years they'll breed too much and now that my grandpa passed away last year it's up to the great grandson to thin their ranks. So we had 18 cats living on ten acres (Surrounded by 400 more farm acres) she wanted somewhere around 5 cats.
So since I'd be shooting toward the old barn I chose the .22 over my .308 to minimize damage (Yes yes, I know neither are great choices but they're all I have, and though nothing lives near that barn, i still didn't want huge holes... and .22 is cheap lol) So I bought some federal hollow point .22 rounds and loaded them into my granpa's old scoped Henry lever action ($300 rifle $900 scope... but that's grandad for ya) I camped near the food all day and got 5 or 6 of them just fine. Then about 10am I saw a smaller young one sit down at the food bowl. So About 20 feet away was a small black cat facing the same direction as I am (Back to me perfectly aligned) So I aimed low figuring the scope was sighted in at 100 yards... The round entered it's right rear hip and exited through the left side at the base of the skull. It jumped straight up in a crooked backflip and landed on one side franticly trying to get away and HOWLING (and shooting a stream of blood all over EVERYTHING including my recently deceased granpa's Huge grill and Smoker... Not good.) I felt terrible so I chambered another round and went to fire and it was dragging itself into the hedges behind the hot tub. It was clear that it's rear hip was shattered as it drug itself away growling.

I felt sick for the rest of the day. about 6 hours later I look out the window and see it in the pasture with a mangled rear leg and dried blood all down both sides and it's PLAYING WITH A LEAF!


Now It's about 6 months later and that leg has since died and fallen off. The little guy doesn't grow hair on it's head or butt area either. But I Kid you not, it comes out every morning cheery and chipper and enjoys some cat food...

I just don't understand how a hollow point can pass through it's whole body and exit through it's neck and it lives happily... I don't have the heart to take another shot at it even though my grandma want's him gone.

I think he's earned it.

[MauiDoc]

Watching a local guy fishing from the Coast Guard dock here at Ma'alaea Harbor, and he hooked a trumpet fish about 2 feet long. Long skinny fish with a mouth like a...trumpet. He didn't know what to do with it (although I found out later they're pretty good eating), so he wrapped a paper napkin around the fish's slippery head, wrested it off the hook and tossed it back, napkin and all. Threw his hook back in and not thirty seconds later, reeled in the same fish, napkin and all! I have no idea how the fish could have seen the hook, as the napkin was over its eyes. I'd like to know what he was using for bait!

I've seen these fish flash alternating bars of color down their sides when agitated underwater.

Early morning snorkel off of Makena some years ago, followed a small octopus around watching it land on the coral and completely vanish--his color was brick-red while he was swimming, but as soon as he landed, he would INSTANTLY change color AND TEXTURE to match the coral. All I could see was his eye. It was amazing.

Shot a spear (against my better judgment) at a free-swimming moray eel that was at least six feet long and as big around as my thigh. That thing vanished instantly, too--I had no idea they could swim that fast!

Really glad I missed him!

Standing on the deck of my friend's catamaran about 300 yards offshore, facing out to sea over the mizzen boom while my friend told me about swimming with manta rays in that area years before. As if on cue, an 8-foot ray launched vertically out of the water about 50 yards away--looked like the bat-signal!
I grabbed his arm and pointed (he was facing shoreward) and he turned just in time to see it splash down.

No hunting stories--never been. Lots of spear-fishing over the years.

[mr-geep]

Scouting a new area to hunt in the National Forest, about 15 miles from the nearest small town, I crossed the river and followed a game trail about 400 yards to a little clearing with a small cottonwood in the center of it. The leaves had all fallen off the tree, but it looked like it had been decorated for Christmas. I walked up to it for a closer inspection and found that the decorations were small dead birds and mice tied to the branches with little pieces of string and yarn. There were also big leaves all tied up in little packages and also tied on the branches like ornaments.
I tore open one of the leaves and there were little pebbles, dried berries, smaller leaves and flowers and something that felt like cooking oil. The whole thing was very erie, like something off of the Blair Witch project. I high-tailed it outta there and never went back.
A few years later, I was talking to a gal who runs a candle shop in town. She told me there were alot of Wiccan women around, and that may have been a "prayer tree" or something. I live in a small town, but she said you would be surprised at the number of Wiccan's running through the woods to "be with nature".....Nudest women running through my hunting area I could handle, but I dont know about Nature loving, men hating women.

[Art Eatman]

Just becasue a gal is into Wicca does not at all mean hating men. Wicca is not limited to women, although it seems more common for them. It's a white magic thing, not black magic. Basically benign...

[XD Gunner]

Another cat story.

My father and I, while hunting around a friends property, were advised by the friend of a feral "house" cat. Told us to absolutely, without hesitation shoot it on sight because it would attack us. We were squirrel hunting, and Dad had a 12gauge and I had a Marlin .22LR. Sure enough about 20 minutes into the hunt we hear this otherworldly scream, growl, and hissing. It was the cat.

I lowered the .22 and put one right through the side of this cat. It jumped, balled up, threw an awful fit. Fur was everywhere, some blood, and finally the cat stopped moving. It threw the fit for a good 30 seconds. I thought it was possessed, although I guess I would throw a fit with a .22 bullet in me.

We assumed it was dead, and turned to walk off when we heard the scream again. This cat was standing, and walking toward us sideways. It was humped up with it's hair standing on end, and absolutely screaming it's head off. This time Dad shot it not once, but twice, in quick succession with the 12Gauge. Fur was everywhere, the cat flopped for a few seconds, and let out this unnerving, gurgling moan, and stopped moving. There was not a lot of blood though. We sat down and waited to make sure the cat was dead (and to let our adrenaline fade). About 5 minutes passed, and this demon cat slowly starts making wheezing sounds. It does this for another 5 or so minutes, then picks it's head up and looks at us for a few seconds. Dad has already aimed at it with the shotgun. It then just "hops up". The cat just bounced up like nothing had happened and slowly walked away.

We inspected the area we had shot it at, and there was enough fur to make a hat with. When we watched it laying there after the THIRD time we shot it, you could see large bald patches on the cat, that slowly turned a dark red, almost rust color. There was very little blood on the ground where the cat had been shot.

This was about 3 years ago, and to this day that cat lurks around my friends farm. It's almost tame now, and it will eat out of a bowl and not attack people. It doesn't like people still, but I think old age is getting the better of it, and it tolerates the hand that feeds it now. It also has several large bald spots where hair refuses to grow.

I have seen the same 12 gauge rip a rabid skunk in half @ 25 yards with the same loads we used on the cat at 25 feet. I have no explanation.

[Regolith]

Not really hunting related, but...

The deer around here are damn near fearless.

About a week or two or so I made a late run to Safeway to get something or another. When I got back to the apartment, there were four or five doe browsing on what was left of the grass between my apartment building and the street. I went to parallel park on the street not five feet from them and all they did was occasionally look up at me, then went right back to feeding. They didn't even run when I got out of my truck and slammed the door. I started walking around the truck to head toward the apartment (and towards them) and they finally decided to go munch on some of the grass across the parking lot.

This isn't the first time I've seen deer down near my apartment either. I've managed to walk right up to a group of does with them watching the entire time before; got within 10 feet that time before they took off.

I've decided that if I ever get in dire enough straits and really need the meat, all I have to do is fashion a spear and sit and wait outside my apartment at night during the winter, then wait for the deer to come down, and simply lean over and stab one. If I held still enough, I probably wouldn't even need camo.

[CajunBass]

Not hunting, but wildlife related.

I got off work one morning after a graveyard shift, and out in the parking lot, there was an owl sitting on a power line tower. That poor owl, had a half dozen crows harassing him. CAW, CAW, CAW...The crows would be fying in front of the owl. The owl would turn around and put his back to the crows as if to say "Go away! Don't bother me." The crows would fly around front and continue the "attack." The old owl seemed to sigh, and turn around again, as if to say "KIDS!". I watched this cycle several time, chuckling to myself about that owls patience. He finally gave up and flew off, with the crows following along.

I wonder if that old boy ever got any sleep.

[robhof]

Speaking of owl; many years ago a friend and I were returning from hunting in a bottom about dark. We were walking on a dirt road and we saw what looked like a stump in the middle of the road, about a ft and a half tall, it wasn't there in the afternoon when we came down the road. We got to within a few ft of it and it was a great horned owl and lept up and flew at an angle toward us. We ducked and were quite shaken til we realized that it was indeed an owl. In the late evening it appeared to be as big as us and coming toward us didn't help either.

[Alan Duke]

When I was an LEO, another Deputy and myself were coming out of a developing subdivision and I hit my brakes hard. He jumped out of his car and asked what happened. I said, "Did you see that snake!". He replied "You stopped for a snake?". I then got out "THOR" (my 10 million candle power spot light and scanned the open field.

A little side note about "THOR". If I were to shine the beam dirrectly someone, the heat from the beam can be felt from up to 8 feet away. Depenring on the charge.

I caught the movement, and found what appeared to b a 10-12 ft red tailed boa moving away about 15 yards from us. We cut it off, and I attempted to catch it a few times (Something I would never try alone with a snake of this size). It struck at me a couple of time so I backed off. I got into a bush and started to "Sun" itself from the light, sticking its head up about 3 feet above the bush and giving me a easy kill. To many houses around and I dont think I could have justified a safe shot in this case. I could not risk it for safety reasons. We tried to keep it contained, but I guess it got bored and got away through a storm sewer.

Funny thing is there was a snake story in the news here in Houston about a movie theater employee at a theater just a few blocks from the area. Seems he saw a snake about the same size in the theater and freaked out. They brought in an expert but found nothing.

[Tuzo]

At Cabela's a few days ago I noticed vintage hunting and fishing photos in the restroom entrance area. Many photos showed great harvests of large deer and game birds using firearms with blued steel and wood stocks. Some hunters wore white shirts and ties and some hunters were dressed in toasty looking wool plaids (probably red). Great photos.

On to the ironic part of Cabela's. By contrast nearly every clothing item designed for hunting is a camo pattern of some sort. And, a great deal of displayed hunting firearms are stainless with synthetic stocks.

Cabela's, similar retailers, and tv hunting programs almost universally show hunters dressed in camo; plus, on hunting shows, whispering while 1/4 or more from potential game targets. Strange isn't it, that without the benefit of camo and synthetics our ancestors could successfully hunt anything at all.

[DMacLeod]

This wasn't hunting but did involve a game animal.

Back in the early 90s I was working on a pipe line near Kennicott copper mine. One day I was walking down the road heading back to my truck for lunch break. (the road was long and straight)

I see a car approaching off in the distance and notice a deer coming from the oposite side of the road at the same time. They both get closer and appear to be on a collision course with the driver unaware of the deers presence.

The car gets within 300 yds of me when the deer hits the road. 2 bounds and the deer jumps over the car without a scratch and continues on its way.
The driver goes by me making a gesture of wiping his brow (like oh that was close) and continues on his way.

Needless to say I was thinking " oh crap, here we go". this all happened in the matter of a few seconds and it was over. I got to my truck and had lunch.

[Art Eatman]

Austin, Texas, was once a really neat little city. It developed elephantiasis, however, and became just another cancerous growth on the planet. I moved away, but returned from time to time to visit old friends.

It seemed apropos, then, one mornng, that while headed out of town on US 290 and nearing a major electrical transmission line, I saw a couple of hundred buzzards sitting on the wires above the highway, facing Austin.

Definitely spooky, and possibly prophetic.

[tangara]

Twelve years ago on the fourth of July, my wife, kids and I were on our way to my brother in laws for a campout. We took the back roads to check out the country side. I had just made a turn on a gravel road and was approaching a small hill when a deer bounded out of the ditch in front of us. I was not going fast but still had to tap the brakes to avoid hitting it. The deer jumped into a corn field to our right and instead of continuing straight ahead it turns in the first row of corn and is running parallel with the car. The corn at this time was between knee high and waist high. I figured I would have a little fun with this deer and I accelerate a little, the deer puts on a small burst of speed and pull ahead. We played this cat and mouse game four or five time’s reaching speeds into the mid forty’s. I told my wife I had better back off because I thought the deer might cut back in front of us. A few seconds after I let up on the gas petal, the deer had gained a dozen yards then cuts back in front of us. The deer’s first bound is in the right ditch, second bound in the middle of the road, third bound in the left ditch but instead of jumping over the barb wire fence it puts it’s head down to go through it. By some kind of fluke the deer head was lined up with the top strand of barb wire and the deer momentum stretched the top wire out about three feet. With the wire stretched to maximum the deer body does a complete somersault over the fence and lands on his feet still running and not loosing a beat at all. Our jaws dropped, we looked at each other and both said wow did you just see that.

Here is another one with a deer and a vehicle. About seven years ago mid March in the middle of the afternoon I was driving about a mile from home when out of a corner of my eye I see a deer running to beat heck across a bare field. I knew it would pass in front of me by a good distance but looking back at the road was a farmer in an old pickup in the opposite lane. Did a quick calculation (fast deer + slow pickup = collision) many seconds later I see deer is on the road and looks like it will go just behind the pickup. I see legs fly up into the air. I am about to meet the pickup and the driver is looking in his rear view mirror with a weird look on his face. I drive past the deer which is laying in the edge of the ditch dead. Curiosity got the better of me, so I turn around and drive up to the deer. Examining the deer it is stone cold dead and has been unzipped from the sternum down to utters with some of the guts hanging out. Not one drop of blood anywhere. What I figure happened is that the deer snagged its underside on the metal bumper and cart wheeled over while gutting itself. I should have taken the deer because I don’t think there was a bruise on it anywhere but I already had three in the freezer. Funny thing is the pickup just kept going.

[James R. Burke]

One time I was bird hunting with my Dad. I took a 22mag I built up alittle bit. Nice scope, had some trigger work done etc. Thought I would take that instead of the shotgun just to mess around with, and show Dad what it could do. We were walking along and my dad said look at that. It looked like a cub bear in a tree about 200 yards away. I put the scope on it, and told him it was the biggest old porky pine I ever saw, and was going to try, and shoot it from there. He stopped me thinking it was to big for a porky, and took a look at it thru the scope. He said yup thats a big porky you want to get closer. I said no I would brace up off of a tree a try the long one on it. The first shot went a tad low I seen it hit the branch it was on. So the next shot I aimed alittle higher, and hit him. He hung on for awhile then fell. There was one more porky under him. So I took the second one out also. You had to be there to see it.

[GunsAreGood]

Well I was on a boar hunt in the Hollister area. There was a coyote that we had been seeing on the trail cam. He had been eating the turkeys and chasing the deer. So I am walking along and see the coyote chasing a Doe. Before I know it there is another Doe and they both chase this coyote off over the ridge.

[warbirdlover]

In the mid-90's I went to Wyoming on a ranch (deer hunting) with Devil's tower sitting up in the background. The sky was clear and you could see every star (5:00 a.m.). All of a sudden there's this hissing sound and meteorites just came raining down and were landing in balls of sparks all over in the field 20 yards away. I am very deaf and I had no problem hearing the noise from those meteorites. Coolest thing I've ever seen.

[zzbruno]

Back in the early 70's, I was at a Boy Scout campout. A bunch of us were hitting creek rocks with a baseball bat. One of my fellow scouts smashed a hot shot across the creek just as a small doe stuck her head out of the brush across the river and she took the river rock square in the noggin' and dropped. We waded over to inspect the damage and just as we got there, she jumped up and took off and ran straight into a tree and knocked herself out cold, again.
About two minutes later, she jumped up and ran off.

My dad taught us to shoot by taking us to the town dump to shoot rats with a .22 on Sunday afternoons. We all (7 boys) shared a Remington 512. Rule was, you could shoot until you missed, then you had to pass it on to the next younger brother. It wasn't unusual for us to shoot 10-12 rats in succession, but one Sunday my older brother set the record with 71 successive kill shots. Most I ever did was low 20's. I can recall begging my dad "just one more rat, dad, one more rat."

I know, not to exciting, but it was better than what was on TV on Sunday afternoons.

[Gbro]

I know, not to exciting, but it was better than what was on TV on Sunday afternoons.

Hardly, I loved to shoot rats, great fun

One of my long gone BIL's accused me and just about everyone else in the camp of putting turds on the seat of his deer stand. Then after the 1st snow the culprit was identified. It was a fox that did his daily business on the seat cushion. The stand was 7 ft, the ladder was almost vertical 2x4 rungs.

[Art Eatman]

Nowhere near "strangest", but odd: I have a year-around clock feeder to scatter hen-scratch for quail and dove. It's maybe forty yards from my front porch.

I have found that foxes like cracked corn. I have also found that foxes don't digest cracked corn. The evidence is left on my front porch.

Their digestive systems can apparently deal with spaghetti sauce, however--for which I give thanks.

[cmgiscool]

This story was related to me by a good family friend. While elk hunting in eastern Oregon he was walking along one side of a canyon. After a while he saw another hunter on the other side who was waved at him. He waved back and continued his hike. A shot rang out shortly after and he turned around to see a big elk down on the trail behind him. The elk had been following him and the other hunter tried to tell him. When he failed to notice the hunter too the shot across the canyon and got it! I didn't know elk hunted hunters.

As for my own stories the weirdest thing was seeing my cousin in his underwear with a duck after retreiving it himself when shooting it without a dog. We were dove hunting at the time not expecting ducks.

[Azimuth315]

Not hunting related nor even a strange observation but an amusing human reaction.

I am an OR nurse and now work PRN ( sorta' like day labor ) at several surgery centers.

One day several years ago, between cases, I went outside by the parking lot for a quick smoke.

About ten feet from where I was sitting a flock of a dozen or so pigeons were pecking around as pigeons do, when a hawk swooped down took one and flew through a grove of trees. It was an awsome display of aeronautical skill as it pitched and rolled avoiding the branches as it flew off.

As I returned to my duties I had to share this experience. The first person I met was Dr. (name withheld), a female Anesthesiologist with whom I occasionally work. Her reaction left me somewhat dismayed.

She looked at me with an expression I must describe as contemptuous, shook her head, mumbled something indiscernible, turned away and marched off.

A little later I related my story to another nurse, including my interaction with Dr. ?. I then learned that Dr.? had been feeding these pigeons and considered them pets.

Seeing Dr.? a little later I explained that I had just found out about her relationship with "her" pigeons and didn't mean to be insensitive when I described the hawk's interaction with them. I also suggested that anyone can have pet pigeons but she could say she is raising live food for her pet hawk. As I expected she was unamused.

Having reached that stage in my life that I don't give a d@@@n and that stage in my career that I can afford to twist a Dr.'s tale I still ask her "How's your pet hawk ?".

Dr. ? still remains unamused.

But I am.

Regards - Al

[Inspector3711]

My dad taught us to shoot by taking us to the town dump to shoot rats with a .22 on Sunday afternoons

Man those were the days... We did it without dad though. An old drunk owned the dump back then and he loved to have us by to plink at the rats. I think the county down there (NW Oregon) took over the dump years ago.

I'm sure shooting there is off limits now as it is up here in Washington. Too many lawyers in this world.

[CajunBass]

Azimuth, I was leaving work one morning again, after a graveyard shift. As I went through the gate, I heard a "POP" just like someone had slapped their hands together. Looking around and seeing nothing, I finally looked up. There I saw a few feathers floating down, and a hawk, with a pigeon clutched in his talons flying off.

Those old building around the plant were full of pigeons, and a hawks drive in.

[Hog Hunter]

Me and a buddy of mine were deer hunting and trying to video tape it. We were sitting in a stand that was made between two really big oak trees. When we climbed in the stand early that morning we had to clean a bunch of coon crap out of the two seats. It got to be about 9:30 and deer started moving into the peanut feaild about a hundred yards away. My buddy was the hunter and im the videoer. He carrys a 270 and i had a 6 shot 357 on my side. I started tapeing the deer in the feild where there was a decent buck, me and my buddy are trying to decide weather or not its a shooter, and about the time we decide its prolly a 140 inch 4 year old a 150+ walks out into the feild. My buddy is trying to get steady on him cause hes about 200 yards off. I just happend to look back to my right where there was a biggggg coon coming in the stand with us, my buddy doesnt see it and shoots the deer spooks the coon and it trys to run straight through the stand. Im trying to get my pistol out while still video tapeing wats going on. Somehow the coon got to the back of the stand in the corner, it was highly ******, hissing and grawling at us. I shot it in the head with the 357. boooom!!! It dosent move.
Were sitting here talking about what just happend and the coon jumps up and runs smack into the other side of the satnd so i shot it again and again and again. Im out of bullets and the coons dead, So we throwed it on the ground below the stand. We sat there another 15 minutes and started to get down and heard something moving under the stand. It was that darn coon again. My buddy shot the coon with his 270 from in the stand and it starts to crawl off. he aint got but one bullet left in his gun and we aint even found his deer yet.
So we get down shots the coon point blank in the heart with the rifle. DEAD!!! We walked back to the truck to reload, come back and the dang coon is gone. We tracked a blood trail from the coon for almost 100 yards into the woods then the blood slowly run out to no blood. Never found the coon!!! And my buddy missed the deer.
Went back and watched the video and laughed for hours about it. My girlfriend shot the big 11 point two days later and he groosed right a 160.

[waterfowler]

those are amazing stories.