How About The Weirdest, Strangest Thing you've Seen/Experienced While Hunting?

Labs

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OK, this is an extension of Sweet 16's thread on the coolest thing you've seen while hunting. I'm asking what the weirdest,/strangest thing you've seen or experienced while hunting (any kind of hunting)?

If you've spent any substantial time in the field I'm betting you have seen or experienced something something that defies easy explanation. Myself, I've been hunting since the early 60s and over the years have hunted birds, small game, and big game in numerous states as well as three Canadian provinces. I have my #1 weird experience locked & loaded, but I'll keep everyone in suspense for a couple responses.

Bump's post on Sweet 16's thread about finding frogs sitting on a frozen slough fits nicely into this thread. Now that is truly weird...
 
While hunting in SD we were pushing through a cattail patch and heard something of a struggle. As we approached we saw a large buck whose antlers were stuck in some old fencing. The buck was quite lively and we could not get close enough to do anything to help. I wonder if that buck ever made it out?
 
My father really enjoyed pheasant hunting and in his later years, he joined me and my two brothers on two trips to Iowa.

On each of those trips, he had a hen pheasant flush near him from a ditch, fly up, hit a powerline, break its neck and fall to the ground next to him.

The first trip, I was driving the vehicle, he was in the passenger seat, he asked me to pull over to speak to some hunters who were approaching the road on some property we had permission to hunt the next day. As he opened his door and stepped out, a hen flushed, hit the powerline and died.

On his second trip, he and I were pushing ditches on opposite sides of a rural road toward my brothers. My dog flushed a hen, it flew toward my father. I yelled "hen". He shot a single shot and as he did so, I saw the hen fall into the ditch on his side of the road.

When we finished the push, I asked him why he shot that hen after I called "hen".

He told me that he had shot a rooster and produced it from his game bag. We walked back and found the hen, dead in the ditch. It had a broken neck and no shot wounds.
 
F 16's or F 18's flew over, fairly low, and broke the sound barrier...about 70 miles from Sioux Falls....roosters all over the place started cackling!!!!! A good half mile away, or further! all directions! we were on a large WMA at the time, over 2,000 acres....lots of hiding places for the birds....
 
My dad thought he was funny by mooing at some cattle while we were walking to our hunting spot...then one starting charging at him. Never saw the old guy move and jump a fence so fast in my life! Wish they had GoPros back then.
 
My father really enjoyed pheasant hunting and in his later years, he joined me and my two brothers on two trips to Iowa.

On each of those trips, he had a hen pheasant flush near him from a ditch, fly up, hit a powerline, break its neck and fall to the ground next to him.

The first trip, I was driving the vehicle, he was in the passenger seat, he asked me to pull over to speak to some hunters who were approaching the road on some property we had permission to hunt the next day. As he opened his door and stepped out, a hen flushed, hit the powerline and died.

On his second trip, he and I were pushing ditches on opposite sides of a rural road toward my brothers. My dog flushed a hen, it flew toward my father. I yelled "hen". He shot a single shot and as he did so, I saw the hen fall into the ditch on his side of the road.

When we finished the push, I asked him why he shot that hen after called "hen".

He told me that he had shot a rooster and produced it from his game bag. We walked back and found the hen, dead in the ditch. It had a broken neck and no shot wounds.
Not quite the same, but I was taking a vide of some pheasants flying back into some CRP in east central Illinois a few days ago, and a hen flew into the powerline. Kind of hard to see, but here's a link to the video:


 
I am not sure if the this was just cool, strange/wierd or other. I actually remembered to charge my GoPro batteries, remembered to pack it in the truck, got it to sync right away, remembered to turn it on and actually had it focused in the right direction. I was hunting with my daughter and wife and walking a narrow cattail draw. You can see Willow come through the cattails and almost jump over the moose.
 
My dad thought he was funny by mooing at some cattle while we were walking to our hunting spot...then one starting charging at him. Never saw the old guy move and jump a fence so fast in my life! Wish they had GoPros back then.
This was some walk-in I drove by earlier today. No sir no way
 

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My father really enjoyed pheasant hunting and in his later years, he joined me and my two brothers on two trips to Iowa.

On each of those trips, he had a hen pheasant flush near him from a ditch, fly up, hit a powerline, break its neck and fall to the ground next to him.

The first trip, I was driving the vehicle, he was in the passenger seat, he asked me to pull over to speak to some hunters who were approaching the road on some property we had permission to hunt the next day. As he opened his door and stepped out, a hen flushed, hit the powerline and died.

On his second trip, he and I were pushing ditches on opposite sides of a rural road toward my brothers. My dog flushed a hen, it flew toward my father. I yelled "hen". He shot a single shot and as he did so, I saw the hen fall into the ditch on his side of the road.

When we finished the push, I asked him why he shot that hen after I called "hen".

He told me that he had shot a rooster and produced it from his game bag. We walked back and found the hen, dead in the ditch. It had a broken neck and no shot wounds.
When I was 8 I was hunting rabbits along the tracks in Fairmont, MN with my BB gun when I flushed a hen that was climbing to go over the packing plant building and didn't quite clear it. She flew right into the side of the building about 2 feet from from clearing it and fell down stone dead. I took it back with me and my aunt cooked it for dinner...
 
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OK guys. I have had a number of weird experiences over the years, but what I saw during Firearms Deer Season in 2019 is by far the most inexplicable.

If you read read my post on Sweet 16's thread, I described my favorite spot to glass deer during Firearms Season down in the SW corner of ND. This particular hill is a good 1.5 mile walk back in from where I park the truck. The hike in and packing a deer out from that rough country is a ton of work, so I've never seen another hunter back in there.

I go in early enough that I am at my spot and set up a full 2 hours before the first hint of light in the east. There is no cell coverage back in there and it's literally too dark to see your hand in front of your face, so there's not much to pass the time until shooting light but star gaze. I'm here to tell you, the night sky out here is spectacular, BTW.

So I'm sitting there looking at constellations when I see a light coming from the NW to the SE across the sky. It's way up there, probably low-earth orbit altitude, and moving at a steady speed (If you point your arm straight out to the side and move it to the center of your body in a one-one thousand to four or five one thousand count, that's about the pace it was moving). I'm watching this object move across the sky and I'm thinking "satellite, cool". As I'm watching this object move across the sky, it instantly stops and literally rockets off 90 degrees from it's path and disappears to the east in the blink of an eye. It's immediately followed by another light that I didn't see coming across the sky from the west.

The acceleration of these objects was so instantaneous and so fast I could barely follow it with my eyes. I'm a licensed private pilot so know something about aerodynamics. I can say with absolute certainty that if we even have some black project aircraft that could maneuver and accelerate like that (and I don't see how that would be possible), the G's would instantly kill the pilot.

They were too high to see any detail and as I said, until the impossible maneuvering I thought I was looking at a satellite in low-earth orbit. I have no idea what they were...
 
OK guys. I have had a number of weird experiences over the years, but what I saw during Firearms Deer Season in 2019 is by far the most inexplicable.

If you read read my post on Sweet 16's thread, I described my favorite spot to glass deer during Firearms Season down in the SW corner of ND. This particular hill is a good 1.5 mile walk back in from where I park the truck. The hike in and packing a deer out from that rough country is a ton of work, so I've never seen another hunter back in there.

I go in early enough that I am at my spot and set up a full 2 hours before the first hint of light in the east. There is no cell coverage back in there and it's literally too dark to see your hand in front of your face, so there's not much to pass the time until shooting light but star gaze. I'm here to tell you, the night sky out here is spectacular, BTW.

So I'm sitting there looking at constellations when I see a light coming from the NW to the SE across the sky. It's way up there, probably low-earth orbit altitude, and moving at a steady speed (If you point your arm straight out to the side and move it to the center of your body in a one-one thousand to four or five one thousand count, that's about the pace it was moving). I'm watching this object move across the sky and I'm thinking "satellite, cool". As I'm watching this object move across the sky, it instantly stops and literally rockets off 90 degrees from it's path and disappears to the east in the blink of an eye. It's immediately followed by another light that I didn't see coming across the sky from the west.

The acceleration of these objects was so instantaneous and so fast I could barely follow it with my eyes. I'm a licensed private pilot so know something about aerodynamics. I can say with absolute certainty that if we even have some black project aircraft that could maneuver and accelerate like that (and I don't see how that would be possible), the G's would instantly kill the pilot.

They were too high to see any detail and as I said, until the impossible maneuvering I thought I was looking at a satellite in low-earth orbit. I have no idea what they were...
Damm!!
 
OK guys. I have had a number of weird experiences over the years, but what I saw during Firearms Deer Season in 2019 is by far the most inexplicable.

If you read read my post on Sweet 16's thread, I described my favorite spot to glass deer during Firearms Season down in the SW corner of ND. This particular hill is a good 1.5 mile walk back in from where I park the truck. The hike in and packing a deer out from that rough country is a ton of work, so I've never seen another hunter back in there.

I go in early enough that I am at my spot and set up a full 2 hours before the first hint of light in the east. There is no cell coverage back in there and it's literally too dark to see your hand in front of your face, so there's not much to pass the time until shooting light but star gaze. I'm here to tell you, the night sky out here is spectacular, BTW.

So I'm sitting there looking at constellations when I see a light coming from the NW to the SE across the sky. It's way up there, probably low-earth orbit altitude, and moving at a steady speed (If you point your arm straight out to the side and move it to the center of your body in a one-one thousand to four or five one thousand count, that's about the pace it was moving). I'm watching this object move across the sky and I'm thinking "satellite, cool". As I'm watching this object move across the sky, it instantly stops and literally rockets off 90 degrees from it's path and disappears to the east in the blink of an eye. It's immediately followed by another light that I didn't see coming across the sky from the west.

The acceleration of these objects was so instantaneous and so fast I could barely follow it with my eyes. I'm a licensed private pilot so know something about aerodynamics. I can say with absolute certainty that if we even have some black project aircraft that could maneuver and accelerate like that (and I don't see how that would be possible), the G's would instantly kill the pilot.

They were too high to see any detail and as I said, until the impossible maneuvering I thought I was looking at a satellite in low-earth orbit. I have no idea what they were...
Did you call Mulder and Scully?
 
Did you call Mulder and Scully?

What, and interrupt my deer hunting? Nope, I wondered what in the hell I just saw and hunkered down until shooting light...

I have wondered if I didn't see some kind of anti-satellite weapon or drone test? For sure it looked like the first was trying to avoid the second. Doesn't explain the impossible maneuvering & acceleration, but It's virtually certain if they were military in nature they would have had to have been remotely piloted...
 
I have also witnessed a hen fly into a power line and die, it was at least 20 years ago....it seems only hens are seen doing this...poorer eyesite?
 
I have seen a rooster hit a power line and die; I have seen a rooster tangle his wing in a power line and fly off.
 
I drive by an old windmill yesterday that was probably 2 thirds buried in sand. I’ve been by it a bunch of times, yesterday it finally clicked.
 
Not a UFO sighting, & I'm not sure if this is the absolute weirdest, but....
Out in the middle of a WPA in eastern SD years ago. December. Hunting around the edge of a cattail slough.
I happened to look down as I took a step & there, lying on the snow, was a fish! About a 13" walleye! What the...?????
Completely intact. No visible damage. Not even frozen!! No animal/bird/person tracks anywhere. Not even fish tracks! :sneaky:
I was several miles from anyplace that MIGHT have had open water.
My best guess is that an eagle caught it at the river, flew MILES! & dropped it for some reason.
RECENTLY since it wasn't damaged or even frozen.
The odds that it happened are staggering to me. That an eagle happened to catch a fish, fly several miles with it, & drop it right in the exact path that I somehow decided to take that day on the WPA I chose to hunt.
The fish seemed fine, & I considered throwing it in my vest, but I didn't. I wonder if size limits apply in that situation. :p
 
F 16's or F 18's flew over, fairly low, and broke the sound barrier...about 70 miles from Sioux Falls....roosters all over the place started cackling!!!!! A good half mile away, or further! all directions! we were on a large WMA at the time, over 2,000 acres....lots of hiding places for the birds....
Wow! I wonder why a jet engine would get them to crow like that? It‘s always cool to hear rooters crowing when you are in the field.
 
Not a UFO sighting, & I'm not sure if this is the absolute weirdest, but....
Out in the middle of a WPA in eastern SD years ago. December. Hunting around the edge of a cattail slough.
I happened to look down as I took a step & there, lying on the snow, was a fish! About a 13" walleye! What the...?????
Completely intact. No visible damage. Not even frozen!! No animal/bird/person tracks anywhere. Not even fish tracks! :sneaky:
I was several miles from anyplace that MIGHT have had open water.
My best guess is that an eagle caught it at the river, flew MILES! & dropped it for some reason.
RECENTLY since it wasn't damaged or even frozen.
The odds that it happened are staggering to me. That an eagle happened to catch a fish, fly several miles with it, & drop it right in the exact path that I somehow decided to take that day on the WPA I chose to hunt.
The fish seemed fine, & I considered throwing it in my vest, but I didn't. I wonder if size limits apply in that situation. :p
Now that is weird...
 
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