The Rush of Close Encounters ...

[R.J.]

I mentioned " The rush of close encounters " at the tail end of my last thread in a reply to Neil ...

I know we have all had them " close encounters" over the years , but not always a chance to get pictures ...

I recently viewed some Youtube Videos of misc game close encounters ... my heart was racing just watching !

Here are some pictures Sandman took years ago when we were hunting together at my place ...

We both had our climbers .. he was across the clear cut to my West ... he took this frame of me climbing up ... I always leave my hat off to keep cool and avoid sweating on the way up .. It's amazing how the uncovered hands and my bald head stand out ! like a light beacon !



I do the usual light contact grunts to cover the noise we made walking in and climbing , and soon after a young six point walks under my tree , stopping to feed at a corn pile ..



He is completely at ease , feeds and looks around ..eventually I am all dressed and settle in waiting for other deer ( busks to arrive ) .







Sandman turns the camera , to get a " vantage point " shot of my position in the tree relative to where the deer was ... my camo blends in nicely , with only my blaze orange arrow fletchings from the bolt in my Y25 Relayer and the spare bolt in the quiver giving away my position ... tough to focus through the branches ...



Eventually he turns and walks away through my 10 yard opening ...I had made up my mind I wasn't going to arrow him , but thought he would make a good "Live Decoy" and it was a real rush to have the close encounter ... Although I never did get any more action it turned out to be another cool night out " watching the nature channel " !



And fast forward to this year ... in the last picture , that buck would be looking right at the straw bale blind > it was put up about 9.5 feet back in that opening ...

[Carnivorous]

Next best thing to pulling the trigger is watching deer. This is a pic of my Michigan m/l hunt. I was hoping a buck would have joined these doe's.. No dice..

[R.J.]

Cool picture !

[nyexhunter]

Thanks for posting. I spent gun and m/l season in NY taking pictures and videos of does and small deer. Neat to have them so close. Makes you take for granted after they are there for a while milling around, how special it is.
A day without seeing anything, brings back reality and how unique it is to see deer up close.

[Fazan]

Our moose hunting crew had a bull and cow tag this year. I was the holder of a cow tag.
For one week that we were all together up north action was very slow. Never seen any bulls and just one sighting of a cow, but no shot. Most of the crew returned home after a week (including bull tag holder) and three of us stayed few days longer trying to fill my cow tag. Second day after these guys left I am sitting at the location where I found fresh tracks of a Bull, cow and calf day before. My location overlooks somewhat swampy area between me and small lake (about 200 yards away), but occasionally I turn my head to the right about 120 degrees as there is a little ravine with the creek that flows trough it towards the lake. Wind blows from me exactly to that direction.
About an hour in my sit I turn my head and see moose at about 20 yards from me. It came from direction I least expected.
I see it's a small animal. I see it's head (turned away from me) and ears and no antlers. It's my cow! I slowly reach for my gun that was leaning against the tree planning to shoot her right behind the ear being so close. I raise my gun and aim, but now head is broadside to me and as I was aiming for the ear I see something on the front of it. Spikes!!! The same size or a bit smaller than ears. I am in such a disbelief that I pull my 10x binoculars (at 20 yards distance) to make sure I am seeing it right. Yep. Spikes, the same I've seen on a "spikee" deer, just thicker. Never, ever heard of someone seeing them so small at the height of the season.
All I could do now is to watch it and snap few pictures. And he wasn't pictures shy for sure. He was there for about 20 minutes even I wasn't really trying not to scare him.
It gave me a pleasure almost equal to shooting the trophy moose. Probably because it was so close and lasted for so long.

[Tom]

This was from a while ago, taken while I was trying to use his trail, grouse hunting, I did give way to him. He passed me at 12 feet

[dutchhunter]

Great pictures. I live close encounters with wildlife. I shot one of my deer this year at 15 feet.with the shotgun
Had 4 of them jump out if there beds well I was dogging threw the woods . sure gets the Hart going.

[RITerry]

During a short drive with a buddy I had 3 bucks come out and the lead buck was a solid 140+, the second was no slouch at all. I was tucked behind a tree when they came from my left, I am a south Paw and had to move in order to get a shot. The lead buck got to 15 yards or less walking and spotted me making my move spun and bolted taking the other two along with him. I was able to get my Cross hairs on the big one but didn't pull the trigger. Even at 20 yards now I would have drilled him in the back and just didn't feel good about the shot. All I could do was watch them go to what I ranged 77 yards and walk away. Talk about a close encounter.

[R.J.]

Cool stories and pictures ... Keep em coming .