I think I may have posted this story on this thread a while back, but I'm not searching back through it.

I was fishing a tournament on Lake Belton and early in the day was up river from Cedar Ridge when we noticed something moving across the lake. The stretch we were on was probably around 1/4 mile wide. Once it got close enough, we realized it was a doe, then, maybe 20 yards behind her was a young buck. The doe reached the shore, shook off and trotted up the bank into the trees. The buck reached the bank a few seconds later, shook off, put his head down tailed right behind her.

Hope he got some.

Bump. Curious to see some more stories.

nm

When I was young I was sitting in a tree watching a young buck. The buck proceeded to tear the heck out of one particular bush. He would mostly just rub the branches around his eyes (glands) but once in a while would just attack the bush.

That was the first time I had seen a buck rubbing and scraping during the rut. I knew what a scrape and a rub was but never saw a buck make one. There was not an existing scrape at that spot that I knew of.

I thought the deer might have rabies or something. I wasn't going to shoot it I don't think, but I darn sure wasn't going to the deer home and tell my dad that I thought it was sick.

Yeah.... not that unusual but it was pretty amazing to me at the time.

Nothing crazy, but opening day of bow season I climbed up into our ladder stand to find myself quickly surrounded by 4 Eastern Screech Owls. They hung around for about 10 minutes hopping from limb to limb less than 5 ft away, guess they were trying to figure out what the intruder was in their tree.

I forgot about this thread. An OB classic for sure! If ever there is a Hall of Fame of TexAgs posters, fossil_ag needs to be its first inductee.

One of my earliest memories of deer hunting with my dad was over 50 years ago when I was probably 7 or so. Old enough to carry a .22 along. We were still hunting in a creek bottom and he shot at a buck. It ran off and so we went to the spot where we last saw him. It was on a trail that continued between two brush piles and under a large live oak tree that was leaning way over to one side. There was a squirrel up in the tree barking and chattering and pitching a fit while working his way down straight toward us. Had never seen a country squirrel that wasn't evading people. We knelt down to watch the show as he came to within six feet of us and carried on for what seemed like a few minutes before heading back to where he came from.

We stood up to continue on the trail and all of the sudden a deafening noise came from one of the brush piles. A BIG rattler was buzzing and reared up like a cobra right in front of us and scared the absolute heck outta me. Had we not stopped to watch the squirrel "warning" us about the snake, one of us would have certainly been bitten when we walked between those piles and under the live oak trunk. Dad dispatched the evil serpent with my trusty .22 and the excitement was over.

Dad found the deer but that was anti-climactic compared to what my young self had been through. That hunt burned two things into my psyche forever: my hatred for rattlesnakes and always take plenty of TP when you go to the field.
Edit for inability to type

Not a major story, but for this area kind of cool.
I was hiking above Harper's Ferry, there is a bluff about 1100 feet above the city that has an old civil war fort and amazing views of the town, the Potomac and the Shenandoah river. Rarely see more than one or two people up there's so it's quiet too.
Anyway, I was walking along the ridge line on a spring day, and I heard a noise I had never heard before, all of a sudden every creature in the brush started scrambling, I could here them all moving under the leaves. A few seconds later two giant birds landed on a branch about 30 feet from me, and I am fairly certain it was a pair of golden eagles heading north for the summer. These birds aren't native to the eastern US except for winter migrations, so it was a really rare treat to see, just me up there with them.. I stood motionless for about five minutes just watching them, before they took off and road the thermals between the bluffs above the Potomac heading east, didn't seem to be in a big hurry,
Just one of those rare unexpected nature commune moments that makes being out in the woods cool sometimes.

As we speak, I've spotted four blondes in Desi's Mexican restaurant in Batesville. Sitting amongst a bunch of Aggies, so I'll let them walk.

Were they legal?

dp

Per the law, yes. Per my wife, not so much.

Me and one of my brothers were squatting under a huisache while hunting dove near Placedo, TX. The sky was clear blue and there were NO birds flying. All of the sudden I see a blur move past my brother and something rolls into the grass behind him. I asked him, "What was that?" and he said, "I think a dove hit me." He turned around and took about five steps and there the dove was sitting in the grass dead as a door nail.

I had a big flock of ringnecks come ripping over and bank to come into my decoys. As they banked about 200 yards up, one of them just fell out of the sky feet-up dead.

Deep sea fishing near Isla De Mujeres out of Cancun on a charter. Seas were a little rough and a few of our group were spending all their time chumming the water. Out of the blue one of the Spanish speaking deck hands starts jumping up and down telling us to look over the side of the boat. We looked over the edge and there was a whale shark scratching its back against the side of out boat, had to be a little over 20 foot long and it's dorsal fin was sticking out of the water close enough to touch. One of the guys who was chumming hard just sat there when we told him what it was. Later he said, "Guys, you could have told me there was a f***ing mermaid sitting on top of the water. I wasn't moving an inch."

I just graduated from A&M this May and as part of my grad trip and a buddy Grant ('20) went up to stay with his grandparents on the Kenai Peninsula. I was fishing for salmon at at the Russian River and I already filleted 1 and had the 2nd on a stringer and was trying to go for my 3rd to get my limit. I hear a lady across the river yell "bear" and I look behind me and not 5 yards away are 2 grizzly bears the size of a car and a pickup. However big you think they are they're bigger and mounts don't do justice so I froze. I backed away yelling "HEY BEAR" half-way running back across the river even though you're supposed to not run lol. I then watched as it picked up our backpack which had our wallets and car keys and food in it then started clawing at it but it let go of it. It then went and picked up my 2nd fish stole it and they both ran off with it!!

1) when I was around 12, went swimming in a lake on a family vacation. Was about 100 feet from the shore, swimming when I look over and see a snake swimming next to me about 5 feet away. I think I started swimming so fast trying to get out of there that I was literally walking on water and made it back to shore in just a couple seconds.

2) couple of years ago in Yellowstone, it's the end of the day, im sitting at one of the little cabins in the Mammoth Hot Springs area, just sitting on the front steps on the front porch. I look over and see a young rabbit about 10 feet away. He sees me about the same time I see him, and he jumps straight up in the air at least 3 feet straight up in the air. As soon as he hits the ground he takes off running. Not big game related but just something you don't see every day.

Some friends were rounding up cattle out of Kingsville and came across a hawk with a snake wrapped around it. They knocked the snake off and the hawk flew away.

We have a lot of birds hit the back windows of our home... usually Dove. One Sunday afternoon we heard a crash. The window was broken and a hawk was laying on the floor. My wife said... what do we do. I told her to get a pet carrier otherwise that hawk was going to "come to" in our home. We released it later. He must have been chasing a Dove.

My wife called me all panicked and told me we had a Rattlesnake in the garage. She had heard a buzzing noise and thought one of the cats was torturing a Cicada. I came home and she was standing in the back yard behind the gate... I said I'll get the shotgun and proceeded to go through the garage... she was horrified. So she met me in the house and I was about to go through the garage door and she said, you're not going that way are you? And she went out through the back door where she could watch safely.

The rattlesnake was a four footer and he was camped out underneath my riding lawnmower. I thought I would have a little fun with my wife and handed her a broom. She said, what's that for? And I told her so she could push the snake out so I could shoot it. Anyway I had to do the broom work and the shooting work.