Ever run into bad guys while hunting?

gouch

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I was hunting the muzzleloader elk season and I decided to make a loop out of camp that would take me back to the access road about 3 miles down from camp. The season was 7 days long, but I had an appointment that I just couldn’t get out of on Tuesday morning. It was Monday afternoon, So I wanted to get back to camp in time to break camp and get on the road before dark. I was hoofing it back up the road, that was nothing more than tire tracks through the brush that cut through 10 inches of hard packed snow. Then I heard a car. I thought it odd because the car was obviously going very fast, and I didn’t think I was close enough to the highway to hear the traffic. I soon realize that the car was on my road, so I stepped off into the brush to let it pass. A Jeep Cherokee zipped by me going at least 50mph probably more, then stopped less than 100 yards away. I had a bad feeling about the people in that Jeep, but I really wanted to get back and wasn’t going to wait for them to leave. I was uneasy enough that I capped and cocked my stuffer before approaching them. There was one guy outside the Jeep who had just relieved himself in the snow then a girl and another guy in the back seat. The guy told me they were hunting but hadn’t seen any deer. Archery deer season was open, but they sure didn’t look like they were bow hunting. I went on my way and didn’t think too much more about it until driving out just after dark when we saw the Jeep. It was on its roof, out in the brush. We checked it out, but nobody was around. There was camping gear spread all around and a small backpack that had spilled what looked like keepsakes a young girl might have in her bedroom. We though it a bit odd but figured they had walked out to get help. We were less than two miles from the highway, so we figured they were probably all right and we went on our way.



The next afternoon while driving back to our camping spot we reached the place the jeep had left the road. There was a sheriff deputy and a Forest Service LEO standing there. I told them my story and they were very surprised when I referred to the guy I talked to outside the jeep as a kid. They told me the Jeep was registered to a 58-year-old Hispanic man. I said, no, the kid was blond, blue eyed and no more than 20 -22 years old. Then they asked about the girl. They really wanted to know about the girl. So, I told them she looked very young and that she was laughing about something with the other guy in the jeep. They said they suspected the girl was a 14-year-old that had been reported as abducted on Saturday and asked if I was I sure she was laughing. I told them that she definitely looked like she was having a real good time. They were relieved to learn, that the girl might be a runaway and not an abductee and the owner of the jeep was no longer a suspect in that reported obduction. They then asked me to show them the spot where I had talked to the guy. As we were going back to the truck my buddy told me that the deputy wrote down my license plate number. When we got to the spot, the deputy said his partner thought I looked familiar, and could he please see some ID? Without missing a beat my partner asked them if they had ever looked at the FBI most wanted posters in the post office. I just laughed and told the LEO that we both worked for the Forest Service, out of the same building, and that I had seen him dozens of times around the office. The light bulb went on in his head and he then recognized me.



Later that week I met a guy who told me that after they had crashed the jeep they had sneaked into his camp and stolen his truck. He was mostly mad that his dog didn’t see fit to bark as someone was sneaking around camp stealing his truck. It turned out that the guy driving the Jeep to was 24, the girl was indeed the 14-year-old runaway and they had been on a little weeklong crime spree out there in the woods. They had stolen three vehicles, a lot of camping gear, and one handgun. He had that gun on his hip when I saw him. They stole food, a lot of booze, and whatever else wasn’t tied down. When the cops stopped them, they ran off into the woods and tried to bury themselves in the snow. All that did was make them cold and wet. I never did hear anything about the other guy I saw in the Jeep. The worst part is I never did kill an elk.
 
Never directly, just the aftermath. As a contractor, doing stand exams on the Siuslaw National Forest we came right into a decent size active grow, I actually tripped over the hose run from the creek. Glad it wasn’t another kind of trip wire!

Then we came across a post-harvest working out of the Roseburg BLM office. A-holes left chit EVERYWHERE, cans, plastic fert bags, peat pots, empty propane tanks, etc. Big pile of empty AK brass in a few spots, was super creepy and we got our asses out and to the Sheriffs office ASAP!
 
Not while hunting, but working a few times.

This one was a dandy:

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Whole pile of stolen stuff under the tarps.

Went back with the sheriff the next day, and the guy that stole it was there. Fun times.
 
Working in the woods it was commonplace to run into pot grows, water theft, trespasses, illegal harvest of forest products and stuff like that. Sometimes we would report it and sometimes we would let it slide.

My first summer out of the Army I was bear hunting. I pulled off onto a landing on a BLM road, overlooking a brushy clearcut I wanted to glass. There on the ground was a complete set of women's clothes. High heels, pantihose, panties, bra, and a pretty little dress like a young woman might wear on a date. I was young and dumb, so I didn't think too much of it. Now that I'm old and have watched way too much true crime on the TV, I think I probably should have reported that to the sheriff.
 
Came across a stolen truck in a standing corn field on my grandparents farm. Rounded the corner walking down the rows and there was a red Ford with the drivers door open. That'll get your heart pumping, thought for sure there was gonna be a body inside.
 
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Wife and I were out hunting one morning and found something big covered with a tarp and leaves/brush. Wife peaked under the tarp and there was a brand new car. Reported it and led the sheriff's dept to the find. Car was stolen off a dealer lot four days prior.
While camping on a river in Arkansas with my wife and five year old son we had a bunch of no-goods pull in the woods up the hill. Three men, two women and two small kids. They walked down the hill pointing guns at us and yelling "Yankees go home". We packed up and left while they were yelling profanities and pointing guns. Funny thing is, although we had Missouri plates, we only lived eight miles North of the AR border at that time.
I had a gun laying in the car but found it more wise to not shoot since I had my wife and kid... and they all had guns.
To this day I don't know why I did not report this.
I NEVER go in the woods without a weapon. After that incident, and until I moved to WY I never left the house wihout packing heat.
 
Wife and I were out hunting one morning and found something big covered with a tarp and leaves/brush. Wife peaked under the tarp and there was a brand new car. Reported it and led the sheriff's dept to the find. Car was stolen off a dealer lot four days prior.
While camping on a river in Arkansas with my wife and five year old son we had a bunch of no-goods pull in the woods up the hill. Three men, two women and two small kids. They walked down the hill pointing guns at us and yelling "Yankees go home". We packed up and left while they were yelling profanities and pointing guns. Funny thing is, although we had Missouri plates, we only lived eight miles North of the AR border at that time.
I had a gun laying in the car but found it more wise to not shoot since I had my wife and kid... and they all had guns.
To this day I don't know why I did not report this.
I NEVER go in the woods without a weapon. After that incident, and until I moved to WY I never left the house wihout packing heat.
Since when is being from Missouri considered a Yankee anyhow?
 
Back in '91 I thought we were going to shoot it out with some hopped up punk when moose hunting the opener. His vehicle was stopped in the logging road ahead of us. I stopped and waited. Didn't appear anyone was in the truck so I inched my 87 Chev 4x4 around it. Up pops a head as soon as I was by. The idiot fires up his truck and runs it right up on my bumper. What the hell? Eventually I stopped. Thought maybe something was wrong. The driver comes running up to the truck with his rifle screaming nonsense and obscenities. Right out of his mind! When I saw him coming I told my partner to load his gun. The other guy was clearly passed out in the passenger's seat and I had Fern keep an eye on him while I dealt with the screamer. Never did determine what his problem was. He was totally incoherent. I rolled up the window and took off with a nervous eye on him in rear view mirror. Got far enough ahead to lose them at an intersection, then backtracked to camp. I stopped hunting the opener after that. Too many nut jobs in the field.
 
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I know. I wanted to call them dumb hillbillies or rednecks, but many of us fall in that category and are proud of it. Myself included, lol. 😁
You and half the population of Missouri ... with the same last name. 😉
 
Yeah your right in the grow foothills down there, San Jose to Watsonville. Lots of day trim workers!
I'm on the east side of Mt Hamilton about 8 air miles east of the Lick Observatory. We have a tendency to take care of things differently than in town. CHP and SO from 3 counties expect any vehicle covered in dust and dirt to be carrying a loaded firearm.
 
Dang I walked up on a sketchy encampment and "work station" down the canyon above my buddies house. We used to hike up and do opposite loops on opening day. On my way down the steep face to the highway and his house was this sketchy shit. They had a german Shepard that started trotting at me and growling I had no hesitation pulling up. I yelled at the dog as he was close and he stopped. That grabbed the attention of his owners and they tailed me all the way down. Kinda made the hair on my neck stand up.
 
On the first night of my first field problem on active duty at Fort Lewis we are out in the training area and are tasked with setting up a perimeter. Me and a couple other guys were spreading concertina wire when hear someone yell "F&*K" at the top of his lungs. Turns out the guys was about to start digging his fighting position a nearly drove his shovel right into a dead tweeker. Noise and light discipline was suspended and we found what had been a meth lab about 10m away from him.....he took a bullet to the head. This was back before 9/11 and the training areas weren't really secured. WA already had a thriving meth problem and it became a regular thing. Not real comforting when none of us had anything to defend ourselves beyond our knives......
 
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