tree stands

[diamond hitch]

I've go to go cut some wood but I just remembered this story that should brighten you up a bit. I'm not much of a stand hunter but my hunting partner has a thing going about whitetails and he shared this with me.

He said he had a place that seemed to have a few whitetails that needed thinning and had put up a treestand so he could watch them. After a couple hours of nothing going on he noticed a pine squirrel gathering nuts from the trees in front of him. It would run up a tree and knock down some cones. then he would gather them up and build his cache. Then he would then run up another tree and repeat the effort. As he worked his way toward the treestand my partner said it got to be facinating to watch the antics. Finally the noisy little beast ran up the tree next to his stand and then jumped onto a limb that swung down to within inches of his face. My partner said he just said hi. He caught the squirrel so unawares that the little bugger started hissing and at the same time blew his intestinal contents out the back end. It was a miracle that the critter didn't die from shock. The squirrel jumped to a tree and continued hissing and making an assortment of ungodly sounds voiceing his shock and irritation. My partner said he got to laughing so hard he almost fell out of the tree.

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

Haha! Best I've done is sneak up on a coot next to shore while it was under water. When it popped up and saw me standing there, it was priceless, but also impressive their reaction times. Basically the moment he saw me he was moving away, no processing time, just pure survival instincts.

 

[JDH]

I was turkey hunting once and had a squirrel run down the tree I was sitting against and when he was on the other side of the tree I turned my head and looked up. He was about 5 feet above me on a limb when I said hey and threw my arms up. He literally jumped up off the limb and made some sounds I've never heard come out of a squirrel.

 

[BearFoot]

I "found" an old tree stand in the early 80's. It overlooked a meadow on a hillside. Many hours I have have sat still, in that tree. Raining sideways, snow, wind blowing, swaying in that tree. Black bear, grizzly, and countless moose spotted from that perch. Several moose did come home with me out of that meadow. Shot from the tree. A visit a few years back found this great tree dying, spruce Beatles sucking the life out of it, the stand decayed but still intact. The meadow changing, filling with alders. Spotted cow with calf and a young bull, searching for the "grunts" he hears. A special place.

 

[gouch]

I have had a couple of up close encounters with critters. I was slowly walking down a hill in an old burn, hunting deer, when I saw a porcupine walking towards me. I froze and watched to see how close he would get. He walked right up to me, stopped and sniffed my leg then sat up on his hind quarters. Then he raised his front legs like he planned on climbing up my leg so I said "HAY! What are you doing?" He just froze for a moment then turned and walked away. Another time when I was in the Army, I was on guard duty walking the perimeter of a N.A.T.O. sight when an owl came flying by real slow and low. I made a squeaky noise with my mouth and in less than a blink of the eye that bird was in a dive right for my face, talons extended. By the time I yelled and waved my arms he was only a few feet away. I don't know whose heart was beating harder after that, his or mine.

 

[MO Betta]

Outside of dealing with rambunctious squirrels, one encounter that really stands out to me was bowhunting on a small area between a couple river and creek convergences in SEK. I was up in a tree late in the afternoon and hadn't seen much activity, when a raccoon came shuffling along the forest floor. I sat there in my stand watching as he climbed a tree I was facing about 6-8 feet away and worked his way up to a limb about level with my head. He stopped and stared at me for a bit, then starting rising on the limb and hunching down as if he was psyching himself up to jump at me (might have just been trying to figure me out). At this point I had enough of watching and started waving my arms furiously and shouting "hey, hey!", I did not want that raccoon on my lap. He stopped bouncing on the limb and stared at me for a few more seconds then climbed down the tree and shuffled along again looking for a new spot.