What's the craziest/coolest thing you've found in the wild?

[MaxPower]

In response to the entertaining (yet depressing) thread started by MtnHuntr, tell us the coolest/craziest/scariest thing you've ever encountered in the back country.

What’s the worst item you’ve lost?

With all the gear we take hunting, it seems it’s inevitable before we lose something. I’m curious what is the worst thing ya’ll have lost? For me, I was doing pretty well until last year when my holster with my Glock 19 came off somewhere in the first two miles on the trail. I was especially...

www.hunttalk.com

132-year-old Model 1873 found against a tree at Great Basin National Park.

132-year-old Model 1873 found against a tree at Great Basin National Park.

www.winchesterguns.com

-While hunting elk through some thick and rocky hills I stumbled upon someones jacket that was neatly laid on a log. It looked like someone had been hiking, shed a layer, then kept on hiking without remember to put the jacket into their pack. It wasn't tattered, faded or anything, and had probably only been there a few weeks at most. Luckily it wasn't anything nice (or even camo), just some hooded flannel jacket. Either way, I pack it down out of the hills and left it on a fence post at the base of the mountain where someone would likely see it.

-My boss once found a hunter sitting peacefully under a tree overlooking a large drainage. The poor fellow had just expired, within the last hour or so, probably due to a heart attack. I think I'm fine if I never find anything like that.

 

[RobG]

On some land I'm part owner in.

 

[Dave N]

Found an old cast iron tractor seat. No tractor anywhere near to be seen.

Friend of mine found 2 dollar bills while we were picking Huckleberries.

 

[BigHornRam]

I was 18 and took a summer trip out west. Was backpacking into the Beartooths when a young lady came running down the trail towards me, and was looking for the F S Ranger, "Blaze". I had just talked to him a mile or two down the trail, and let her know that. Then she told me she was with a church group and a couple of the boys were playing in the rocks, triggering a slide. One boy was hurt badly, and one had died.

A couple days later right before dark, Blaze came past my camp leading a mule with the boy's body wrapped in canvas draped over it. All alone and a 1000 miles from home, I didn't sleep the best that night, and the whole event left me with a profound respect for nature.

 

[nrpate05]

I found a trashed snowmobile in a basin that I assumed had been in an avalanche judging on its condition and where it was located. Never found out the story behind it.

 

[glass eye]

A bomb in Hawaii.

 

[glass eye]

A burial cave in Hawaii.

 

[glass eye]

A Japanese glass fish net float on the Alaska Peninsula.

 

[dcopas78]

A .32 Remington case. I found it down in between some rocks on a ridge top in Montana. I was going to sit on the rocks and overlook a saddle that had a lot of mule deer sign. I saw this and dug it out of the rocks, then sat down. Not a minute later, my first mule deer buck decided to cross the saddle and was on the ground.

 

[Threedognight]

A nuthatch, and a mountain bluebird had nesting holes in a tree about three feet apart. The nuthatch seemed to feed twice as fast as the bluebird, and when it was caught up feeding its babies it could hear the bluebird babies chirping. It then would help out the bluebird, and not only feeding but hauled away the chicks poop. I saw the bluebird watch the nuthatch doing this, and never intervened.

 

[Gellar]

Trolling for salmon off of Ludington Mi 1999 or 2000 we hooked into what we were positive was a huge king salmon. Turned out to be a deflated blow up doll.

About 10 years back my father in law was discing a field and something caught his eye. It was the action to an flintlock rifle. No barrel or wood still attached.

 

[2rocky]

hmm, a couple winter killed antelope (buck and doe) next to each other in Modoc Co, CA. I assumed lion kill from the look of the skulls (noses chewed off).
Was present when another fella kicked up a flint arrowhead in a salt lick
a few grave markers.

 

[BigHornRam]

My first backpack trip when I was about 8, with my father and 2 brothers, we went to a remote lake in the Emigrant Basin wilderness. To get out, my dad decided to take a bush whack path down the lakes outlet. Not too far down the canyon we came upon a brand new outfit, pack, sleeping bag, tent, and canteen laying on the ground. Could not find the owner so we just left it there. On the way home, dad reported this at the Forest Service station. Couple weeks later he got a call stating that it ended up being some guy that decided he didn't like backpacking any more, just threw his gear on the ground and hiked out of there.

 

[tjones]

Found this barely sticking out of the dirt a long time ago on a Wyoming antelope hunt.

 

[Dakota79]

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[Jape]

Great idea! I haven't found anything more notable than spent shells and lost gloves, but my buddy was telling me last week about a blue tarp he found with two unused XR's and a rototiller under it. The illegal grow site had been abandoned for a year or so.

 

[BraidenR]

Friend of mine found 2 dollar bills while we were picking Huckleberries.

Did the bills happen to be brown when found?

 

[KipCarson]

In southwest Texas one time on a Aoudad hunt I happened to find some sort of fossilized shell that looked like a snail. Whatever it was, it was a pretty big snail, couple inches in diameter.
Unfortunately I have a habit of rock chucking when I’m bored and somewhere down the line a few hours later I absent minded grabbed a rock from the wrong pocket and gave it a throw... yep, it was my fossil. So I found and lost one of the coolest things ever in the course of an afternoon.

 

[rwc101]

Found a large, rectangular rock in the forest with different animal skulls and bones arranged on it along with small bowls of unknown substances.

 

[Oregon_Ryan]

About 10 years ago or so, I was on a day hike in the Huachuca Mountains (SE corner of Arizona). Came across about 5 strapping young men on a "backpacking trip", and those packs were very full and very squared off. Me and my hiking buddy stood off to the side and politely let them pass. That wasn't the weirdest moment that day. We had tagged the second highest peak in the chain and were making for the highest before our descent, when we stopped to top off water at a spring. The spring is probably at 8-9K in elevation in the Miller Peak Wilderness, and we came across, I kid you not, Wednesday and Pugsley Addams having a picnic up there. Two Goth kids in street clothes and street shoes, with what looked like 2 cokes and sandwhich to split between them. Between the mules and the Addams Family picnic, I was wondering what the hell was in my canteen.