Close Encounter

[Duggie Bravo]

Came back from the jungle in Belize, dropped my kit off and hit the shower.
Walked back into the room and everyone else looked very pale and were quiet.
Turns out I’d brought a hitch hiker back from the jungle which our local cleaner had dispatched. There wasn’t enough left to confirm whether it was a Coral or King snake.


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[gonzo_the_great]

A close encounter, but a very pleasent one.

Out after deer last year, I was sat in a high seat for the evening. Facing out over a field, backing onto some scrub woodland, falling away behind me.
A roe doe came out from the wood, about 40ft to my side. But does were not in season, so I just watched as she worked her way along the grass in front of me.
After about 10mins watching her, I heard a noise in the undergrowth behind me, getting nearer. Sounded bigger and less active than a squirle, so I sat tight. After a while, it came into view, a little roe kid. It spent a good 10mins only 6ft below me, sniffing around and watching mum through the fence. It was finding the shooting stick, that I left leaning at the base of the ladder, to be very interesting. I assume it could scent me on it.
The breeze was obviously with me. Blowing from the field, and taking my scent into the wood, but at height, so they were totally unaware of me.

Sometimes the best days out with a rifle, are when you don't take a shot.

 

[henchy3rd]

narrow escape, friends relatives didn't, Zimbabwe in 1999 was not fun

Had a very narrow escape in Chinhoyi there as well in 97..

 

[santaman2000]

A close encounter, but a very pleasent one.

Out after deer last year, I was sat in a high seat for the evening. Facing out over a field, backing onto some scrub woodland, falling away behind me.
A roe doe came out from the wood, about 40ft to my side. But does were not in season, so I just watched as she worked her way along the grass in front of me.
After about 10mins watching her, I heard a noise in the undergrowth behind me, getting nearer. Sounded bigger and less active than a squirle, so I sat tight. After a while, it came into view, a little roe kid. It spent a good 10mins only 6ft below me, sniffing around and watching mum through the fence. It was finding the shooting stick, that I left leaning at the base of the ladder, to be very interesting. I assume it could scent me on it.
The breeze was obviously with me. Blowing from the field, and taking my scent into the wood, but at height, so they were totally unaware of me.

Sometimes the best days out with a rifle, are when you don't take a shot.

I spent a lot of days out with a rifle in Southwest Asia when my best days were when I didn’t fire a shot.

 

[Silverclaws2]

Saw a hefty black cat once down on Bodmin Moor, whilst travelling back from Dozmary pool, fortunately I was driving at the time, though it made me slam on the anchors so as not to hit it as the dumb thing as it stopped in the road after charging across a field, and clearing a wall, before bounding off to clear another wall and charge off across the opposite field. I was staying at the Jamaica Inn at the time to find no surprise when I made the report.

 

[Terry.m.]

I’m about to read Jamaica inn again.!!
Funny that, we were coming back from a walk on the moor and driving back with the kids and we saw a massive black “ cat” clear the hedge row, must have been 20 years ago now.!!
No joke..


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[TeeDee]

I had an elderly Cougar corner me in Sam's night club once, I thought I was done for.

Managed to give it the slip.

Narrow escape.

 

[TeeDee]

In seriousness.

Whilst being sat in the Tracking seat of a safari landy hurling around dirt S.A. tracks at night the driver almost gave me the opportunity to give a elephant a rectal exam before he managed to hit the brakes.

As mentioned before the sound a herd of elephants makes is like a deep deep low resonance bass you can feel in your your body - a very humbling experience.


Another time we were conducting a navex through the S.A brush that over ran somewhat ( surprise ) the spacing between everyone got closer and closer as the light went down and everyone's senses became more attuned to the various emerging sounds around them as we tried to quietly quick time it back to camp.

In Camp the hyenas who are apparently attracted to human scent would make it a habit of lurking under the shower block which was on a slightly raised slatted platform , if you were due to be the first up to get the brews and breakfast on then the presence of such a beastie was certainly surprising for the first few days.

That and the Hyenas liked to chew through the canvas fabric of the tents.

 

[henchy3rd]

A long time ago whilst bird watching a male pheasant ran out of a hedge & started attacking my brother in law..I was in fits of hysterics.

 

[MikeLA]

That reminds me of a long time ago driving in convoy past stonehenge on the way to oakhampton camp. My land rover hit a flying pheasant full on, hitting the grill I had to use the windscreen wipers to get rid of a full windscreen of feathers and looked in the mirror to see more feathers and a rather bald bird. Mates couldn’t stop laughing that the land rover behind having to do a major swerve to avoid this.

 

[TarryJack]

As for the jersey cow, when I lived in a commune for sustainable living I found them docile(don’t know about the bull).
I also used to ride horses.. Misty was a Welsh cob, 17.5 hands high & built like a tank, basically went were she wanted to go but so well natured.
Midnight on the other hand was an ex police horse, nasty piece of work, used to hide behind a tree in the field then charge..kick.. bite.. barge, I swear he used to smile out the corner of his mouth.

As I said in my post, above, Jersey cows are sweethearts - it's only the bulls that are psychos.
Re. Misty; no offence, but there's no such thing as a 17.2hh Welsh Cob - the biggest they get is about 15.2hh.
Re. biting horses - just belt them across the nose with the flat of your hand, as hard as you can. Works for me.

 

[TarryJack]

A horse cornered me up against the wall once and tried to bite; I wasn't even in the field, it was a path running between the wall and the paddock. I had ignored them so far, They were just out to cause trouble.

I gave them a big whack with my canvas hat. They jumped back, reared up and decided to retreat.

Lucky I was wearing a stiff hat

By far the commonest cause of that behaviour is morons giving them 'titbits' - and the only way to deal with it is to be even more aggressive to them than they are to you, as you did (and that's exactly how a horse responds if another horse tries to bite it!) Don't have any concerns about "I don't want to hurt it" - if one horse bites another, that horse will have no compunction about letting fly with both hind feet, and if you want to know how hard they can kick, take a look at the huge slabs of muscle on their hindquarters . . .

If you don't have a hat or bag or stick to swing at them, what I've found very effective is to mimic a hostile and threatening bear; stand up tall, punch your fists at the sky, and roar at them as loud as you can. Horses are ****-scared of bears, even horses which have never seen a bear before.

 

[Broch]

At the age of fourteen I was solo backpacking in the Yorkshire Moors. Walking along one of the forest tracks I was about to step on one of the many sticks strewn around when it darted forward and bit me on the leg - well, the trouser leg not my flesh. It was quite a wakeup call for a teenager because, although I know adder bites are rarely fatal, I was on my own, miles from anywhere and a very long time before we had mobile phones.

 

[TarryJack]

I had several horses as a kid and as a teenager. None of them we’re especially mean. When I worked as a stablehand/wrangler even docile herds ran up and trample people (No: they don’t dodge you at the last minute) they’re intent on getting the feed they assume humans are carrying. Likewise with most cattle. Although neither are true “wildlife” I remember reading somewhere that more people are killed every year by domestic cattle than any other animal worldwide. Presumably at least partially because they aren’t wildlife (humans just naturally have more interaction with domestic animals)

"None of them were especially mean"?????
Even though they would run up and trample you?? And you call that 'docile'?? Jesus - what would a horse have to do to you before you would describe it as mean?

And I can speak from years of personal experience that horses which have been properly trained most bloody well DO dodge you at the last minute
- unless the owners / wranglers have allowed them to get away with such aggressive behaviour. So whose fault is that?

If you're dumb enough to let horses get away with that sort of behaviour, more fool you. I've only ever had to deal with a horse like that once, and I walloped him across the face hard enough that my hand was throbbing for hours - but he never tried it again, even though he'd kick and bite the stupid cow who owned him at the drop of a hat. And why did he do that to her? Because he'd tried it on and found she'd let him get away with it.

If I knew I was dealing with a bunch of horses that thought it OK to behave like that, the first time they'd see me, I'd have the heftiest rope or whip I could find, and I'd use it. Horses don't have equals; either you're in charge of them, or they're in charge of you.

Size doesn't come into it; when I started riding in Malta (RAF), there was an 8 year old girl, small for her age, who rode the stallions in the Combined Services Saddle Club at Valetta - and those Libyan Barbs were as tough as old boots, physically and mentally. But Shrimp didn't take any nonsense from them; they tried it on when they first met her, but they soon got the message.

I met a bloke at a party once, and said to him, "You're the bloke who trains troublesome dogs, aren't you?"
"No", he said, "I train stupid and ignorant owners; once I've got them sorted out, the dogs aren't troublesome any more."
Horses (and children) are just the same.

 

[Broch]

I met a bloke at a party once, and said to him, "You're the bloke who trains troublesome dogs, aren't you?"
"No", he said, "I train stupid and ignorant owners; once I've got them sorted out, the dogs aren't troublesome any more."
Horses (and children) are just the same.

Yep, and I bet he never had to hit them or whip them to train them either!

 

[henchy3rd]

As I said in my post, above, Jersey cows are sweethearts - it's only the bulls that are psychos.
Re. Misty; no offence, but there's no such thing as a 17.2hh Welsh Cob - the biggest they get is about 15.2hh.
Re. biting horses - just belt them across the nose with the flat of your hand, as hard as you can. Works for me.

I was hoping no one spotted the mistake, she was 16.1 so couldn’t show her.
Midnight was 17.5 My mistake.

Why they don’t make an E class Welsh section as cross genes are making bigger horses, unless it’s a purist thing?
I personally don’t think it’s good to belt a horse across the nose, but I know people do..just grab & pull the bottom of the Maine as that’s what they do to each other as a warning & make sure you make it known that the horse has overstepped the mark.
I used to opt to push the horse back out of my face space.

 

[moocher]

In seriousness.

Whilst being sat in the Tracking seat of a safari landy hurling around dirt S.A. tracks at night the driver almost gave me the opportunity to give a elephant a rectal exam before he managed to hit the brakes.

As mentioned before the sound a herd of elephants makes is like a deep deep low resonance bass you can feel in your your body - a very humbling experience.


Another time we were conducting a navex through the S.A brush that over ran somewhat ( surprise ) the spacing between everyone got closer and closer as the light went down and everyone's senses became more attuned to the various emerging sounds around them as we tried to quietly quick time it back to camp.

In Camp the hyenas who are apparently attracted to human scent would make it a habit of lurking under the shower block which was on a slightly raised slatted platform , if you were due to be the first up to get the brews and breakfast on then the presence of such a beastie was certainly surprising for the first few days.

That and the Hyenas liked to chew through the canvas fabric of the tents.

Read on Bbc news other day woman got bit or clawed by black bear that got underneath the outhouse .

I got charged by a boar in the Forest of Dean one morning whilst walking the dogs before breakfast , I was half asleep with a head cold looked up at some movement expecting it to be a grey squirrel Scratching in pine needles an it was a solitary boar . I had 2 dogs on leads as was on village outskirts parallel to the main road through it . Luckily it stopped when I shouted at it turned an ran off .

 

[santaman2000]

"None of them were especially mean"?????
Even though they would run up and trample you?? And you call that 'docile'?? Jesus - what would a horse have to do to you before you would describe it as mean?

And I can speak from years of personal experience that horses which have been properly trained most bloody well DO dodge you at the last minute
- unless the owners / wranglers have allowed them to get away with such aggressive behaviour. So whose fault is that?

If you're dumb enough to let horses get away with that sort of behaviour, more fool you. I've only ever had to deal with a horse like that once, and I walloped him across the face hard enough that my hand was throbbing for hours - but he never tried it again, even though he'd kick and bite the stupid cow who owned him at the drop of a hat. And why did he do that to her? Because he'd tried it on and found she'd let him get away with it.

If I knew I was dealing with a bunch of horses that thought it OK to behave like that, the first time they'd see me, I'd have the heftiest rope or whip I could find, and I'd use it. Horses don't have equals; either you're in charge of them, or they're in charge of you.

Size doesn't come into it; when I started riding in Malta (RAF), there was an 8 year old girl, small for her age, who rode the stallions in the Combined Services Saddle Club at Valetta - and those Libyan Barbs were as tough as old boots, physically and mentally. But Shrimp didn't take any nonsense from them; they tried it on when they first met her, but they soon got the message.

I met a bloke at a party once, and said to him, "You're the bloke who trains troublesome dogs, aren't you?"
"No", he said, "I train stupid and ignorant owners; once I've got them sorted out, the dogs aren't troublesome any more."
Horses (and children) are just the same.

You “can speak from years of personal experience.”? That’s cute. I have over 6 decades of personal experience. Me and my cousins were all put on a horse before we could walk on two feet. I was a stable hand, a plowman, I used horse to hear cattle, pull logs to the truck (before we switched to tractors) a rodeo contestant, and a horse show contestant, and I’ve hunted from horseback.

What would I call a mean horse? I would call one mean if it had deliberately tried to trample me. The ones I mentioned were just going to their food and ignoring everything in their way. Have I ever whipped a horse for misbehaving? Yes, of course. Usually with the biggest stick I could find, or better still, a 2x4

 

[santaman2000]

By far the commonest cause of that behaviour is morons giving them 'titbits' - and the only way to deal with it is to be even more aggressive to them than they are to you, as you did (and that's exactly how a horse responds if another horse tries to bite it!) Don't have any concerns about "I don't want to hurt it" - if one horse bites another, that horse will have no compunction about letting fly with both hind feet, and if you want to know how hard they can kick, take a look at the huge slabs of muscle on their hindquarters . . .

If you don't have a hat or bag or stick to swing at them, what I've found very effective is to mimic a hostile and threatening bear; stand up tall, punch your fists at the sky, and roar at them as loud as you can. Horses are ****-scared of bears, even horses which have never seen a bear before.

I’ve never seen a horse attack a bear so you might be right. That said, they have no fear of alligators (I can’t find the original long version showing them stomping him before he left the swamp for the high ground where this clip starts)

 

[Silverclaws2]

I’m about to read Jamaica inn again.!!
Funny that, we were coming back from a walk on the moor and driving back with the kids and we saw a massive black “ cat” clear the hedge row, must have been 20 years ago now.!!
No joke..


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When I saw it it would have been the year 2000.

Though pertaining to Darmoor, in fact Bellever a level headed type had 'an experience' , for some facts pertaining to how big cats may have ended up on the moors towards the end of the presentation