bare hands?

[reubenpa]

When I was thirteen I loved to walk in the woods behind my parents house.  My brother and I hunted a little there but as he was from Arizona at the time and I live in PA, we didn't hunt much and my dad could hardly walk at the time because of Arthur...  My brother and I found this one squirrels nest and both of us missed it and it ran to a huge oak tree and disappeared into a hole.
One day I went for a walk during the winter small game season.  I didn't carry a gun or knife or anything like that as I was alone and not hunting.  Being a curious youth, I decided to shake this tree to see the squirrel again.  This time it didn't go the top and run to the oak, it ran straight down the tree.   I grabbed a stick really quick to get it with, but 15 feet up it jumped and landed about 15 feet from the tree.  There was about 6 inches of snow on the ground and I dropped the stick and ran after it.  I wasn't nearly as tall then as now, but I was about 5-6or 7 and could run better than the squirrel could in that much snow.  I caught up to it just as it started up a little tree.
I stupidly reached for it and it ran between my legs and down a little embankment, through a little trickle of water and onto that big oak.  I ran around the oak after it adrenalin pumping 2 miles a minute. Instead of running up the tree to safety it tried to get into a hole that was a crack between roots. I grabbed again and it ran within inches of me around the tree the other direction nd I followed it
I ran the whole way around the tree and found it in the same hole and tried again, and it ran past me again  so I followed it around the tree again and it went to the same hole and when I tried for it again it ran past me again around the tree.  This time I was smart enough to stop and wait for it to come around the tree so moved forward instead of following it around the tree and sure enough it was about eye level.  I swatted at it with my hand and it ran back around. I stumbled a little and when I turned around the squirrel had come back to a longer hole right beside its first hole.  Both holes just a crack like thing in between the big roots. 
    I put my foot over the squirrel and stood there for a second or two.   I then reached my hands down and got the head and front legs in my right hand and the tail and back legs in my left and squeezed.
     I found out something that day... SQUIRRELS are EXTREMELY tough.  IT almost got away from me, but I hung on.  I couldn't figure out what to do with it as I didn't have a knife and only had two hands.  Thankfully I had thin jersey gloves on because I did a stupid thing, I let go of the back legs  and instantly it curled up to claw me. I only got a little scratch and I jerked my hand down and it flung the legs out and I grabbed them again. 
       I tried something else that wasn't very smart either, I opened up my hands and banged the nose against the tree but that only bloodied up the nose.  I felt bad about that later. 
     Finally I stopped to think a little, and calmed down enough to think some, and I stomped down the snow and managed to get the back legs under my feet and then broke its neck. 
     That was  a tasty squirrel that had no lead pellets in it. The only damage was a bruise on its back leg from my squeezing too hard. 

This is a true story by the way      Just wanted to share

[reubenpa]

Another time I was on a date with my g-friend, now wife and I saw something out in a cut corn field.  It was a deer and it looked like a buck but it was in the middle of a hot day and it was in the hot sun.  I stopped to look and since the field wasn't posted I went out there and sure enough it was a 5 point buck.  It was sick of something and couldn't move much.  It may have been rabid because there was slime coming out of the mouth, but it may just have been evaporated slobber as it had been there a while panting.  A boy came out to see on his quad and he said that he saw something there the day before but didn't think anythign of it.  The deer had funny antlers and was emaciated badly and the hair was very disgusting looking.  The hooves were extremely long and one side was totally rotted away.  I carefuly grabbed the alters just in case it could gore me and hung on tight just in case but it was about dead.  The boy went to ask his grampa if he wanted the meat, but I asked him to get a gun or something because I knew the meast wasn't any good, but the boy ( about 14-15 area) didn't get the idea and didn't even bring back a knife.  I didn't know what to do at the time ( I was only about 18)  and I didn't have a cell phone and had no clue what the game commisions phone number was so I figured that I would brake its neck to get it out of its suffering.  I grabbed its antlers and ynaked back on them totally flipping it throught he air, two tries later I succeeded and when I did, I saw a man walking toward me. 
    An officer had seen us out there and came to investigate.  He had seen me brake the deer's neck.  I told him the story of what I saw and then asked him if I had done the right thing and he said no, I said whoops and he said that it didn't matter it just saved him a bullet.  Before I broke its neck, it was so weak by that time that it couldn't even hold his head up any more. 

  I hadn't ever shot a deer before so I tell people that I caught my first deer with my hands and killed it.     This isn't really a good stroy for peta but I did what I could to get the deer out of his misery. It only had an hour or two at most to live anyway. 

I was on my way to Walker Lake in PA to fish and got my second largest LB that evening.. 21 inches and about 5 lbs. 

[trapperdirk]

Darn Reuben you got some weird stories but I did enjoy them and now after the squirrel chase around and around the trees I have a better understanding of what your about . LOL Well understanding maybe not but I do sympathize with your wife . LOL

[reubenpa]

I am a weird guy, but that was 9 years ago!!!   They are true though!!!

[treed942000]

Reuben,

I now will never have a good hunting story cause I think you've taken the cake on those.  I'm now picturing this mountain man like in the movies breaking this deers neck.  LOL.

TReed

[reubenpa]

I grew a beard in my senoir year of high school, but I am no mountian man... 6-3 200 pounds, but not any mountain man!!!!  lol

[lumberjohn]

Your story reminds me of one of my own bare hand experiences. I was 15 and trapping along the Genesee River in Rochester. Trapping was new to me at the time, only my second year. I had caught a coon in one of my sets and he was none too happy when I came along the river bank. I whacked him in the head with the axe handle I carried for such occassions. This rendered him unconcious and I removed him from the trap. I pondered how best to dispatch him, and not wanting to bludgeon him to death I decided the most humane approach would be to drown him in the river. I grabbed the coon with one hand by the scruff of the neck behind the head and the other hand firmly grasping the ass end. I put his head under water and waited. To my horror the damn thing woke up and started thrashing about madly. There I was standing in the Genny, water up to my hip-boots knees and my feet stuck in the muck with one pissed off racoon in my hands. I held on for all I was worth and managed to finish the job and come out unscathed. It was quite an exciting couple of heart pumping minutes and not one I'll ever care to repeat.

[MASTERGUIDE]

I hear you on the coon, just this year, I was coon hunting, and my dog had a nice coon up a tree, my brother-in-law was with me, and had his gun, so I let him shoot it, well, we thought we hit it, because it started to move, and get uneasy(there was a branch that might have been deflecting the shots, and it started to come down the tree, now I have not coonhunted too long, about 2 years, and I though that it was going to die, or come down a little and fall out which usually happens if they com down, because they only go up when you start shooting.  it came down, and kept coming down.  and it wasn't even wounded at all, I had my dog on the leash, and when it got on the ground we couldn't believe it, but it just ran! what in the world, and we were on the other side of the tree peeking around it, and so we let the dog go asap he couldn't see around the tree, but when he hit the hot track, he was off after that coon, there was another patch of woods with huge white pine trees about 300 or 400 yards off, I never knew coon could run so fast, the dog was trailing hot, and the coon in front, we ran as fast as possible, because once he hit one of those pine trees he'd dissapear in the branches, and we followed as fast as possible ran out of breath a few times, and finally heard the dog pull up like he was on top of him, we got there just in time to see the big old coon running up the tree and just before he got into the thick branches we shot him, and dropped him.  wow, that was a coon we worked for, that was one fun hunt.  MASTERGUIDE

[slt]

I guess it's related.
   As a police officer we are routinly dispatched to car / deer accidents. A couple of years ago one such accident was reported and "Danny " responded as it was in his district.  "Danny" is a good guy but he was born and raised a city dweller ( poor Guy). Any way he finds that a car has hit a respectable buck and that it's still kickin'. Being a good policeman and a kindhearted guy  BLAM...BLAM...BLAM. Three shots from his duty .40 cal because he does not want to see him suffer. As he starts his paper work he calls "George" to tell him about the deer knowing that "George" is a hunter.  Well the night was slow so "George" goes over to look at the deer. He walks up and grabs it by the antler for a look and FIGHT ON!. "Danny" needs more range time. It appears he missed three times point blank. "George begins to wrestle with this thing for several minutes trying to prevent himself from a goring all the while asking for help. " Danny" is now frightened of the bullet proof deer and refuses to come to "Georges" aid. He figures that if  George at 6' 3" 265lbs is in trouble what can he do at 5'7"  150.
   George eventually gets tired of this game and throws the deer to the ditch and like a quick draw artist draws and shoots killing the deer. While this is occurring the motorist that hit the deer is now barricaded in her car and on her cell to 911 telling the dispatcher that the police need help as they are being attacked by the deer that she "had made angry".

As a result of this incident "George" has been crowned the W W F champion (Whitetail Wrestling Federation) 

As I write this "George "is on a moose hunt. I hope he brought his rifle. He's a big guy but he's not ready for a title shot in the M W F  ( Moose Wrestling Federation)

 

[adkRoy]

SLT that is one funny story!!!!!

[BoneHead]

Funny story slt, one George, Danny, and the driver will never forget, i'm sure.
One thing I look for while coming up to a downed animal is their eyes. If they are wide open and glazed over (like Danny's were)  , usually (but not always) there are dead. If the eyes are closed, then they are alive! (usually)

[Swampbuckster]

Great stories!