Not sure what it was....

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gobyking
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2008/10/15 02:02:22 (permalink)

Not sure what it was....

Just something that happened to me in 1991 I would like your opinion.
 
I was hunting a great area with a lot of buck running around, lots of rubs and scrapes, tons of trails. I did a lot of scouting in the area and figured most would not take the time to go that far for a nice buck. First week of bow season I hiked it in from the old P.M. Moore off of Rt. 30 in Imperial about 1 mile north.(It is about 3 miles to the other side of the airport property at that time). How is that for spot burning. All was woods and seemed as if it was logged out many years ago. There was a pond that is now a park near the parking lot and has some tennis courts there just recently in the last few years.
 
Well, I took my treestand(Loggy Bayou climber) back in there to an area that was some kind of bedding area, an open canopy out of the low forest. Had been seeing a lot of deer there that year and was sure I would bag a good buck. Not sure what day it was but it was for sure the first week being the leaves were mostly on the trees, I had a strange occurance.
 
I must say I found multiple live thin(3-5" at the base) trees bent over and wedged into other bigger trees with limbs to make a sort of arch with a live tree. It was not from wind, no wind could do that, these trees were bent from the base and only reached a height of 8 feet but stretched over 20 feet to go under another larger tree limb. The second or third night I saw 3 bucks in a group at 20 yards, but it was too dark to shoot and I didn't want to wound one and track it forever.
 
It was 5 or 5:30 pm I think on a Thursday and I had only been in the stand(25 ft up) for 1 hour or more. I heard a woman scream as if she was being murdered about 300 yards away, then it went real quick to a howl. This happened in about 3 seconds. Scream to a howl. Only one time but it disturbed me. I was in a treestand and fully camoed, no one would even know I was there and there was no one in the parking lot that I had parked in. This may not be the big woods but I was absolutely alone, no question. I don't make a ruckus when I enter and actually stalk with a treestand on my back. Only my dad new I was there and he was at home 30 miles away and would never try to pull something like that one me and there is no way he could make that sound.
 
I was sure it was someone with a home nearby I couldn't see, but later after the incident I scouted with my buddies small gaming and realized there are no homes for another mile or so and this thing was within a couple hundred yards.
 
Whoever or whatever it was, it made the noise. It was no woodpecker or owl. I have heard them before, this was deep as if it had massive lungs. Then, after 10 minutes or so, whatever it was started pounding a baseball bat sounding object in a series of 3-4 hits every 2-4 minutes. What really bothered me was that I was a LONG way from my truck and somebody with ill intent I couldn't stop with just an arrow. The sound went from my NW and circled to my SW(downwind) over a period of 15 minutes at a distance of 200-300 yards or more. No way someone could have seen me at that distance. It beat a series of 3-4 whacks on trees every couple minutes, and NO WAY it was a woodpecker. I have heard owls and woodpeckers many times, this was not it. I figured it was someone who didn't want me there and that this was there hunting area they were protecting, but why the scare tactics. This was airport property before the hunting restrictions.
 
It bothered the heck out of me and I left before light ended(I normally left well after dark and used the flashlight). I have not returned to hunt there since. If someone was trying to scare me, it sure as heck worked. If I had a handgun, it would have been a different story I think.
 
There is a new 4 lane highway now cutting off the large parcel of land, not sure what the road is but it runs by the old Mazzaro dump.
 
Need your thoughts on this, I didn't see anything but sure was disturbed.
#1

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    S-10
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    RE: Not sure what it was.... 2008/10/15 05:24:58 (permalink)
    Don't know about the whacks or trees but have you ever heard a cat or bobcat howl at night during breeding season? It's a bit scary.
    #2
    BIGHEAD
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    RE: Not sure what it was.... 2008/10/15 06:01:37 (permalink)
    BIG FOOT
    #3
    eyesandgillz
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    RE: Not sure what it was.... 2008/10/15 08:25:09 (permalink)
    Chupacabra...made his way up from Mexico with the rest of the illegals! 
     
    Goby, actually, I have seen some pretty strange things when hunting the open ground around Pittsburgh when I was way back in (as far back in as you can get in those areas).  The "40 acres" area that we used to call it off of 837 had/has lots of woods and I used to hunt there after work.  Up on top pretty far back in there are some semi-clearings that had some weird stuff on the ground and hanging from the trees that made you think back to the Blair Witch project....  There were old dolls hanging from trees, places you could see fire pits with small animal bones in them, old dolls and stuff arranged in little settings along the ground.  Only thing I would guess is some numbnutted high school/college age kids trying to practice their satanism/paganism way back in there (you know, wearing all black, black make-up, never smile, piercings on every orifice) put that stuff there.  I am sure you have seen the type.  I never did see any one back there other than other hunters and people walking their dogs on some of the old trails.  Area was hunted pretty hard and parking was limited so I gave up on that spot several years ago.  Did see a couple wall hangers back there but never from the treestand, only while I was walking in or out. 
    #4
    McFishin
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    RE: Not sure what it was.... 2008/10/15 10:46:34 (permalink)
    the trees i would say is just someone walking through there was messing around..i did stuff like that all the time growing up..walk through the woods, tear crap up, throw stuff, ride trees over..just being a kid. as for the scream, a fully mature/grown bobcat will scare the hell out of you when they scream and it sounds just like a woman. i dont know how many people i've had to correct because they were getting ready to start calling people to ask if someone had been murdered/raped/beaten. as for the baseball bat sounds?..got me..i've never heard that sound. but it really is hard to say man. i understand your jitterness but there are a lot of things out there we'll never see, but, will never harm us. i was camping in the woods in the smokies a couple years ago and heard some animal that sounded like a kid playing a kazoo..talk about creepy. i would have ruled it a person but i came from mid-ways up in the trees about 50 yards off..beats me..oh well..
    #5
    wallyeye
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    RE: Not sure what it was.... 2008/10/15 10:59:04 (permalink)
    never had a inconter like that if that happend to me i would have never thaught about goin into the woods again!! i had something scary like that happen to me but not that bad. it was at the end of october close to halloween last year, that made it even worse.i had droped a friend of mine off at a stand of mine and my stand was probly 80yards from that. it was just getting to prime time and i had herd this kinda screaming howling sound off in the woods i thaught it was just coyotes making noise but it was kinda to deep of pitch for that, so i just kinda shrugged it off. about 20 min later i herd my friends crossbow go off and a little latter he comes threw the woods and said he shot a deer, then he asked me if i had herd the noise.. so we went back to the house got our lanterns and flashlights.we found blood come to find out he hit in the front shoulder couldnt find the deer anyhow.... we were walking and we herd something jump up and we thaught it was the deer and shortly after we herd that crazy a*% noise again it sent shivers down my spine it scared me bad. so we stoped and looked and it stoped than we herd it again and it went on for like a minute almost as long as like when a  deer snorts when it smells you. i dont know what it was but i have been to that spot dozens of times turkey and deer hunting after that and never herd it again. i had talked to a buddy and he said he has herd the same noise in the woods he says its a alarm call that deer make.. it sounded like some one sreaming.
    #6
    KISHWAA
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    RE: Not sure what it was.... 2008/10/15 11:10:27 (permalink)
    if you go back to that spot make sure you take a nice 40 cal handgun or a 357 would to nicely lol i mean a bow just isnt going to do nothing but **** it off lol
    #7
    rollcaster
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    RE: Not sure what it was.... 2008/10/15 11:51:18 (permalink)



    mountain lion got her


    #8
    thedrake
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    RE: Not sure what it was.... 2008/10/15 13:16:28 (permalink)
    Obviously it was a female warewolf. Duh
     
    All kidding aside, i've heard some pretty strange sounds in the woods.
     
    #9
    SilverKype
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    RE: Not sure what it was.... 2008/10/15 15:26:45 (permalink)
    A few years back, I was way up in the mountains in some nasty stuff, places where people just don't go.  Dad was about 200 yards away was a stillness night.  I heard this scream, it was the most horrific sound I've ever heard; coming from where dad was.  The sound stunned me, I instantly got on the walkie talkie speaking into it loudy, asking if he was okay and WTF was that.  It was an owl, in the branch above him.  He took a pic of it.  Never thought an owl could have made that sound, nor with the intensity it did.  Far worse than any coyote, cat, coon, bunny attack, or whatever...    If dad wouldn't have identified it, I woulda been out of there ... 
     
     
     
     

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    #10
    Stealth Archer
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    RE: Not sure what it was.... 2008/10/15 16:58:14 (permalink)
    I can't explain the screaming noise, but would assume a bobcat would do that. However, pheasants and grouse make some beating noises with their wings. I hear it all of the time in archery season. If they are close enough it can sound like someone smacking a bat on the ground. Yet still sound distant. I think it's part of their mating ritual. Not sure though.
    #11
    MuskyMastr
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    RE: Not sure what it was.... 2008/10/15 19:32:07 (permalink)
    Maybe it was a really hot forester takin a good one from her partner while they were on the clock?   I like to think positive.

    Better too far back, than too far forward.
    #12
    crazy4ice
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    RE: Not sure what it was.... 2008/10/15 20:44:22 (permalink)
    my guess would be porcupines have seen them crawl up small trees and bend them over to the ground
    once while wating for first light i heard 2 banshees chasing each other around it turned out to be 2 porcupines
    #13
    kevinupp
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    RE: Not sure what it was.... 2008/10/15 20:57:07 (permalink)
    The limbs bent over could've been some sort of crude foot snare type of thing set out by pot growers.
     
     
    The screams are probably what a lot above said. A bobcat getting a little rowdy.
     
     
    The first time I ever heard a bobcat scream was about 2a.m. on a moonless night while coon hunting along the Mon. I know momma wasn't happy with the present I left her in my shorts that night.

    More than a million trees a year die to print environmentalist publications.
    #14
    gobyking
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    RE: Not sure what it was.... 2008/10/15 21:35:03 (permalink)
    It could have been a bobcat since I've never heard one and only saw one once. I don't think it was an owl I have heard them before and they will scare the crap out of you when it is real quiet.
     
    The trees bent over were tall probably 20 ft or so and there were 5 that I saw but didn't pay attention to and just thought of them as strange. I did walk under one of them and kind of inspected it so if it was a snare of some kind it didn't work. Never saw a porcupine do that to a tree so I can't comment on it.
     
    The banging of the trees and circling of me at long distance I still don't get. It wasn't a grouse or pheasant flying off for sure. It might have been someone with a baseball bat since it was real solid. I might have come into a pot growers area and they were trying to scare me off but I didn't notice any plants anywhere in the dozen or more times I went back in there. 
     
    Chupacabra? No goats or illegals nearby.
     
    Werewolf,Bigfoot, mountain lion? Never saw one of any of them before and don't want to. No one said Dracula or Frankenstein yet.
     
    Hot forester?
    #15
    woodnickle
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    RE: Not sure what it was.... 2008/10/15 23:31:59 (permalink)
    Well everyone knows I believe in the big foot and from what you are stating it sounds like an encounter.
    The wife and dog both took off like a rocket when they heard a noise simular to what you state.
    Here is a foot print I took in late muzzle season on a logging road in the middle of nowhere.

     
     
     Was small but there are youths .

    #16
    gobyking
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    RE: Not sure what it was.... 2008/10/25 00:57:44 (permalink)
    I now believe it was a Bigfoot. Thanks Mikastorm for your words.
     
    I intend to go back to that area during gun season an will lEt EWe nO if I kill a bigfoot with my gun.
     
    I really had that experience there and was disturbed by it. So, if I don't kill a buck with my bow locally, I will post info from that area I mentioned.
     
    If anyone wants to entertain me with BS PM's, I will buy into it.
     
    #17
    woodnickle
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    RE: Not sure what it was.... 2008/10/25 10:39:39 (permalink)
    Take pixs Dave. Never know what you might see. As most here know I,m a beleiver in these things.
    There are a ton of fakes and foneys out there, but my hair went up the day I saw those prints in a hard shale road.

    #18
    Deadbolt401
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    RE: Not sure what it was.... 2008/10/25 14:11:48 (permalink)
     First off Musky, you have some serious issues lol.  I actually Laughed out loud when I read that.

    As for what it was, who knows?

    Could have been a bigfoot. Could have been pot farmers.

    My first night going into the woods this year was a bit scary. Walking in, I kicked up some deer by my stand, keep in mind this is my first year hunting. I have my red head lamp light on, and shined up. Reflected up and hit their eyes. I swear they looked like demons.


    Last week, I was in my climber and some coyotes called out howling. Sounded like 400 of em. Was the coolest chill I've ever gotten up my spine. I was already halfway up a tree, so I knew I was safe. Still pretty cool and gave me that little chill.

    Now, I've narrowed myself down. I'm the scariest thing in the woods. If I see a bigfoot, he's getting one in the chest.

    Trees being down could be kids. I know I did stupid crap like that all the time.


    #19
    jerminator7777
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    RE: Not sure what it was.... 2008/10/26 00:45:28 (permalink)
    A couple of years ago I heard noise almost similar to that. It was just getting light out and i just got up in the tree, when this thing about 150-200 yards away let out this howling screech. It was probably one of the most disturbing sounds I've ever heard. My brother and I are the only ones that have heard it and its been a while since we have. A possiblity we think could be that it was a turkey that cross-breeded with a peacock, since a farmer down the street has had them. But there was no knocking included with the noise. All I can say is it made me unbuckle my knife.
     
    Another odd case was a couple years ago when my dad was out scouting. He came up on a few mounds of pine cones, one that he says was close to 4 feet high and a couple feet around. I forget how many of them he saw but they were within a few yards of eachother. On top of that, there were no tracks around them except for deer and the ground was mud so any track would be distinct. I for one have not heard or seen anything like this before and wondered if anyone else has. Also we did get to get this on video tape but havent shown it to anyone from the PGC or DCNR yet although this is up Pymatuning and they are everywhere.
    #20
    jerminator7777
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    RE: Not sure what it was.... 2008/10/26 00:51:04 (permalink)
    ORIGINAL: eyesandgillz

    Chupacabra...made his way up from Mexico with the rest of the illegals! 

    Goby, actually, I have seen some pretty strange things when hunting the open ground around Pittsburgh when I was way back in (as far back in as you can get in those areas).  The "40 acres" area that we used to call it off of 837 had/has lots of woods and I used to hunt there after work.  Up on top pretty far back in there are some semi-clearings that had some weird stuff on the ground and hanging from the trees that made you think back to the Blair Witch project....  There were old dolls hanging from trees, places you could see fire pits with small animal bones in them, old dolls and stuff arranged in little settings along the ground.  Only thing I would guess is some numbnutted high school/college age kids trying to practice their satanism/paganism way back in there (you know, wearing all black, black make-up, never smile, piercings on every orifice) put that stuff there.  I am sure you have seen the type.  I never did see any one back there other than other hunters and people walking their dogs on some of the old trails.  Area was hunted pretty hard and parking was limited so I gave up on that spot several years ago.  Did see a couple wall hangers back there but never from the treestand, only while I was walking in or out. 

     
    Eyes, 40 acres is actually at the end of my street and I can also attest to some weird stuff back there! Same thing with the cemetary back in Arlington. It was always disturbing walking on the back side of the cemetary at night because thats where all of the old child graves got washed out.
    #21
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