Proximity!

Not clear on why this was illegal.
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Water is a pretty valuable item in the Arizona desert. Animals need to get water, and can die if they can't.

Therefore, it's illegal to camp within 1/4 mile of a water hole in Arizona. You can hunt it, or use it, but you can't legally camp on it. Had they been hunting the water hole, it'd be good and fine, but I'm pretty sure the smoke, noise, and disturbance of their camp pretty much ran any bears out of that little canyon.

I thought that was called "Hunting"?
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I don't generally hunt from camp. How's that work out for ya?

Daryl
 
Saves getting out of your sleeping bag

Just listen for any noise, unzip & poke your rifle out the flap of the tent (make sure the entrance is facing towards said waterhole) and shoot whatever is there :D unless its the ranger :eek:

Then, go back to sleep.... works really well :D

Seriously, sorry, missread/understood you meant as in pitching your tent at a waterhole..... yea, thats a bit suss..... If not illegal, it is a bit stoopid :confused:

Ok, I'll shut up now :o:D
 
Daryl,

Thanks for the info. Learn something new everyday. I can see how camping near the water would be an all-around bad thing.
 
Just listen for any noise, unzip & poke your rifle out the flap of the tent (make sure the entrance is facing towards said waterhole) and shoot whatever is there unless its the ranger
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I took my wife up into northern Arizona about a month after we got married. I'd drawn a buck antelope tag, so we went together.

The first evening, I called a BIG bull elk almost into camp. He was getting pretty ticked, and was tearing up a tree about 50 yards from camp when she gave me "the look", and whispered "an order" to me to stop calling.

I just wanted to show her an elk, but I guess she'd seen enough. At that, we saw a bunch of them over the next few days. We slept good at night, listening to several bulls bugling at each other out in the meadows.

We'll probably make a trip up there about the end of next Sept; tags or no tags. It's a good place to be at that time of year, no doubt.

:)

Daryl
 
Last year on opening day for whitetail a good sized doe walked right up to my blind. She was close when I saw her, closer by the time I got my muzzleloader out the window. I shoulder the gun, and slowly start to stand up as the deer gets even closer (my blind is basically a shed ten feet off the ground on a small hill mind you). I am about to take a shot when all of a sudden THUNK! My head hits the ceiling, startles me, deer looks, gun fires, bullet makes a crater in front of deer, and deer gets out of dodge while I reload and mutter obscenities to myself because I left my shotgun at home.:mad:
I used my Mossberg for the rest of the season after that nonsense.
 
I was cammoed up and sitting on a log when a chipmunk walked across both of my thighs. It stopped about 2 feet on the other side of me, sniffed the air and then went back across me again and departed the way it came.

I was stalking up a deer trail and I heard noise behind me. A doe came up the trail and stepped around me to go by. She was about 20 inches from me and wasn't alarmed.

I stalked up behind a swimming king salmon in a river and caught him with my hands. A real bear to hold on to when not worn out from fight.

I had a doe and fawn stop on a trail about 3 feet in front of me. I was squatting low and they stopped and starred at me for about 30 seconds before snorting and running away.

I stalked to within 10 feet of a doe in a thicket in the middle of a thunderstorm. A tornado spun by within a half mile. Neither one of us was too worried about the other at the time. We stood and watched each other for about a minute. Neither of us was too keen about the storm.

I've stuck deer with arrows from 10 feet in a natural ground blind.
 
I was with my brothers.. I was young... Must have been 1974 or so, that would make me 10 and them 15 and 16. We were crossing a tree line in Western Oregon. One of my brothers put his hand up and we all stopped. Looking through the brush there was a black bear no more than 50 feet away digging for grubs.

Flash forward to 1981.. Western Oregon. I'm working on a ranch on Deer Island in the Columbia River. I'm building fences and gates. While I'm prepping barbwire for a new gate a 4 point buck meanders over and walks between me and the other end of the gate opening. I'm talking 15 feet. I kept working and he never did spook. Around the same time I shot a coyote that did the same thing.

Flash forward to 2005... Wyoming... Yellowstone. The wife has to go to the bathroom. I stop at the facilities in my Ranger and let her out. me and the youngest boy get out to stretch. We walk to the north maybe 20 yards just talking and enjoying the sun. Suddenly I realize we're maybe 60 feet from a Buffalo that's laying under a big pine. I had the camera and somewhere i've got a picture of my boys face as he realizes whats up. Eyes as big as grapefruits!

We stayed in a cabin near West Yellowstone on that trip. A griz got into the campground one night... We could hear him. The wife wanted me to open the drapes and take a peek. I declined. The next morning the neighbors tackle box was found in pieces and they were ticketed for leaving it out. All the eggs were gone. There was a dumpster lid that was peeled back (it had been locked shut with chains) like a sardine can. The following night the host patrolled all night on an ATV.
 
I was out doing wildlife photography one time and it was just one of those "zen" mornings where I felt in tune with everything. I sat down at the base of a tree with my camera in my lap and just relaxed to "see what I could see".

After a while (I have no idea how long) I heard a "whuff" and felt something tug at my jacket. Turned my head just a fraction to see a deer STANDING on the edge of my coat as it browsed grass. I stayed frozen for a while as it wandered away from me but the instant I tried to bring my camera up it bolted.

I've also had a bird or two land on me before and one other time actually hunting I was braced up against a tree and a squirrel ran down the tree and out onto my gun barrel and sat there like it was a branch.

I also used to love sneaking up on Beavers as a kid. I could usually get within 8ft or so before they'd notice, slap the tail in the water, and vanish. :D
 
Oh yeah . . .

From Rmocarsky, OP:

I forget to mention that at one point as the two doe were about 6 ft. away, a dog barked way off in the distance, behind me where about 200 yards was a paved road and then across that another several hundred acre farm. I guess the dog was from that farm, anyway it was really far away and behind me.

Both does' heads came full up, ears on super alert and they stared towards the direction of the bark . . . peering RIGHT THROUGH ME!!!!! 6 Ft.!!

God, I was pumped!

BTW: Had on Predator Fall Grey camo.

Can that be considered an endorsement?

HaHa.

Seriously though, everything was right, camo, wind and stillness.

Rmocarsky
 
I tripped over a crocodile near Cooktown in Queensland once

Does that count? I was lucky it was just at sun up, a cold morning so it couldn't move fast yet :eek: But I sure did :D

I couldnt even shoot it, coz when I tripped over it I stuck the barrel fo my rifle about 6" into the sandy mud. I stopped at a little creek and washed the barrel and cleared it out, checked it was clear, fired a shot to be sure it worked, then went back to shoot it :D But it was gone :eek::barf:

Bugga
 
I've had chickadees hop onto my boots, and a red tailed hawk brush its wing feathers on the bark of the tree next to my ear.

I've had deer under my stand, and a black duck walk through grass towards me.

I've had geese swim right up to our boat, and chipmunks sniff the muzzle of my rifle.

God Bless Hunting!
 
I took a deer at well under 10 yards with a .410 as a kid. It just stood there as I spoke to it. "You ain't too bright are ya..." I opened the action and took out the #6 shot I had chambered and said "If you stand there long enuff for me to chamber a slug, I am gonna be forced to kill ya'..." It still stood there and I put the bead on it's forehead and dropped the hammer.
My dad was thankful for the meat but he wore my butt out for taking the legal risk of killin' a summer deer. My only defense was I was forced to remove the stupid deer from the gene pool. I ain't kidding... it stood statue still for a full minute and it wasn't a 3D target!
Brent
 
I ain't kidding... it stood statue still for a full minute
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I've seen a bunch of deer do just that and it never ceases to be funny. They just look at you like they know you're there, but don't know exactly what you are. I love it when squirrels do that and start cussing at you. :D
 
HD, I bet the squirrel........

was cussin' out of the other side of its head (literally) after the armed human takes aim, says "blow it out yer RRR's,:cool::D and fires :eek:
 
The under tree thing remined me of a 4 point buck I took in GA; it was rubbing against the trunk of the tree I was in. My toes were about 4 feet above its back. I chose to wait for it to move away a bit before shooting it. I was afraid it would hear me position for the shot, that and I didn't want to shoot my toes off.

The more time you spend in the field, the more of these memorable experiences you'll accumulate.

I stalked up on a family of stone monkeys in the Philippines once. I got about 20 feet away and then .... they saw me and the chase began. I've never sprinted so far in my life. They chased me for about 1/4 mile. They are called stone monkeys for a reason; they throw stones and are very good at it. Serpentine, serpentine.....
 
See, I thought we were only talking about proximity to the animal we were actually hunting.

If it's ANY animal, well, I've had many birds perched on my hat and bow/arrow, I've had a red-tail hawk on a tree branch maybe 4 or 5 feet from me. I've had a couple raccoons on the tree directly above my head. I've had squirrels and chipmunks climb my legs.

I also had a hawk that was pretty peeved at me for being in his tree. He would sit maybe 30 yards or so away and scream at me and then fly right at me, turning at the last second (within 5 feet or so). SERIOUSLY freaked me out the first time. The next 4 or 5 times were just fun to watch, got a little annoying by the 8th time or so. He finally went away.
 
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