Predator encounters while hunting?

[jstone]

Probably happens more and more every year. Imagine all of the hikers who don’t carry.

[jstone]

Watch lots of people in the mountains not ready for the weather much less a predator issue

[kodiak06]

When people see cougar tracks following their tracks, they're not always stalking the individual. At times they just follow out of curiosity. We've had a mom and 2 kits around since last February. The 'lil ones are actually almost as big as her and I would think getting kicked off the tit soon. This past elk season I know of two times they simply leisurely followed behind bow hunters at a distance of 70-100yds in an open field. Had they not seen them but for example found tracks in the snow, they'd have thought thy were being hunted.

[builtfordtough]

My buddy shot a big buck years ago and somehow I drew the short stick.  He built a fire while I hoofed it back down the logging road 2.5 miles to my truck. Opted not to take my rifle back up in the dark and just grabbed my buck knife. Holding it tight to the game cart I trudged on. Think I was 16 at the time.  Cougar screamed at me maybe 15 yards away.  I ran faster.   Came back up to the kill site and my buddy was like why do you look so white?  As he sits next to a cozy fire.  *censored*! 

[boneaddict]

When people see cougar tracks following their tracks, they're not always stalking the individual. At times they just follow out of curiosity. We've had a mom and 2 kits around since last February. The 'lil ones are actually almost as big as her and I would think getting kicked off the tit soon. This past elk season I know of two times they simply leisurely followed behind bow hunters at a distance of 70-100yds in an open field. Had they not seen them but for example found tracks in the snow, they'd have thought thy were being hunted.

Wolves do the same thing.   Have been  followed , stalked and hunted by them.   I chalk it up to some of its curious and some of it is legit hunting behavior.

[pianoman9701]

I've surprised a few bears (they surprised me, too). One was literally eating berries from the other side of the same huck bush as I. I've never knowingly been stalked by a cougar. I'm sure I have been and have seen plenty of tracks where I've been.

[chukardogs]

My father and I were hunting Basalt Peak, circa 1972 in 4 to 6 inches of snow. We were taking the trail up to the peak. About a half mile before the crest, we veered off to check out a big slide we'd seen deer around. The slide was maybe a couple hundred yards off the trail on the downhill side. After watching the slide for a few, we hiked back to the trail and continued our way to the top. We then dropped off the ridge and met the main trail about half way between the truck and the top. We found a set of cougar tracks in our boot tracks and wanting to see how far it had stayed on our tracks, we followed the trail back up the hill to within 20 yards of where we left the trail to check out the slide. The last set of cougar tracks were in the center of trail and it looked as though he sprang about 5 to 10 yards into a clump of brush just below the trail, knocking all the snow off of the brush as he went. We figured the cougar was in the trail as we came back from the slide and it had ducked into the brush just before we got back to the trail, meaning he was probably within 20 yards of us without our knowledge. His tracks dropped off the hill going into fairly steep country and it was late so we left and headed for the truck.
 I was about 10 when that happened. I'm 62 now and I don't walk twenty yards in the hills without looking behind me. If I sit on the downhill side of a tree, it's never wider than my shoulders so I can lean over and look up hill. I actually prefer to sit with an undercut rock face to my back. I've had coyotes, wolves and cats follow me in the hills over the last 40 years. Some I've seen, some I found the tracks after the fact and one, a very large wolf, I came face to face with.
 It seems as though they, (predators as a collective) are out there in greater numbers than at anytime in my life.
 Be vigilant, safe and hang your meat high!

[Skyvalhunter]

That was the good old days when Basalt peak had deer. Was up there last fall and saw 2 sets of cougar tracks, 1 more than I saw deer tracks.

[ShedHead20]

2012 - Blue Mountains
Was shed hunting in a heavily timbered, smaller canyon that always held bulls in early march. I had been slowly entering the canyon from the top for maybe 10 minutes or so trying not to blow out any bulls that were still packing. I stepped out in a small opening in the timber maybe 40 yards wide by 100 yards long. Had this weird feeling to look up above me on the hill. Not a hair standing up moment or a fearful moment, it was almost like I picked up some movement subconsciously. I stop and look and at about 30 yards there is a small bushy grand fir and within seconds a black lone wolf steps out from behind the tree starting right at me. I immediately pull the pistol and all within a couples of seconds my mind went from seeing no collar and wanting to dump him to deciding not to due the possibility of getting in trouble. Wolves were somewhat new on the scene there at that time and was afraid of getting in trouble. I strangely enough didn’t feel threatened. So I waved my arms and yelled “get out of here!”. The wolf did not run but slowly walked off and gave me a couple looks over his shoulder as he left. I think he was more curious than anything but sure freaked me out. Didn’t really feel “nervous” until I hiked out was on the road maybe 45 minutes later after it kinda set in. Went up to where is was standing and backtracked him for a little ways and he had be paralleling me for about 100 yards. Found one side of a 360in. clean six that day not far from where I saw the dog and picked up the other side the next weekend.

[Sitka_Blacktail]

Living in Kodiak, and Cordova Alaska, I've had quite a few run ins with brown bears, including a couple with no weapons handy.  While they all get your hackles up while you figure out how the situation is going to go, the only one that really spooked me and made me sweat was on a late November deer hunt on Afognak Island back in the 1980s.  Some friends and I had camped for a week long hunt on the east side of Izhuit Bay. After 3 days, I had filled 4 of my 5 tags, so I wanted to try to fill the last tag with my bow.  The 4th morning we awoke to a foot of fresh snow. There was a long ridge, a half mile long, near our camp and we made plans that I would go up on the ridge where it connected to the mountains and my two friends were going to walk out to where the tip of the ridge ended in the bay. Then they would hunt up the ridge towards me and hopefully push something my way.  I started up the ridge still hunting and watching for fresh deer tracks.  About half way up the ridge, I saw tracks that I first thought were from my friends and was wondering how they got ahead of me and why they changed their plans?  When I got closer I discovered it was a set of fairly good sized bear tracks. This gave me pause, but I didn't want to ruin our plans so I continued up the ridge.  The bear's tracks were headed out the ridge to where my friends were heading. I got to the top and sat down in a spot where I had a good view of a nice canyon and  a side ridge and waited. After a half hour or so I saw a doe wander up the side ridge and then bed down about 100 yards from me.  After another half hour it got up and wandered away from me.  By this time I was getting pretty cold from sitting so long in the snow, so I decided to do some still hunting to get my blood going and warm up. I made a big loop on the top of the ridge, probably a 1/3 of a mile or so. and as I was getting back to where I had climbed the ridge I saw tracks coming up the ridge from where my buddies were supposed to have come. But once again I realized it was bear tracks.  When he hit my tracks from earlier, he started following them.  It had been a while since I started my loop, so I wasn't sure how old the tracks were so I followed his tracks to where I had sat earlier.  His track went right over my tracks and the spot I had been sitting.  Now I was trying to puzzle out what he was up to.  Had he run into my buddies and been spooked up the ridge and coincidentally run into my tracks and followed them on his way up the mountain?  Or was he just wandering around looking for something to eat, like a gut pile? And why was he following my tracks?  I thought about turning back and heading down to camp but if he had followed me on my loop, I may be walking right into him. So after some thought, I decided I would continue following him and see if he went on up the mountain in which case I'd head to camp.  But much to my dismay, he stayed on my tracks for the whole loop. When I got back to where I'd climbed the ridge, his tracks followed mine around the loop again.  I was completely spooked once I realized he followed me around the loop the second time. I had no idea how far he was behind me, but it couldn't have been far. I turned and followed my track back to camp and I will admit I ran as fast as I dared. I took a couple tumbles in the snow too. When I got down to salt water I saw more tracks and a drag trail with blood in it. My buddies had got a deer.  When I got to camp they told me they hadn't got far when they shot the deer and so they headed back with it.  I told them about the bear and it turned out they hadn't seen it's tracks and had no idea it was in the area.  And that was the end of bow hunting for me that trip.

[chukardogs]

 Some days I hate the fact that my father's ashes are spread on the west slope right below the top because since 1989, I haven't been able to force myself to go back and hunt with the masses. I need to put my points toward that quality tag and hope for snow to drive the deer off Garland, Rampart or Fifth of July mountain.
 I spread his ashes in July 2004 and was surprised to see an actual Forest Service trailhead sign there. That was it for me. I took the bird dogs up after grouse once mid-week, September 2010 or so and got lucky to not run in to any hikers (or grouse). That was the last time I've been to the peak. I guess I should go again before getting up there is beyond my capabilities.

[chukardogs]

One year while on my week+ deer hunting sabbatical, I walked into a small sapling littered opening on a big timbered hillside about 2 hundred yards from my camp. There was maybe fifteen minutes of daylight left on what had been a long day of putting too many miles on the legs. I had stopped at the water hole and had a few gallons of water in bags along with my hunting pack on my back and was just kinda staggering along on my way to the camp for the night. When I entered the opening with my head down, I just had this sense, as my head came up, there was movement in the lower limbs all around me. I stopped, looked around and the limbs all stopped moving and being tired, I lust kept on keepin on. The next day on the way back to camp, a couple hundred yards on the other side of camp, I came across a dead cougar cub that had died of exposure to the elements, I assume. 

[dmoua]

Years ago my old man had a cougar stalking him while mule deer hunting. He kept on seeing a yellow flash everytime he would turn around to check his six while still hunting a game trail. Someone was looking out for him that day. He ended up shooting the cat at point blank.

[RileyH]

Had cats follow me plenty of times, and ran into bears in the dark a handful of times, never ran into wolves though I've cut track plenty.

The most baffling "predator" encounter I've had was pre-dawn hiking into one of the lakes in Manastash during archery elk, and a guy in running shorts/shoes and a puffy jacket with a pistol came hauling ass down the trail, no light, no pack, no water, no nothing besides his clothes and a pistol in hand, finger on the trigger. Dude looked like he had just killed someone, didn't say a word, I stepped off trail and he just kept going, never looked back. Seen a lot of weird sh*t in Manastash now that I think about it...

[Boss .300 winmag]

Woke a bear up sleeping next to a creek his only way out was over me, luckily he treed up and I shot him. 🤣