Ever run into bad guys while hunting?

I think I’ve told this story before but the ranch I use to work had a cartel plane crash on it. It was before my time there but the owner found it while out riding his horse. Two dead guys in it along with a few bales of weed.

I’ve caught a few people trying to come into my gate at deer camp a few times in the middle of the night.
 
I’ve tried to really think hard.. the only bad guys I’ve come across while hunting are the ones that say they own the public land that I’m standing on, start fishing just a stones-throw away from me on a big lake, or beat me to the un-named tree stand down the road… 😂 I’m glad I haven’t ran into any poachers, thieves or degenerates in the field. I pray I never turn up a dead body or find some AHole gutting my hard earned bull when I get one. Some of You guys, especially the older folks have seen stuff beyond my imagination in the rural areas around the country.. I hear these stories from my Foreman all the time, the oversees stories are crazy but the ones that stick with me are the ones here near home. Reminds me to say Thank You to all those that served this country…
 
Living on the border i have many stories,
5-10 times I have had 6-8 guys muling drugs with cartel guys carrying automatic weapons guarding the loads walk up to my deer blinds
lots of stolen trucks found , found a bunch of weed, cocain , meth , heroine , up by the windmills

i was working standing on my tailgate, and had a guy grab my legs and try dragging me off the truck ! I tried stabbing him in the face with my spyderco knife and missed, luckily my dog jumped out the window and attacked the guy, giving me a chance to grab a shotgun and hold him and 7 of his fellow illegal aliens till border patrol showed up. Their plan was to beat the crap out of me and steal the truck and be in San Antonio or Houston before I could walk the 14 miles to the house :(:(:(

in Marfa Texas we had two guys that wrestled a gun away from a sheriffs department officer and kill him , they wrecked his car behind the house, and about 100 cops surrounded the hill they were hiding on , the guys ran out of water and snuck to the house with a 5 gallon bucket , the maids husband heard the water running and saw the guy in a orange suit and grabbed a 30-30 and shot him in the butt , cops life flight him to El Paso, the second guy turned hisself in after running out of water , and now sitting on death row 👍👍👍
 
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I have been in law enforcement for 25 years. In that time I have learned that I am a shit magnet. I literally run into random crazy stuff all the time.

I stopped while hunting one time to pee and found a stashed meth lab. Required a full hazmat response. Ridding my quad I happened into a violent domestic fight in the woods that I had to take action. No back up but very physical. Required some creative problem solving.

However, the worse situation occurred while fishing at Strawberry Revisor in Utah. I was a deputy Sheriff in another county in Utah at that time. I watched a guy walking all around my SUV while I was in a float tube. Got to the side of the lake and returned to my car. The front passenger window had broken and the guy had gone through my glove box and center counsel. He had taken a fishing net. He actually never saw me approach. When he noticed me he ran for his car. My 6th sense told me it was going really bad and I actually drew down on him. I issued commands and he complied. Sheriff was called and I held him at gun point for over an hour. Turned out to be a multiple convicted felon in a stolen car and he was going for a loaded stolen SKS rifle. Admitted to deputy that he would have killed me if he had gotten to his rifle. He didn’t want to go back to jail. The funny part (working in LE you develop a dark sense of humor) once in cuffs, he kept saying “you owe me because I F@&king had you”. He said it so many times I finally asked him why he didn’t do anything if he had me. His response was classic and still makes me laugh. He said that every time he thought about going for his rifle my gun was pointed at his head. The deputy and I had a good laugh that His statement meant he never actually had me.

Another time I shot a 31 inch mule deer on the Pavant In Utah on a muzzleloader hunt. Three guys walked up to my deer and asked what I thought my chances of leaving with the deer were. I laughed and pull my pistol and badge then put them on the deer and said I though my chances were really good. I asked them what they thought there chances were to not get arrested if they didn’t leave right away. They turned around and immediately left.

There really are crazy people out in the woods. Be careful
 
SFC B said:
On the first night of my first field problem on active duty at Fort Lewis we are out in the training area and are tasked with setting up a perimeter. Me and a couple other guys were spreading concertina wire when hear someone yell "F&*K" at the top of his lungs. Turns out the guys was about to start digging his fighting position a nearly drove his shovel right into a dead tweeker. Noise and light discipline was suspended and we found what had been a meth lab about 10m away from him.....he took a bullet to the head. This was back before 9/11 and the training areas weren't really secured. WA already had a thriving meth problem and it became a regular thing. Not real comforting when none of us had anything to defend ourselves beyond our knives......
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As an MP shift sgt I had to deal with a similar situation behind Madigan Hospital back in the early 70s. Probably not far from your tweeker, a couple of hunters found an arm sticking out of the ground. No doubt a drug deal went bad. I remember almost coming to blows with one of the arrogant Ft Lewis highway cops who wanted to stomp on the crime scene just to do some gawking. The old boy from CID who showed up intervened and told that fathead donut pusher to beat it. Then turned to me and in a loud voice "Well done!"
 
There was a couple of years where the first week including the first two weekends of elk archery season was bull only then any elk the rest of the season. My friend Bill was hunting Roosevelts in heavy brush about a mile from the road on opening weekend. He got into a herd of about 20 elk and watched them for about a half hour before deciding there was no bull. He was about to leave when the herd spooked, and he heard someone yell "I got one" Sure enough he saw a big cow go down then four guys walk up to it. He ran to his truck, drove 15 miles to the nearest town and called the game officers. This was before cell phones. The cops were in the area, so they met Bill where he had been parked then he led them to the site. The four guys were still there discussing how to get the elk out since they didn't have packs. Bill and the cops hid in the brush and watched what they would do. They decided that since it would be too hard to get it back to the road and it wasn't legal anyway, that they would just leave it. The officers stepped out and informed them that if they left it, they would be charged with wasting the elk along with the charges of illegally killing the elk. They gave them a choice of quartering and carrying the quarters out by hand or get a second ticket. They chose to carry it out but by the time they got through the brush to the road they wished they had chosen the ticket.

So, it all worked out in the end except Bill didn't use the TIP line to call so he didn't get a reward.
 
S-3 Ranch said:
Living on the border i have many stories,
5-10 times I have had 6-8 guys muling drugs with cartel guys carrying automatic weapons guarding the loads walk up to my deer blinds
lots of stolen trucks found , found a bunch of weed, cocain , meth , heroine , up by the windmills

i was working standing on my tailgate, and had a guy grab my legs and try dragging me off the truck ! I tried stabbing him in the face with my spyderco knife and missed, luckily my dog jumped out the window and attacked the guy, giving me a chance to grab a shotgun and hold him and 7 of his fellow illegal aliens till border patrol showed up. Their plan was to beat the crap out of me and steal the truck and be in San Antonio or Houston before I could walk the 14 miles to the house :(:(:(

in Marfa Texas we had two guys that wrestled a gun away from a sheriffs department officer and kill him , they wrecked his car behind the house, and about 100 cops surrounded the hill they were hiding on , the guys ran out of water and snuck to the house with a 5 gallon bucket , the maids husband heard the water running and saw the guy in a orange suit and grabbed a 30-30 and shot him in the butt , cops life flight him to El Paso, the second guy turned hisself in after running out of water , and now sitting on death row 👍👍👍
Click to expand...
You win. Holy crap
 
utah400elk said:
I have been in law enforcement for 25 years. In that time I have learned that I am a shit magnet. I literally run into random crazy stuff all the time.

I stopped while hunting one time to pee and found a stashed meth lab. Required a full hazmat response. Ridding my quad I happened into a violent domestic fight in the woods that I had to take action. No back up but very physical. Required some creative problem solving.

However, the worse situation occurred while fishing at Strawberry Revisor in Utah. I was a deputy Sheriff in another county in Utah at that time. I watched a guy walking all around my SUV while I was in a float tube. Got to the side of the lake and returned to my car. The front passenger window had broken and the guy had gone through my glove box and center counsel. He had taken a fishing net. He actually never saw me approach. When he noticed me he ran for his car. My 6th sense told me it was going really bad and I actually drew down on him. I issued commands and he complied. Sheriff was called and I held him at gun point for over an hour. Turned out to be a multiple convicted felon in a stolen car and he was going for a loaded stolen SKS rifle. Admitted to deputy that he would have killed me if he had gotten to his rifle. He didn’t want to go back to jail. The funny part (working in LE you develop a dark sense of humor) once in cuffs, he kept saying “you owe me because I F@&king had you”. He said it so many times I finally asked him why he didn’t do anything if he had me. His response was classic and still makes me laugh. He said that every time he thought about going for his rifle my gun was pointed at his head. The deputy and I had a good laugh that His statement meant he never actually had me.

Another time I shot a 31 inch mule deer on the Pavant In Utah on a muzzleloader hunt. Three guys walked up to my deer and asked what I thought my chances of leaving with the deer were. I laughed and pull my pistol and badge then put them on the deer and said I though my chances were really good. I asked them what they thought there chances were to not get arrested if they didn’t leave right away. They turned around and immediately left.

There really are crazy people out in the woods. Be careful
Click to expand...
Oh the times I've had.
Somehow I was the only ranger to walk into grows in the park, fugitive murderers in closed campgrounds...then another one the next week on my hunt,off the clock an hour into the wilderness. I filled the tag, and the sheriff said he heard I was a shit magnet...
 
utah400elk said:
I have been in law enforcement for 25 years. In that time I have learned that I am a shit magnet. I literally run into random crazy stuff all the time.

I stopped while hunting one time to pee and found a stashed meth lab. Required a full hazmat response. Ridding my quad I happened into a violent domestic fight in the woods that I had to take action. No back up but very physical. Required some creative problem solving.

However, the worse situation occurred while fishing at Strawberry Revisor in Utah. I was a deputy Sheriff in another county in Utah at that time. I watched a guy walking all around my SUV while I was in a float tube. Got to the side of the lake and returned to my car. The front passenger window had broken and the guy had gone through my glove box and center counsel. He had taken a fishing net. He actually never saw me approach. When he noticed me he ran for his car. My 6th sense told me it was going really bad and I actually drew down on him. I issued commands and he complied. Sheriff was called and I held him at gun point for over an hour. Turned out to be a multiple convicted felon in a stolen car and he was going for a loaded stolen SKS rifle. Admitted to deputy that he would have killed me if he had gotten to his rifle. He didn’t want to go back to jail. The funny part (working in LE you develop a dark sense of humor) once in cuffs, he kept saying “you owe me because I F@&king had you”. He said it so many times I finally asked him why he didn’t do anything if he had me. His response was classic and still makes me laugh. He said that every time he thought about going for his rifle my gun was pointed at his head. The deputy and I had a good laugh that His statement meant he never actually had me.

Another time I shot a 31 inch mule deer on the Pavant In Utah on a muzzleloader hunt. Three guys walked up to my deer and asked what I thought my chances of leaving with the deer were. I laughed and pull my pistol and badge then put them on the deer and said I though my chances were really good. I asked them what they thought there chances were to not get arrested if they didn’t leave right away. They turned around and immediately left.

There really are crazy people out in the woods. Be careful
Click to expand...
Any tips/suggestions on staying safe?
 
Wow never gave this much thought guess I should carry at all times esp in archery season and alone
 
mxracer317 said:
Any tips/suggestions on staying safe?
Click to expand...
Yes, if you see me in the woods run! In all seriousness, It is always good to keep your eyes open and be observant of your surroundings.

For me, a simple vehicle burglary was almost a deadly encounter. I have done extensive undercover work and have learned that your reality does not matter. The other persons reality is what dictates your encounter. Doing under cover work, it does not matter that it was a simple low dollar drug deal and that there was a group of armed SRT/SWAT members in the room next door that were ready to visit harm on the suspect/suspects if he/they got a little frogy. What mattered and determined the outcome was what the suspect perceived. If he/they get they could get away with a robbery/shooting then I was trouble. In undercover situations I would always play games with the crooks. I would have two or three friends show up with me, change the location, or change the dynamic. There are a lot of principles for potential violent encounters but first and foremost is to take the lead and make the other person try and react to you. The 21 foot knife rule (Tuller rule) is based on action vs reaction.

In the woods, if I get a weird 6th sense type feeling, I always start my conversation with” have you seen my hunting buddy”. Keep moving around. It does not have to be crazy but it can can mess up the persons plan if you are not stationary. Keep changing the dynamic in wired encounters and it can buy you more time.
 
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My hunting camp is 4 hours from the our house, the wife and I left out late and I had our 5th wheel at the time already set up in front of the cabin because it was nicer than either of the cabins. The road our cabin is on is only about 6 miles long and there are only about 3 full time residents on the road. We pull up around midnight and there is a truck blocking our locked gate. I grab my pistol from the center console and tell my wife to write down the plate number. I pull up on their ass and they turn on their lights and take off. I take off and stay right on their bumper, if they would have hit their brakes I would’ve probably rear ended them; this all probably looked like a scene from the dukes or hazard. While all this is going on my wife is screaming at to slow down and that we are going to get shot. At the end of the road they kept going and I did a u turn and went back to camp opened everything thing up and looked for signs of a break in or any other nefarious activities but couldn’t find anything. I have no clue what they were up to.
 
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