BFRO #25703: Experienced hunter decribes a brief standoff at approx. 80 yards, in daylight, near Smithville

📍 Location

📝 Description

In November 1996 just a couple of days before thanksgiving my best friend and I were camping and deer hunting on Weyerhaeuser forestry land in SE Oklahoma the nearest town would be Smithville but even at that it would somewhere around 9 miles as the crow flies. (Land has since been sold to John Hancock Corp). This area is in the same general area as where my written report occurred.This area is used to grow soft pine trees for harvesting to grind into paper pulp. The total area is something around 800,000 acres. So you can imagine how big of an area this is. There are no homes or anyone living in this area at all, in fact you are not even allowed to build any permanent hunting cabins or such things.By this time of 1996 I had actually all but given up gun deer season, I was almost strictly a bow hunter. About 3 years before I was actually in a tree stand and had a bullet go over my head. Some idiot was out there somewhere (never seen him heard the shot but never seen the guy that pulled the trigger) anyway he was out there just taking pot shots. I had decided after that I would just stay with my bow hunting. However my buddy wanted me to go with him as he was alone, so I decided to go ahead and accompany him.The area that we camped in is an area that is very difficult to get to and rarely does anyone go into this area. You have to exit off a logging road and travel up this very steep clear cut that climbs up a small mountain. There is really not even a road as such that you have to travel along. At one time the loggers just took a dozer and cut a path the width of the dozer from the bottom of the mountain all the way up and then along the crest of the mountain. And this path is never maintained so it gets very rough and only a 4x4 can get through and even with that you have to drive at a speed little more than walking speed.This path travels about 3 miles and simply dead ends just at the start of the downward side of the mountain. Me and my buddy call it the dish. We call it that because you are traveling up this mountain in heavy forest make a curve then suddenly you are facing down and at the bottom is a area that very much resembles a satellite dish where it is void of trees and the concave shape of the ground gives the impression of a satellite dish. This clear area is about 30 feet or so in diameter.So anyway we make the journey up the mountain and take the treacherous path up to the dish. There we make our camp and it of course becomes our home away from home for the next few days. It was a bit odd this year because normally you see one or two hunting camps once you enter the area from the highway. But this time we seen not one camp or hunter. Now to take note the dish from the highway is 14 miles, now of course that is not straight line miles because you know how access and logging roads rarely run straight for any distance.On day 3 of our hunting trip we get up before daylight as usual and get ready to go out into nature and see if we find any deer. After all, that was why were there, even so I had seen nothing the previous two days but didn�t really care because as usual I very much was enjoying myself with the flora and fauna. I am also very interested in geology and there is much to see in that area. To imagine that area at one time was a shallow sea never ceases to amaze me. I wish when I took my first geology course in college I would have changed my major and pursued that field further.Oh sorry there got off track didn�t I.We decide which directions we were going and we plan for our rendezvous back at the dish for 12 noon. We walk together for about � mile camp and there we split up my buddy continues to the west along the top of the mountain and I head south down the side of the mountain.Being that it was not yet daylight and these woods are very thick and dangerous to walk in during the daylight hours due to the rough rocky terrain I was not about to do any walking until first light so after we split I only walked about 10 yards or so and sat down and waited for a few more minutes until sun up.At sun up I get up and start my hunt, I normally am not a stalker for a couple of reasons to be a successful stalker you must have coordination to walk and not make noise also you really need a lot of stamina. I possess neither of those traits. So I normally hunt from some type of stand.But I had sat for several hours the evening before and was ready to move, plus I wanted to do some exploring into a saddle I had never been into before so this day I decided to stalk.NOTE:I am using the term �saddle� here and will continue using that term; however it really is not a saddle as such.A saddle is the gap between where 2 mountains run close together. This area is on the same mountain but it has two ridges (or fingers extending out away from the mountain) making a gap and valley in between these two parallel fingers much like a saddle.Imagine if you will, make a fist with your left hand, then after you make a

🔍 Circumstances

No / that is why I never filed the report before plus never thought anyone would belive me and I have no physical evidence to prove any claim.

🌤️ Weather Conditions

early morn 9 to 10 am

ℹ️ Additional Details

early morn 9 to 10 am

🔗 Sources (1)

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