strangest animal you've seen free range?

so what is it?

She was 5' 2", blonde, elusive, and so strange I still haven't figured her out


Interesting topic. Hope they post pictures

Seen a midget hunting from a treestand with a bow once.

Crap my hunting fields must be boring as i've seen nothing more strange than a squirrel. Now if I'm allowed to use my imagination and put dead things together - I could create a turducken though! Earl

Saw a stud of a Waterbuck near Doss, just across the barb wire fence from where I was WT hunting. Still not sure where he escaped from.

Saw Waterbuck and Scimitar while hunting on the King (LF). They must have come across from the Yturria.

Growing up in Hays Co, I once saw a pair of very large antelope in the quarry off of 1626. Still not sure what they were.

Finally, hunting down in Rock Springs I had a stag roaring nearby. Never could get him to come in.

makes me think of my old friend who was a lil guy. He was an avid hunter and his girl friend had the smart idea of buying him some snake boots. Told me he had to cut them shorter so they wont hit his junk lol.

Saw this bad boy in Tanzania about 45 yards from my tent one morning. Does he count?

one evening while doing some work on a ranch in leaky, saw a herd of 5 elk, 2 bulls and 3 cows run across the hwy in front of my truck.

some hunter got lucky that year

I watched a blue indigo slowly kill and eat a 3 foot rattle snake 10 yards from my blind. It only took the blue indigo about 10 minutes to kill and eat the entire snake. then he just crawled of and into a wood pile about 60 yards away. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen while hunting. If I had had a camera I know national geographic would have paid for this video.

saw a White as in snow white Coyote while deer hunting in Ga

That's funny you mentioned that. Several weeks ago I was watching some guys from Colorado that were varmit hunting in Georgia or Alabama I can't remember but one of the guys shot at and missed a beautiful solid black coyote. I'd love to have one of those in my trophy room. Later Baker

Was walking to the blind one afternoon and noticed a huge turkey track. It was massive. Then I saw the "turkey" which was actually an Emu. It never saw me and I couldn't get a shot off either. Nobody believed me til papaw saw it a week later. I was 14 at the time. And then saw a mountain lion several years later driving to work, not 2 miles from Kirby lake south of Abilene.

I know my dad has seen a Mexican crossing the border.

That had to be one short ata bow!!!!!

No I think it was a kids pink colored bow with a 12" draw length

I have seen lots of differents species of exotics free range including Emu walking along right beside the highway. I have also seen a dead porcupine on Hwy 624 about 20 miles east of Cotulla in La Salle County. I have seen white color phase Road Runners in Atascosa and La Salle counties along with blonde color phase raccoons in Colorado County. Seen white color phase but not albino whitetails also on free range ranches. Seen some birds on ranches that I have only seen that one time and did not know what species they were.

Saw a Rhea outside of Del Rio

Seen a black buck feeding in a wheat field while deer huntin. May not seem weird to most but I was in fisher county, not sure where the nearest high fence is now this was 10 years ago before there were any near there I believe. Had to go to the house and dig thru national geographics and encyclopedia's , no computer in the house I grew up in, to find out what it was. Seen a tom turkey 3 years ago that was nearly solid white, in full strut for the ladies. I thought he was farm raised til I spoke to the land owner, who said he was wild and had been there a while, and if I killed it that would be the last time I hunted his place.

Does a rattlesnake in a igloo cooler count? Or is that considered high fence?

It was RED!!!! And for the record, it is a full 13" And if you are going to tell the story, get it right...might have looked like a tree, but it was only a ficus

I don't know about Fisher Co. ten years ago, but now atleast west of Rotan we are covered in random exotics.

We had two solid white turkeys that stayed on our place for three years and ran with a group of other regular turkey. Took a bit to figure what was coming through the woods the first time I saw them.

Sitting in my tree stand on my property years ago. Saw a girl running on my place, went right under my stand and stop. She dropped her pants and started to pee. I was shocked and could not say a word! Hunted that tree stand many more times and never saw her again lol...

its not every day kind of strange but it definitely was for where our ranch is in schulenburg. was out planting sunflowers for dove season and while i was on the tractor i saw a large doe walking down one of the roads, and it had spots. that doe ended up being an axis doe. probably got away from a HF place but i had always dreamed about being in a bow stand and having an exotic walk under me. seeing that doe definitely got my hopes up

Had a pecok walk right infront of my bowstand one time....i was sitting there thinking what it would be like to pose with my bow and have his fan spread out like a turkey haha

its been several years ago but I had one of those green peace type guys walk out where I was hunting spouting that bunny huger crap through a bull horn, I let him walk but a buddy of mine that was hunting about 700 yards past me killed his bullhorn when he set it down to get a drink. LOL that old boy was trying to set a land speed record on foot when he passed by the second time.

Lmao Eastrexp that was awesome.

Came across a gator on the rio grande.
Half albino deer that is still on the high fence ranch in junction I outfit for
And the best a group of 3 illegals being chased down by a pair of ostriches. Priceless!!!!

These three were just passing through.

This one was under the feeder with a couple of young 10 pointers one evening:



Landowner had no clue where he came from.

CALLED IN A BLACK-FOOTED FERRET WHILE HUNTING PREDATORS LAST MONTH IN COMANCHE.

Should have whacked one of those buffalo for the freezer!!

My boy and I were turkey hunting during the youth season and had a box turtle walk directly under the feeder.

Saw a peacock with a flock of turkeys.

I have seen an emu while driving in the middle of the pasture. Got a feed sack out and rattled it and here he came. I have also seen a piebald whitetail doe that looked out of place.

Ok I'm sure some people are going to raise hell about this but it's the honest to God truth. About 10 years ago my Dad, Mom, Brother, and myself were hunting a ranch in southern Callahan County. The ranch is off 283 and the Pecan Bayou runs through the middle of it. We finished our evening hunt and loaded up in the truck to head out. We got to the crossfence and I got out to open the gate. When I got back in the truck to drive through we all couldn't believe what was in the road. A black cat (panther/mountain lion) crossed the road about 15 feet infront of the truck and disappeared in the brush on the other side of the road. Called the game warden and met him at the ranch the next day. Said lots of reports of dead livestock in the area and had documented several tracks. Don't guess anyone ever got him. We never saw it again. Sure made you nervous walking in the dark out there.

sorry had too lol

caught an emu... reached down grabbed one of it's feet, returned it ta the owner..

I knew the ol black panther would turn up on this thread!!!! Now all we need is a chupa, and a warefeets.

My great uncle at our place in Taylor county has sworn he has seen a black panther 3 times out there. I just simply call . We had a guy hunting a few years ago that swore he saw a monkey going through cedars

Annndddd were off!

I knew you couch nazi's would raise hell about this. It's funny has quickly people call bs on something just because they have never seen it themselves. Why would my mom and dad, my brother, and myself make up a story like that. Theres no money to be made by telling our story. This is not like some stories where we saw something in the brush 200yrds away at night. It was 20feet infront of thr truck in the road uninstructed. That's exactly why you don't hear much about them bc people try to tell there story and morons bad mouth them as being crazy.
I honestly could care less what you idiots think I just thought I would share my cool story since it fits the theme of the post. My family and I know what we saw. We're honest people who don't make up stories for fame. People said the samething about Blackbears in Texas at one time.

If you did some research rather than shooting the story down you would find that at one time Jaguars were documented in Texas and its widely accepted that Texas was part of thier original habitat. Not just Jaguars but the dreaded black Jaguar that just cant exist becuase my tiny brain cant comprehend that concept. It's possible they still exist here just in very small numbers. Also, Someone could have dumped a pet at one time in the area. Lots of idiots have big cats as pets for some reason. Give a guy the benefit of the doubt rather than laughing and writin him off as crazy or a liar.

If there is are "black jaguars" in Texas, how come no one has picture proof. Almost everyone has a camera phone, there are thousands of game cams in the field. You would think there would at least be a picture.

Monkeys and the rainbow people while hunting in the Ocala National Forest. I was out running my hog dog and came across a whole tree full of spider monkeys. They were making a bunch of noise. Whish I had a gun cause I would have killed at least one. Apparently they filmed the tarzan movies there and they just let the monkeys go afterwards. Well 50 years later the monkeys are still there! I talked to a ranger and he said they also have several troops of baboons wild in the forest. Never saw them and I'm glad I didn't.

Now the Rainbow people are a bunch of nomadic hippies that go around setting up camp in the forest. It was like running into a bunch of dead heads living in the woods. If you think regular hippies smell bad, be glad you haven't come across this commune of stink lovers! They were plain nasty.

You did not see me hunting and you can't prove it.... Quit talking to Roy..

Don't know wish I had an answer. I would say that there are fewer and fewer each year or maybe an illegal pet thst was released or escaped and the more people that move in the country the more they trend to thicker Uninhabited areas. We hunted that place hard for 10+ years and that was the first and last time we ever saw it. We were all trying to get a shot at it rather than take a picture. Do some looking online about jaguars in Arizona recently. Pretty cool stuff. Just like there are deer on your place you may never see or see one time and never again. They are wild animals who have survived for a reason.

i did see a rhea jump up from behind a feeder at our lease in east texas.

for the guy who saw the cat, google jagarundi.

that is probably what it was

I used to bow hunt whitetails on a farm in southern Illinois. There was a fair number of albino deer in the area. Because the Illini (sp?) indians considered them sacred animals, it is illegal to kill an albino in Illinois.
Well one evening I hunted an area that I had not been in before. After about an hour on the stand I looked to my left and froze for a moment because my brain could not comprehend what my eyes were seeing. There was a 150+ 10 point ALBINO deer tearing up a cedar tree.
He sure stood out next to that cedar on the edge of a clover field.

I saw free ranging Oryx while doing training in White Sands Missle Range in New Mexico

saw a trophy class axis buck when I was about 15 driving around on the back 20 of our place. for where we hunt that is rare for one to get that big. Also was in the stand with my dad about a year later and saw a mnt lion that he decided we were going to pass on. I understand there was no real reason to shoot it at the time but still wish I had.

I used to hunt a ranch next door to the Rio Bonito Ranch. One day by our back fence I saw an OSTRICH-not an Emu, but a sho' nuff ostrich! The landowner didn't believe me but I stopped by the booth for the Rio a couple years ago at the Hunter's Extravaganza and mentioned it to them. They confirmed that they had some ostriches during the timeframe we used to hunt down there. It was definitely weird-I rounded a cedar at the top of a hill and there he was...we just stared at each other, neither one sure of what we were seeing.

We have black cats in south Texas and they are big. Don't know where that county is but they are spotted commonly along the rip grande. They are common in the mountains of northern Mexico in Nuevo Leon and there is a documented research showing movement north to the southern part of the us. And why wouldn't someone believe it. Other than a bullet what animal can kill it. It's like when reds are released in fresh water lakes they blow up and reproduce like crazy why top predator usually. Ranch workers have seen em a lot.

As for monkeys one of my dads friend shot one in dilley tx. They were vandalising feeders and messing up the hunting camps on the ranch. He sat out there after fixing a feeder motor and the lil monkey popped out and started jacking with the motor and wires. So he shot it. Long story short he shot it in the heart grabbed his heat and fell over like a human guy said he felt horrible monkey acted like a person getting shot on tv.

I haven't seen it except on a friend's trail camera but the Barasinga running around is a weird, protected critter...

a flock of chickens at my feeder about 3 miles from the nearest house.