Keeping the thread alive!
One of my clients and pretty good friends has a customer whose father in law is alleged to have been reduced to a neurotic child by a terrifying SQ encounter. I have spoken to the son in law once, but "Pop" is extremely resistant to talk to anyone outside his family. I know who Pop is because he is very accomplished in a mechanical field that I'm very interested in, but I've never dealt with him. His overall reputation as a person is stellar on a bad day.
Pop loved to hunt. To avoid divorce, when he neared early retirement he and wife got some land in Smith County, TX so he could hunt often without all the disruption of taking expeditions all over the place. That satisfied wifey and he hoped to retire in peace.
Last November he was in his very nice north-facing custom deer stand on his land about 1,500 feet from the house when he heard steps coming from the south. Once the steps got about 50' away he barked out a trespassing warning to leave and never come back. He could not see behind him because the stand is mounted on a very large tree.
The steps stopped, then in 4 quick strides the creature appeared just to the side of the tree, slightly forward of it, and spun around and looked right at him. Pop started screaming and this upset the creature, which screamed too and approached the stand and JUMPED UP, trying to reach him or grab the bottom of the stand (15' up to bottom) and pull the whole thing down.
Once he got his wits a little assembled, he went on the defensive and leaned up to donate a .270 round to the animal, but he was so scared that he dropped his gun over the rail, which threw him into a panic. The SQ had already touched the bottom of the stand with two jumps and he felt his life was in extreme danger.
Survival mode kicked in hard and he went for the only weapon he could think of - cans of iced tea! Right as he leaned down to open the cooler and snatch a can of tea, the SQ backed up a few steps and Pop believed the SQ was about to get a running start so it could jump higher and get him out of the tree (I think it's possible that it wanted to keep Pop in sight - the front of the stand was solid and covered with brush for camo - he bent down to open the cooler and the SQ backed up to keep him in view - just a theory).
Pop sprang up and whaled a can of tea as hard as he could at the SQ and nailed it square in the upper face, which made it double over and groan loudly, hands over face. It seemed dizzy and surprised. Then Pop poured the ice and water from the cooler on it, and that wigged it out in grand fashion. Just as he followed by throwing the cooler at it (missed) too, it tore off to a nearby treeline by the creek and watched him through a crook in a tree, rocking side-to-side.
Right then Pop was just about bowled over by the realization that he had his Colt 1911 with him in his backpack. He dug the gun out of the bottom of the bag, aimed at the creature's head and fired. Nothing happened - he didn't have one up the snout. So he then racked the slide and right then the thing took off into the brush to the north and crossed the creek shortly after being out of site. He got off one shot and is certain he missed by a wide margin.
Pop waited a short while and dismounted the stand to return home. He was white as a sheet and crying when he got there, and it was the first time in 32 years his wife had seen him cry, or even noticeably scared. Since then he will not hunt, will not penetrate the treeline around the house, and will not even leave the patio after sunset.
Here's the kicker - a couple of weeks ago Pop's truck broke down on the thickly wooded private dirt road leading from the FM to the house. He was stranded in the middle of a sunny afternoon about 700 feet from the house. Instead of walking home, he shut himself in the truck and kept calling people on his cell phone until he found someone to come and get him for the 20 second car ride to the house!
His son in law received a hysterical voice mail message of Pop, sobbing, begging for him to come help, so the guy had to drive all the way from Nacadoches to give a hardened combat veteran and lifelong adventurous outdoorsman a very short ride from the front yard to the front door. And Pop had a .44 magnum Colt Python on him, which he now always has with him.
There were also some items missing from the site, but I've not gotten enough of a detailed account of that yet. It's my understanding that the rifle and can of tea are unaccounted for, but I'll clear that up on the follow up contact that is to occur Monday (I badly hope). There have been some other curious incidents, but nothing like terror in the tree stand.
