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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/Pheasant_popper on 2024-11-28 21:36:02+00:00.
I've been hunting all my life, and I have yet to see anything else like what I saw. To this day I still don't have a definite answer for it, maybe some of y'all will know.
I was 19 at the time. I had just gotten off of work so I figured I might as well go hunting. I got my rifle and hopped in my truck, and away I went. I got there about 3 and a half hours before dark, plenty of time to get to my stand.
I crossed the creek and started up the hill and I saw something move fairly fast through the trees, I figured it must have just been a deer. Already spooked one, not good. Got to my stand and climbed up it, text my dad to tell him I got there safe. I loaded my rifle and got comfortable and waited.
About an hour later, a herd of does I had seen on my cameras showed up. They milled around for about 30 minutes before they left to go eat some acorns behind me. I saw a 4 point about 10 minutes later, not what I was after.
About 30 minutes later I hear something making racket about 200 yards in front of me, in a tree line across a field. I had an iron sighted gun so I wasn't willing to shoot the 200 yards. The gun I had was a .444 Marlin lever action, I'd hunted with it since I was 12 and had taken countless deer with it. It's a bit overkill for deer, but I liked the stopping power.
Eventually a deer walked out, looked like a pretty good buck. As he got closer, about 150 yards, I noticed something was off with him. Maybe it was that CWD disease or whatever it's called, I thought. It started making these unholy sounds and started to get up on its hind legs. I'd heard stories from old timers about things that go thump in the woods, but never believed them. I decided I was probably just tired from work. He stayed in the field, still acting weird, until it was just about time for me to get down and head back to the truck.
I started to get down and was about 10 feet off the ground when I heard a blood curdling scream from the field. It scared the daylights out of me and I slipped and fell off the ladder.
When I got up, I looked back and it was on its hind legs in a dead sprint towards me. I took off running and jumped in the creek and laid down on the bank. I peeked over the side, and it was up there, walking and looking for presumably me. He saw me, so I raised my rifle and fired.
The shot rang out and I heard it hit him. I racked another round in but he was on the ground. I was relieved and my mind was spinning. Before I could think of my next move, he was back on his legs and started walking towards me.
I ran so fast I thought I was going to fall. He was about 15 yards behind me but he was closing in. I turned around and fired another shot with hopes that it would stun him. It didn't.
I counted my options and decided on a risky plan. I ran to a secondary path out, one which had a creek that was flooded from rain the night before. I swam across it, but he couldn't swim and he didn't want to seem to get anywhere near water.
He let out another blood curdling scream so I shot him again, this time he seemed like it hurt him. I had 1 bullet left after that.
I got to my truck, and of course it wouldn't start. That's what I get for driving a diesel in late November. I finally got it to turn over and started to back up when I saw him running at me, faster than he previously was. I stuck my rifle out the window of my truck and waited until he got close. He was about 10 feet in front of me when I fired.
I could see him well when he was that close. He was a 10 point. His head had no bottom jaw or eyes, and his hide was peeling away. His entire body looked witherered.
When I shot he hit the dirt, hard. I hightailed it home and told my dad what had happened, he didn't believe me.
I went back the next day to see if there was any proof. He was gone. All the tracks were gone. There was nothing to even indicate it had even happened besides my spent casings on the ground.
If anyone has any idea about what that thing was, please let me know. I'm writing this while I'm in the deer stand so hopefully it's not bad luck, although I do hear a strange sound in the trees across from me.