Here are some of the strangest recent hunting stories.
Most hunters have pretty uneventful seasons. Either they're successful or they aren't. But some hunters walk away with an even more amazing story to tell. Such is the case with these stories from the 2016 and early 2017 spring seasons.
Some things you just can't make up—the truth is stranger than fiction!
Man gets beaten up for a deer.
Patrick Mulligan of Michigan had just shot a buck and was attempting to drag it out when a couple other hunters appeared. Arguments over who shot a deer aren't uncommon, but what happened next in this incident was.
The two men then beat up Mulligan and stole his deer! What's even crazier is that this wasn't the first time this has happened to his family.
"Years ago, a guy drew a gun on my dad after they shot at the same deer," Patrick's dad John, told a local news station.
C'mon guys, grow up. Deer are a natural resource shared by everyone!
Hunting shotgun returned after 40 years.
Don Wiebenga's 20-gauge Ithaca shotgun was stolen from his pickup during a Michigan deer season back in 1977. At the time, he thought he'd never see the gun again. And he was almost right... it was finally recovered in February of this year during a traffic stop in Texas!
It's times like this we wish an inanimate object could talk. The stories this shotgun could probably tell after being missing for 40 years!
Wait a minute, that's not a buck!
At least two antlered does were taken in 2016. The first was a 16-pointer that was still in full velvet in Arkansas. The second, a monstrous 222-pound doe from Wisconsin carried a fairly normal-looking 8 point set of antlers. These hunters must have gotten a heck of a surprise when they went to field-dress the animals.
Another deer taken in New York was believed to be neither buck nor doe, but possibly a hermaphrodite!
Talk about some once-in-a-lifetime trophies not many hunters will be lucky enough to harvest.
Ouch. Hunter is impaled on the antlers of the elk he shot.
An Oregon hunter, Gary Heeter, was dragging the big bull elk he shot back to camp back in November when he suffered from a freak accident. While going up a hill, he fell backwards and onto the antlers of the elk he had shot.
In what should be further emphasis on never hunting alone, Heeter was given emergency first aid by the others in his party before he was airlifted to a hospital. Fortunately, he lived, with one heck of a story to tell about hunter safety even AFTER the animal is down and out.
Bear is shot, defamation lawsuit results.
As if a story about a bi-pedal bear wasn't odd enough, it got weirder after the animal was shot in New Jersey. Internet outrage ensued after "Pedals" the bear was killed during last fall's bear season. And one man, John DeFilippo, had his named blasted all over the internet as being the man responsible. There was just one problem. He didn't do it.
The hate became so much that the state had to step in and confirm that no, he wasn't the one who shot the animal. It apparently became enough that DeFilippo filed a defamation lawsuit against six different people who spread his name around social media.
One has to wonder if this sort of thing will become more common as hunters are more frequently getting shamed online these days.
Former world record elk sells for $121k.
Did you ever wonder just how much a world record animal is worth? Well, in the case of a former world record bull elk in Colorado, the answer was a cool $121,000 in an October auction. The bull, shot in 1899 by John Plute, still holds the #2 spot in Boone & Crockett's record books.
As crazy as the price was, the price was paid by a local who wanted to keep the record in the town it currently resides. You've got to respect the guy for wanting to keep local history in place in Crested Butte, Colorado.
A buck that had his own parachute (no, really)!
Deer get all sorts of strange things tangled up in their antlers, but the buck 15-year-old Brady Hempen shot was even stranger than most. That's because the buck had a parachute and flare canister tangled up in its antlers!
As for how it got there, it seems no one will ever know. The buck is being mounted with the flare and parachute still in the antlers!
Deer of Walmart.
This weird story out of Virginia has us still scratching our heads. A couple of hunters rolled their harvest into a Walmart in a shopping cart. The thing is...no one knows why they did it!
Talk about weird, even by Walmart standards.
Unusually friendly deer apparently like visiting Wisconsin hunters.
Some of the deer are apparently confused about what they should and shouldn't be afraid of. Two hunters in Wisconsin both took videos of separate deer, in separate incidents that were totally unafraid of hunters.
One of the deer, a button buck, was wearing an orange scarf which seems to explain the deer has been conditioned to people. But the other one? Who knows? We guess it'll just remain a mystery of the deer woods.
Albinos and piebalds.
Last but not least, there were a few cool-looking albino and piebald deer shot last season. Multiple albino deer were taken in North Carolina. One was taken in Idaho. And at least one, really cool-looking piebald was shot in Alabama.
Even a white turkey was taken last spring. How cool is that?
As you can see, there's really no such thing as a typical hunting season anymore! What sort of crazy stories will this fall's seasons bring?
NEXT: 8 OF THE DUMBEST THINGS POACHERS DID THAT HELPED THEM GET CAUGHT
