A listener writes “I’ve been listening to your show for a few months now and I love it. I don’t know if what happened to me would qualify for your show because I never saw anything but I heard it’s scream after a buddy of mine shot it. He was no more than 10 feet away and shot it with a 12 gauge shotgun loaded with 00 buckshot (I believe it was loaded with 8 shells). It happened in Tennessee while we were on spring break when I was a junior in high school (I think I was a junior, it’s been a few years, probably ’05-’06).
I could tell the whole story if you want in an email, although I’m afraid it would turn into a book. The gist of what will never leave me is the scream. My buddy, Brent, the one who actually shot it, wouldn’t say anything immediately after it happened, except, “It’s eyes were this far apart. It’s eyes were this far apart.” He was extending his thumb and pinky finger kind of like the hang loose gesture in Hawaii. His brother, Gary, and I had immediately ran to his location when we heard him shooting because he dad, who we all knew to listen to, had told us not to be shooting after dark. We knew if he was shooting, there must’ve been a serious problem.
Brent was an MMA fighter who stood about 6’2″ and I’d never seen him scared. He was as pale as a ghost. He was definitely terrified. Long story short, we made our way back to his grandparents house and he went inside to call his girlfriend and go to bed. Gary and I went to the barn loft to sleep outside for the night. Brent’s allergies wouldn’t allow for him to sleep out there. We’d just laid down in our sleeping bags after about 10 minutes of talking to each other wondering what the hell Brent was shooting at when this thing let out a scream that I’ve never heard before or since. The sound was so loud. I knew it was far away, 200-300 yards, about the distance where we had just came from. The only way I’ve ever been able to describe it is to say if you take a lions roar and mix it with a persons blood curdling scream, then intensify the sound to maybe an air horn or something you might get close. If that isn’t enough, the length of the scream was insane! For something to be able to scream so loud and for so long on one breath, with no pauses, it had to be massive. To put it in perspective, Gary and I were both laying on our backs, zipped up in our sleeping bags, and we had enough time to unzip the sleeping bags, sit up, grab our guns, turn around and swing our legs over the edge of the loft and stare at each other for about 5 or 10 seconds all while this thing screamed without a pause.
We’d been in Tennessee for almost a week, and for 3 days of that we actually set up tent way back in the woods and slept out there. We were used to the sounds of the night by then. We heard coyotes, possibly a wildcat, raccoons fighting, even what we think was a wolf. All of those things were pretty consistent throughout the night, but after this thing let loose it was dead silent. The only thing we could hear was the flapping of the birds as they flew around the barn and the hooves of the horse that was spooked in the stable behind us. It was about 2am and before that all the creatures of the night had been making themselves known but after that scream the forest shut down. Almost as if they knew their place. Gary and I did not get much sleep but we did stay out in the loft that night.
The next morning was our last day of Spring break so we had to pack up. That’s actually why we were in the position we were to begin with but that’d take more explaining. We did get a few minutes of a window where we went back down to the spot where Brent had fired those shells the night before. We found the empty shells. It’s hard to explain in an email but what he had been shooting at was standing in a perfect ambush point around a tall bushy tree just off the trail. It was inside a bend where the trail wraps around and you’d have to sweep your eyes a full 90 degrees right to even see anything there. There was a spot behind some kind of weeping tree, I don’t remember if it was a willow or not, that was about 10′ by 10′ of flat ground, completely cleared of debris. Behind that was a steep wooded hill which led up to a large open field which was cut in half by their road. In the short time we had before we left, I looked for any blood or shot impacts, given that the hill was a good back drop at only about 10′ away. It was also muddy and pretty bare. I found no shot impacts and maybe only one tiny drop of blood. The ground was still covered in fallen leaves from the winter and it was a damp little area so it was hard to tell what I was looking at exactly. The fact that I found no shot impacts led me to believe that he hit whatever he was aiming at. 8 00 buckshot rounds would’ve torn a big hole in the hill or really noticeably impacted a tree from 10′ away.
The fact that this thing screamed so loud and for so long after being shot was mind numbing. Brent said he heard something walking with him off the path, following him. Every time he stopped, it stopped. When he came to the bend, around the bush, he said he just had a feeling that something was watching him, so he swung his shotgun (which had a flashlight on the end) 90 degrees and saw a black figure staring down at him from behind the brush. He really noticed how far apart its eyes were because of the eye shine. Not thinking that humans don’t have eye shine, he screamed, “Identify yourself now!” while drawing down on it. When it didn’t move, he shouted the same thing again. He didn’t want to shoot a poacher by accident. Again it didn’t moved but continued staring straight down at him. That’s when he shot. When Gary and I got there, which was probably only 30 seconds later, the breach of his shotgun was open and smoking and his finger was still on the trigger, he was still aiming at the same spot even though his gun was unloaded. That’s when he told us how far apart its eyes were.
Obviously there is more to what happened but it really is difficult to explain in an email. Like I said, I don’t know if this would qualify or not but it is my experience and it’s good to know others out there have had similar encounters. From listening to your show, I think I’m glad I didn’t actually see anything. Another note, I never smelled the awful smell but I did get that feeling of being watched earlier in the day, which is actually what led up to this moment. Thanks for your show and for reading my story. If you want more info just let me know.”