Late 1970's New York State

Good morning;  I have been wanting to write and tell you of my experiences, for sometime now. The first strange thing happened in the mid-1970's. My brother and I had recently been discharged from military service. My brother was a Marine and served in Vietnam and I spent my 4 years in the Navy. At the time of the event, we were both in our mid 20's.

My family was living near Rochester, NY at the time. We, my brother, dad and my brother-in-law and I, all loved to go hunting. Our favorite place to hunt was in Steuben County, NY, near the village of Troupsburg. This place is located just a stone's throw from the Pennsylvania state line. In fact, the next mountain to the south was in PA. On a single lane gravel road, there were farmers that had given us permission to hunt their land. All told, there was almost 800 acres of land to hunt upon. This land was made up of wooded mountain ridges, un-worked farm fields and some open pastures. This was a great spot for both small game and big game hunting.

In the spring of 1976, we decided to head out and do some Spring Turkey hunting. It was our first time Turkey hunting and so we loaded up with new Turkey calls, cammo clothing etc. I had purchased a call that was to sound like a hen clucking. I didn't have time to practice with the new call, but I figured it would be “Learn-as-you-go”, type of thing.

On that day, we all got up before sunrise, ate a quick breakfast before heading out to hunt. My dad and brother-in-law decided to hunt a ridge on the east side of the road, while my brother and I took the ridge to the west. My brother and I made our way towards where we were going to hunt. It was still dark and there was a little fog on the open fields. We slowly climbed the ridge and found a good size tree to sit by and still give us a good shooting lane. We decided to sit at the base of the tree, where my brother could watch to the west and I sat looking towards the east. We loaded our shotguns and waited.

As dawn broke, I began to use my hen call. All I can tell you is than my hen clucks sounded more like a dying rabbit! My brother chuckled at my attempts to lure in a gobbler. To our surprise, we heard a gobble, some distance to the west. I couldn't believe that a gobbler would respond to something that sounded like a dying critter! I quickly responded with a few more of my horrible calls. Within minute, we heard another gobble. This one sounded closer but stranger. The gobble we heard sounded like someone with a very deep voice, was saying the words, “gobble-gobble”. I did one more hen call.

A few moments passed and then we heard it again. This time the gobble was so loud it was as if it had been made by a loudspeaker. I could feel the sound waved in my chest and my ears hurt from the volume. In a flash, both my brother and I jumped to our feet. We turned to look at each other and saw fear in each other's face. Without saying a word, we both turned downhill and proceeded to walk the ¾ miles back to the road. Upon reaching the road, we asked each other what had just happened? We both agreed that on that last “gobble-gobble” we heard, we were struck with a strong sense of fear and twe needed to leave the area.

Fast forward 5 years. It is the fall and deer season has begun. We were hunting in our favorite spot. In New York State, hunters can apply for a doe permit. I was lucky the get one and my aim was to get a doe as well as a buck, for our freezer. Opening day found me sitting under a pine tree watching a deer trail. Shortly after sunrise, a good size doe walked in front of me. Less that 30 minutes into the deer season and I already had filled my doe permit. I performed the usual task of field-dressing the deer and then getting the deer back the camp. The rest of the day I just kicked back and relaxed.

The next morning as we all ate a quick breakfast, we planned out who was hunting in which area. I decided to hunt in the exact spot where I had hunted the prior day. As dawn broke, all I saw were a couple of squirrels playing tag, on the ground. They didn't seam to be bothered by the sudden drop in temperature. As for me, sitting under that pine tree for 5 hours was enough. As I walked down the ridge I came upon where I had field-dressed the deer, just 24 hours earlier. To my surprise, I could see the blood on the ground, but nothing else was there! There were no drag marks or other signs of an animal dragging the entrails off. It was as if something had come by and just scooped up that mess and carried it away!

I have been following a couple Bigfoot sites on YouTube and recently begun to ask myself if my Turkey Hunt and Deer Hunt, could be connected? Was that strangely loud “gobble-gobble” call have been made by a Bigfoot responding to what may have sounded like and easy meal? Could the fear and forceful desire to vacate the woods have been from infra-sound? And that missing gut pile from that deer hunt. Could it have been a Bigfoot that walked off with a free meal?

I believe that what we had encountered was caused by the big guy. To add to this, I recently listened to an Bigfoot encounter that took place near our hunting area and during the same time frame as my experiences. I may not have actually seen a Bigfoot, but I believe that I had a run in with one.

Thank you for taking the time to read my experience and you can use my name.
Craig S.