When the hunters become the hunted.
If you are in the mood for a terrifying hunting story, I’ve got just the one for you. A 19-year-old in Wisconsin was just trying to enjoy opening day of waterfowl season with some of his younger hunting buddies when they found themselves in a potential life-and-death situation.
Chase Melton and the younger teenagers he was hunting with got to their hunting spot early, and as he told NBC Newswatch 12, it was business as usual to start the day:
“We pulled up to the spot at like 3:45 in the morning to get our spot because it was opening morning. We got to the spot where we built our blind. A little bit before shooting light, we threw our decoy outs. We had some goose silhouettes some mallards and some teal.”
Once they had their decoy spread put out, they settled into their blind, and that’s when things started to go south. The group heard a lot of rustling in the wilderness area they were set up next to, and at one point, a hunter next to Melton told him that it sounded like a deer was coming their way:
“The one kid next to me he was 14 years old said, ‘Hey you have a deer coming down on your left side,’ so I stood up and looked over and it was a wolf. I tried making some noise. I was clapping, stomping, breaking some sticks, whatever.
This wolf turned at me and we locked eyes, and it started to come at us. Not like a walk, but like a jog almost and it was at about 40 or 50 yards. So, I started to panic a little bit, they started panicking because they’re younger kids and they’re like, ‘Oh my god we’ve got wolves around us.'”
Surrounded by a pack of wolves? No thanks.
These young Wisconsin hunters didn’t have much of a choice though, and had to act fast. The 19-year-old Melton took the lead and showed maturity beyond his years. He knew that he might have to use his shotgun in self defense- even if it was loaded with waterfowl shot.
And sure enough, the situation only got worse as more wolves moved in around the duck hunters:
“So, I grabbed my gun just in case something would happen. Then, the 13-year-old who was two people down from me said ‘Chase, right behind you!’ I looked, and we had a wolf at about five yards.
I probably could have touched it with my hand, that was extremely scary. So now, we’re really panicking. We’re like, ‘Alright we’re surrounded and we have a wolf charging us right now.”
Once the wolf got too close for comfort, Melton knew it was now or never. The 19-year-old obviously didn’t want to shoot the wolf, so he waited until the very last moment that he could before he finally decided that he had to pull the trigger. He sent a shotgun blast right into a charging wolf, and what happened next is something you don’t normally see or hear of:
“This wolf that was five yards behind us went off into the woods, came down, and then grabbed this wolf that I shot by the neck and started dragging it off. I’ve never witnessed something like that. So after this wolf grabbed the one that I shot by the neck, they were yipping super loud, beyond scary.”
No wolf left behind, I suppose? That’s a horrifying and intimidating thing to witness – especially for a kid as young as 19-years-old.
Fortunately, that one shot was all it took for the rest of the wolves to retreat. Melton immediately contacted the Department of Natural Resources after the incident The DNR was able to confirm that it was a wolf that the young hunters came into contact with, but couldn’t reveal any other details as the investigation is still ongoing.
As for Melton, he’s just thankful that he and his friends are okay, and he’s understandably shaken up from the close encounter:
“Even just being out in the woods in the future..it might have an impact on me. It’s just hard to say.”
You can view the local news story on the scary incident below:
