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Dear Nance, I ask that you use only my first name.

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I am retired, but I still have a strong network in the Marines, and I may be taking a post

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in local law enforcement soon.

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So I ask for anonymity, otherwise.

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Thank you.

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My story has been a difficult one for me to write out for a lot of different reasons.

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And I know that my story will upset a great number of your listeners, many of whom seem

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to think that Sasquatches are just cute, oversized teddy bears.

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But I'm here to tell you they absolutely are not.

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I ran up against a bulls' Sasquatch in the upper peninsula in Michigan, and a sweet teddy

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bear he was not.

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To tell you a little bit about myself, I earned my title as a United States Marine.

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Currently, I am out of uniform, as they say, meaning I am retired.

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But while I was in uniform, I completed five tours that saw a very active combat, two

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tours in Iraq, and three in Afghanistan.

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I only include this information, so you understand.

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I'm not someone easily intimidated or rattled.

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I thrive in high adrenaline situations, and I love heavily competitive sports.

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But outdoor activities, they are my thing, including hunting.

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Through the years I had the good fortune to become friends with many other guys that also

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enjoyed my favorite pastimes, including hunting.

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Tyler is one I met while I was in Afghanistan.

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He too was in the Marines.

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We fast became good friends.

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I was with Tyler the day that this encounter happened.

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We were hunting with permission on private land, with friends of Tyler's family in the

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upper peninsula in Michigan.

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It was late October.

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We had already scouted and set up our stands in a promising area with a lot of signs.

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Our stands stood approximately 150 yards apart, along a natural ground dip that had a game

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trail running east to west along the bottom of the dip.

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My stand was set in an area thick with deciduous trees, with most of the trees having lost already

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about 60% of their foliage.

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The ground was covered with thick, dry, crunchy leaves, which I counted on to make it easy

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to hear our game coming.

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We set up our stands one day, and then we went back to where Tyler had parked his truck.

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He had a pop-up camper in tow, which we planned to sleep in.

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We wouldn't keep his very warm, but it would shelter us from rain and other elements.

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We got up in darkness around 230, headed to our stands that we hit mark with GPS coordinates

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a day before.

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Due to specifics within the terrain, we split up approximately 100 yards away from our

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stands, and we each made our way to our stands in the dark.

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I was using a red light in my headlamp.

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This wouldn't spook game, but it gave me enough to see by.

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For the record, we were bow-hunting that day, and Michigan allows you to carry handguns

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while bow-hunting, mostly for bare defense.

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I do not recall what Tyler was carrying that day, but I was carrying a cult python 357.

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It's a revolver wheel style of pistol, and it holds six rounds.

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I have a concealed carry permit in my origination state, but Michigan does not have reciprocity

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with California, where I was living at the time.

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So my handgun was holstered visibly according to the law.

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We got to our stands and waited.

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We keyed our mics on our walkies to check in with each other every 20 or 30 minutes or so.

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We used ear buds for this, so there were no sounds to spook game.

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It was disappointingly quiet that morning.

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Strange how it went.

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And the day was a total disappointment with no success on either of our ends.

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I mean, there wasn't a mouse out there farting in the leaves.

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It was dead silent.

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We were disappointed, but we went back and spent the night in the pop-up camper.

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Pretty much we got up and it was a rinse and repeat.

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The next morning we were out in the darkness again heading to our perspective stands.

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Again, we parted in the darkness and we each went our way.

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I had the stand that was to the east of the natural ground dip.

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What may say a ground dip?

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It might have once been an old creek, maybe hundreds of years ago.

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The earth there had a natural depression, about 20 feet wide, and it varied between four

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to six deep in some areas, and others might have been as little as two feet deep.

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Along that natural dip, there were ground swells on each side that rose up to different heights.

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Everything was very smooth, like maybe water had worn it smooth a very long time ago.

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But for now it was just being used as a convenient expressway for a lot of game.

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It almost made a natural shooting corridor once we were up in our stands.

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One of the reasons that we split up was so that we did not have to cross this natural

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dip at any time, and we could avoid doing that, about a hundred yards out by splitting near

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a bend in the ground dip when it went back and forth.

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I don't know if that makes any sense.

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I just mean the ground dip did not run in a straight line.

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It curved and meandered back and forth, like a creek might have.

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But we didn't want to cross it, so we didn't disturb any game that might be along there.

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This is difficult to explain.

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That's the best I can do.

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On this second morning, I'm halfway to my stand.

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I'm walking and I'm looking around and I'm checking the ground as I walk so I don't stumble.

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Everything is lit up with my red light.

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I remember looking down at the ground, then checking the way ahead again, and I suddenly

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saw a large tree ahead approximately 25 to 30 feet ahead.

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This was a very large tree, not like a lot of the skinnier trunks I was passing.

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I saw it, and I just corrected my course to walk to the right of it.

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When I saw it, I do remember that I had a quick silver thought, like, "Wow, how did I miss

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seeing that just a second ago?"

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I must really be tired.

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I took maybe two more steps, and it became clear that the tree had legs and arms.

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I looked up and up, and the tree had a face.

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I stopped dead in my tracks.

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I had just a moment when I thought maybe I had run into another hunter, but then I saw

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the face.

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I saw those eyes blink, and those eyes were over eight feet off the ground, and they were

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set inside a very broad skull that sloped sharply upwards.

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I saw its breath in the cold air from its slightly open mouth.

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You just can't bake that.

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There was a very real and very heavy presence about it.

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It had gravity and malice.

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Those were not some puppy dog eyes looking back at me.

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They were solid-colored, no whites.

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I will call them black, but I don't know.

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Those eyes could have been brown in the red light, and I wouldn't have been able to

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discern the difference between black and brown.

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The hair covering it was lighter than black, I'm sure of that.

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The shade in the red light was not as dense as black, but the eyes were harder to tell

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because of the shine reflecting from them.

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We stood, locked eye to eye for maybe four or five seconds.

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Then I saw its face began to change.

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It went from looking mildly surprised, which it did seem to be, to something of a hardening

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in the expression.

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The eyes narrowed, and they seemed to crinkle at the edges.

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The head tilted down just a bit further onto the chest.

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The nose wrinkled, and the lips parted slightly more, and I saw the bottoms of white upper teeth.

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The teeth were rounded, but I saw canines that were much like ours, but they were slightly

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more pronounced.

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They weren't long like a lion's, but somewhere between our canines and a gorillas.

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I heard a low rumble coming from it.

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It rattled, enrolled in the chest and grew louder in increments.

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I don't know what I was thinking to keep eye contact with it like I did.

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Most humans on the planet know, intense eye contact is always a challenge, even with just

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other humans.

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I started backing up.

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My nature in a fight or flight situation is to fight, usually, but I was also trained to

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assess my threats and do so in measure to my capabilities of the moment, meaning, would

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it be best to retreat to live to fight another day?

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Well right then, I was pretty sure that fighting was not my best option on any level, and

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I did not want to fight it another day either.

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I was solely focusing on the living thing.

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Instinctively I enholstered my cult from my thigh.

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I think I was talking to it like I would a dog saying things like easy now don't do anything

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stupid, boy, or something like that.

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I had a lot of training, that's true, but I had nothing under my training file of how

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to handle a pistol off Sasquatch 15 feet from you.

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That fire folder was completely empty.

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This was not like handling a bear, and let's face it, if you are pinning your hopes on a

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pistol with a bear only 15 feet away from you, something has gone horribly wrong to bring

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you to that point.

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How do you do that, at least for Sasquatch?

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My cult python 357 is a decent choice for stopping a bear, while that is if you have time to

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get a couple well play shots fired off.

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But at only 15 feet away, they're probably going to just find bits of you in bear scat

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at some later date.

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Some hunters out there, well they might argue that point with me.

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But everyone agrees 15 feet is not much fighting space with a bear or a Sasquatch.

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You need time to drop a running bear, heck even one just standing 15 feet from you is hard

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to drop.

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I was backing up and almost stumbled on something, but managed to keep myself upright.

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As I moved away, the Sasquatch's eyes followed me, dripping malice with every step I took.

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Listen, I did not want to shoot, I really didn't.

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But with every nanosecond that ticked by, I became sure I was going to have to.

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As I said, its posture and its face was changing, its eyes were looking more and more dangerous.

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It was like looking at a lion right before it pounces on you.

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Every hunter that's faced dangerous game that close knows the things that I'm mentioning.

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You will notice dozens of tiny muscle ticks, a hundred movements and tiny changes in the

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animals all happen in just a single second.

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And those are your clues, its about to pounce or charge you.

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Well I read all the cues, I already knew how this one was going to go.

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Well at least I thought I did.

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I was still backing up and had increased the distance between us to about 30 feet, and

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I was thinking maybe it was 50/50, I was going to be able to walk away without firing a single

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shot.

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But then all those clues hit, and all I could do was say, "Oh no, it's coming for me."

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I think I actually did say, "No, as in don't do it buddy."

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But then I saw it take a step toward me.

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I didn't hesitate, I training kicked in.

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Slow and steady I fired my first shot then my second.

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Out of habit, I had the gun pulled up and aimed at center-mass.

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I know I hit it, I know it.

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I saw the bullets hit, and they heard it.

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Oh yes they heard it.

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I saw it falter and stop.

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I heard cries of pain and rage.

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I saw the look of surprise on its face.

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I saw its hands come up to where the two bullets had hit, which I estimated was roughly

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left to the sternum, at least as it would be on human anatomy.

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And both of those shots were perhaps an inch or so apart in a general area.

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I don't know if it was far enough left to hit the heart.

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I don't think it was.

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That chest was very, very broad, and I hadn't compensated for that in my panic.

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I hoped it was enough.

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I wanted those two shots to be enough.

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I wanted it over.

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I turned and I started to run.

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I looked behind me and was relieved to see that I didn't see it moving toward me.

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I looked back again a second later, and oh no, it was charging after me.

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Two shots from a 357 right in the chest, and it was still coming at me full speed.

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I was vaguely aware of Tyler yelling in my earbud.

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He was yelling and asking me what happened, what's wrong, am I okay?

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I did not have time to answer him.

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I turned and fired three shots farther left to the previous shots, hoping to hit the heart.

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Then I fired my last one right at its skull.

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Even in my red light I saw blood flowing across the hair.

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I saw it come to a faltering stop, and I too had come to a stop, perhaps twenty yards away

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from it.

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I watched it reach out and steady itself on a tree trunk.

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I watched it slump against the tree, but it did not go down.

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It was holding on.

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It was still upright.

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Six shots from a 357, and that Sasquatch was still holding on and was still upright.

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It looked its head and zeroed in its eyes on me.

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I was sure it was mortally wounded, but I could also see it was pissed.

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Pist I had shot it.

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Pist because I think it was intelligent enough to know exactly what that would mean, that

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it would die.

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But seeing it still standing, although wounded, and realizing it wasn't going down, and

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further realizing I would have to dig to get more ammo out of my pockets.

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Well, I wasn't waiting for it to get another boost of adrenaline and come to finish me off

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in a fit of vengeful rage.

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I turned and ran.

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I heard Tyler saying that he was almost to me.

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He had been vectering in on the gunshots and all the yelling.

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I keyed the mic and I yelled at him to stay away, stay away, run back, go to the truck.

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I told him over and over under no circumstances to come to that position.

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That I was on the move and I would meet him at the truck.

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I ran harder right then than I ran for my evacuation ride out of Kandahar after one hellish

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fight.

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The thing I remember from this time of running through the dark forest are the howls of

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the creature that filled the air behind me, howls that only started after I began to

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run.

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Howls that I assume were pure rage at me and rage at the knowledge that it may be dying.

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All of that accentuated with the ghastly red light bouncing ahead of me as I ran.

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Those are my memories.

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There are things about my run back to the truck that I truthfully cannot remember.

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I remember getting there before Tyler.

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I remember reloading my cult and waiting in silence as I regulated my breathing.

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Tyler keyed his mic several times before he got near the truck to let me know he was coming

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in.

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I confirmed it was clear with my voice.

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When he got there I quickly told him we had to move, now I would tell him on the way out.

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I had been through some very bad shit with Tyler more than once overseas.

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He looked at me but he did not question.

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He got busy tearing it all down and packing it up.

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We pulled out with the pop-up camper not completely locked down.

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We did that once we got out on the main road.

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By now it's the blue light of an early morning.

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We quickly pulled over and locked everything down, then we got the heck out of there.

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As we drove out I told Tyler what had happened, what I had seen, what I had shot.

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You should have seen Tyler's face.

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It was a mixture of disbelief that I had really seen and shot a Sasquatch.

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Along with real belief that something had happened to me out there.

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I had told him everything as he drove and then I waited when he went silent.

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I thought he doesn't believe me, he's not gonna believe me.

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When he pops out with we should go back.

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What I asked him?

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Why?

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Why do you want to go back?

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To make sure it's dead he said and to get some proof.

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He emphasized that last word, that word proof.

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And me?

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Well I took it all wrong.

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I told him I would rather go back through Fallujah door to door again that it ever go back

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there.

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She hadn't looked it in its eyes.

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I had.

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I didn't need to prove that that thing existed.

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I'm not sure that thing is dead, I said.

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It was still on its feet after six, count them Tyler.

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Six direct hits from a 357 and you want to go back to see how it's doing to see if it's

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still pissed off because you want proof?

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I was screaming at him in the truck by then.

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Listen, I am never going back there.

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Now either you believe me or you don't, I don't give a shiny bald pink rat's ass either

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way.

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No Tyler said no.

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I meant proof for science.

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Not proof that you're telling the truth to me.

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I don't need proof from you.

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If you say you shot a Sasquatch, I know you well enough to know you shot one.

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I heard a lot of that commotion.

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I heard the shots.

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I heard you screaming and I heard something else scream.

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And dude, I have never heard you scream, not even in combat.

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I've never heard you scream like that and all the time I've known you.

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I looked at him and I felt better knowing he believed me that I still wasn't going back,

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not for science, not for all the world.

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You see, the thing I can't get over is this.

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None of that had to happen that morning.

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Sasquatch had to see me coming.

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It was not there and then it was suddenly there.

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I believe it deliberately put itself in my path.

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I don't understand that.

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Everything I have since read says they shy away from humans.

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They avoid people whenever they can.

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Well, I'm here to tell you that no, they do not always do that.

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If a lot of the Native Americans are to be believed and I believe that they should be,

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well then some of those creatures are highly dangerous and some will seek humans out as a

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form of food.

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I think we're a little bit like beef to them and children, I think children are veal to

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them.

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I know my story is going to anger a lot of people.

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So many want to tell you their friends with Sasquatches and their harmless and they do

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gift exchanges.

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And that's fine.

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If your friends with one and it's never harmed you, well that's great.

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But just know you are literally betting your life on that kind of interaction, always

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being harmless every time you meet with them.

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Me?

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I would never in a million years do that.

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Maybe it thought that I should be the hunted rather than the hunter that day.

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I really don't want to speculate too much on its reasons or intentions.

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But I know it did not one thing to avoid me.

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I tried to back up, I tried to leave it, I tried to avoid it.

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But no sir, it wasn't going to have that.

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I wish it had, I wish it would have let me just go.

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I have many times unloaded all six rounds from that cult into a wood stump at roughly

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the same distance I was from that Sasquatch that morning.

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And when I'm done, I go look at the damage that's done to that log.

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I shake my head and I can't believe that Sasquatch was still standing.

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I wonder what did happen to it afterwards.

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But honestly, I didn't care enough to go back and find out.

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Anyway, thanks for letting me get this off my chest.

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Please spread the word.

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Six shots from a 357 is not going to take down a bull Sasquatch.

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Signed David.

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You've been listening to The Buckeye Bigfoot Podcast.

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Find more stories, hundreds more, over on our YouTube channel.

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Just look for Buckeye Bigfoot.

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[ Silence ]