Jdeutsch Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 Some years ago I had my 4 yr old with me and we were pulling broken rock out of a cliff side coal seam looking for plant fossils when I pulled out a small slab with a scorpion on it- just glad my little one didn't grab that rock. Puts a damper on collecting with kids.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Some years ago I had my 4 yr old with me and we were pulling broken rock out of a cliff side coal seam looking for plant fossils when I pulled out a small slab with a scorpion on it- just glad my little one didn't grab that rock. Puts a damper on collecting with kids.. One of the quarries we like to hunt in would drive some people crazy. Under every rock is either a brown recluse or a scorpion. We wear gloves and look carefully! Anna and John SE Oklahoma ____________________________________________________________________________________ "Life is an occasion, rise to it." --Mr. Magorium, "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" http://www.johnsdiscoveries.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cowsharks Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 One of the quarries we like to hunt in would drive some people crazy. Under every rock is either a brown recluse or a scorpion. We wear gloves and look carefully! I think I'd have to find a new hobby. I just know I'd end up day dreaming in the hot sun and forget to be careful for just one second and zap...get bit or stung by one of those nasty ######. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indy Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 (edited) One of the quarries we like to hunt in would drive some people crazy. Under every rock is either a brown recluse or a scorpion. We wear gloves and look carefully! Here's pic of my pet Brown Recluse for those who might not know what they look like (finger for scale) No...its not alive More views: Link Edited February 22, 2012 by Indy Flash from the Past (Show Us Your Fossils)MAPS Fossil Show Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kehbe Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 Here's pic of my pet Brown Recluse for those who might not know what they look like (finger for scale) No...its not alive More views: Link Wicked little devils! I still have a scarred over hole in my leg from a recluse bite! Swelled up like half a baseball then proceeded to deteriorate for about a month and finally and sloooooowly healed for two months! It is one life form I really don't mind squashing!! It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. Charles Darwin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfergirlatx Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 Wicked little devils! I still have a scarred over hole in my leg from a recluse bite! Swelled up like half a baseball then proceeded to deteriorate for about a month and finally and sloooooowly healed for two months! It is one life form I really don't mind squashing!! Thanks for posting that pic Indy, and Kehbe, I too was bit by one of these spiders back in 2007....after about 3 weeks of it getting bigger and bigger and more painful, I too had to have a small surgery to remove the damaged tissue. IT WAS NOT FUN "The road to success is always under construction." Author Unknown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roanoker Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 My husband was bitten by a brown recluse spider in the mid-60's, and he went through unexpected grief. I have heard that small children can die if bitten by one of these monsters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missourian Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 Just another reason why I like to hunt in the winter. Context is critical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosco Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 Recluses are nasty little critters. Their bites are extremely likely to cause necrosis, which eats away skin. I had a friend who got bit by one the hand. Wound turned purplish, but didn't decay any further. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hrguy54 Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 My daughter (15 yrs) and I were walking a creek south of Dayton, OH gathering horn corals, brachiopods, etc in late summer. Her technique is to scrunch down, knees near her chin, and rummage through the rocks while I walk ahead, looking all around. I turn to look back at her and a 4 point deer is grazing and slowly moving toward her. They both see each other, he is curious and not a bit leery of her. She is staring wide-eyed, mouth gaping in wonder. He doesn't even flinch when she looks back over her shoulder to see where I am. She and I freeze and watch, he keeps grazing and moving closer to her, getting within 10 ft of her. He doesn't get closer but continues to matter-of-factly graze. A few minutes pass, it feels like forever, she whispers my way that her feet are falling asleep, what should she do. I wave my arm in the air and he nonchallantly trots into the woods. She is trembling with excitement, begins talking a blue streak. We live in town and never see deer up close. We go down stream about 50 yards and start looking in our own way. Within 5 minutes she whispers loudly to me, I look back and there's the deer again. This time heslowly gets within 6 ft or so. My daughter says later she was dying to just reach out and touch him. She could hear him breathing and chewing. We watch for a while, her feet fall asleep again. I end up waving my arms. All the same. There wasn't a third time, though. She's a freshman in college now (Ind U), doesn't go out with me anymore, but always asks if I saw any deer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cowsharks Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 My daughter (15 yrs) and I were walking a creek south of Dayton, OH gathering horn corals, brachiopods, etc in late summer. Her technique is to scrunch down, knees near her chin, and rummage through the rocks while I walk ahead, looking all around. I turn to look back at her and a 4 point deer is grazing and slowly moving toward her. They both see each other, he is curious and not a bit leery of her. She is staring wide-eyed, mouth gaping in wonder. He doesn't even flinch when she looks back over her shoulder to see where I am. She and I freeze and watch, he keeps grazing and moving closer to her, getting within 10 ft of her. He doesn't get closer but continues to matter-of-factly graze. A few minutes pass, it feels like forever, she whispers my way that her feet are falling asleep, what should she do. I wave my arm in the air and he nonchallantly trots into the woods. She is trembling with excitement, begins talking a blue streak. We live in town and never see deer up close. We go down stream about 50 yards and start looking in our own way. Within 5 minutes she whispers loudly to me, I look back and there's the deer again. This time heslowly gets within 6 ft or so. My daughter says later she was dying to just reach out and touch him. She could hear him breathing and chewing. We watch for a while, her feet fall asleep again. I end up waving my arms. All the same. There wasn't a third time, though. She's a freshman in college now (Ind U), doesn't go out with me anymore, but always asks if I saw any deer. Wow, that is so neat, and you gals have that memory locked away for all time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Govinn Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 (edited) Neat thread... Let's see.... Calvert Cliffs --- I saw a lady go from fully clothed to her birthday suit to a bathing suit... Neither one of us thought that I would witness that... lol GMR --- MikeDOTB and I were digging and heard some splashing downstream... all of a sudden a huge buck (probably 10 points) came walking towards us and then ran away... that was so cool!!! Also, I've found a few pipes for "wacky-tabacky" in there... There's no telling what you will find in GMR!! Surry County, VA --- I found a F-15 High Explosive Incendiary round that I was told was "dead." I decided to clean it up with my dremel... you know... polish it up a little... well, it turns out that it was VERY MUCH active with a kill radius of 6 feet!!!! I still tremble a little when I think of what could have happened... Alabama --- I was surface collecting on a hot summers' day and ran across this couple doing the same thing. I asked if they had found anything and this lady pulled out a perfect 2" mako from the bottom part of her bikini... I was COMPLETELY caught off-gaurd!! I asked her why she kept that "down there" and she said that she had no where else to keep it without losing it... no more questions were asked... LOL Edited February 25, 2012 by Govinn History will be kind to me for I intend to write it. ~Sir Winston Churchill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paperstraw Posted April 29, 2012 Author Share Posted April 29, 2012 Surry County, VA --- I found a F-15 High Explosive Incendiary round that I was told was "dead." I decided to clean it up with my dremel... you know... polish it up a little... well, it turns out that it was VERY MUCH active with a kill radius of 6 feet!!!! I still tremble a little when I think of what could have happened... This could have posed a problem for you... lucky on your part I suppose. MORE STORIES!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herb Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 There are lots of black widow spiders in Kentucky. Last year I looked down and saw one crawling up my pants leg. Not cool. Turned over a rock last weekend and found one. One good reason to always wear gloves and not to put your fingers under a rock to turn it over in this area. "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"_ Carl Sagen No trees were killed in this posting......however, many innocent electrons were diverted from where they originally intended to go. " I think, therefore I collect fossils." _ Me "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."__S. Holmes "can't we all just get along?" Jack Nicholson from Mars Attacks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verydeadthings Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 I've had a couple of close animal encounters while fossil hunting. In Colorado I was walking down a stream bed and decided to turn around because I wasn't finding anything and the vegetation was too much of a hassle. I walked a couple hundred feet back to the road and a local pulls over in a pickup and tells me I shouldn't be hiking in the area, he just saw a black bear with cubs crossing the road to the stream. Sure enough, when I'm driving away the mother bear with cubs happens to walk across the road. Also, rather stupidly in retrospect, I had headphones on, walking down this vegetation-choked stream less than five minutes before. In silver springs, Florida, I was snorkeling around, looking for fossils (didn't find any in that river) while a female friend of mine kayaked nearby. Suddenly she's screaming at me to get in the kayak, so I swim back and climb in. There's a six to eight foot gator that's been following me. Probably the most disturbing thing I've seen while fossil hunting was on the peace river. I'm kayaking (with the same female friend) and we round a bend in the river and there's a dying cow on the riverbank in the act of giving birth. The vultures are already poking at it. This was pretty close to the put-in, so we go back and call the police, let them know there's a dying cow with calf on the river. When we get back to the cow it's already dead. Nature can be pretty brutal sometimes. On a lighter note, I did get to kayak alongside a manatee and her calf for a couple of hours on the weeki wachee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MammothPaleoGuy Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 (edited) Back when I ran the Geological Society of Marietta OH (which consisted of me and four other people), we made a trip out to the Wayne National Forest to look for an outcrop. We got lost and pulled off along the side of the dirt track we were on to argue over the map. We were still bickering a few minutes later when a pickup truck full of 20-something nervous blonde women flew past us at 70 mph, made a left, and sped off towards the highway. After collecting our wits, we went back to the map, only to flinch a few minutes later when a battered blue pickup with a full gun rack and 2 toothless 40-something gents went whipping by at the same speed. They screeched to halt 100 yards past us and backed up to us, rolling down the window. "Y'all see red pickup fulla chicks go by here kinda fast?" asked the first man. "Yes we did. They went that way," we pointed, "to the right." We didn't want the girls to wind up back in oubliette. Never did find the stupid outcrop. Edited May 2, 2012 by MammothPaleoGuy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raptordude1 Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 I found a rusty knife in a creek by an over pass. The knife had a 6 inch double edged blade and electrical tape all around the handle. I swear it had to have been a murder weapon some one tossed in the creek thinking no one would find it. So of course I wiped my prints off of it and threw it back in. One of my favorite spots is also used frequently by homeless folks. I sometimes have to walk over sleeping vagrants as I travel to the fossil beds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ameenah Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 (edited) Well I found a few things a but here is the most recent. I kept him until a 6 yr old found him on my shelf Edited July 28, 2012 by Ameenah Explore -> Dream -> Discover ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carcharodontosaurus Posted July 21, 2012 Share Posted July 21, 2012 This would go under 'fossil buying' rather than 'fossil collecting', but anyway.... While still in high school, I stopped by a little shop at a Kansas City flea market called Bob's Bazaar Bizarre. He had some Elrathia trilobites and some other fossils in the display. I asked if he had more, and he pulled a few out from beneath the counter. He said he had more at home, but I just bought a couple that he had on hand. And that was that. Well, a couple months later, Bob turned out to be a certain Bob Berdella: http://en.wikipedia....Robert_Berdella Mmmmmkay. I'm glad I was content with the trilobites he had in the shop.... To think you came that close to not living to join the forum... And to think that if the multiverse theory is true, then there will almost certainly be a universe where you weren't so lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prehistoria Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 (edited) Considering the low quality rockhounding sites I have been frequenting lately, I would say the most unusual thing for me to come across is a nice fossil! Besides that, I walked out of a forest into a nice open meadow. Tall grass swaying in the breeze, birds chirping, crickets... cricketing?. In front of me was a creek, winding towards and past where I stood. On a rock in the middle of the creek, perhaps 20 feet away, stood a Canadian goose. Almost if posing for a national geographic shot, it stretched its wings out and was perfectly backlit by the sun. I just stood there in awe, and out of the grass pops 3 baby geese, still fluffy, and excitedly they swim up to their mom. I slowly slide off my backpack and start fishing for my camera when I hear a loud HONK! come from beside me. I turn around and there stands daddy goose, not too pleased that I somehow got between him and his family. For those not familiar with Canadian Geese, they are known for their lack of fear towards Humans and have a habit of being outright aggressive even without such provocation. They aren't small birds either!! I start slipping my backpack back on and he honks again. And again, even louder. I start walking back towards the forest and the goose followed, keeping pace. Every couple steps I took he would honk angrily at me and flutter his wings, lest I dare wander back into his turf. The dang bird followed me for maybe 10-15 feet into the tree line and he was looong out of sight before he stopped yelling at me. Definitely woke me up after a long day of picking through farmers rock piles! Edited July 30, 2012 by IDigDinos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elcoincoin Posted December 30, 2012 Share Posted December 30, 2012 Sorry for unburying that 6 monthes old post, but i think that today i got a candidate for that topic. Shells, 4 of them, just the wrong type of shells, the WW2 type. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lmshoemaker Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 (edited) My son and I were chased off a site by a helicopter.... There is a story behind that! Would you be willing to explain further? Edited December 31, 2012 by Cryptidsaurian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xiphactinus Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 Sorry for unburying that 6 monthes old post, but i think that today i got a candidate for that topic. Shells, 4 of them, just the wrong type of shells, the WW2 type. Scary....what do you do with that? Notify the authorities? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cowsharks Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 Sorry for unburying that 6 monthes old post, but i think that today i got a candidate for that topic. Shells, 4 of them, just the wrong type of shells, the WW2 type. How big are these gun shells? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elcoincoin Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 40 or 50 cm long, Somehow didnt want to stay too close too long Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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