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I wasn't thinking helicopter for the team, I was thinking helicopter extraction of the body. Long line, maybe several hundred feet, as used in helicopter logging and a downward pointing strobe to befuddle the eyes of "anyone" trying to throw rocks upwards. Preserve the body, have the team hunker down, exit in daylight or hike out to a vehicle in the dark. However, if the terrain is very steep that won't work because a helicopter-mounted light won't be pointed where the rocks come from. Switchbacks are a real problem. They reverse the roles having to slow down to change directions. Bad, very bad. While I'm not supportive of what you're suggesting doing, I am morbidly curious from a tactics/strategy standpoint. The image of the location I have based on what you've said reminds me of two places and both have bigfoots at least at times. I hope it is neither.

Well, CM, one can elect to ignore centuries of narratives I suppose. One can ignore the tapestries, paintings, drawings, sculptures, and metal pressings that depict these attacks in Europe, one can ignore the multiple narratives in the Himalayas of attacks on humans, one can ignore the narratives of attacks on humans in eastern Russia around the Ural Mountains, one can ignore all the Native American tribes narratives of kidnappings and attacks on humans, but to do so would indicate to me that one is ignoring a significant repository of human experiences. When the same, identical narratives are shared across continents, spread over millennia, and were experienced and reported without contact from other peoples and again separated by continents - well - I find that a bit fascinating. Different peoples describe the same appearances, the same behaviors, and even draw the same things. If one's criteria for proof is a video - a very recent technology - you're going to miss a lot of data.

MIB, nothing is certain - I know that. We face envelopment (highly likely), flanking movements (possible), misdirection (very likely) a concentrated point attack (not likely), or a stand-off bombardment (very likely), or a combination of any or all of these over an entire night. I ask you. If you don't want barefooted fatboy to walk to one location - how can you not only discourage that - but deny that ability? If an opponent has great night vision - what can you do to continually screw that up intermittently over several hours? If you're being bumrushed, what can one do to break that up quickly and effectively? How can you possibly direct their approach so that you've addressed what is commonly known as an "anticipated line of approach?" It's not difficult at all. Now if they sprout wings - we're in deep dookey.

Apparently, the Paiute did - caught up with what was believe the be the last ones troubling them in a cave. Set a big fire at the cave entrance, killed the red giants that came out, while the others died inside. They had plagued the Paiute for decades, but they finally seem to have wiped out the local population of red-haired giants. So that shoots down your first postulation - and then we have other narratives of Native Americans, including Inuit of them killing these things that were tormenting them. One doesn't take toddlers hunting - at least none of the guys I've ever hunted with did. And if 10% of the narratives of folks getting the crap scared out of them - including kids at schools - are true, your next postulation falls apart. I see you're big on practicing. Practicing this, practicing that. Each spring around here, the birds lay eggs, and the eggs hatch and there are baby birds in the nest. I must get real busy or am not paying attention, but somehow, year after year, I miss these young birds going through flight school. Somehow I miss all the instruction, and all the practice. But then one day, they must graduate from flight school - as they're just gone. Same with mountain goats. Those little bitty mountain goats are jumping around on a few square inches of rock like they've been doing it all their lives - and somehow, we seem to not be able to film or otherwise document their leaping training, their jumping skill training, and their escape tactics. How can we miss all that? Oh. That's right. There are lots of reports of these things barely avoiding traffic on a highway - sometimes getting hit! And sometimes getting shot while snooping around a house. Your postulations/questions ignore the fact that many of the projections you suggest - occur. Here's the deal. Nature has her ways.

Are you sure you're passing? What if you've been mislead? What if the game, from their standpoint, started in the first encounter and they deliberately planted misinformation via their actions then? What if you think you're ahead of them but instead you're 2 steps behind? What surprises might be in store for you that you haven't planned for? Or are you so sure of yourself that "that can't happen to me?" Its a thing to ponder. One you seem to have gotten right ... distraction. A very good example of deliberate distraction to facilitate evasion or approach is contained in chapter 7 of "The Locals". It's worth a read as a concrete example of what they have already done. It's certainly not the whole bag of tricks. All in all, I'll stick to playing flag football with these guys and leave the full contact version to people who like to get hurt. I'm likely to lose either one. I choose to play the one where the loser survives to play another day. MIB

You bring up some good points, to be sure. Guyzon, when you get down to it, there are far fewer tactics than one might assume. Some confuse strategy with tactics, and that's easy to do. Strategy has to do with one's approach to the battlefield, and Tactics are what one does once ON the battlefield. Tactics really, are very few, and can pretty much be learned in one afternoon. Variations within each of the few tactics are fluid, but even then, it's still an extension of the one tactic of the moment. The purpose of all tactics is to divert an opponent's attention for the purpose of closing with - and destroying through envelopment, penetration, or breaking your opponents ability to mutually support each other. Once you fully understand that, you won't be reactionary. The fact that these opponents are without firearms simplifies their options considerably - and likewise simplifies counter tactics. They will have a very limited number of responses. We will use layered defenses - and I'm not getting into specifics - but know that each one counters a known capability. Doesn't matter if they harass, bum-rush, try misdirection, envelopment, or flanking. Once one has been dropped, one rifle covers that and anything that approaches it, regardless of any other actions. Team members must be highly disciplined, given to working the problem, and remaining on task regardless of the noise. And everyone must trust the others to cover their responsibilities. That comes from working together - and being stressed and proven multiple times. You're right. Sunup won't entirely stop them, but they have no advantage in daylight, and they instinctively increase their distance between them and humans. It's automatic. Our problem will be egressing the mountain. LZ Albany, Varus legions - those are examples of the dangers of being strung out.

^^^ Precisely why you should be armed with big bore capability when afield as you may run into one having a bad hair day.

Rock, depends on your purpose in fishing. If I want to kill some time, doze, get a nap, relax and enjoy doing nothing - I can go fishing or hunting. If I want to bring back fish - let's just say I bring back fish, and I may not even use a rod. Never mind what the game warden would say. It's all in what your end goal is.

CM, Pretty sure if someone saw a BF, as described by multiple witnesses, hanging in a cave, the comment would not be, "Gee that's a pretty big human you have hanging up in the cave" I would imagine it would be closer to, "holly crap what is that "thing" you have having up in that cave" In which case, the response at that time is either, "I dont know yet" or "Some sort of bipedal ape" A creature on 2 feet does not equal a human.

I like that definition. It proves my own definition. "Chasing AND killing" The "and" suggest both activities are combined to qualify. I'm not chasing squat. (Being a country boy, you already know that it's no hunt if you already know where they are.) We'll see how science benefits. I'm not giving "science" nothing. They're not giving me anything. Twist, I know there are people who think there are few of these things, that they are somehow endangered, that we must do everything possible to perpetuate their existence. Whatever. I don't believe it for a moment. There's a lot more of these things than folks would ever believe possible. In more places than normal folks would suspect. Often, when I get a call for particular security requirements in very remote areas, I'm there for weeks or months. You spend some real time in some real remote areas - and you'll be mighty surprised sometimes. Hear something where a deer was dropped, turn on a flashlight, and seven pairs of eyes slowly retreat behind the trees? Unlike deer, which will just stand there. These things been reported - in remote areas - four thousands of years. Since written history. Mankind has a pretty big opinion of itself. Mankind could no more wipe these things out than they can eradicate the cockroach. They've both adapted beautifully to their own needs.

JKH, I don't think I'm making contradictory statements. True, I'm not going hunting. If you know where the bear den is, and you go there, that's not hunting. I said I already know of their existence, and am satisfied with that. Never said I don't care for proof - I just don't need any additional "proof" to know what I already know. If I stick my hand in a hole and get snake-bit, I don't need a field biologist to tell me that it was a snake. My skill level is what it is, but my last meeting - I was at a distinct disadvantage. Since the development of firearms, there is an ancient tactic that it's hard to find listed in today's literature - but was very effective from the time of the ancient Greeks to the Nineteenth Century Apache. Show and cover. I had one raising a ruckus in front of me, and as I ease past it, then discover another one is quickly and quietly running toward me from behind. I suddenly found myself at a distinct tactical disadvantage. It was set up - rather, I was set up quite nicely. And I didn't like it one single bit. Plain and simple. It infuriated me. During the rest of the weeks there, I studied them. Long hours. I studied what they did, and how they moved. When I got home, I studied every narrative I could, putting in over a thousand hours, correlating key nuggets found within those narratives. I kept missing something - but after months and months, it finally hit me - and the information was right there the entire time. Now knowing what I was up against, it was then a labor of love to develop the counter-tactics that at the next meeting - will tilt all tactical advantages to me. And believe me, it goes way beyond firearms. Every capability and every tactic can be beaten - in time. So. I don't hunt them. Only if I can return properly equipped, then I'll take my harvest - and there won't be anything they can do to stop me. Coming down the mountain might be tricky, as it's really hard to counter very large rocks being thrown down from above, and it's going to be uncomfortable as a sitting target clearing trees that may be dropped to block the road. They are so very fast. You ever hear one? That's not the one to be concerned with.