Guest Cervelo Posted March 22, 2014 Posted March 22, 2014 (edited) Nathan, What I posted are gun shots and I've heard "woodknocking" all my life in the woods. It seems to go away during hunting season but I hear it near gun ranges....so you can guess what my opinion is.....having spent many a hunting season with dogs in Va. which we obviously keep track of their movements by sound...I've heard every flavor of bizzareness that terrain, weather and wind that can inflict on a known sound. As to what you've heard.....tree branch breaking and falling would be my go to and I've heard and been way to close to that event as well and it's very scary....but I've never seen a Bigfoot thrashing or knocking down trees. Seen deer, cows ect take it out on trees but no Bigfoot yet! Edited March 22, 2014 by Cervelo
NathanFooter Posted March 22, 2014 Posted March 22, 2014 That was what I was saying in my post, many times people here ,, knocks ,, and they are likely gun shots, this is why I am skeptical of those distant knocks, they could just be gun shots. In the cases where I heard up close knocks that is completely different. I heard several knocks in a row about a a second or 2 apart and then on the final strike a crack and then a skidding sound in the leaf duff. When a limb falls and cracks that is the end, there is no striking cadence or repetition sequence.
Guest zenmonkey Posted March 23, 2014 Posted March 23, 2014 Old spade shovel handle. It's Hickory and about 4 feet long. The business end is about 5 quarters thick and the part I hold is about 1" thick. Perfect for my hands. It's also long enough to have some spring so it doesn't hurt my hands. Works great but I typically don't knock anymore cuz I don't really know what the heck I'm implying?? Could be an arm wrestling challenge for all I know??!! Well that'd be one way to draw them in lol
Guest JiggyPotamus Posted March 23, 2014 Posted March 23, 2014 I don't tree knock myself, although I have on a couple of occasions, just for the heck of it. Never had any responses though. When I did do it I just found a decent sized stick, and whacked a tall pine tree. It hurt my hand, lol. Sort of like the feeling I would get when I was little and used to hit a baseball with a wooden bat. While on the subject, does anyone ever clack flat rocks together or anything, or has anyone ever heard something that sounded like rocks being smacked together? And if so, do you think it is more difficult to make a loud sound with rocks as opposed to sticks on trees? I am wondering if one heard a very loud rock clack, if that would mean there must be a lot of force behind the rock. I can imagine two rocks being relatively loud, but I don't know how it would compare to wood on wood.
Guest Posted March 24, 2014 Posted March 24, 2014 If you guys wood knock what do you use? Any good sized log laying around or do you have a "special stick". My head. It gets a lot of resonance with all the unused space in there.
Incorrigible1 Posted March 24, 2014 Posted March 24, 2014 And the hollow sound really gets the sound out there! Plussed for a hearty belly-laugh. Thank you, Antfoot. I needed that.
Guest Coonbo Posted March 26, 2014 Posted March 26, 2014 For years I used a set of "knocking sticks" that I cut from a young white oak tree. One was about 3 1/2" in diameter and the other about 4" in dia. once the bark was peeled off of them. Each one was about 4ft long. I carved a crude handle of sorts into the small end of the 3 1/2" dia. piece. After the wood cured they worked quite well. I'd bang them together, but it was even more effective if I leaned the thicker one against a log or something that would support it so that I could take a full, two-handed swing at it with the thinner stick. You had to be careful how you placed the target stick so that it wouldn't go flying when you hit it with the other one. I often used the one with the handle to whomp on trees, power poles, signs, logs, and other targets of opportunity that produced a good sound. Interesting thing, when I was using my camp axe to cut and trim those sticks, I aroused the interest of the local boogers, who paid me a visit about 45 minutes later, when it was dark. I was in an isolated area, just my dog, Bo, and me. He alerted me to their presence, then they started bombarding me with owl calls from multiple directions, as they came closer. Bo was afraid to hide under the truck and ended up cowering on TOP of the cab, I shined a flashlight around and found eight (yes eight!) sets of eyes coming at us from six directions. I decided it was time to leave, and did so - hastily. NathanFooter: We've tried banging on things besides trees, or pieces thereof, and also have had some interesting results sometimes. Although, I haven't tried a wash tub. I've got a big, very heavy duty, round plastic tub that I put some of my camping gear in that I bet would make quite a noise if hit on the bottom. Will have to try that. There's a large sign at one place we frequent, and when we whomp it, we always get results. antfoot: Gonna have to try the head knock. I've certainly got the required hollow cavity. Does it work better to hit it with a large stick or a hammer?
NathanFooter Posted March 26, 2014 Posted March 26, 2014 Very interesting Coonbo, the washtub we have been using is made of a thicker sheet metal and if you smack the bottom or side of it with a sturdy stick it makes a loud metal bang { very much like smacking an old stop sign }. About 20 to 30 minutes after the tub was wailed on we had some very close by activity and the next morning we had foot impressions just into the tree line about 35 feet from camp. We have done this and almost every time activity would start about 20 to 50 minutes after. When you hit the sign what happened ?
Cotter Posted March 26, 2014 Posted March 26, 2014 The knocks I heard across from my house sounded like baseball bats or even gun shots at times. I must add this too....that at the time I was rebuilding a horse stall in the barn. My son was very young and couldn't do much hammering of nails at that age but for a girl I had a fairly good swing and did most of the repairs around there. The hairy guys might have thought I was sending them messages lol??? Who knows??? And it was not hunting season, I checked with the warden. Sunflower - if I may ask, what state do you live in?
Guest Coonbo Posted March 26, 2014 Posted March 26, 2014 Nathan, when we whomp that big sign we almost always get an answering vocalization from immediately to within a minute or so. Then we get approached within the next 15 to 30 minutes, sometimes a little longer. Depending on their mood and the size of our group they'll often come right in to visual range, but if there's more than 2 or 3 of us, they hang up out at rock-throwing range, or as far out as about 100yds or so if there's more than about 6 of us. This place used to be my sure-fire place to take someone that really wanted to see one or to take a skeptic that had the cajones to actually get out into nature, but it was right off the side of a fairly busy road. My friend Jim "Bear" Grant discovered it quite by accident. It is right beside the place we now call AP Road. The P stands for Pucker, you'll have to figure out what the A stands for.
Sunflower Posted April 7, 2014 Posted April 7, 2014 In another thread about wood knocks I and also Branco agree about the tapping. Hubby and I were standing on a low water bridge and heard a series of taps, they went tap, tap, tap, tap, pause tap, tap, tap, tap, pause then tap, tap, tap. I looked at him and said something sillly like....woodpecker lol? No way that was a woodpecker and Branco and I think that it's very possible they are sending messages to others that there are visitors to their water source. The taps were very light sounding, as if you had a small stick in your hand and tapped on another small stick (my best description). We got a little concerned but not scared at all. As many things that have happened to us, this was another one for the book and hung out for quite a while.
MIB Posted April 7, 2014 Moderator Posted April 7, 2014 Hi Sunflower - Those taps sound like the ones that followed me on around the lake shore after I'd had a 10-15 minute whistling exchange with something behind a 15 foot thick layer of high elevation firs ... something that knows about taking turns and can count. Concerned? Not anymore. That is one spoooooky place. Something on the order of chills down the spine. Ominous. And lonely beyond what's explainable by just being empty. Not since that day, though. While all of those things are there, it's like their context changed. I've had more weird stuff happen but it strikes me as funny, not threatening. It's like ... well, like being in on the joke. MIB 1
Sunflower Posted April 8, 2014 Posted April 8, 2014 lol I can relate to the jokes.......Yes they can count and they understand sharing.........FWIW. Thanks for your post.
salubrious Posted April 8, 2014 Moderator Posted April 8, 2014 While on the subject, does anyone ever clack flat rocks together or anything, or has anyone ever heard something that sounded like rocks being smacked together? And if so, do you think it is more difficult to make a loud sound with rocks as opposed to sticks on trees? I am wondering if one heard a very loud rock clack, if that would mean there must be a lot of force behind the rock. I can imagine two rocks being relatively loud, but I don't know how it would compare to wood on wood. We've had rock clacking going on at a friend's cabin. One night I heard it right outside the bedroom window at 12:30 AM.
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