I was hunting antelope in a walk in area in Wyoming with a buddy. We had spotted a group of lopes in an opening near a fence line. As we planned our stalk we found a washed out gully that would keep us out of sight until we got to 400 ish yards. A perfect situation. As we slipped along this gully we spitted a group of cows above the gully on our right side. Well.. we thought they were all cows. Anyways, we made eye contact with the cows and everything seemed fine, they stared at us bug eyed as cows do, but unlike all the other cows we had encountered this trip they did not move away. We did not pay much attention to them until we were about 25 yards beside them. Then I hear my buddy, in a loud somewhat panicked whisper, say "hey man, those cows are coming towards us", I responded with some choice expletives and said "that one in front is a bull". As most of you know, Angus bulls do not have horns it is another part of their anatomy that tipped me off. Their pace quickened to a trot as they came into the gully we were exiting on the other side. We backpedaled out of the gully, across a flat, toward a hill. Shouting and waving our hands did nothing to stop their advances. The bull in front was now 15 yards away. Instinctively I fired a .308 round just a few feet in front of the lead bull's hooves. He stopped for a second bewildered before continuing his approach somewhat more cautiously. We turned our quick walking pace into a full run and beelined it to the nearest fence. After we reached the safety of the other side of the fence we looked back to see the bull cresting the hill with the rest of the herd several yards behind.

Once in the truck, a quick google search revealed that cows kill abut 22 people a year. A sobering statistic about an animal we regard as somewhat innocuous compared to all the other hazards we face in the woods.

Has anyone else had this happen to them? Do you think we overreacted?