A quiet morning in the woods quickly turned into a violent and unexpected encounter for a Wisconsin teenager who suddenly found himself face-to-face with a predator.
According to the New York Post, Carson Bender, 19, was turkey hunting on private land near Nekoosa when the situation took a dangerous turn. Positioned at the base of a tree, he noticed movement behind him — and realized a bobcat was closing in.
Instead of fleeing, Bender pulled out his phone and began recording.
“I pan over with the phone, and the bobcat is just staring at me,” he told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. “I was like, uh-oh.”
The video shows the animal inching closer, locked onto him. Within seconds, the tension escalated as the bobcat lunged, grabbing Bender’s arm before the footage abruptly cuts off.
Bender said he reacted quickly, managing to shake the animal off before it ran away.
“Found out I’m good at calling cats and turkeys!” he joked later in an Instagram post.
He had spotted the bobcat earlier, estimating it weighed around 25 pounds, but said he wasn’t sure how to respond at the time. The animal appeared as he was lining up a shot on a turkey.
Despite the chaos of the attack, Bender stayed focused on his hunt.
“Missed a bird three minutes later at 35 yards, then headed to the doctor’s office. Just a few scratches on the shoulder,” he wrote.
Even after being mauled, he said his attention quickly shifted back to the turkey.
“It might sound dumb, but I wanted to kill that turkey that was strutting in,” Bender said. “It was a lot of action in just a minute or so, but I never really felt threatened and went with my instincts.”
After receiving medical attention, Bender returned to the same hunting spot the very next morning.
Encounters like this are highly unusual. Wildlife experts note that while bobcats may occasionally investigate turkey calls, they rarely attack humans. In most cases, the animals retreat once they sense something is off.
The brief but intense moment, captured on camera, highlights just how unpredictable the outdoors can be — even for experienced hunters.
