Report 12876: Deer hunters hear wood knocks near Aberdeen

My buddy and I went out deer hunting on 10/15/05 opening day. We were going to a favorite spot of his on [a particular road in the area].  Anyway, we got to the spot at about 6:00am still dark, we sat in the truck till it got light enough to see better. We were at the start of the spur truck not running, windows down. We were talkin when I noticed a loud sound on my side of the road, it was stick beating. There were loud 7 slams in a row. It stoped for maybe 5 seconds  then 7 more from further off in the distance. This went on for aprox 8 minutes. I asked my buddy if he was hearing it and he said yes but he thought it was just a hunter trying to spook up deer. I don't think so ...  why would somebody do that back in the woods an hour and a half before daylight? At one point later on a low bed truck came down the road, most likely to pick logging epuipment. When the truck got closer the driver of the truck stopped, then quickly shined a spotlight in the timber around where we heared the beating. He then took off grabing the gears fast (I know because I drive a log truck too.) The stickbeating stopped after that. However, when we did hear the beating, they were very hard and heavy bangs. I'm 6'2" 250 lbs and I tried to make the same sound, to describe to my brother in law what I heard. The loudest knock sounds I could make weren't even close to what I heard. I haven't been back since due to my work schedule. So there it is, Tell me what you think...