One morning in October 2013, Jeff McDonald put on an orange hunting hat and headed out of his Manning home to spend a few hours prowling for deer in the nearby woods.

About a half-hour along the familiar path, a little more than a mile from home, the hunter spotted something strange in the distance. It looked like a person dressed head-to-toe in tan clothing.

"I thought, 'Man, that is really crazy for someone to be up here in deer season, to be wearing basically buck-skin-colored clothes,'" he said.

The person walked toward McDonald. He was naked. In one hand, he held McDonald's pruning saw.

"I was armed with a high-powered rifle," McDonald said. "I thought he's probably not going to do anything."

As soon as the other man spoke, the hunter knew he'd thought wrong.

"Well, I asked him who he was, and he replied very calmly, just as sane as anyone, that his name was Linus Norgren," McDonald recalled. And in the same reasonable voice, that "he was a Sasquatch from a family of Sasquatches."

McDonald told his story to The Oregonian/OregonLive as Norgren, 22, was sentenced to prison Tuesday for attacking the hunter.

At that point, McDonald said he didn't want to upset Norgren, so he was careful to turn his rifle away from the young man. He didn't mention the saw. He tried to appear calm.

"I attempted to talk to him like it was someone with clothes on," McDonald said.

McDonald suggested that he help get Norgren home, so he started walking alongside the young man, guiding him toward the road. The two men had never met, though they lived near each other.

A few steps later, McDonald said the naked man whacked him in the head and McDonald toppled to the ground and blacked out.

Next, he remembers waking up on his back. Norgren was lying on top of him with both hands wrapped around McDonald's neck. Grunting and growling, Norgren was squeezing with all his strength, McDonald said.

The hunter fought back as best he could. He found his arms were hardly moving, but if he tucked his elbows close, he had some wrist and hand mobility. He would later learn that both his shoulders had been dislocated while he was unconscious.

McDonald was as scared as scared gets, he said. As they struggled on the ground, McDonald asked, "Why are you trying to kill me?"

And, he said, Norgren replied, "Sasquatch kills the hunter."

Norgren pushed his thumb deep into McDonald's right eye. He shoved his other hand down McDonald's throat.

McDonald said he caught one Norgren's knuckles between his teeth. The hunter bit down and held on until Norgren pulled his hand away.

Using everything he could muster, he grabbed onto Norgren's hands and tried to disable his thumbs.

That's when "Linus just kind of passed out right on top of me," McDonald said.

The naked man slept for about 30 seconds before waking, apparently confused. A pattern like this continued, allowing the hunter to maneuver the two of them over to a downward slope.

After McDonald snaked his way there, with Norgren still on top of him, he managed to flip over.

Once the hunter was on top of Norgren, the naked man thrashed around but he couldn't stay awake, McDonald said.

The hunter spotted his rifle lying paces away. As Norgren drifted off, McDonald jumped up and ran to it. He picked it up and pointed it at Norgren.

He made several calls to 911 and his wife, relaying what had happened. Sheriff's deputies and state troopers navigated the thick forest for about 90 minutes before they found the men.

When they came on scene, relief fell over the hunter. No matter his injuries, he said, in that moment "it was all well and good because I wasn't going to be killed and I wasn't going to have to kill a kid."

Nearly a year and a half later, Norgren's attorney told Washington County jurors last week that the young man was experiencing symptoms of his untreated bipolar disorder. Norgren told the jury he was scared of the hunter and he perceived a threat and acted in self-defense.

Jurors rejected the self-defense theory and found Norgren guilty of attempted murder and three counts of second-degree assault. They acquitted him of first-degree assault and unlawful use of a weapon.

Defense lawyer Bear Wilner-Nugent told the court Tuesday that he could not go with an insanity defense without his client's consent, but the evidence of mental illness was a mitigating factor.

Two deputies brought Norgren into the courtroom. Wearing an orange-and-white-striped jumpsuit, he kept looking out at his family and friends - about two dozen of them seated in the courtroom.

He told the judge he never meant to hurt McDonald. His suffered the worst mental disturbance of his life that day, he said, and it made him scared of the hunter. He said he's regretted what happened ever since.

Circuit Judge Thomas Kohl sentenced Norgren to 10 years in prison.

McDonald survived the attack only by the grace of God, the judge said.

Hunting isn't the same for McDonald. In the months before trial, he worried for his safety and others' with Norgren out of custody.

But now, he said, he feels everyone's safer.

-- Emily E. Smith

esmith@oregonian.com

503-294-4032; @emilyesmith