What’s your spookiest hunting experience?

I realize this could go a few different directions, but I know we all have some stories that left us freaked out or weirded out.

I have two, both deer hunting in Northern Idaho. Hiking down a skid road when I heard the most insane yipping and cayaying. It was heading right at me at speed, and I went from confused to fully assuming I was about to be whacked by coyotes/wolves/feral dogs. My hind brain took over and I dove behind a stump and threw my rifle across it, just in time to see a pair of Barred Owls come zooming through the brush, just making the most godawful racket you've ever heard. Took a few minutes to calm down after that.

Second was weirder and still unexplained. I packed a small muley about 4 miles back to the truck, arrived around 9pm, and found another guy waiting by my truck. Super nice, said he was just making sure I made it off the mountain cause it wasn't the safest area (his words). I asked him why, and he just put his finger to his lips and said "sit and listen". I was wrecked so I was happy to sit for a bit. After about 5 minutes, on the opposite side of the canyon I heard what I can only describe as a wounded elk squalling. Half bugle, high pitched, but changing tempo and pitch oddly. It went straight to the spine and made me want to bail. Right as that sound ended, the same type of call lit off on the mountain I had just came down. A third call answered the second from back to the west a good ways. These three calls went back and forth for all of 15-20 minutes before they just stopped with no warning. The other guy and I hadn't said a word the whole time we listened, fairly transfixed. Then he just smiled and me and said "this is why I waited. Not a good mountain to be on after dark". And off he drove. I have no idea what I heard that night (I'm not a big foot believer) but it was the most eerie, hair raising communication I've ever heard. I moved shortly after that (graduated from school and moved home) and I've never been back up there.

Mule deer hunting in New Mexico. We went to check out a new area later in the afternoon. Shadows were getting long rounded a bend in the road there lay a human corpse in a pool of blood! The law was on the way as some else had called it in! The law had lots of questions for us. Next day we drove further back in there in low lock in a jeep! Came up on a little two wheel drive pick up with the doors open and bullet holes in the windshield! We were in the bottom of a canyon and could have been picked off from either side! Rifles ready we headed to the nearest phone (way before cell phones exited)! Law split us up and had more questions. The most scared I have very been. Turned out to be a local murder! That first night I learned to drink whiskey straight and it did not help me sleep!

When I thought that a Sasquatch had me!

We were after dark coming in from a days elk hunt….and not using lights. We were using a pack trail that was really chopped up soft dirt, much like the dirt inside a corral. We were walking along the side of a a little creek, between the creek's noise and the very soft dirt …..you could walk a never hear your footsteps.

I believe that I felt, rather than heard something behind me! I turned and there it was…. about 3 feet wide and about 8 feet tall and so close that I couldn't even swing my rifle around. I did manage to get out a rather loud grunt …..at least I didn't scream like a little girl!

In what was only a second or two I realized what attacked me! It was a kid, ridding a horse…..the horse was very motivated to get back to their camp and with another step or two would have been in my daypack!

The group of hunters got a good laugh out of it, and now almost 30 years later…..I can "almost" laugh about it! memtb

Sometime back in the early eighties, I was hunting elk in Washington state. I was near the Elbe hills hunting by myself, which was common. I slept in a canopy on the back of my truck. I was sleeping pretty sound when the truck started rocking back and forth very violently. It lasted about ten to fifteen seconds. I grabbed a flashlight and pistol, but there was nothing around the truck. I still have no clue what rocked the truck like that.

Ol' Red said:

Sometime back in the early eighties, I was hunting elk in Washington state. I was near the Elbe hills hunting by myself, which was common. I slept in a canopy on the back of my truck. I was sleeping pretty sound when the truck started rocking back and forth very violently. It lasted about ten to fifteen seconds. I grabbed a flashlight and pistol, but there was nothing around the truck. I still have no clue what rocked the truck like that.

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Did you manage to get back to sleep after that? It was that it for the night?

One time in Montana, a friend and I were going down this logging road, before daylight. In my headlight, I seen eyes. Turns out to be 3 sets of eyes. Mountain Lions. Real long tails on them. We stopped and they split up, 2 north, and 1 south, of the road. We looked at each other, and decided to go back to the pickup, and hunt another area. Real slow going, back to the pickup.

marksman1941 said:

Did you manage to get back to sleep after that? It was that it for the night?

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No more sleep that night. I also cut the hunt short and went home a day early. My wife was happy and I never told her why.

Ol' Red said:

Sometime back in the early eighties, I was hunting elk in Washington state. I was near the Elbe hills hunting by myself, which was common. I slept in a canopy on the back of my truck. I was sleeping pretty sound when the truck started rocking back and forth very violently. It lasted about ten to fifteen seconds. I grabbed a flashlight and pistol, but there was nothing around the truck. I still have no clue what rocked the truck like that.

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Any cattle around ? One might have used your truck as a rubbing post .

LouisianaHunter said:

Any cattle around ? One might have used your truck as a rubbing post .

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No cattle in that area, but a lot of black bears. They can run fast and disappear fast. But there were no paw marks in the dirt that or dust that covered the truck. My best guess was a bear hunting for a picnic basket.

Setting decoys in the dark on the slough on my property, surrounded by trees along and overhanging a good portion of the slough, a female bobcat was above me when she let out a wail, I about pee'd my waders and I may have let out a little wail myself. If someone had of chunked a rock in the water near me, I am pretty sure I would have been a couple miles down the road before I got my wits about me.

I have walked up on a porcupine in the dark, stared across the river at a large mountain lion, stood toe to toe with a wounded wild boar, had a semi tame buffalo bluff charge me and had an alligator slap the side of my kayak, but nothing has scared me to the core like that bobcat did. It was just unnerving.

I wasn't spooked but my bow hunting buddy sure was. I was living in NW Louisiana back before hunting clubs took over and clear cutting hardwood trees was in full force. :/ My buddy and I left the plant to do a little evening bow hunting. His stand was to the north of the road we parked off of and mine was to the south and a little west. When I walked in I caught myself subconsciously playing a tune with the squeaks from one of the cams on my bow :/ When I got setup (climbing tree stand) the lightbulb came on. If it squeaked when I was walking it would squeak when I drew. well s word... I decided to stick with the hunt. My buddy, although scared of the dark was, he was guaranteed to stay on his stand until there was no more light so I could hunt or sit in the truck for a few hours.

A doe came out a little before last light and when I drew back the screech that came out of the cam, in that moment, to me, was deafening. The deer looked straight at me and headed out. I never got to full draw so she was safe. I sat there contemplating what to do. There was still about 30 minutes, at least, before my buddy would leave his stand plus he had to walk out. I decided to pack it in and go wait in the truck.

I sat in the truck as long as I could tolerate it. I got an idea. I was still dressed in camo. I'll just go stand a little off trail and wait for my buddy to come by. Neither of us carried a pistol for backup so my plan should be safe.

I walked about 1/4 mile down, found where he went into the woods, and followed the trail in for 50' or so before I found a nice big tree to lean up against. I had all of my camo on so even if his flashlight hit me he might not see me. Sometime during the wait a Screech Owl cut loose from down in the bottom somewhere. I won't lie, that almost sent me packing. But, I knew my buddy was going to be wound up even tighter over the Screech Owl so everything was coming together. 10 or 15 minutes later I saw his light dipping and darting up, down, and across the trail. He was walking fast with his head down and he was flicking his light every which way. As he passed next to me I reached out and yelled Hey! Where are you going! His screech rivaled the Owl's and all I heard was his footsteps running away. To his credit he held on to his equipment which was concerning. Now I had to come out of the trail and hopefully not eat an arrow. I yelled his name a few times as I walked down the trail. He wasn't there so he never heard me. He was back at the truck when I got there. He called me, well... he called me stuff. A lot of stuff. I reckon I deserved it

Later on I had still hunted down in the big bottom that the Screech Owl called from. I was a few miles in and daylight was fading. I've never been afraid of the dark. When I was a kid my dog and I would go out at night, "huntin". But the Owl turned loose way back down in the big hardwood bottom and that spooked me. Everything was a boogie man after that. It was a long walk out. I guess the Owl paid me back. I miss those days.

Over a half century ago prior to military service, I went squirrel hunting bringing along our dog Mac. I may have been about 13 or 14 years old. We were about a mile or so from home and deep in the woods. Walking down a steep hill my dog stopped and started sniffing with his nose high in the air. He started whinning and then stuck his tail between his legs and hauled *** back towards the house. Needless to say I was close behind him running from whatever he was running from. Never knew this dog to be afraid of anything. Was so relieved to make it back to the main road.

The dark woods can get a little spooky at night. When I was younger during hunting deer hunting season I would frequently camp by myself when my lazy hunting partners didn't show up. One night at a friend's farm (more like a wilderness tract) I set up my tent and built a small fire. A large pack of coyotes attacked critter literally a few yards away from my camp. It was a pitch black night and the sounds that came from attack were unnerving and viscous. Obviously there was a fight between the coyotes for their kill, and they chased and fought each other for pieces of the animal. This went on for what seemed like forever. I grabbed my flashlight and directed the beam into the woods around my camp site and saw shining eyes in all directions around me. I yelled out and they stopped fighting and yelping for a moment. Turned off my flashlight and sat next to the fire for hours. I could hear them for running through the woods and occasionally howling the rest of night. It was not a very restful night.

I miss opening day of squirrel hunting in N. LA. A friend/coworker told me to hunt his family land on opening day one year. He told me that more than likely nobody would hunt it because it wasn't close to anything. To get there I had to open a locked gate, drive about 1 mile in, and park at a very old family cemetery. Like Civil War era old. That was an interesting place.

Not far from the wrought iron fence of the cemetery the land dropped off into a big hardwood and pine bottom. Some of the trees there were big enough that I couldn't reach more than 1/2 way around them. very old. They were there during the Civil War.

As I walked in I noticed that it was near impossible to be quiet when I walked through the dead ok and hickory leaves. It's easy to be quiet walking on pine needles, you just had to feel the sticks under the needles so they don't crack if you step on them. I found a big pine that was near some smaller pine trees, leaned up against it, and waited for the sound of pine cone seeds hitting the leaves. I'd been there maybe 30m when a deer came by. I heard it coming through the leaves before I saw it so I didn't feel too bad about sounding like a Walrus when I walked in. Not long after a voice very near me said, having an luck. I froze and looked around. Not 3' away there was an old man, wearing old tiger stripe camo, and holding a shotgun. I said no sir, just a deer. He said yup, I followed her in. That man did not make a sound coming or going. I watched him disappear into the woods. I stuck around for an hour or so then left with a few squirrels.