What’s your spookiest hunting experience?

Forgive me, this is a fishing story, but worth sharing I think….
I was walleye fishing with a friend and his son on Upper Red Lake in northern MN. It was a dreary gray day with an occasional sprinkle and on a few occasions we could hear a very distant rumble of thunder.
We were anchored in about 12' of water and were jig fishing. My friends son Jacob decided to take a break and reeled his line in. While having a snack he noticed his fishing line started to buzz. When he touched the rod he got a shock. On closer inspection you could see arcing between the fishing line and rod eyelets (like a spark plug). At about the same time my buddy Paul had casted his jig about 20 yards off the side of the boat and his monofilament fishing line hung suspended about 6' off the surface of the water. Our hair also began to stand on end. Needless to say, we pulled anchor and quickly got off of the lake. I think we were moments away from being struck by lightning.

PartsJr. said:

Forgive me, this is a fishing story, but worth sharing I think….
I was walleye fishing with a friend and his son on Upper Red Lake in northern MN. It was a dreary gray day with an occasional sprinkle and on a few occasions we could hear a very distant rumble of thunder.
We were anchored in about 12' of water and were jig fishing. My friends son Jacob decided to take a break and reeled his line in. While having a snack he noticed his fishing line started to buzz. When he touched the rod he got a shock. On closer inspection you could see arcing between the fishing line and rod eyelets (like a spark plug). At about the same time my buddy Paul had casted his jig about 20 yards off the side of the boat and his monofilament fishing line hung suspended about 6' off the surface of the water. Our hair also began to stand on end. Needless to say, we pulled anchor and quickly got off of the lake. I think we were moments away from being struck by lightning.

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WOW!

Wife and I were deer hunting on a private ranch in No. Cal some years ago. We had hiked 4 or 5 miles from the gate when a thunderstorm blew up. Got dark, big wind, lightening - the usual. We're crossing a 40 or so acre field when wifey stops and says 'the ground is moving'. She's concerned. We stop, and as we're looking around - in the storm - I realize that the ground Did seem to be moving. It wasn't, though. The lightening had caused hundreds of thousands of tarantulas to leave their burrows and come to the surface. They were so thick we had to be precise in our footsteps not to step on them! Wifey was freaked. We had a long way to go back to the truck. I completely blew it when I picked one up and tried to explain that they are basically harmless. That went over big.

C-130 Dude said:

What about the calves?

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As I recall, there was little or no blood but they had been mutilated. The carcasses were still whole, guts were still in them but theyd had their anus' grotesquely mutilated.

Mike, Aka, bear bait. Was guiding two lawyers and their wives late in the season. Salmon run was over, for the most part But these two lawyers booked a fishing/ river trip for trout and grayling. The guide service was closing for the winter and Mike and the lodge owner were the only people left, other than the cook. So Mike took them out. It was early September and starting to be cold. The first two days went great and Mike was expecting a good tip for this, they were catching lots of fish and having a great time. Then it went bad! He had the four clients in a wall tent, he slept in a bivy sac between the camp fire and the tent. He was waken by something tripping over the tie down lines to the biv sac. He slid out a shined his light only to see a nine foot brown bear ten feet away. Then he heard another sound and saw another one directly behind him. Two nine foot bears in the camp. Ten feet from the wall tent and the sleeping lawyers and wives. Out comes the 12 gauge again. But he knew he wasn't pulling the trigger on these two. He watched as they walked off out of the camp fire light. Breathing a sigh of relief he scooted back in his little sac. Twenty minutes later, they are back. Now they are sniffing around the wall tent. He hits them with his flashlight which only brings one over to him. It's now at the end of his sac, about eight feet. He's looking down the barrel of the 870 at it scared poop less. It huffs at him and walks off about fifteen yards and gets in a fight with the other bear. He's out of the sac now headed to the wall tent. The wives are awake! He gets the two guys out and dressed. Wives are coming un glued now. He's telling them to keep quiet without much success. The guys are out of the tent and the bears have moved off about thirty yards. Mike is watching the bears while the two guys are stoking up the camp fire. The two guys and the wives are scared sh#$ less. They threw everything that they can on the fire for three more hours until day light. The bears never moved more than fifty yards away the whole time and circled the camp. When it got light enough to see he had them in the boat headed back to the lodge. Four hour trip with the wives explaining why they were never going on another trip with them. That's the trip that got him the bear bait nickname. When he and the lodge owner went back for the tents and stove and other camping equipment it had been wiped out by the bears. He did get a good tip. The lawyer's were impressed with the way he kept his head during the whole time they were surrounded by the big Brown bears. The wives, not so much. They were the first two out on the float plane. When you want adventure be careful, you may get it !

My 12 year old daughter and I were laying on top of a shale-covered hillside waiting for some mule deer bucks to appear as they worked their way up from the bottom of the draw. She was in position behind the gun on a bipod and some deer backs were now visible. As she peered through the scope, off to our right, about 4 or 5 feet away, we heard a distinct rattle caught our attention. As soon as her eyes focused on the prairie rattlesnake just feet in front of her face, she jumped up and screamed and ran away from the snake and of course the deer bounded off and jumped the fence onto the adjacent private property. The hair stood up on the back of my neck for sure - mainly because I was concerned for her safety! The good Lord still provided a nice buck for her that year, so I guess it was a blessing?!.

Now, I tend to watch my step a bit closer on our hunting and fishing excursions - especially when she is with me.

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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Good ol earth quake. We get them all the time.

One more and I'll just read everyone else stories. This is fifteen years later than the Ak. Story. Mike, myself and two other friends are backpacking in the Smoky Mountains. We parked at the trail head on New found gap and stayed the night at Ice water Springs trail shelter. This was a winter trip and it was snowing by the time we got to the trail shelter. Nice enjoyable night But the next morning there was about ten inches of fresh snow. We had planned to go on the MT laconte the next day, but the weather was supposed to get worse.So we decided to just head home. We leave the shelter and I'm leading down the trail from ice water Springs back to the AT. It's nasty, tight and very steep on both sides. I'd brought a pair of mucklucs back from Ak. So I tried the out on the deep snow, big mistake. I'm carrying a fifty pound pack using my stick to help. The trail switched from one side of a sharp ridge to the other, I was making a move to the left side of a steep ridge when I just started sliding, sliding in slow motion. The mucklucs got no traction on the ice beneath the snow. I'm sliding towards a avalanche chute. In slow motion, I intentionally fall down and try to dig in with my hiking stick, I'm still sliding, Over the edge I go. Five hundred feet to the bottom. I slide down about ten feet, with my toes and fingers trying to get anything to grab onto.
Then I stop, A small stump caught me in my couch, ouch! But I'm alive. Now I'm trying to figure out how to get back to the top. I hear a voice above me saying "hay man, what are you doing down there". It's bear bait. My saviour! He and the other guys drop a strap and pull me up. I look back where I was shaking my head. That little stump was the only thing that could have stopped me. I'd be dead! I took off the mucklucs and put on the Herman survivor boots. I only lost two toe nails that hurt like crazy walking out. But I was alive. That day was the closest I've ever been to death.

Please, no one hesitate to post multiple stories. I think the goal of this is just to drop all the crazy stuff you've seen. If you've been in the woods for years, you're bound to have several stories and I wanna hear them all.

More come to mind reading through all of these. I had two experiences being tracked by critters that had me surprised at how easily I was snuck up on.

First was hunting with my cousin Casey. We went everywhere together back in those days. One snow day we were sitting in a little blind made of sticks waiting for deer. Got in before dark, stayed til 10-11am before getting too cold and moving back to the truck (which wasn't far. 200-300 yards). When we got up, we found mountain lion tracks in the snow behind us about 50 feet, and a big melted patch where he had sad and watched us for however long it took to melt the snow. The tracks ranged in about a 1/3 circle around our backs, before going back down to our trucks, circling it once, then heading off. We had no inclination, no sounds, no hair raising to warn us there was a critter there. We didn't stand a chance tucked into our cramped 3 sides stick and branch blind.

Second one, also hunting with Casey, chasing turkeys. We climbed this small semi muddy hill during spring season, and coming back down we found 7" wide bear tracks and enormous purple poop piles in our footprints from 15 minutes earlier. We didn't even have to say a word, we both just booked it hard home.

Last one for the night, unrelated to the above. Was out 4 wheeling with Casey and we stretched the truck a bit and disconnected the rear driveline. Had to hike out and get some help after digging for a few hours, so it was well past dark. On the way down the mountain, Casey has the light and I have the .45. We're just heading down the road and something EXPLODES from the ditch line and goes into the trees. Without missing a beat, Casey dives behind me with the flashlight raised up over my head and I had the .45 out and ready to go, only to find a Turkey had flown to roost in a nearby tree. Took a while to slow the hearts after that.

Ok, hear goes another one. I was 23 years old, fresh out of the Air Force. Been stationed out on the end of the Alaska Peninsula. Crappy little island called Shemya. But I was flush with cash and had a VW beetle. I went fishing somewhere around the Anchorage area every day during the summer. I was on a little creek near willow, about a mile from salt water. The F and G people were putting bright yellow and green tags on salmon, you could see them coming fifty yards down the creek. I'd been fishing with a mepps spinner for trout. But when I saw the salmon I took out my pliers and worked the blade back and forth until it broke off.now I have a weighted treble hook. Didn't take long to snag one. It was legal then. Well, my light weight rig wasn't up to handling ten pound salmon, it was burning line off the reel. I took off chasing it up stream. I ran across a sand bar and around a bend in the Creek. My hook was caught on a snag. Well, poo. I'll go back and hook another one. I'm walking down the sand bar I'd Just ran down three minutes ago. There is a giant Brown bear track on top of my boot print. My Ruger hand gun is out and I'm scanning the bushes. Nothing! But I'm spooked. It had to have watched me run by from only feet away. I packed up my stuff and found another creek to fish.

Muddyboots said:

Ok, NEVER told anyone of this incident. Hunting Adirondacks early 20's, ok wise guys my age, not the roaring twenties, which was long time ago. Out of fingers and toes counting how long ago. I left hunting camp to hunt solo since nobody wanted to make the trek in so far well before daylight. This was way before GPS so it was compass to stay on course. I get about 1/4 mile from the meadow that I never hunted before and stopped. Something told me to lay up. No sounds. Dark in Adirondacks is can't see hand. I have no idea why I stopped and turned my flashlight off. I listen. Absolutely nothing. I mean no rustling of mice, no night birds, no owls. DEAD quiet. Then I see a glow, then a large brilliant white light soundlessly rises up out of the meadow and disappeared into sky. No visible shape just brilliant white light. I am dead serious about this. I sat there on a log, light off and shaking so freaking hard for quite a while. Dawn broke, I stood up and went back to camp. I never went to meadow to check and NEVER went back to that meadow to hunt. Never told anyone of this until this thread hit a nerve.

Swamp gas my butt.

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Um, yeah Muddy. May I have the location of this incident please. No really. Pleeeaaaassse! Every meadow I come to now will be a heart stopper.

adk hunter said:

Um, yeah Muddy. May I have the location of this incident please. No really. Pleeeaaaassse! Every meadow I come to now will be a heart stopper.

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Wells

Muddyboots said:

Wells

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This is getting worse!!
I hunt from Wilcox wilderness to Wells and that side of Speculator!
Geez

Grew up spending summers in Lake Pleasant and Speculator in another time long ago. All I can tell you is I won't hunt NW of Wells.......just saying.