What’s your spookiest hunting experience?

Rick79 said:

3 times jump to mind for me. First was when I was 16 or 17. Me and a buddy were goofing off and walking the river at a deer lease our dads were on. Started getting dark and we decided to head back to the truck and go to camp. Made it about half way to the truck and there were mountain lion tracks between the sets we had put down. We were a bit on edge the rest of the way to the truck.

2018 on an elk hunt on the south fork coming out of Yellowstone. We were breaking down an elk when a 7.5 foot tall grizzly boar decided he wanted it more than we did. He took a mag from my .40 starting at 20 yards and a 300WSM to the head to finish off. I carry a 10mm in grizzly country now.

2021 at my deer lease on north Texas. I had a group of does and yearlings that showed up like clockwork. That day they didn't. Had a few other deer straggle through but acting nervous as could be. About an hour before dark I hear some deer running through the brush. Once they cleared it, they took a hard right and we're still hauling a** and that's when the mountain lion cleared the brush hot on their heels. I was alone without a pistol, just a bolt gun. It was well before dark when I walked out that evening and I take a pistol every time now. No one believed me until another guy saw it about a week later, he wasn't able to get a shot off either.

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Wanashoot said:

Years ago a local guy shot and killed a big cat. It weighed 172 pounds and he drove around with it in his pickup for a day or so for all to see. I looked at it and had no idea they were even here. I live in North Texas. Next morning I went deer hunting and I always pride my self on not turning on a flashlight unless it is an emergency and walking in at dark. I was slipping in to my area and thinking about the cougar and stepped into a group of quail that were bedded down. All I herd was fluttering and things hitting me from all sides as they were trying to escape. I remember hearing a scream and it took me a while to realize that the noise was me. Scared the crap out of me. After catching my breath and calming down I turned flashlight on and went to my area. I figured any deer in a mile would have herd me anyway.

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sika64 said:

When I was in my late teens I was going hunting one morning ( first day of gun season) I always got to the woods early 1-1 1/2 hours before shooting time I would be in my stand. A friend of mine was supposed to go with me on this day but couldn't make it because of being sick. So I go anyways and was used to hunting by myself. When I got to the property I decided to take a different route to my stand for some reason , it was really bright out from a full moon and I didn't need a light at all. So I get about 75 yards into the woods and see something that catches my eye, as I get closer I can see that it's a blanket and it's covering something up. When I get up to it my first thought is someone shot a deer the day before (Sunday and no hunting back then) so I kneel down and pat it still thinking that it's a deer. So I lift up a corner of the blanket and was extremely surprised when I see a arm and face . I dropped the blanket, got up and made my way to my stand in a hurry thinking the whole time of what in the hell just happened, and whoever put it there could still be around. So I get up into my treestand (still a good hour before light) and I hear someone walking in a straight line towards me, so I load my gun and just wait. They stop about 50 yards from me and I can't really see them or hear them anymore. Once its light enough to make them out I keep a really good eye on him until it's light enough that I can see it's another friend of mine. So finally I can relax a little, after about a hour and not seeing anything I made a grunt call to get his attention and wave him over. He gets under me and says it's still early why did you call me over. I look at him and say ....There's a dead person in the woods up on the hill coming in. He just stands there looking around for what seemed to be 15 minutes and finally says....What in the hell did you just say. So we get our stuff together and go up there and in full daylight you can definitely see that it's a body. Go down to the 7-11 and call the police and spend the next couple of hours telling them the story. The first cop to show was a rookie and when we took him to the body his hand never left his pistol the whole time lol.

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Rockchuck27 said:

Maybe an earthquake?? I vote sasquatch though!

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Critter Picker said:

You ever swim at night? Now that makes my hair stand up!

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BrentM said:

Having a very aggressive alpha male wolf track me down. after an earlier encounter, in the dark while hiking off the mountain to camp. I have never heard such a terrifying howl, growl, scream as this before. It was literally like some hollyweird made up sound effects of a werewolf encounter. He tracked me step for step over 3 miles and caught me in some very dark thick section of timber and stood his ground. My buddy was a half mile away, on the radio, and freaking out. He was sure I was dinner. He actually stopped hunting that night. Next day I went out solo and tried to track the ba$turd down. That is when I discovered how deliberant this wolf was. I didn't kill him but I got 3 of the pack.

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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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BigDon said:

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.

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Calvin45 said:

Humans are indeed diurnal. I will say, especially when I was younger, I would often feel restless and unable to sleep and actually go for long walks in the dark. Usually on the roads, but sometimes yes even in the fields and bush trails. I had that feeling of unease threatening to grow into all out fear. I found some kind of meaning in challenging it and continuing to walk. In hindsight that may have been foolish haha, but not because of animals that might be out there…the people you might run into at night are much more what worries me now. Not just in town or the city either, I still think that about the scariest creature you could encounter in the middle of nowhere in the dark is another human under the right (or wrong) circumstances.

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Turkeytider said:

I would not argue an assertion that the most dangerous animal on the planet walks on two legs, for sure. I do think, though, that our primal fear of the dark goes back to times when that was not so.

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Calvin45 said:

Oh and for sure it's sooooo easy to get yourself psyched out in the dark. Was that just the wind you heard….or something else?

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marksman1941 said:

Ever read Pat McManus? If so, this brings to mind the radio show about the Mummy that scared Eddie Muldoons dad so badly

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Turkeytider said:

I would not argue an assertion that the most dangerous animal on the planet walks on two legs, for sure. I do think, though, that our primal fear of the dark goes back to times when that was not so.

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