Another quick one. I was about 17 or 18 sitting at the base of a big tree watching a dry creek for deer. Spot this bear at about 60 yards walking straight at me. He just kept coming & coming swinging his head back & forth. Never knew I was there. He got to about 30 yards & I shuffled & raised the rifle but he never saw or heard me. He got to 15 & I had the sights right between his eyes! At 10 he stopped took a whiff & did a complete 180 in mid air & took off. LOL I think I shook for about an hour. Couldn't even light a cigarette. LOL Too bad it wasn't bear season.
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Scary Stories
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NEVER!!! LOL
Ckgworks
Well-Known Member
There are somethings that may not seem scary until you've experienced them yourself! I know cougars never bothered my until I had a couple very close encounters with Cougars while Archery hunting......one was shot in the chest at 12' while crouched facing me, the other in the head at 15'. I think the eyes are definitely the creepiest part of the whole ordeal. I have tried to explain it to others this way: I have been within feet of cow elk, and when they figure out something is wrong, you can legitimately SEE the fear in their eyes. Both of the cats, I happened to see them first and they walked up to me. When they realized I was there, you could see the raw excitement in their eyes......it has always stuck with me. Even though I always have a Cougar tag, I was not targeting them and at the time, really felt like I shot them in self defense. Both of them were on fire trails between Timber and reprod in thick small fir trees, and tracking them after the shot was puckering to say the least. I'm not proud to say the head shot one got away from me, but there are a few lessons I learned so I will share it.
First the head was the only part of the cat I could see, and in my adrenaline rattled brain, I targeted the eye, thinking of deer and elk skulls having the least amount of bone between the brain. Well, predators have eyes in the front with the brain between so the arrow missed the brain. I should have put my arrow on it's nose which gives you a clear path directly to the brain or spine.....Lesson 1 learned. Lesson 2: Once again my adrenaline rattled brain did not remember how bad head wounds bleed. There was blood everywhere and I thought I must have clipped a good artery. I could hear it snarling for a few minutes so I waited 45 minutes and begin tracking it. Long story short, it looped its trail on me and it ended up jumping it's bed.......literally 2' behind behind me from in thick Sal al. Lesson 3: Have a partner when tracking things that bite.......thankfully it was in no shape to fight after losing that much blood and it choose flight. I returned with a hunting parter a couple hours later and we were able to track it a couple hundred yards, but it had clotted up and was no longer bleeding. I don't think I'll ever walk in the woods again without realizing that while man is technically at the top of the food chain, there are times when the tables could turn, and it probably will be when you least expect it! The other "scary" realization I had was from tracking them. The trails they walk on are small, low to the ground, under the vegetation. I'm convinced that most people that have spent time in the woods where they live have probably walk by one. It seems every few years I have a little brush with a potential cat......one year I'm pretty sure I cow called one into me right at dark. The call sounded a little off, but it was coming in so I waited. The call noise ended up crossing a wide clearing with 2'-3' tall brush, within 40 yards of me and I never saw the animal. It was now between me and my truck and it seemed to go from almost dark to pitch black in seconds. I clomped and stomped noisily back to my truck with a flashlight darting in all directions.
First the head was the only part of the cat I could see, and in my adrenaline rattled brain, I targeted the eye, thinking of deer and elk skulls having the least amount of bone between the brain. Well, predators have eyes in the front with the brain between so the arrow missed the brain. I should have put my arrow on it's nose which gives you a clear path directly to the brain or spine.....Lesson 1 learned. Lesson 2: Once again my adrenaline rattled brain did not remember how bad head wounds bleed. There was blood everywhere and I thought I must have clipped a good artery. I could hear it snarling for a few minutes so I waited 45 minutes and begin tracking it. Long story short, it looped its trail on me and it ended up jumping it's bed.......literally 2' behind behind me from in thick Sal al. Lesson 3: Have a partner when tracking things that bite.......thankfully it was in no shape to fight after losing that much blood and it choose flight. I returned with a hunting parter a couple hours later and we were able to track it a couple hundred yards, but it had clotted up and was no longer bleeding. I don't think I'll ever walk in the woods again without realizing that while man is technically at the top of the food chain, there are times when the tables could turn, and it probably will be when you least expect it! The other "scary" realization I had was from tracking them. The trails they walk on are small, low to the ground, under the vegetation. I'm convinced that most people that have spent time in the woods where they live have probably walk by one. It seems every few years I have a little brush with a potential cat......one year I'm pretty sure I cow called one into me right at dark. The call sounded a little off, but it was coming in so I waited. The call noise ended up crossing a wide clearing with 2'-3' tall brush, within 40 yards of me and I never saw the animal. It was now between me and my truck and it seemed to go from almost dark to pitch black in seconds. I clomped and stomped noisily back to my truck with a flashlight darting in all directions.
After that incident do you carry a sidearm with you?There are somethings that may not seem scary until you've experienced them yourself! I know cougars never bothered my until I had a couple very close encounters with Cougars while Archery hunting......one was shot in the chest at 12' while crouched facing me, the other in the head at 15'. I think the eyes are definitely the creepiest part of the whole ordeal. I have tried to explain it to others this way: I have been within feet of cow elk, and when they figure out something is wrong, you can legitimately SEE the fear in their eyes. Both of the cats, I happened to see them first and they walked up to me. When they realized I was there, you could see the raw excitement in their eyes......it has always stuck with me. Even though I always have a Cougar tag, I was not targeting them and at the time, really felt like I shot them in self defense. Both of them were on fire trails between Timber and reprod in thick small fir trees, and tracking them after the shot was puckering to say the least. I'm not proud to say the head shot one got away from me, but there are a few lessons I learned so I will share it.
First the head was the only part of the cat I could see, and in my adrenaline rattled brain, I targeted the eye, thinking of deer and elk skulls having the least amount of bone between the brain. Well, predators have eyes in the front with the brain between so the arrow missed the brain. I should have put my arrow on it's nose which gives you a clear path directly to the brain or spine.....Lesson 1 learned. Lesson 2: Once again my adrenaline rattled brain did not remember how bad head wounds bleed. There was blood everywhere and I thought I must have clipped a good artery. I could hear it snarling for a few minutes so I waited 45 minutes and begin tracking it. Long story short, it looped its trail on me and it ended up jumping it's bed.......literally 2' behind behind me from in thick Sal al. Lesson 3: Have a partner when tracking things that bite.......thankfully it was in no shape to fight after losing that much blood and it choose flight. I returned with a hunting parter a couple hours later and we were able to track it a couple hundred yards, but it had clotted up and was no longer bleeding. I don't think I'll ever walk in the woods again without realizing that while man is technically at the top of the food chain, there are times when the tables could turn, and it probably will be when you least expect it! The other "scary" realization I had was from tracking them. The trails they walk on are small, low to the ground, under the vegetation. I'm convinced that most people that have spent time in the woods where they live have probably walk by one. It seems every few years I have a little brush with a potential cat......one year I'm pretty sure I cow called one into me right at dark. The call sounded a little off, but it was coming in so I waited. The call noise ended up crossing a wide clearing with 2'-3' tall brush, within 40 yards of me and I never saw the animal. It was now between me and my truck and it seemed to go from almost dark to pitch black in seconds. I clomped and stomped noisily back to my truck with a flashlight darting in all directions.
When I go and do .50 BMG load development on BLM land I am now going to have my Saiga 12 right beside me because of this story. We have large cats in the area I live now.
What kind of rifle did you have with you?
When the Carrington Event happened the northern lights were visible in the Carolinas and I read somewhere that they were even seen as far south as the Caribbean.
JakeC
Well-Known Member
I grew up and hunted on a disused farm near Mid-coast Maine. At the time, in the 90's, the line was that lions, wolverines, wolves, lynx, didn't exist so don't bother asking or reporting about them. We did have coyotes, bobcat, bear, all manner of large predatory bird, and moose that were all anecdotally said to occasionally bother hunters. All of the verboten creatures listed above had been seen, but never by someone you knew within 3 degrees. Most have since been confirmed by the state or people I trust, including lions by two different sisters at different times in the town this farm was located. Just by people I know myself wolves, lions and wolverine have been seen within 8 miles of the house. God knows what else has crept back down the river valleys over the last century.
That said, two things come to mind as having spooked me personally, and maybe they can be attributed to one of these animals. But maybe not, and I don't like it.
1. I was sitting a 30-year-abandoned skidder trail with my much older and experienced cousin. It was a really still, cold day near thanksgiving. Absolutely no air moving, the kind where you hold your breath involuntarily because you can hear your skin move in your shirt, let alone any creature moving within half a mile. So we're about 40 yard apart, back to back so to speak. Absolutely nothing happening, the woods are dead as a smelt. Then we get the lightest shift of air for one second, westerly, coming from the swampy lake, across us, and into the thicket just to the south of us. It dies. Nothing to care about. Then a few moments later form my cousin's direction a voice started, mid range and not loud, like a smallish lady talking in the wind. In one breath it went smoothly from that to HIGH and LOUD like an old fashioned siren but faster. It crescendoed to its peak and slammed instantly back to silence. I thought "creepy but he'll know what that was" and leaned forward to see my cousin. He was still, studying the woods in front of him, waiting for more. After way too long he leaned around and whispered "WHAT THE ---- WAS THAT!?" Not another shred of noise came from that direction, and we could easily triangulate where we thought it came from. Too close, as close to both of us as we were to each other. Nothing I could ever picture having made the noise made sense. It was very likely a bird but it had to have been an enormous bird. It was sonorous and not raspy or screechy like any owl or eagle or hawk or raccoon I've ever heard. But it was clearer and louder than a human or deer or coyote could ever manage. I've never been able to find a recording that was anything like it. I've heard foxes crying, fisher cats, raccoons fighting, I've heard rabbits screaming when killed, I've heard recordings of lions in heat. I was never able to confidently walk through that spot alone again. Whatever it was was yelling at us and not talking to its family, and it never made a sound moving around. There was one trail where we had to low crawl though a hollow old evergreen thicket about 50 yards from where the noise occurred and I couldn't ever duck in there again without worrying about whatever made that noise.
2. About a half mile of trail from the first event and a year later I found a pile of poop. I was with my uncle, an extremely experienced woods hunter. I thought it was odd because a) it was mostly apples and there aren't any red apples within 400 yards, so whatever it was either started within 400 feet of the house or came to our property from close to the neighbors house. b) it was HUGE. I just knew it wasnt deer scat so I pointed it out as coyote because why not. My uncle cocked his head and focused on it, which he never did to anything I mentioned. He's always moving his eyes and attention around because he's a good hunter. But he locked onto it and said no... wait, that kinda looks like a bear... what?... I don't think it's a bear, but... that looks friggin human... sort of. If it's a bear he feels a lot better and he's big. I dunno... Then he moved on without concluding with his shoulders or a joke which never happens.
Maybe there was nothing special about that turd but he never misses an opportunity to jerk my chain. And the scream might not have been unique, bloodcurdling as it was. Each are freaky on their own but forgettable seperately. They gained new life when I was researching bigfoot and heard someone's recording of what they thought was a squatch in their woods. I hadn't thought of the turd or the scream in a decade but that recording was the CLOSEST BY FAR to what I heard with my cousin. I'm not saying it was an apple-loving Maine bigfoot, but now I have to live with that question in my mind.
That said, two things come to mind as having spooked me personally, and maybe they can be attributed to one of these animals. But maybe not, and I don't like it.
1. I was sitting a 30-year-abandoned skidder trail with my much older and experienced cousin. It was a really still, cold day near thanksgiving. Absolutely no air moving, the kind where you hold your breath involuntarily because you can hear your skin move in your shirt, let alone any creature moving within half a mile. So we're about 40 yard apart, back to back so to speak. Absolutely nothing happening, the woods are dead as a smelt. Then we get the lightest shift of air for one second, westerly, coming from the swampy lake, across us, and into the thicket just to the south of us. It dies. Nothing to care about. Then a few moments later form my cousin's direction a voice started, mid range and not loud, like a smallish lady talking in the wind. In one breath it went smoothly from that to HIGH and LOUD like an old fashioned siren but faster. It crescendoed to its peak and slammed instantly back to silence. I thought "creepy but he'll know what that was" and leaned forward to see my cousin. He was still, studying the woods in front of him, waiting for more. After way too long he leaned around and whispered "WHAT THE ---- WAS THAT!?" Not another shred of noise came from that direction, and we could easily triangulate where we thought it came from. Too close, as close to both of us as we were to each other. Nothing I could ever picture having made the noise made sense. It was very likely a bird but it had to have been an enormous bird. It was sonorous and not raspy or screechy like any owl or eagle or hawk or raccoon I've ever heard. But it was clearer and louder than a human or deer or coyote could ever manage. I've never been able to find a recording that was anything like it. I've heard foxes crying, fisher cats, raccoons fighting, I've heard rabbits screaming when killed, I've heard recordings of lions in heat. I was never able to confidently walk through that spot alone again. Whatever it was was yelling at us and not talking to its family, and it never made a sound moving around. There was one trail where we had to low crawl though a hollow old evergreen thicket about 50 yards from where the noise occurred and I couldn't ever duck in there again without worrying about whatever made that noise.
2. About a half mile of trail from the first event and a year later I found a pile of poop. I was with my uncle, an extremely experienced woods hunter. I thought it was odd because a) it was mostly apples and there aren't any red apples within 400 yards, so whatever it was either started within 400 feet of the house or came to our property from close to the neighbors house. b) it was HUGE. I just knew it wasnt deer scat so I pointed it out as coyote because why not. My uncle cocked his head and focused on it, which he never did to anything I mentioned. He's always moving his eyes and attention around because he's a good hunter. But he locked onto it and said no... wait, that kinda looks like a bear... what?... I don't think it's a bear, but... that looks friggin human... sort of. If it's a bear he feels a lot better and he's big. I dunno... Then he moved on without concluding with his shoulders or a joke which never happens.
Maybe there was nothing special about that turd but he never misses an opportunity to jerk my chain. And the scream might not have been unique, bloodcurdling as it was. Each are freaky on their own but forgettable seperately. They gained new life when I was researching bigfoot and heard someone's recording of what they thought was a squatch in their woods. I hadn't thought of the turd or the scream in a decade but that recording was the CLOSEST BY FAR to what I heard with my cousin. I'm not saying it was an apple-loving Maine bigfoot, but now I have to live with that question in my mind.
Ckgworks
Well-Known Member
I do now! At the time Washington did not allow handguns to be carried while archery hunting, but since then the laws have been changed to allow concealed carry during season......I can't say I really ever go out now without some kind of firearm....... I always remember a quote someone said regarding carrying a pistol. "Handguns aren't carried to be comfortable but rather the comfort they give" that pretty much sums it up for me.
Rem 30-06 pump action
Calvin45
Well-Known Member
intrigued by your story. I get to see northern lights very frequently where I live but I actually did some research just now and while its certainly rare to see them as far south as alabama it's not at all impossible or unheard of, if solar activity (ie a flare) spikes hard...apparently there was a big solar storm in the mid 1800s that disrupted telegraph communications across the Atlantic and saw visible auroras in places including Hawaii and Singapore. So it's not impossible that's what you saw, certainly not laughing at you. Could be some kind of crazy mirage too. Mirages can be downright freaky.
edit: another forum member most helpfully identified this 1800s event as "the Carrington event"
Calvin45
Well-Known Member
This is embarrassingly stupid and not so much creepy as just remembering a really scary heavy sinking feeling when I was probably 16 or so. I grew up on a farm but always tell people I was the worst farm kid ever, not mechanically inclined at all but more relevant to our story no inherent sense of direction whatsoever. No drama, nothing more to the story than this: I got REALLY turned around in the bush after shooting light/sundown and, in a rare but not at all unheard of turn of events there wasn't snow on the ground yet (deer season in Saskatchewan usually being November and the first half of December) so normally it would be as simple as following my own tracks in the snow, but there's no snow and the grounds frozen so your boots aren't making any real tracks and it's full dark out and the temperature at night is getting well
below -20c. Those of you who live in places that get harsh winter in any capacity will know what I mean when I say that -20 feels much more brutal when there's no snow on the ground than once the snow is deep, I don't know why but it's the way it is. Anyway, just the grossest most horrible dread feeling ever, few things worse than feeling truly lost, at any age I think. I did find my way eventually, but for a moment I came close to giving in to a panic that said I was going to freeze to death or something. That's without a doubt the most afraid I've ever felt while hunting.
below -20c. Those of you who live in places that get harsh winter in any capacity will know what I mean when I say that -20 feels much more brutal when there's no snow on the ground than once the snow is deep, I don't know why but it's the way it is. Anyway, just the grossest most horrible dread feeling ever, few things worse than feeling truly lost, at any age I think. I did find my way eventually, but for a moment I came close to giving in to a panic that said I was going to freeze to death or something. That's without a doubt the most afraid I've ever felt while hunting.
I lost my way after dark in some thick pines on a 16000 acre track of land one time. I found a logging road & was able to get out. It's not a good feeling.
Have you ever heard a whitetail doe scream? I had to look it up for myself.
The dog and I were in the garage working on the Jeep one night after my wife and kids left for the night. I was wrenching and having a couple beers. I went outside to take a leak and heard what sounded like a high pitched weeze or exhale, almost like a woman screaming. The dog heard it too. I blew it off, fox or bird or something right? Sometime passed and nature called again so went outside. This time I heard the same sound in a total opposite direction. The dog growled. It was getting late so I put the tools awaI, shutdown the garage and went in the house. As I was shutting off lights, I could hear the screaming again. Loud enough to hear inside. It basically sounded like if exhaled violently through your mouth. I went to bed that night thankful that my wife and kids didn't hear it because I'd never hear the end of it
. I laid there trying to make sense of it. The next morning I talked to my neighbor and he said he had a bear on his deck. This was June and I had just seen a new fawn with a doe the day before. So I googled strange deer noises and bingo. I guess it's a noise to attract a threat to the doe and keep it from the fawn.
