What’s your spookiest hunting experience?

[C-130 Dude]

I have never had a problem at night in the woods after two tours in Vietnam. I will admit that I am hyper aware at night and always ready to react to a threat, but I am always calm. I have had a deer step on my feet and a possum try to climp my leg among other encounters . I like the woods at noght. I am scared to death of other hunters, however. The most unnerving episode I have had was during turkey season a few years ago. I had had a hip replaced and was pushing the recovery period too much. I found that I had to get back to the car while I was still able, and the most direct route was through heavy brush and leaves. My exit ruined a nice setup for a couple of guys as I stumbled past them. They were mad and I was apologetic. When I was about fifty yards away one of them fired over my head and I could hear the shot going through leaves above my head. I went prone on instinct and was prepared to fire back but then I realized they were laughing and calling out that I should respect them in the future. I finally decided it was safe to get up and head out. They packed up and caught up to me during the mile walk out on an old road. They thought it was OK to joke around with me on the way out, but I did not trust them, and they probably never realized that I was locked and loaded and ready to pull the whole way out...... Another time I was standing in light brown brush at the bottom of a brown leaf hillside wrapped in an old brown burlap blind waiting for a hog when I heard movement nearby in some heavy new green growth. After a bit two young guys worked their way out toward me with shotguns ready and I just knew that if I moved, one of them would shoot. I waited until they were about ten feet away and facing away before I spoke up. You would have thought I fired the way they jumped..... Another time I'm wearing orange and working my way out through heavy brush when I look up and see some idiot tracking me through his scope from a tree blind and I know I'm three pounds of accidental pressure away from being shot.

I've had the horrible occasion to be confronted like this twice. The first time was duck hunting in ND. I stumbled into a blind while trying to work my way to the other side of the pond. I had stepped on a soft spot I thought was solid and fell through the ice. My chest waders filled up. 22°F outside. I was freezing. I never thought waders could weigh so much. I caught myself on the way down with my 12ga and pulled myself out. I took out my knife and cut slits in the wader shoes to drain the water out. My dad taught me to do this if necessary. You must keep any warmth you can. No way was I going to lay down and let the water drain out the top of my waders. I was moving as fast as I could back to my truck. I had about 1/2 mile to run. The hunters in the blind were very pi**ed off at all my noise and started shooting at me, I was about 125 yards from them at this point. I was more frozen than angry at that point and kept running. When I got home, I pulled off all my cold weather gear. I found several hundred #6 pellets in my waders, coat, and hat. I never got hit bad, just a few pellet welts on my neck and real frozen. Frostbite on 6 toes and both feet. But all ended ok I was alive, but I needed new chest waders. Lessons learned.

 

[hembrook]

Ok one more.

I was moose hunting in Parnu, Estonia. Inwas put in a ladder tree stand about 5m up. I was supposed to hunt Moose until dark (90 min after sundown in Europe)! Then move to a hide for pigs over a pile of rotten agricultural refuse.

While in the moose stand, armed with a Haenel Jaeger 9 break barrel in 7-65R Brennecke with 140'grain Partitions, it got dark. No moose. As I was contemplating getting down, I checked the area with my flashlight. I saw a pair of green eyes looking back, followed by a smaller, closer set pair. A bear sow and her cub.

No bear tag and only about 12 feet from my boots to the ground.

I stayed in the stand another half hour after they departed, then moved off the ladder stand towards the refuse pile.

The ride there and back with Ivan cross country in a Renault 5 hanging out the window shooting marderhunds is another story for another day.

 

[atepointer]

Pat McManus, A great outdoor humor writer. RIP. Said someone should invent a mean cow finder. It would pick out the only cow in the herd that was just waiting for you to get close.

Was quite the heart rate boost she jumped up and bumped into me I went maybe 3 ft sideways and landed in the squat position with my bow. Not really as close as it sounds, but in the dark scared the snot outta me plus she outweighed me by a solid 1,000 lbs.

 

[C-130 Dude]

Ok one more.

I was moose hunting in Parnu, Estonia. Inwas put in a ladder tree stand about 5m up. I was supposed to hunt Moose until dark (90 min after sundown in Europe)! Then move to a hide for pigs over a pile of rotten agricultural refuse.

While in the moose stand, armed with a Haenel Jaeger 9 break barrel in 7-65R Brennecke with 140'grain Partitions, it got dark. No moose. As I was contemplating getting down, I checked the area with my flashlight. I saw a pair of green eyes looking back, followed by a smaller, closer set pair. A bear sow and her cub.

No bear tag and only about 12 feet from my boots to the ground.

I stayed in the stand another half hour after they departed, then moved off the ladder stand towards the refuse pile.

The ride there and back with Ivan cross country in a Renault 5 hanging out the window shooting marderhunds is another story for another day.

Let's hear them....

 

[marksman1941]

I've had the horrible occasion to be confronted like this twice. The first time was duck hunting in ND. I stumbled into a blind while trying to work my way to the other side of the pond. I had stepped on a soft spot I thought was solid and fell through the ice. My chest waders filled up. 22°F outside. I was freezing. I never thought waders could weigh so much. I caught myself on the way down with my 12ga and pulled myself out. I took out my knife and cut slits in the wader shoes to drain the water out. My dad taught me to do this if necessary. You must keep any warmth you can. No way was I going to lay down and let the water drain out the top of my waders. I was moving as fast as I could back to my truck. I had about 1/2 mile to run. The hunters in the blind were very pi**ed off at all my noise and started shooting at me, I was about 125 yards from them at this point. I was more frozen than angry at that point and kept running. When I got home, I pulled off all my cold weather gear. I found several hundred #6 pellets in my waders, coat, and hat. I never got hit bad, just a few pellet welts on my neck and real frozen. Frostbite on 6 toes and both feet. But all ended ok I was alive, but I needed new chest waders. Lessons learned.

I tend to have faith in the majority of people. And I probably always will. But stories like this always make me question how someone went so sideways as to think that shooting at someone is ever okay, especially for something as minor as making noise during a hunt. That just boggles my mind.

 

[C-130 Dude]

I tend to have faith in the majority of people. And I probably always will. But stories like this always make me question how someone went so sideways as to think that shooting at someone is ever okay, especially for something as minor as making noise during a hunt. That just boggles my mind.

Yeah, and it was completely accidental. I was just trying to save myself. There was at least 3 people in that blind shooting at me. I'm lucky.

 

[Allen Lone wolf]

Many moons ago I was asked by supervisor to go bowhunting on a management area in north Alabama at the time it was called Thomas wildlife management area.I with a recurve and him with longbow. When we got there we made a plan and agreed to meet back at the truck at noon for lunch. We split up and a couple of hours into the hunt it turned dark wind started blowing and was looking bad .I started hoofing as fast as I could got back to the truck he was there waiting on me. I tossed my stuff in the camper top jumped in the truck and we took off. We probably didn't get 200yds and had to pull over. The rain was so hard you couldn't see to drive. As soon as it passed we went on home. He went back the next day and told me that there wasn't a tree standing where we were hunting. A tornado came through and tore that place up. Went on not far from there and hit a truck stop leveling it and several vehicles. We were definitely blessed by the best to be alive.

 

[epags]

All you professional hunters, please don't p.... on me about this incident....you must have been young and stupid clueless once. I was a city boy who enlisted in the USAF and got married at the same time...I said clueless. My new father-in-law gave me his Remington 30-06 and one friend gave me some of his handloads. As I said, city boy, no experience with a firearm and 'of course' a handload must be OK.
Long story short(er). I am in Alaska @ Elmendorf AFB and my civilian supervisor takes me on a fly-in hunt for a moose (my first to use the rifle and hunt, yes I had taken the AK hunters course in order to get a license),
In those days you could fly in and hunt the same day...not now though. We fly over a small lake and see a nice bull moose. We land and stalk the moose. I shoot the moose with the three handloads I had been given. It goes down. We walk up to it and it stands up. We are 5 feet from a pi...d off moose. I am out of ammo (who needs more than three rounds he asked?)
Luckily my boss has a 44mag revolver and proceeds to dispatch the moose. Opps, it is getting dark and he has to fly back to civilization but I can stay in a nearby abandoned cabin. Since I have no more ammo for my rifle (who needs more than three rounds on a hunting trip? LOL), he gives me his revolver and some ammo. There is a possible danger of a bear smelling the dead moose.
I am alone, its dark, I have to go outside to pee. I strap on the 44 mag revolver and do so. Come back in and try to sleep. Next morning I am out starting to skin the moose. My boss flys in and says he spotted a bear about a mile away.
I give him back his revolver. He checks it and asks why I hadn't reloaded it.

 

[PatriotHenry]

I've got another adventure about Bear Bait that he said was the most scared he had ever been. The one he shot happened so fast he didn't have time to be scared. But this one went on for some time. I don't want to monopolize this, so I'll leave it to you guys. Let me know if you're up for another Alaska adventure.

Yes please!

 

[Rosebud]

Yes please!

See post #103

 

[Rosebud]

Two of my best friends and I were shooting a traditional archery tournament in south Alabama. One of them was the game warden who scared the poop out of me by following me back to the Tahoe. Well if you've ever shot long bows you miss and have to look for arrows behind the target. I was keeping score and was standing about ten feet behind the target while they looked for a lost arrow. Gene, the game warden, screams and started running straight towards me. All I did was start running also. Never seen Gene scared of anything, if he was running, so was I. When we stopped running I ask what we were running from. I'm thinking yellow jackets. He caught his breath and said there's a five foot cane break rattle snake that had its tongue flicking my pants leg.

 

[41mag]

I was hunting on a friends property and made my way back to the back portion behind an old pond. Their place was 20 miles from anywhere and at night with no moon it was still light enough from the stars to make your way around, but this morning was overcast and pitch black.

I made it to where i wanted ot set up and got situated to watch a small clearing as it got light. Out of nowhere comes a blood curdling scream, not once but over and over. Sounded just like a young woman, and out where we were could have been anything happening to her. I was on a MAJOR adrenaline rush and thinking I gotta do something. I slipped as quietly as I could towards the area the sounds were coming form and got to within about as close as I dared. It took several deep breaths before I mustered up the courage raise my rifle and flip on my flashlight. Not knowing what the heck I was going to find amongst the noise I was hearing coming from the opening ahead I threw up my light and there stood two Llama's on the neighbors property.

Never in my life had I been around one at that time and had no idea the noises they can make when alarmed. Apparently they winded me or saw me slipping through the cedar and scrub oaks and went into alarm mode. Sure did ruin my morning.

Another thing that will stand tha hair up on your neck is being in a river bottom thicket as it gets dark and have a half mile walk out. Soon as you leave your stand a couple of sounders of hogs get into it with rival boars competing for a sow in heat. Those things can get pretty wild sounding on a dark night.

 

[gareyg]

These are great stories. Here's a couple climbing tree stand adventures.

Bowhunting public land in Texas, Davy Crockett National Park. I hike far in early in the dark and come out well after dark to hopefully avoid other hunters. I'm in the dark in heavy rain, and spot a large, leaning but climb-able tree over a small stream. I thought great, I can climb on the under side and hunt at least a little out of this rain. I try to get up as high as I can. I get about 25 feet up the tree, using my tiny headlamp to look around and map the ground in my head as much as I can on the way up. Apparently I wasn't the only one taking advantage of that meager shelter. For some reason I happen to look up and I'm face to face with a large snake all balled up around something. He's so close he probably could have licked my nose. I have no where to go, so in the split second before I figured I would get bit in the face, I throw the hardest left hook I can. I'm hoping that he's wrapped around a twig or dead branch and I'll knock him out of the spot, and not just really **** him off! Thankfully it worked, and he sailed off into the dark never to be seen again. I kept an eye out around that tree trunk all day, as I figured he might climb back up there just to kick my ***. I always look a tree over good all the way up for limbs and stuff before climbing but somehow missed this little rascal. It happened too fast for me to really get a good look to identify the snake. I could have easily ended up dangling from my safety strap, backpack and bow still slung over my back, over a stream, wrassling with a snake, trying to at least figure out which end was which in the dark.

Tree stand hunting in the Mississippi Delta National Forest near Yazoo City late in the year. Climbed up a tree near a small creek running through a swamp. Most of the way up the tree and there's this very large vine, several inches thick trailing out on a branch and blocking my climb. Out comes my trusty little pocket saw, and I dice up this limb, over my head. Had a decent hunt, got a nice little buck. On the way out riding with my partner from Brandon, MS, I see a bunch more of those odd vines, with all these little limbs poking straight out of them. I ask my buddy "say what are those strange vines". He says oh that's poison ivy, stay away from it. Geez I had that sawdust everywhere, in my hair, down my neck, in my pants, arms, all over. I tried to scrub it all off with TecNu when we got back to his home, but had horrible itching all over for days.

Lessons learned.

 

[Mike Matteson]

two of us were hunting Utah for deer. An area we looked at to hunt was a lot cliffs. and sure could walk off if you watch out. I had forgotten my flasklight and did carry a watch with me either. My friend have me hell over that. He was going way out there. I said find I'll be back to the jeep before dark. I'll see you when you get back. Well I got back before dark as planned. He didn't show up until after midnight according to his watch.
While waiting in the jeep well after dark a pickup drove by me and down the road. Sometime later I heard a shot a long ways down the road or so I fell. To me is sound like they were road hunting and tied into one. Again a lot of time passed. Another car went pass me. Not so far down the road another shot. Again it sounded like they poached a deer.To myself I felt that was gutsy, but that was it. A little later on my friend showed up.
He was said that *****M jeep got to be around here somewhere. I got out and told he it's up here. Madder than hell he was. He ask me why I didn't come looking for. A few months before that hunting a a different state and I moved his jeep to look for him. When we met up, he told me not to ever move his jeep. So the morel of the story is. **** if you do, and **** if you don't.
He was teasing me about not have a flashlight. He told me, he was going way out there. It was 1:30 AM in the morning when he got to the jeep. He spent a good 6 hrs in the dark. Also found out the 2 shots was him trying to get direction to the jeep. I still tease him about and others he has done over the years.