What’s your spookiest hunting experience?

[freddogs]

Back in the 70's I was going to college. I ran a trapline in central MN for a parttime job. I was at my folk's cabin on a lake skinning a coon under the floodlight. Suddenly the lights go out and I hear a shrill scream. I must have jumped 2 feet in the air. After 5 or 10 seconds the lights came back on but it took longer for my heart to slow down. I finished my skinning. I figured some varmint must have climbed a power pole and got shocked.
Several times I've been walking in the dark to hunt deer and flushed turkeys and once I almost stepped on a pheasant but I was never as spooked as that time skinning.

 

[C-130 Dude]

When were you flying in and out?

From 1980-1985. All hell would happen if we "broke" and had to stay. There wasn't much of a ramp there. Staying would have blocked most of what little parking there was. I did have a 14 hour delay. Met some great folks. But we never got to stay. My dad spent years in AK. He told me lots of stories about it. I was born there, but left when dad got transferred when I was 3.

 

[PartsJr.]

This was a hard lesson that scared the crap out of me.

I grew up with a family of hunters(dad, grandpa, uncle). I was shooting b4 I turned 5 years old. Gun safety was paramount and i learned early on how to safely handle firearms.

I started tagging along deer hunting around age 7. I loved it. It was a family tradition that I was thrilled to be a part of. Finally at age 12 (1982) I was able purchase a deer license in MN. I didn't get my first deer until my second year of hunting at age 13. I don't know about the rest of you, but I often had my deer hunting garb packed at least a week b4 opening day. I was so excited to go hunting I barely slept the night b4 opening day. My guts would get so knotted up I'd have to use the bathroom 3 or 4 times b4 we left the house to head out to stand.

On this MN deer hunt I was 14 years old. It was opening morning. I was excited! My uncle helped me find my deer stand on the edge of the woods well before legal shooting light. After dropping me off he continued farther into the woods. Once in my stand I quietly loaded my Win. M70 and patiently waited for legal shooting light.
In the early predawn light I saw a dark object crossing the field to my east slowly approaching my stand. I knew it had to be one of the big bucks one of the guys in our hunting party had seen earlier that fall. I had the crosshairs on it, safety off, following it in my scope until it entered the woods only about 50 to 75 yards to my south. I lost track of it along the dark wood line but hoped maybe it would turn North and follow one of the deer trails that ran past my stand. I waited. Nothing. I figured the deer must have kept walking into the woods because I didn't hear or see anything. About 30 minutes later a rifle shot rang out so close I almost fell out of my deer stand. A few minutes later a hunter walked out from the edge of the woods about 50 yards to my south to get his deer. The dark blob I had watched through my rifle scope 30 minutes earlier had to have been another hunter. I could have shot another hunter. Scared the crap out of me!

I've told this story every year for the last 25 years to my students just prior to deer season. Hopefully it has benefited someone.
Don't make that mistake.

 

[C-130 Dude]

Well you either found Bigfoot or Cousin Lenny got lost from the rabbit farm!

Lenny.

 

[C-130 Dude]

This was a hard lesson that scared the crap out of me.

I grew up with a family of hunters(dad, grandpa, uncle). I was shooting b4 I turned 5 years old. Gun safety was paramount and i learned early on how to safely handle firearms.

I started tagging along deer hunting around age 7. I loved it. It was a family tradition that I was thrilled to be a part of. Finally at age 12 (1982) I was able purchase a deer license in MN. I didn't get my first deer until my second year of hunting at age 13. I don't know about the rest of you, but I often had my deer hunting garb packed at least a week b4 opening day. I was so excited to go hunting I barely slept the night b4 opening day. My guts would get so knotted up I'd have to use the bathroom 3 or 4 times b4 we left the house to head out to stand.

On this MN deer hunt I was 14 years old. It was opening morning. I was excited! My uncle helped me find my deer stand on the edge of the woods well before legal shooting light. After dropping me off he continued farther into the woods. Once in my stand I quietly loaded my Win. M70 and patiently waited for legal shooting light.
In the early predawn light I saw a dark object crossing the field to my east slowly approaching my stand. I knew it had to be one of the big bucks one of the guys in our hunting party had seen earlier that fall. I had the crosshairs on it, safety off, following it in my scope until it entered the woods only about 50 to 75 yards to my south. I lost track of it along the dark wood line but hoped maybe it would turn North and follow one of the deer trails that ran past my stand. I waited. Nothing. I figured the deer must have kept walking into the woods because I didn't hear or see anything. About 30 minutes later a rifle shot rang out so close I almost fell out of my deer stand. A few minutes later a hunter walked out from the edge of the woods about 50 yards to my south to get his deer. The dark blob I had watched through my rifle scope 30 minutes earlier had to have been another hunter. I could have shot another hunter. Scared the crap out of me!

I've told this story every year for the last 25 years to my students just prior to deer season. Hopefully it has benefited someone.
Don't make that mistake.

I absolutely agree. One of the cardinal rules of shooting:
Always be sure of your target AND what is beyond it. Nuff said.

 

[J-L]

To add to the above , hunting with a friend of mine a few years ago, newer hunter, by deckers co, sitting on a hillside , he says "i see a deer!" , flips his safety off gets ready to shoot, i look through my binos see a brown blob, tell him to hold up.

A guy stands up wearing brown carharts! He was bent over and all you could see was his brown tuckus in the carharts !

I was like hold up dont shoot !

Who knows what the hell he was doing out there …..

 

[Idahoprc]

This one didn't much scare me but boy I was nervous. I came walking out of a drainage from where I had been archery hunting into where I was camped. Back then I didn't worry about carrying a pistol. I was camped not far off of a highway. As I approached my truck and trailer a guy was standing there as if he was waiting for me. As I approached I noticed his face and some of his head was completely scarred and disfigured. Horror movie type stuff. I was thinking holy crap what the heck. He waved and said hi and said his vehicle was broke down. I could see near the highway an old international scout with a small camper connected to it. We walked up to the scout and it did start but sounded like it had thrown a rod or something. I also noticed no oil pressure on the gauge. He asked for a tow to the summit, I offered a tow to town but he wanted to just wait at the summit. After towing him up the road he thanked me and he was completely harmless. I was telling this story sometime later and a guy told me that he knew of him from hunting in the area and people had nick named him "ol hole in the head". Apparently one side of his face had been damged from a shooting accident.

 

[BroncBlue55]

I was doing load development for an upcoming hunt and went to the local public range. I was down-range at the 100yard-line and setting up a target when a gunshot rang-out from the firing line. The bullet impacted the dirt berm directly behind me and missed me only by a couple of feet. Turns out the guy was packing up his 300win when he closed the bolt to his rifle and had a slam fire. I'm grateful that I was lucky enough to not be hit--an impact anywhere on my person would have been devastating or fatal from a 300win at that distance. I learned my lesson that day and now drive an extra 30 minutes to a different gun range that has a range officer on duty and monitors the firing line while people are down range. Be safe out there!

 

[C-130 Dude]

I was doing load development for an upcoming hunt and went to the local public range. I was down-range at the 100yard-line and setting up a target when a gunshot rang-out from the firing line. The bullet impacted the dirt berm directly behind me and missed me only by a couple of feet. Turns out the guy was packing up his 300win when he closed the bolt to his rifle and had a slam fire. I'm grateful that I was lucky enough to not be hit--an impact anywhere on my person would have been devastating or fatal from a 300win at that distance. I learned my lesson that day and now drive an extra 30 minutes to a different gun range that has a range officer on duty and monitors the firing line while people are down range. Be safe out there!

I hope you had a serious talk with that guy. And he was scared to death of what he did.

 

[BroncBlue55]

I hope you had a serious talk with that guy. And he was scared to death of what he did.

Yeah, it wasn't pretty when I got back to the firing line. He didn't stick around much longer.

 

[C-130 Dude]

Yeah, it wasn't pretty when I got back to the firing line. He didn't stick around much longer.

A'hole.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

The short version:

I was in a bearstand late at night waiting for my guide to pick me up. It was totally dark, as in BLACK. There was a big sow with two cubs hitting the bait just before things got too dark to see. After 15min or so, I feel the ladder stand tug downward, but I couldn't see anything. I eased a tactical light out of my backpack and intended to aim it down the ladder to see what I hoped I wouldn't see.

When I activated the light, I was shocked to see a LARGE bear head right between my boots! The light was extremely bright and right in that bears eyes. She freaked out and dropped all the way to the ground and crashed her way through the brush. My heart was pounding like I've never experienced. It took me quite a while to return to a relaxed state.

Interestingly enough - the outfitter told the other hunters that I made the whole story up to scare them. He claimed that he knew because black bears cannot climb ladder stands because they don't have thumbs. After I got home, I found a video on YouTube of a black bear climbing up a metal ladderstand with a bowhunter in it. This video was in broad daylight, so it was easy to see the bear climbing. I sent it to the outfitter with a reminder of his claims to the contrary. I never heard back.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

I was doing load development for an upcoming hunt and went to the local public range. I was down-range at the 100yard-line and setting up a target when a gunshot rang-out from the firing line. The bullet impacted the dirt berm directly behind me and missed me only by a couple of feet. Turns out the guy was packing up his 300win when he closed the bolt to his rifle and had a slam fire. I'm grateful that I was lucky enough to not be hit--an impact anywhere on my person would have been devastating or fatal from a 300win at that distance. I learned my lesson that day and now drive an extra 30 minutes to a different gun range that has a range officer on duty and monitors the firing line while people are down range. Be safe out there!

This is EXACTLY why no one should handle a firearm during a cease-fire. Just last week I heard two guys arguing at the other end of the line during a cease-fire. An older guy chastised a younger guy who was fiddling around with his rifle while men were down-range. The younger guy was trying to explain that it is safe to make adjustments to your rifle scope as long as you aren't actually firing during the cease-fire.

I have often reminded shooters, in a nice way, that they should not be handling their firearm(s) during the cease-fire. Some think I'm being ridiculous.

 

[GBWS]

I was 8 yrs old and hunting hogs with my dad. We dropped off the ridge and went down into the valley. Hunting up river we decided to check a side gulch which had fairly fresh sign. After a few minutes I noticed all the dogs were gone. So we eagerly waited hoping they'd find something. Well they found something alright just will never know what it was. All of a sudden there was a sound that probably only a dog man will know. It's sort of a screaming/yelling sound of a dog getting hurt real bad. By this time in my life I had seen quite a bit of dogs ripped, gashed, torn and killed by bad boars. Knowing that sound I took off in the direction of it. Soon after the rest of the dogs joined in and it sounded like a battle was happening. When I rounded the bend in the river and climbed up on the bank I seen one of our main catch dogs go flying thru the bushes screaming. As I got closer I noticed the other dogs barking at a tree in the middle of a small opening. While I'm looking for the boar and wondering what they're barking at as these dogs NEVER barked in their life. The dog that I seen fly thru the bushes comes outta nowhere and smashes into this tree the other dogs are barking at. She biting this tree savagely the whole time she's doing that she's screaming like someone is killing her. All of a sudden, outta nowhere it's like she gets kicked by horse and flies off the tree thru the bushes again. By this time I've seen enough to kno it ain't a boar here. And start grabbing the dogs. Their all acting and on another level adrenaline wise even snapping at me when I'm trying to get the ropes on them. Finally my dad shows up wondering what's goin on n why were the dogs barking n not grabbing the pig. N I told him because there ain't no pig. He's like "What" I sed we gotta go, tell u after. So we get the dogs rounded up and back to the main river. I told him what I saw and he tells me must be spirits there's some heiau in there. Freaked me out! I used to hunt the dogs by myself at that age even at night and never felt afraid at all. That event made me wonder at times after that lol. Since that time there have been numerous times when unexplained things similar to that that had happened to us while hunting. But that was the first time for me.