What’s your spookiest hunting experience?

Don't mean to laugh, but I get a dead transmission every year that was shot by someone unloading a gun in the vehicle. Then my ex son in law shot his transmission last year.
You know I get ****ed off at transmissions every now and then but I never shot one.
But I hate to have to admit I shot my couch once. 😔
 
You know I get ****ed off at transmissions every now and then but I never shot one.
But I hate to have to admit I shot my couch once. 😔
Kill it? If I did that I might as well shoot myself rather than have to listen to my wife for the next decade, plus she would tell everyone at church.
 
OK...a couple more:

1. In a real high deer stand in S. Texas and could see quite a distance into the neighbors lease, looking at another open top stand on his place through the binos and saw another hunter looking at me through his scope. Scary enough, but he was buck-a** naked and weighed 400 lbs if he weighed an ounce. I waved at him and he waved back.

2. Hunting aoudad west of Valentine TX way down by the river and set up glassing in a little saddle. We see seven dudes coming up the canyon right towards us about a mile off, 5 with heavy packs, guy in front with an AR, guy in back with an AK. My cell didn't have service but guide had a satellite phone so I got on the phone with a DEA contact of mine. They kept getting closer, maybe closed half the distance, and it was decision time for me. Now I'm literally 30 days away from my retirement date as a federal LEO, and a gunfight or slip out and wait for reinforcements are the two options. I can't "legally" snipe the two shooters without identifying myself, but I wasn't inclined to stand up and yell at guys with full auto guns...and finally here comes the Border Patrol in two helicopters from the station in Presidio. Those bad guys dropped their weed and and hightailed it downhill to the river and got away because no to place to land the choppers. My guide said "you would have paperwork if you had just shot 'em".
Story about the drug runners definitely sucks but it's almost fairly common these days but there's something about a very fat naked dude watching me through a scope that definitely creeped me out!
 
My hunting buddy on his first elk hunt here in Arizona
He was heading to a man made brush blind at a water hole about 2 miles from me . It's still way dark and his light quit working. He's on the trail in and sees legs moving thru the brush out in front of him gets to the blind at the water hole and settles in as the sun comes up across the water is a big mountain lion on the down log sharpening it's claws.

Mine was hunting up by lake pleasant for javalina for the first time with my buddies. I was the only one carrying a pistol on the hunt . It's an archery hunt . Working a drainage out in front of me several hundred yds is a brown orange color animal . As I picked up my binos to look it turned and started barking . It was a pit bull someone had dumped out there . He's ****ed and headed my way. Thru some rocks and nope still on his way . Draw my gun and shoot a few shots his way and he turned. Later that day after everyone else had left I was sitting on a rock glossing a draw and felt like I was being watched . It's the same dog doing the low crawl and stalking in on me . I stood up and emptied about a half a mag at him . Never seen that before
SSS
 
While I am far from an avid bow hunter a few years back I decided to take the old bow out of the case and venture into the woods deer hunting. To make a long story short, I arrowed a forkhorn and as deer do when arrowed he ran from the cornfield that I shot him in, up the side of the raving before deciding that he could run no more. I heard the thrashing and knew that he was down so I knew there would be early venison on table this year. I waited half an hour, then looking up the side of the hill decided that since the deer was pretty much known to have expired, looking at the heavy brush that I had to go through to get to him I decide to leave my bow at my stand. So I headed up the hilll, and in something similar to what Johnny Horton sung in, The Battle of New Orleans, I went through the briars and the brambles that a rabbit would avoid and spotted the buck laying on his side, feet up in the air body bent around a tree that stopped his slide down the hill. I got to the deer and since it was already in a prime position to field dress it took out my knife. When I bent over the deer I glanced up the hill and there were three Coyotes staring at me in what I considered, hungrily. Well this was a bit disconcerting since the only thing that I had with me was my hunting knife. Being blonde, but not necessarily dumb, but thinking so at this point in time I decided that field dressing was probably not a good idea at the time, I tied a drag rope to his rack and started back down the hill towards my stand and my bow. The Coyotes followed me as I dragged the deer downhill, or maybe more accurately, it dragged me down hill to my stand. The Coyotes were still there perhaps 25 yards away watching my every move. I now had my bow handy and field dressed the deer under the watchful eye of the three Coyotes. I dragged the deer and tied it to the ATV I had parked a little ways away tied on and headed back to the shop to rinse off the insides and hang the deer, all the time wondering what evil thoughts those Coyotes had in mind. They were obviously not afraid of me and I was trying somewhat unsuccessfully to remain indifferent to their presence. As I was hanging the deer I made up my mind that anytime I went bow hunting that my S&W Model 19 would be strapped on my hip. So Coyotes beware. Don't try that again or the outcome might be different.
Definitely a gamble, but you might've tried to just do a quick slash and dump with the guts and maybe the coyotes would've stayed on those,and I never bow hunt without my Glock!
 
A hunting buddy of mine who lives in North Catolina asked me, would I like to do some deer hunting with him in the up coming season. Absolutely I replied.
We hunted on state land in the lower east quadrant of the state in an area he was very familiar. We separated and went our own way hoping to avoid a double scent
I came to a small clearing where the ground was almost a clay surface and that's where I saw this print in the soil that made me take the safety off my rifle. It appeared to be a canine paw print however it was one third in size of my boot print which is 10 1/2 with deep claw marks. If I had to guess what it really was it would be a Great Dane or a wolf track.. in second thought, what would a Great Dane be doing up in the middle of nowhere during hunting season... No doubt...Wolf!
😳 I know how big that could be. I've had great Danes for the last 38 years.
IMG_0892.jpeg
 
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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.
Very strange coincidence, some years back my father had come up to visit me in North Central Montana, he wanted to do some walleye fishing so I set him up with my fishing buddy (as i could not go that day) and they went out for afternoon/evening fish. The day had been similar as far as the weather goes, warm, overcast, but a few light showers and the occasional lightning strike in the distance.
I know my buddies fishing gear and he uses mostly a carbon base line. They had been there a couple of hours jigging like you guys were in about the depth of water, as I know the shallow ridge they were fishing. All of the sudden they both were seeing/hearing static arcs on the eyelets of there rods and my friend got a nice sharp snap to his index finger (ya know the one you keep on the line so you can feel the really light bites better) after that they were realed up, engine fired, and canned up on full plain getting the heck out of there.
I only wish I could have been part of that fishing story, glad you said something, I've never heard of anyone talk about this before.
 
I feel like I'm telling to many stories, but here goes another one. I'd been married about three years and my wife went on quite a few of our little adventures. This one took place in the Smoky Mtns. Another trip to ice water springs trail shelter, where we spent the night. Then on to Mt. Laconte trail shelter. Its about quarter mile from the lodge, we got to the shelter fairly early and claimed three top bunks against the fireplace wall. Went to the lodge and ate a lunch there. The lodge is five plus miles by trail from any direction. And its on the AT. There was a picture of a bear like a wanted poster there that said to beware of him. He had a scar from the top of his head through his left eye and down to his muzzle. Mean bear! When we returned to the shelter there was three adults and a bunch of teenagers. They took up the rest of the shelter. Also they were a religious group, and stupid. We told one of the adults about the bear and his response was God will protect us! Ok, we'll see. The shelter is three sides rock walls and chain link fence and door, with a u shaped drop to lock the door. About1 in the afternoon they got in a circle in front of the shelter and started a prayer, Bible reading. Scar face shows up. I yell for them to get in the shelter but no-one moves. The bear comes up and sniffs one girls hair. I'll give her credit, she didn't move. Bear moves to a young man and starts sniffing him. He's not so cool and swats at the bear. The kid was wearing a white nylon jacket and when the bear hit him it sounded like a 22lr going off. Me and my friend were out of the shelter a throwing rocks at the bear. He backs off but is huffing and popping his teeth. My wife yells at me and I look around, I'm the only person outside the shelter. Ok, ok time to retreat. Just before dark one of the young girls takes a collapsible wash basin and moves out the shelter to do her dishes. I'm standing in the shelter door watching, the bear rounds the other end of the shelter and is making a lunge at her. I reach down and grab her by the back of her jacket and toss her into the shelter. As she's flying through the air she calls me a SOB. I close the door and drop the latch as the bear hits the door. I was into martial arts then and just out of response I kicked his claws in the chain links of the door. He's po-ed now. Bridget my wife says don't do that again. Ok, we're stuck in a twenty foot long shelter with a bunch of terrified kids. One of the leaders had the gall to say, see God protected us. Never thought I'd be a guardian angel. Night went by without any trouble except for skunks. Thankfully none of the kids woke up when the skunks invaded. The next morning we were packing up to leave and one of them asked, what do we do about the bear. I couldn't help myself, I said pray. Then we left. I often wonder how long it took them to work up the courage to leave.
 
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This happened about 50 years ago, but I still remember every detail like it was yesterday. A friend and I went out to a small lake in the middle of nowhere t do a little duck hunting. When we got there we walked down to the rushes at the edge of the lake. It was still totally dark out and the skies were clear so we just laid back and watched the stars. All of a sudden there were two oval bright lights heading towards each other. When they met they looked like they were almost touching each other and stayed like that for several minutes. All of a sudden in the blink of an eye one went straight up and the other went straight to the left and they were gone. Needless to say our hunt was done.
 
If you're out enough sooner or later something will happen that's just strange. I've enjoyed reading this thread so thought I'd share the strangest that's happened to me.
The first part of this happened when I was a senior in high school. I'd just started bow hunting and was trying to make an honest effort to scout ahead of elk season. I'd found an area near the SW corner of the Crater Lake Park that seemed to always hold elk. I'd been in a few times and decided at the last minute to make one more run in there. I called my buddy I usually ran with, but he had conflicting plans and didn't want to go. Told him where I was going to park, and was planning on it only being a day trip.
The next morning I was up before the loggers, made the drive, and was in the trees before I started hearing the log trucks echo through the hills. Walking to an outcropping overlooking a smallish clearing I sat down to watch. I didn't own binoculars, but carried my mini14 always in hopes of ventilating coyotes. It had a cheap 4x scope.
As I sat there I started seeing movement in the far edge. Sure enough some elk were feeding toward me. I watched them for quite a while, long enough my heart rate had returned to normal. They were feeding toward a small spring/wallow and calm for the most part, but every so often one would jerk its head up and look toward a big downed Doug fir.
I started watching where they were looking expecting to see a cat. Minutes ticked by and then I realized I could see this mountain of a man peaking over the root ball. No hat, looking like a scraggly longish brown hair. I was surprised anyone else had walked in that far out of season for one, and that I hadn't heard any other vehicles that morning walking in. While watching him and him watching the elk I just held still, my silhouette covered by the sun rising above me and the rocks at my back. He stepped out, moving toward the trunk in the direction the elk had disappeared. He looked to be wearing a big coat even though it wasn't cold, like a Filson tin cloth or something. He stepped over the tree and quickly made his way into the trees. I felt confused, why was he wearing so much of a coat? Why didn't he have any stuff with him?
I eventually walked to the wallow but it didn't look like it had been disturbed. Circling back I went through the opening and was looking at the down tree. It was bigger than I thought. When I walked up to it the trunk was tall enough I would have had to use both hands to hop up far enough to swing my legs over. The tracks were to dry to leave good prints, but what grass there was smashed big enough my boot fit inside it like a little kid walking in dad's footprint.
When I got back and told my buddy about it he just laughed at me.

A few years later, I was just out of the service and restless. Decided I'd hike into a small lake to fish for a couple days.
These mountain lakes have an actual yuppie trail to them now, but back then there was still enough people that knew about them that it wasn't all that uncommon to see someone else, though most of the time you're alone.
I parked at a turn out on a logging road below one of the lakes. It was a much steeper route up, but shorter by far than the easy route. On the way up I stayed on game trails for the most part. It has rained a little the night before, everything was wet, but smelled great. About 400 yards before topping out at the lake there was something that caught my attention ahead of me but off the trail in the thick young firs. Watching it as I walked, I brought the mini14 down to more of a ready position and got ready to toss my fishing pole. All of a sudden a young woman gets up up from under the tree and nearly runs at me, sobbing, barefoot, dressed in underwear and a tank top. She's soaked. I was shocked at what I saw.
When she got to me she wrapped her arms around me crying and talking at the same time.
I finally understood she hadn't seen her friend since they ran out of their tent during the night. When trying to find out why they ran all she kept saying was that a big man was pushing the tent down. I put my wool shirt on her, and gave her my dry socks. She didn't want to let go of me as we walked up to their camp. Sure enough the tent was down at one end, there were a few things laying around, and she was shaking scared and crying. Kept saying "he got her" over and over. She finally told me her friends name and eventually started helping call her name. About 20 minutes later here comes her friend, dressed about the same, just as freaked out.
I helped them pack up and they wanted me to take them back the way I came. We walked out, no unusual happenings. I drove to where they parked and asked them if they needed me to stay with them. I followed them out to the highway and to a little roadside place that had a phone. The sheriff was called, I waited, wasted the rest of the morning answering questions.
I went home, never went back to fish that lake. The lake isn't terribly far from the first incident, and after listening to the girls story and the outright terror in their voices, the description of what they thought they saw wasn't to different from the mountain man I'd seen years earlier.
Some things can't be explained easily.
 
If you're out enough sooner or later something will happen that's just strange. I've enjoyed reading this thread so thought I'd share the strangest that's happened to me.
The first part of this happened when I was a senior in high school. I'd just started bow hunting and was trying to make an honest effort to scout ahead of elk season. I'd found an area near the SW corner of the Crater Lake Park that seemed to always hold elk. I'd been in a few times and decided at the last minute to make one more run in there. I called my buddy I usually ran with, but he had conflicting plans and didn't want to go. Told him where I was going to park, and was planning on it only being a day trip.
The next morning I was up before the loggers, made the drive, and was in the trees before I started hearing the log trucks echo through the hills. Walking to an outcropping overlooking a smallish clearing I sat down to watch. I didn't own binoculars, but carried my mini14 always in hopes of ventilating coyotes. It had a cheap 4x scope.
As I sat there I started seeing movement in the far edge. Sure enough some elk were feeding toward me. I watched them for quite a while, long enough my heart rate had returned to normal. They were feeding toward a small spring/wallow and calm for the most part, but every so often one would jerk its head up and look toward a big downed Doug fir.
I started watching where they were looking expecting to see a cat. Minutes ticked by and then I realized I could see this mountain of a man peaking over the root ball. No hat, looking like a scraggly longish brown hair. I was surprised anyone else had walked in that far out of season for one, and that I hadn't heard any other vehicles that morning walking in. While watching him and him watching the elk I just held still, my silhouette covered by the sun rising above me and the rocks at my back. He stepped out, moving toward the trunk in the direction the elk had disappeared. He looked to be wearing a big coat even though it wasn't cold, like a Filson tin cloth or something. He stepped over the tree and quickly made his way into the trees. I felt confused, why was he wearing so much of a coat? Why didn't he have any stuff with him?
I eventually walked to the wallow but it didn't look like it had been disturbed. Circling back I went through the opening and was looking at the down tree. It was bigger than I thought. When I walked up to it the trunk was tall enough I would have had to use both hands to hop up far enough to swing my legs over. The tracks were to dry to leave good prints, but what grass there was smashed big enough my boot fit inside it like a little kid walking in dad's footprint.
When I got back and told my buddy about it he just laughed at me.

A few years later, I was just out of the service and restless. Decided I'd hike into a small lake to fish for a couple days.
These mountain lakes have an actual yuppie trail to them now, but back then there was still enough people that knew about them that it wasn't all that uncommon to see someone else, though most of the time you're alone.
I parked at a turn out on a logging road below one of the lakes. It was a much steeper route up, but shorter by far than the easy route. On the way up I stayed on game trails for the most part. It has rained a little the night before, everything was wet, but smelled great. About 400 yards before topping out at the lake there was something that caught my attention ahead of me but off the trail in the thick young firs. Watching it as I walked, I brought the mini14 down to more of a ready position and got ready to toss my fishing pole. All of a sudden a young woman gets up up from under the tree and nearly runs at me, sobbing, barefoot, dressed in underwear and a tank top. She's soaked. I was shocked at what I saw.
When she got to me she wrapped her arms around me crying and talking at the same time.
I finally understood she hadn't seen her friend since they ran out of their tent during the night. When trying to find out why they ran all she kept saying was that a big man was pushing the tent down. I put my wool shirt on her, and gave her my dry socks. She didn't want to let go of me as we walked up to their camp. Sure enough the tent was down at one end, there were a few things laying around, and she was shaking scared and crying. Kept saying "he got her" over and over. She finally told me her friends name and eventually started helping call her name. About 20 minutes later here comes her friend, dressed about the same, just as freaked out.
I helped them pack up and they wanted me to take them back the way I came. We walked out, no unusual happenings. I drove to where they parked and asked them if they needed me to stay with them. I followed them out to the highway and to a little roadside place that had a phone. The sheriff was called, I waited, wasted the rest of the morning answering questions.
I went home, never went back to fish that lake. The lake isn't terribly far from the first incident, and after listening to the girls story and the outright terror in their voices, the description of what they thought they saw wasn't to different from the mountain man I'd seen years earlier.
Some things can't be explained easily.
I'm sending you a pm about this one. The SW corner of crater lake park is where I chase elk every year…
 
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