What’s your spookiest hunting experience?

[Rosebud]

Copperheads blend into fallen leaves better than any snake that I can think off! I'm not really scared of snakes……but, I respect the heck out of Copperheads! memtb

You'll get a kick out of this membt. Many years ago I was I a bow hunting one of our leases in Chambers County Alabama. One outdoor writer claimed there was a deer behind every tree there. He wasn't far off. Anyway, I was coming back from a morning hunt walking down a logging road looking up in the white oaks for one dropping acorns. Find a white oak dropping, you've found deer. I'm looking up not much attention being paid to where I was putting my feet when heard the rattler buzz. Stopped dead. Looked around and it was three feet in front of me. I always kept a vermin arrow, so out it comes. Its a bear razor head and it turns perfectly in flight to sever it head. I'm calm now and pick it up and put in my fanny pack. Its about three and a half feet long. I was a fire medic for the dept of the army at the time and one of the other firefighters was coming down that night to hunt the weekend. I had to leave for a shift the next day. Before I left I coiled up the snake and put it on the middle step to the old house we slept in there near the edge of the step so none of them would step on it . I'm told there was some colorful language used upon discovery of the head less rattler. See I wasn't against playing a joke on the other club members myself.

 

[memtb]

You'll get a kick out of this membt. Many years ago I was I a bow hunting one of our leases in Chambers County Alabama. One outdoor writer claimed there was a deer behind every tree there. He wasn't far off. Anyway, I was coming back from a morning hunt walking down a logging road looking up in the white oaks for one dropping acorns. Find a white oak dropping, you've found deer. I'm looking up not much attention being paid to where I was putting my feet when heard the rattler buzz. Stopped dead. Looked around and it was three feet in front of me. I always kept a vermin arrow, so out it comes. Its a bear razor head and it turns perfectly in flight to sever it head. I'm calm now and pick it up and put in my fanny pack. Its about three and a half feet long. I was a fire medic for the dept of the army at the time and one of the other firefighters was coming down that night to hunt the weekend. I had to leave for a shift the next day. Before I left I coiled up the snake and put it on the middle step to the old house we slept in there near the edge of the step so none of them would step on it . I'm told there was some colorful language used upon discovery of the head less rattler. See I wasn't against playing a joke on the other club members myself.

Many years ago before my move to Wyoming, I was squirrel hunting with a good friend……around mid October I think. Well apparently he got back to the truck before me, and strategically placed the two big Copperheads that he had killed in the grass and leaves at the tailgate where I would be standing to open the tailgate….and then hid and watched. As I was about to open the tailgate, he was approaching me and yelled out snake! I was standing right on top of them. Between his yell and the snakes I'm standing practically on…..Lets say I was a bit startled! memtb

 

[C-130 Dude]

Sounds like effects from an EMP or Solar Flare……but, everyone for miles should have experienced it!

Ma ybe a Navy underwater experiment! memtb

If it was EMP, no electronic circuit with any digital chip or digitally controled circuit would work. It's possible that a large solar flare may effect some comms and nav gear, I've seen this before. If your still interested, check with the weather or meteorology departments in the area to see if any were happening at that time. I doubt that the Navy would be conducting experiments in a major shipping lane. Besides, they would have reported the interference.

 

[Rosebud]

Many years ago before my move to Wyoming, I was squirrel hunting with a good friend……around mid October I think. Well apparently he got back to the truck before me, and strategically placed the two big Copperheads that he had killed in the grass and leaves at the tailgate where I would be standing to open the tailgate….and then hid and watched. As I was about to open the tailgate, he was approaching me and yelled out snake! I was standing right on top of them. Between his yell and the snakes I'm standing practically on…..Lets say I was a bit startled! memtb

I've always been a person to wait for the perfect time and place for Revenge! My game warden buddy who scared me so bad and I were fishing a really good bass lake, I was in the front, he's running the trolling motor. After fishing we were taking out and when I climbed out he's saying pull the boat up on the bank. I've got the rope in my hand and acted like I didn't hear him. He mumbled something and stands up, that's when I pulled the boat up., He splashed into the water. I'm apologizing profusely, but to myself I'm laughing my a@# off. Payback. Took two years.

 

[C-130 Dude]

I've always been a person to wait for the perfect time and place for Revenge! My game warden buddy who scared me so bad and I were fishing a really good bass lake, I was in the front, he's running the trolling motor. After fishing we were taking out and when I climbed out he's saying pull the boat up on the bank. I've got the rope in my hand and acted like I didn't hear him. He mumbled something and stands up, that's when I pulled the boat up., He splashed into the water. I'm apologizing profusely, but to myself I'm laughing my a@# off. Payback. Took two years.

Did ya hand him a bar of soap?

 

[Muddyboots]

Please leave snake stories out of this! I need sleep!!!

 

[PlumberEd]

Idaho Elk in 1997. The scariest part of this trip was on the way in. The closest to death that I believe I ever got. A friend in Oregon bought a jet boat mostly for fishing. We heard of some good Elk hunting up the Middle Fork of the Salmon, accessible by jet boat. How hard could it be? 30 mile drive up the Salmon out of Riggins. Across the Manning bridge, a tight 90 degree bridge with sections of railroad rail curved and greased on the inside corners to drag a trailer around. Put in at the Vinegar Creek ramp, end of the road. Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, so no roads or anything for many miles in any direction. Good rendition of this river and area in "Hell I was There!" by Elmer Keith. Must have reading, as he pretty much puts all our stories combined here to shame. The river was not navigable upstream until jetboats were invented. We put the boat in, planning to run 7 miles up to Bull Creek. Our Captain talks to a guide coming off the water, who volunteers to give him a run up the river to show him how to navigate the (considerable) rapids. He returns and me and the rest of the first half of our group load up and away we go. While my brother and the others wait at the ramp for their turn, a salty older gentleman arrives at the ramp in a well used boat and says hello. He says "what are you boys up to?" Oh, we're going elk hunting. "Ahh. Who's taking you?" Our friend is taking us up with his jetboat. "Has he been on this river before?" No, it's his first time, with his new boat. A guide gave him a quick tour and our first bunch is on its way upriver now. Old man says "….now let me get this straight… your friend is taking his new jetboat, with a load of hunters, up this river, for the first time?" Yep! My brother says. Old man says "ok, here's what I want you to do. See that big rock there on the riverbank? Everyone go have a seat there." Brother says "why?". Old man says "Well, in about 15 minutes all your gear is going to come floating by." Meanwhile we're motoring up the river. The Cap'n had a pretty good line on each rapid and we did ok, although the water was obviously very strong and fast. Then, we came to a strong rapid, where the line was between two very large boulders, maybe 15 feet apart. We lined up and made our run up the center. The water was very fast and heavily bowed on top, difficult to run. Our nose came off the center, and plunged into the large hole right behind the left boulder. The nose bottomed out, and the jet stalled being stuck up in the air near vertical. We came out sideways, ol Cap'n frantically trying to restart. Miraculously we somehow recover. We bank the boat, perform underwear operations and stuff, walk up to the rapid and look it over anxiously from every angle for probably an hour, and Cap'n says ok I got it let's go. We made it, and he made several more trips throughout our hunt without incident. That first time, we probably should have all died. We knew the boat got dented, but after the hunt when we took it out of the water, it had a HUGE dent in the bow, surprised it didn't puncture. Later Cap'n takes the boat back to the builder for repair. The owner says "yikes, where did that happen?". Middle fork of the Salmon. "Oh, ya I took my jet boat up there and capsized it! Lucky to be alive! (This was the jet boat manufacturing company owner). It was a great hunt (before they reintroduced wolves), and more hair raising adventure, which will be Part 2.

Your story was hilarious, I cant wait for part 2. Wasn't it great to be young and know everything?

 

[Hard rock]

I made that mistake exactly once and I was ungodly mortified. I came down from elk camp to get some scope caps. I had forgotten mine at home so ran to the nearest sporting goods store for caps to fight the snow with. I went into sportsman's warehouse with a my rifle in a case as per policy so I could match up scope caps to my optic.

At the front desk they have those silly little bullet traps where you stick your muzzle in, open the bolt, they verify it's clear, and tag the rifle so you can pack it around the store. So we did the procedure and a 30/06 shell flopped out onto the counter. Left me absolutely speechless, beyond angry, and mortified. I apologized for 5 minutes and just left without my scope caps. I couldn't bear to walk through the store after such a display of stupidity.

I worked in gun sales for several years , buying and selling for GLENN SLADES , before CARTERS COUNTRY took the market in the HOUSTON area . What you did was a regular occurrence ,there were bullet holes in the ceiling all over the place ,you can't imagine ,my scary moment was when a 25 auto was discharged in a case of 22 ammo back in the ammo stock room . It was supposed to be unloaded ,casing was corroded to chamber and couldn't get the slide back so stupidly I aimed and Pulled the trigger , that might have been my lucky day . If you can't get that bolt open or slide back assume it's loaded,I nearly learned the hard way , always verify.

 

[memtb]

Please leave snake stories out of this! I need sleep!!!

Good Morning Muddy……I held off, just for you!

Many years ago my Great Uncle was an avid sportsman (especially fishing) and had a nice camp @ Bayou Pigeon, La. It was early Fall, he was up right after daybreak to go run his Trout Lines. As he pulled on the motor start rope …..it was very difficult to pull. He opened the engine cowling to find a nice Water Moccasin all wound-up in the motor flywheel/starter pulley assembly. As he ran his lines during the night……He thought that maybe the snake crawled into the warm motor during the cool night!

He was a little later than planned running his Trout Lines!

 

[memtb]

If it was EMP, no electronic circuit with any digital chip or digitally controled circuit would work. It's possible that a large solar flare may effect some comms and nav gear, I've seen this before. If your still interested, check with the weather or meteorology departments in the area to see if any were happening at that time. I doubt that the Navy would be conducting experiments in a major shipping lane. Besides, they would have reported the interference.

I doubt that the Navy would be conducting experiments in a major shipping lane. Besides, they would have reported the interference


I suspect that our military doesn't "always" tell us of experiments! ThoughI agree, unlikely in a major shipping zone……but also, not out of the question! memtb

 

[Allen Kitts]

Please leave snake stories out of this! I need sleep!!!

I've got a great one for ya. A group of us took a motor home to Texas to go pig hunting. We had a great time. On that trip the first morning we were going to shoot some prairie dogs up around Hereford. We pulled into the field and when my buddy stepped out of the rig there was the first rattlesnake of the trip, literally right outside the passenger door. He screamed, we killed it with a pistol and this set the tone for the rest of the trip. Once we arrived in San Antonio at the place where we were pig hunting the guy running the place told us to watch out for snakes, it was a banner year for then apparently. One of my buddies, Curtis, was deathly afraid of snakes so he was on high alert all the time. There was another older gentleman in camp with us that thought he was the greatest hunter to ever live, he had killed everything and everything he had killed was the biggest, longest etc. etc. etc., you know the type. My buddy, Curtis, took a little disliking to him for being such a blowhard right away and decided he needed to do something to bring the guy down a notch.

On this particular trip we were doing alot of night hunting over bait. The first night we were sitting along a road, there were three of us sitting in chairs about 15 yards off the road that the outfitter had corned. We had some libations in the backpack and after about an hour one of the guys that was with us said 'Hey Curtis give me a cold one". Curtis reached into his bag and the next thing I know he launches clean over me right onto our other buddies lap. We all turned on our lights to see what the hell was going on and he said there's a snake in my bag. Of course we called BS but when I turned the light on the bag sure enough a copperhead had crawled right into the backpack. I dumped it out and we killed it. We had quite a laugh over it but Curtis was scared to turn the lights back off. Eventually we did and actually had a great night of hunting. We killed four or five hogs that night so the next day we had to go to Walmart to pick up some coolers for the meat. While at the store Curtis decides it would be funny to pick up a rubber snake and put it outside the old man's door.

When we got back to camp it was dark and Curtis placed the rubber snake, coiled up right outside the old mans door. He figured inteh morning when the old man came out he would step righ on it, soil himself maybe a little and we would all get a good laugh out if it. We all went to our room to sack out for the night. While laying in bed, which were bunk beds, I looked down to talk to another one of my buddies and there was a scorpion climbing his way up to my bunk, **** things were everywhere, I slapped at him with my hat which was on the bed post and he ran back down towards my buddy Scott, hit a cross member on the bunk beds and ran into a crack in the wall of the bunkhouse. I said ******** grabbed my stuff and started to climb down from the top bunk. The guys said "where you going" and I said "we had a perfectly good motor home sitting in the parking area and I knew there weren't any scorpions in it". Before I could get out the door they were all following me. My buddy Curtis decided to take the lead, remember, he is the one that placed the snake on the old man's doorstep, and headed for the motor home. The path took him right by the old mans door and when he got there he launched ten feet in the air and let out the best six year old girl scream a guy could imagine. His sleeping bag and pillow went flying as he cartwheeled onto the front porch. I literally laughed so hard I almost wet myself as did the others in our group. Sometimes Karma is a real Bitch. Great Hunt with Great Friends and some fun along the way!

 

[marksman1941]

I worked in gun sales for several years , buying and selling for GLENN SLADES , before CARTERS COUNTRY took the market in the HOUSTON area . What you did was a regular occurrence ,there were bullet holes in the ceiling all over the place ,you can't imagine ,my scary moment was when a 25 auto was discharged in a case of 22 ammo back in the ammo stock room . It was supposed to be unloaded ,casing was corroded to chamber and couldn't get the slide back so stupidly I aimed and Pulled the trigger , that might have been my lucky day . If you can't get that bolt open or slide back assume it's loaded,I nearly learned the hard way , always verify.

I used to work at the same sportsman's i committed my error at, and it was common practice for folks to bring in loaded firearms while swearing they were empty. Or, they would whip a loaded Taurus out of a pocket And say "anyone got a holder for this?" While flagging the entire gun counter. Never in my life have I been more in support of a qualifying iq test before a gun purchase.

 

[Rosebud]

Ok, Muddy. Don't look at this. My neighbor was weed eating around his house when this guy scared him big time. Was well within striking distance when he saw it. Then a week later, he's telling his college age grandson about it and is showing him the tree the snake was hunting squirrels in. Dang, number two is in the same place almost the same ready to strike pose. Living in the mountains in East Alabama can be exciting.

 

[mnshortdraw]

Late September of 2017 a friend of mine was asking for a transition snowshoe hare for a taxidermy mount so I took to my favorite river bottom to see if they were changing color yet. I knew there was a lot of bear activity because the salmon run was winding down here in Kodiak so I grabbed my camera instead of my 22 in case of a good photo op. About 1/2 mile in I see a sow laid out on a gravel bar sleeping with two yearling cubs playing around eating salmon carcasses. I duck down on the high bank and start snapping photos. They're pretty occupied twirling fish around and wrestling and I'm a solid 50 yards away so I'm feeling pretty confident. This particular sow and cubs had fished right past me a few times earlier in the season and she was pretty known for being pretty relaxed. After a couple of minutes one of them must have seen me and got curious as to what I was and starts walking towards me. At that moment I knew I had a problem. Momma was still fast asleep and as the little guy got closer I was quickly trying to decide what to do. He got to about 20 yards and I quietly stood up and waved my hands hoping he'd turn back. Well, he let out a noise I'd never heard a bear make and stood up and the sow instantly sprung up. I'm still standing with one arm up and a big DSLR and lens in my other hand and now momma is heading my way like a freight train while the cub is running back and I'm starting go back up.
You know how they say not to run from a bear charge? Well, she was up the high bank and on me in seconds. I jumped down into the water, ran across the thigh high creek and when I looked back all I saw was a sow's open mouth, claws, and a curtain of water. As soon as my feet hit dry ground I turned upstream and one more look back I was relieved to see she had turned downstream to gather her cubs. That experience shook me to the core and I made it home absolutely high on adrenaline. I have had hundreds of bear experiences here over the years and this was the only time I genuinely felt I was about to die from one. Lessons were learned. Here are a couple of photos from right before the incident. You can see a bit of the sow on the left sleeping.