What’s your spookiest hunting experience?

[Turpentine21]

I have a mean bull story as well. My father in law and I got a call from an older farmer one day asking if we could help him get a bull loaded. Since we had cows and worked with them all the time we agreed To help. When we got there nobody would even get near the head gate or the corral. One of his guys had just been sent to the hospital by this bull. The corral was torn up. The head gate was smashed. This Bull, a Brangus was absolutely crazy. He wasn't that big. Probably 1800 pounds but he was quick and just plain mean. He wouldn't even let us near the fence. Much less inside..
We had a double gated cattle trailer and decided to put a cow that was in season in the front compartment, close the inner gate, and back it up to the loading chute. During the night we slipped up to the back of the trailer and shut the gate on him. Last time I saw him he was slamming his head into the gates and sides and headed for sale to a rodeo buyer. I pity the poor sole that had to ride him.

I also saw a cow step thru a man's calf muscle one day. Unintentionally as the cow was just backing up in the chute. The guy ended up near cripple with a very bad infection before things were over with. Don't ever underestimate them. They can hurt you.

 

[victor3ranger]

I have a mean bull story as well. My father in law and I got a call from an older farmer one day asking if we could help him get a bull loaded. Since we had cows and worked with them all the time we agreed To help. When we got there nobody would even get near the head gate or the corral. One of his guys had just been sent to the hospital by this bull. The corral was torn up. The head gate was smashed. This Bull, a Brangus was absolutely crazy. He wasn't that big. Probably 1800 pounds but he was quick and just plain mean. He wouldn't even let us near the fence. Much less inside..
We had a double gated cattle trailer and decided to put a cow that was in season in the front compartment, close the inner gate, and back it up to the loading chute. During the night we slipped up to the back of the trailer and shut the gate on him. Last time I saw him he was slamming his head into the gates and sides and headed for sale to a rodeo buyer. I pity the poor sole that had to ride him.

I also saw a cow step thru a man's calf muscle one day. Unintentionally as the cow was just backing up in the chute. The guy ended up near cripple with a very bad infection before things were over with. Don't ever underestimate them. They can hurt you.

We had two BIG brangus bulls fight it out one day in the pens, they fought through the drill pipe pens at first then one decided he wanted to go for it and jumped on top of the 6ft pin and it crumbled like a tin can, they fought for about a half hour until they both were so tired they couldn't go anymore.
Absolute display of power and strength

 

[Turpentine21]

We had two BIG brangus bulls fight it out one day in the pens, they fought through the drill pipe pens at first then one decided he wanted to go for it and jumped on top of the 6ft pin and it crumbled like a tin can, they fought for about a half hour until they both were so tired they couldn't go anymore.
Absolute display of power and strength

A cow or a horse can just plain hurt you even if they are just playing. This guy had 7 bulls, Charlais, Cimmetal, Angus, and the one Brangus. 3 of those bulls were 2600 pounds or better but they were pretty docile. Not so with the Brangus

 

[victor3ranger]

I hear ya, I had a Giant Holstein bull that was like a pet dog, me and my brother could ride him around like a horse. He could squash me without even meaning to.
My brother dared me to ride the bull into the house one day so I did, just about the time I got him to go down stairs she pulled up
Man, you want to talk about getting a beating

 

[victor3ranger]

What made it worse is the second my mother set eyes on the bull standing in her house he chose to take a dump on the carpet

 

[Ol' Red]

What made it worse is the second my mother set eyes on the bull standing in her house he chose to take a dump on the carpet

Are we distance cousins or something. Any Coles, Grindstaffs or Shoupes in your family?

 

[B-LOT Banga]

While hunting 25 yrs ago on the PTA military training area here on the big island they laid out razor wire along side of road's intersections. Well our favorite animal to hunt is the Hawaiian Black ram which is of course wooly. While stalking a herd the wind swirled and they spooked running towards me and as I stood up to draw my bow the herd cuts and jumps over the razor wire bundled up against some bushes and an unlucky ram had his back leg snagged, I quickly jump on him out of excitement but then realized I can't kill him even though his horns were huge in the 35" range so my friend decided he would take it home alive. After some trial and error we finally figured out a way that he could walk the ram out without it kicking our butts and getting away. We walked along the highway on a dirt road and about a mile to go we decided to take a break and eat lunch in hopes of our ram getting the attention of some other sheep that might walk our way. Well we got some attention but the wrong kind, some idiot stopped along the highway with his high powdered rifle and shot 4 times as he was making bad shots the ram was jumping up and down on bouncing on us while we were screaming our heads off trying to dig ourselves underground like a groundhog. Luckily Mr. Sniper had to reload giving us the chance to jump up and start screaming. He was maybe 100 yds away but I could see his whites of his eyes as he threw his gun in his car and sped off. We never found out who it was and we had to kill the ram but having bullets hit an animal jumping on you less than a foot away was the scariest hunting incident I've had. I would take big foot any day!!

 

[C-130 Dude]

While hunting 25 yrs ago on the PTA military training area here on the big island they laid out razor wire along side of road's intersections. Well our favorite animal to hunt is the Hawaiian Black ram which is of course wooly. While stalking a herd the wind swirled and they spooked running towards me and as I stood up to draw my bow the herd cuts and jumps over the razor wire bundled up against some bushes and an unlucky ram had his back leg snagged, I quickly jump on him out of excitement but then realized I can't kill him even though his horns were huge in the 35" range so my friend decided he would take it home alive. After some trial and error we finally figured out a way that he could walk the ram out without it kicking our butts and getting away. We walked along the highway on a dirt road and about a mile to go we decided to take a break and eat lunch in hopes of our ram getting the attention of some other sheep that might walk our way. Well we got some attention but the wrong kind, some idiot stopped along the highway with his high powdered rifle and shot 4 times as he was making bad shots the ram was jumping up and down on bouncing on us while we were screaming our heads off trying to dig ourselves underground like a groundhog. Luckily Mr. Sniper had to reload giving us the chance to jump up and start screaming. He was maybe 100 yds away but I could see his whites of his eyes as he threw his gun in his car and sped off. We never found out who it was and we had to kill the ram but having bullets hit an animal jumping on you less than a foot away was the scariest hunting incident I've had. I would take big foot any day!!

That's crazy! Good thing he was a bad shot.

 

[Gzuccarini]

When I was a youngster working on a game farm (Windy Ridge) in Northen Zululand I was asked to bring meet for a braai (barbecue) to one of the bush camps (called Ntibane/Warthog) and walking through the bush in the dark from the vehicle to the camp I was followed by what I assume was leopard based on the rasp like coughs next to me as I walked... I thought it was going to kill me ......given how incredibly lethal they are...but just carried on walking with jello legs... but never did, obviously. Lucky indeed

 

[marksman1941]

While hunting 25 yrs ago on the PTA military training area here on the big island they laid out razor wire along side of road's intersections. Well our favorite animal to hunt is the Hawaiian Black ram which is of course wooly. While stalking a herd the wind swirled and they spooked running towards me and as I stood up to draw my bow the herd cuts and jumps over the razor wire bundled up against some bushes and an unlucky ram had his back leg snagged, I quickly jump on him out of excitement but then realized I can't kill him even though his horns were huge in the 35" range so my friend decided he would take it home alive. After some trial and error we finally figured out a way that he could walk the ram out without it kicking our butts and getting away. We walked along the highway on a dirt road and about a mile to go we decided to take a break and eat lunch in hopes of our ram getting the attention of some other sheep that might walk our way. Well we got some attention but the wrong kind, some idiot stopped along the highway with his high powdered rifle and shot 4 times as he was making bad shots the ram was jumping up and down on bouncing on us while we were screaming our heads off trying to dig ourselves underground like a groundhog. Luckily Mr. Sniper had to reload giving us the chance to jump up and start screaming. He was maybe 100 yds away but I could see his whites of his eyes as he threw his gun in his car and sped off. We never found out who it was and we had to kill the ram but having bullets hit an animal jumping on you less than a foot away was the scariest hunting incident I've had. I would take big foot any day!!

Why did you decided to take it home instead of kill it?

 

[Dr. Richard Gray]

Have you ever been actually attacked by a copperhead? Squirrel hunting on the farm with a .22 LR Scope and all. Had 3-4 squirrels up above me in the tree tops. Shot one and watched where he fell, then sit back and waited, oping to get a shot at another, but that never developed. So I stand up, walked over and fetched the squirrel I had shot. The ground cover was very light honey suckle and dried brown leaves. I had the squirrel by the tail as I started back with it. Heard a loud rustling in the leaves and turned to see a very angry and offensive copperhead ready to strike. Then it lunged forward at me, in my opinion a second time, and kept advancing, aggressively. I never even tried to see it in my scope at only a few feet away and just shot from the hip, emptying my rifle as I was trying to get away. By the time I got a couple of hundred yards away it dawned on me that the initial rustling in the leaves was his first strike. I could only assume that he hit that squirrel instead of me.

 

[Chas1]

What made it worse is the second my mother set eyes on the bull standing in her house he chose to take a dump on the carpet

Crazy what stuff we did in our youth. Funny story.

 

[Will.284]

I realize this could go a few different directions, but I know we all have some stories that left us freaked out or weirded out.

I have two, both deer hunting in Northern Idaho. Hiking down a skid road when I heard the most insane yipping and cayaying. It was heading right at me at speed, and I went from confused to fully assuming I was about to be whacked by coyotes/wolves/feral dogs. My hind brain took over and I dove behind a stump and threw my rifle across it, just in time to see a pair of Barred Owls come zooming through the brush, just making the most godawful racket you've ever heard. Took a few minutes to calm down after that.

Second was weirder and still unexplained. I packed a small muley about 4 miles back to the truck, arrived around 9pm, and found another guy waiting by my truck. Super nice, said he was just making sure I made it off the mountain cause it wasn't the safest area (his words). I asked him why, and he just put his finger to his lips and said "sit and listen". I was wrecked so I was happy to sit for a bit. After about 5 minutes, on the opposite side of the canyon I heard what I can only describe as a wounded elk squalling. Half bugle, high pitched, but changing tempo and pitch oddly. It went straight to the spine and made me want to bail. Right as that sound ended, the same type of call lit off on the mountain I had just came down. A third call answered the second from back to the west a good ways. These three calls went back and forth for all of 15-20 minutes before they just stopped with no warning. The other guy and I hadn't said a word the whole time we listened, fairly transfixed. Then he just smiled and me and said "this is why I waited. Not a good mountain to be on after dark". And off he drove. I have no idea what I heard that night (I'm not a big foot believer) but it was the most eerie, hair raising communication I've ever heard. I moved shortly after that (graduated from school and moved home) and I've never been back up there.

I was bow hunting north of Bozeman ,Mt my hunting buddy and I were stalking elk I was belly crawling through the grass cow calling and the short hair on the back of my neck stood straight up giving me the heebee hobbies I slowly rolled over on my back and saw a black spot waving back and forth in the grass then I picked out ears and eyes-a mountain loin was stalking me!! I was hunting with a recurve bow but got a shot off , when I found my arrow there was mtn lion hair on it

 

[BigHunter1978]

I was hunting with a companion in Southern Alberta. There had been a heavy snowfall the night before, and a couple of our usual spots were already occupied by other hunters. So, I decided to take us to a large area where we were unlikely to run into anyone. The snow was knee-deep, and as we walked, we started noticing some tracks. However, due to the depth of the snow, we couldn't identify what they were. Since we were in elk country, we assumed they were elk tracks and began following them.

We stumbled upon a man standing alone in the open. Approaching him, we asked if he knew where he was. It was apparent he didn't have much hunting experience because he referred to the cow elk as 'does.' He mentioned he had a friend with him, so I informed him that he was trespassing and needed to head back. I followed him out and noticed my friend talking to his companion. As I approached, the other man's voice grew louder and louder. When I walked up, doing everything possible to remain calm, the guy suddenly yelled at us, 'Well, f**k you both, there aren't any animals here anyway!' He repeated that statement, aimed his rifle over our heads, and discharged four rounds into the air.

We were absolutely shocked, and it took a moment to recover. I still thank my friend for thinking clearly because I was not, I was seeing red. We contacted the RCMP, but they were never able to locate the men. After that incident, for years, I was terrified to hunt on public land or encounter other hunters. To this day, I get a little anxious when I know there are hunters in the area.