What’s your spookiest hunting experience?

[C-130 Dude]

You hit the nail on the head!

 

[Dirtrax]

So I had hiked in about 5 miles to a spot I had spotted a nice whitetail buck. After a long day of no luck it was time to go. Darkness had set in but the trail back was good and I had one of those headlamps on so off I went. The trail was on a heavily forested and steep hillside with dense trees above and below me. About halfway back to my truck I hear a bird chirping on the uphill side of me. Strange I thought, doesn't sound like any bird I've heard out in the dark. As I continue to walk the bird seems to be following me chirping fairly regularly. It started to weird me out. Now I'm turning around abruptly thinking something's following me and starting to get scared because the d@mn bird is still following me! I got back to the truck eventually and left thinking myself a fool for over reacting. The next day at work I'm telling my buddy about it and he just chuckles a bit while he's tapping on his phone. He holds it up and asks "is this the bird?". A soundtrack plays and I say "Yup, that's it man let me see!" It was a female Mountain Lion chirping away! Apparently they do so when they have kittens. That's when the chills came.

 

[Rosebud]

I really dont like snakes. All types. At all. Not one little bit.

I'm not afraid of snakes, but my feet are terrified of them.

 

[MtPockets]

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.

Please do. This is the best thread I've read in awhile!

 

[Chadp82]

One year, maybe 25 years ago, my dad and I were deer hunting.

We saw some deer go up an abandoned logging road so we slowly followed them. We had a hunting plan in mind, and it wasn't this road, but we followed them. There was fresh snow. So the only thing on this path were the deer tracks. And eventually our boot tracks. We went up about a half mile, and hit a meadow. The deer were 7-800 yds across the meadow. We glassed them and realized they were all does and a couple small bucks. We waited a bit to see if any other bucks were in the group, maybe 30 minutes at most. We decided to back out and hit the plan for the day.

On the way out, maybe 50 yds from the meadow opening there were cat tracks in our boot tracks. We stopped and looked and never saw it. At the point we noticed the tracks they broke from trail into the trees, but couldn't see the cat. It was an eerie feeling knowing that something was following us and watching us, but we had no idea where it was. It was a slow walk out having the feeling we were being watched and followed.

 

[Calvin45]

So I had hiked in about 5 miles to a spot I had spotted a nice whitetail buck. After a long day of no luck it was time to go. Darkness had set in but the trail back was good and I had one of those headlamps on so off I went. The trail was on a heavily forested and steep hillside with dense trees above and below me. About halfway back to my truck I hear a bird chirping on the uphill side of me. Strange I thought, doesn't sound like any bird I've heard out in the dark. As I continue to walk the bird seems to be following me chirping fairly regularly. It started to weird me out. Now I'm turning around abruptly thinking something's following me and starting to get scared because the d@mn bird is still following me! I got back to the truck eventually and left thinking myself a fool for over reacting. The next day at work I'm telling my buddy about it and he just chuckles a bit while he's tapping on his phone. He holds it up and asks "is this the bird?". A soundtrack plays and I say "Yup, that's it man let me see!" It was a female Mountain Lion chirping away! Apparently they do so when they have kittens. That's when the chills came.

Oh man that reminds me of another guy I know haha, a hunting guide who mainly serves American visitors after whitetail here in Saskatchewan …back in the 80s or 90s he and his client got a Boone and crocket type buck and of course many pictures were taken.

This being before cell phones or digital anything, the guide had to wait a while to get these photographs taken with his camera developed…and when he got them back he said at first you wouldn't see it in the picture but once you did see it it was obvious: there was a mountain lion in a tree branch about 30-40 paces behind them and their downed animal…just watching….they never had a clue it was right behind them the whole **** time.

It's funny how the mind works…he said he knew any danger he might have been in (and I seriously doubt it would attack three men in a group) was loooong over but looking at that photograph had his hands shaking and hair standing on end, blood icy cold etc…

 

[PartsJr.]

My story is similar to a few others. I was probably 17 walking into my deer stand b4 daylight in NW Minnesota. I was practically at the base of my stand and a ruffed grouse flushed at my feet. Scared the crap out of me. As the bird flew I shined my flashlight up toward my stand and the bird landed in the branches. I carefully crept up the ladder as I shined my light in the grouses eyes. I almost was able to grab it and wring its neck but not quite.

 

[Calvin45]

My story is similar to a few others. I was probably 17 walking into my deer stand b4 daylight in NW Minnesota. I was practically at the base of my stand and a ruffed grouse flushed at my feet. Scared the crap out of me. As the bird flew I shined my flashlight up toward my stand and the bird landed in the branches. I carefully crept up the ladder as I shined my light in the grouses eyes. I almost was able to grab it and wring its neck but not quite.

Entirely too relatable. But for us it wasn't hunting. I remember growing up we'd always go picking wild Saskatoon berries (I beleive some places call them juneberries or serviceberries as well), it was a whole family event. Anyway…without exception either me or my sister would at some point in the adventure either realize too late we were standing on an ant hill OR come within an inch of stepping on one of those grouse before the ground exploded beneath our feet. My sister lost a nearly full bucket of berries that way screaming and throwing her hands in the air on account of that blasted bird!

And this to say nothing of the prickly rose bushes that grow in and amongst the wild berry bushes…they hurt!

 

[MtPockets]

Man, those are some awesome stories!

I dont have many, but one winter probably 25-30 years ago some friends and I took snowmobiles into a WMA in North Central Mn to hunt rabbits in some remote swamps.
We'd ride around, find a swamp, then park the snow machines and hunt the swamp.
There probably 4-6 of us, each on a different sled.
The snow was fresh, so if we found tracks we usually found a bunny.
At one point, we crested a small knob that led into a cedar swamp and as we did we came across a ton of fresh sled tracks and something else that freaked us all out.
There in the fresh snow lay a couple of obviously very young calves that looked like they had been tortured in some sort of Satanic ritual.
We took in the scene for a New York minute, then looked at each other, spun the sleds around and got outta Dodge.
The story has a somewhat funny ending, though.

We were a LONG ways from any roads but there are groomed snowmobile trails crossing much of the area.
We left the calves at a high rate of speed and eventually crested a hill only to find a groomed trail right on the other side of the knob.
We had to slam on the brakes to keep from dumping out onto the snowmobile trail because lo and behold, here comes a Ford Taurus station wagon full of old blue haired ladies hooting and hollering as they made their way down the trail!
Mind you, we're still a long ways from a road and this trail is swamp in the summertime.
We stopped, took off our helmets and had a good laugh. And we all agreed that we should've followed that car to find out which Church they went to so we could join up.

 

[marksman1941]

So I had hiked in about 5 miles to a spot I had spotted a nice whitetail buck. After a long day of no luck it was time to go. Darkness had set in but the trail back was good and I had one of those headlamps on so off I went. The trail was on a heavily forested and steep hillside with dense trees above and below me. About halfway back to my truck I hear a bird chirping on the uphill side of me. Strange I thought, doesn't sound like any bird I've heard out in the dark. As I continue to walk the bird seems to be following me chirping fairly regularly. It started to weird me out. Now I'm turning around abruptly thinking something's following me and starting to get scared because the d@mn bird is still following me! I got back to the truck eventually and left thinking myself a fool for over reacting. The next day at work I'm telling my buddy about it and he just chuckles a bit while he's tapping on his phone. He holds it up and asks "is this the bird?". A soundtrack plays and I say "Yup, that's it man let me see!" It was a female Mountain Lion chirping away! Apparently they do so when they have kittens. That's when the chills came.

I packed out a buck once and started hearing that sound about a mile into the pack. It dawned on me it sounded like a house cat, which led to the eventual conclusion no spent the next 3 miles at a high rate of speed with a .44 in one hand and a swiveling flash light in the other. The **** cat followed me the whole way down the mountain. I hated every second of that walk.

 

[C-130 Dude]

One year, maybe 25 years ago, my dad and I were deer hunting.

We saw some deer go up an abandoned logging road so we slowly followed them. We had a hunting plan in mind, and it wasn't this road, but we followed them. There was fresh snow. So the only thing on this path were the deer tracks. And eventually our boot tracks. We went up about a half mile, and hit a meadow. The deer were 7-800 yds across the meadow. We glassed them and realized they were all does and a couple small bucks. We waited a bit to see if any other bucks were in the group, maybe 30 minutes at most. We decided to back out and hit the plan for the day.

On the way out, maybe 50 yds from the meadow opening there were cat tracks in our boot tracks. We stopped and looked and never saw it. At the point we noticed them they broke into the trees. It was an eerie feeling knowing that something was following us and watching us, but we had no idea where it was. It was a slow walk out having the feeling we were being watched and followed.

Never trust a cat. Ever.

 

[C-130 Dude]

Oh man that reminds me of another guy I know haha, a hunting guide who mainly serves American visitors after whitetail here in Saskatchewan …back in the 80s or 90s he and his client got a Boone and crocket type buck and of course many pictures were taken.

This being before cell phones or digital anything, the guide had to wait a while to get these photographs taken with his camera developed…and when he got them back he said at first you wouldn't see it in the picture but once you did see it it was obvious: there was a mountain lion in a tree branch about 30-40 paces behind them and their downed animal…just watching….they never had a clue it was right behind them the whole **** time.

It's funny how the mind works…he said he knew any danger he might have been in (and I seriously doubt it would attack three men in a group) was loooong over but looking at that photograph had his hands shaking and hair standing on end, blood icy cold etc…

That got my attention! Never trust a cat. Ever.

 

[C-130 Dude]

Man, those are some awesome stories!

I dont have many, but one winter probably 25-30 years ago some friends and I took snowmobiles into a WMA in North Central Mn to hunt rabbits in some remote swamps.
We'd ride around, find a swamp, then park the snow machines and hunt the swamp.
There probably 4-6 of us, each on a different sled.
The snow was fresh, so if we found tracks we usually found a bunny.
At one point, we crested a small knob that led into a cedar swamp and as we did we came across a ton of fresh sled tracks and something else that freaked us all out.
There in the fresh snow lay a couple of obviously very young calves that looked like they had been tortured in some sort of Satanic ritual.
We took in the scene for a New York minute, then looked at each other, spun the sleds around and got outta Dodge.
The story has a somewhat funny ending, though.

We were a LONG ways from any roads but there are groomed snowmobile trails crossing much of the area.
We left the calves at a high rate of speed and eventually crested a hill only to find a groomed trail right on the other side of the knob.
We had to slam on the brakes to keep from dumping out onto the snowmobile trail because lo and behold, here comes a Ford Taurus station wagon full of old blue haired ladies hooting and hollering as they made their way down the trail!
Mind you, we're still a long ways from a road and this trail is swamp in the summertime.
We stopped, took off our helmets and had a good laugh. And we all agreed that we should've followed that car to find out which Church they went to so we could join up.

What about the calves?

 

[C-130 Dude]

I packed out a buck once and started hearing that sound about a mile into the pack. It dawned on me it sounded like a house cat, which led to the eventual conclusion no spent the next 3 miles at a high rate of speed with a .44 in one hand and a swiveling flash light in the other. The **** cat followed me the whole way down the mountain. I hated every second of that walk.

Can you say, "you are my dinner".