What’s your spookiest hunting experience?

[memtb]

The closest I've been to a bear was about 8 to 10 feet. Close enough that I could hear her breathing!

I was armed…..in fact, I was handgun hunting. I never felt fear…..only pure unmitigated disappointment. It may have been a lot different though, had it been a large grizzly instead of a young Black Bear!

I had a small conifer between us, and I could only see her through small openings between the limbs…..I couldn't get a shot off through that d@^d tree. She smelled me and took off.

I went into the timber after her, doing my best "ninja" impersonation, I was able to get within about 20 yards from her as she had her back to me while tearing into a rotted log!

Pretty easy shot from my S&W 629…..using my cast bullets.

 

[marksman1941]

Unless the 4 shot was perfectly placed (remember Murphys law), your probably just p**s it off.

We had a coworker who got between a black bear and a cub while grouse hunting. She came at him hard, and he hit her between the eyes from about 3 feet with 7.5 shot. Blew a hole in her skull and dumped her right there. Not the ideal method but it worked that time!

 

[Brushcutter]

Several years ago I had two experiences that seemed unrelated, but now I wonder. I had broken some ribs and a shoulder in a tractor rollover near our hilltop pasture. I laid up for a couple weeks, then one nice day my wife went up there to work with a horse. Tired of being cooped up, I decided to go up there and find a walking stick. I found a dead sapling in the woods near the pasture that looked good, so I hobbled toward the barn to get a hand saw. When I got to the dirt road, which was dry and dusty, there was a trail of fresh tracks, cougar! I was fascinated walking along side them for a hundred feet or so. I got the saw and headed back towards the woods. I was in for a surprise. Where I had walked along looking at cougar tracks on my left side, now there were a fresh row of tracks to the right of mine! Goosebumps time.
( I still have that walking stick as a reminder. It has a forked top for shooting. To bad I didn't have it along next time.)
At one point in the winter the horses were kept in that hilltop pasture, so we loaded the horse trailer with hay and parked it next to the gate. One evening we went to to feed them and saw a cougar track in the mud right next to the trailer. I told my wife that from now on, any time she had to feed after dark, I needed to be there. One evening that was the case. It was raining so I just took my stainless Ruger single 9 22 mag. While she was feeding, I was shining my maglight around when I saw the cougar sitting next to a big Fir tree 40 yards away. It now had my full attention! I brought the gun up, aimed, then realized that these conditions aren't very good, (dark, rain, frontal presentation, 22 mag. revolver) I better get a little closer. I took a couple steps forward and the cat turned ànd moved back a bit and sat back down. At that point I figured I should at least shoot to scare it away, but the cat was already tired of the game and just melted into the forest. That pretty much ended my relationship with a lion.