What’s your spookiest hunting experience?

[Radman]

LB LRH could publish a book with these!

I too have been thinking the same thing ever since I first begin reading them!

 

[FrogFire7]

The MeatEater crew was looking for spooky hunting stories recently. Some you guys should maybe contact them

 

[Radman]

The little daughter of a friend used to say, "Nevery-Ever!"

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

 

[Radman]

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.

Yep...& IT HURTS! I've been struck twice, my Mother once & my Daughter once!

 

[marksman1941]

When this first started, I wuz think'n that there should be something in the General section where these stories could be kept for eternity….if not longer! Years from now, new members should be able to enjoy this as much as many of us have! memtb

Maybe the mods could make this a sticky thread somewhere so it stays? It seems to have gained enough traction

 

[Rosebud]

That "sixth sense" that most people have can be a wonderful thing. I have learned this: The more I listen to it the more acute it becomes. Good story, (but he's lucky he didn't get shot).

Him hitting me with the flashlight, and hearing his voice is only thing that kept me from opening up. He knew I carried a gun everywhere.

 

[Radman]

Side note about cats. My ex-wife posted photos of a horse she owned that had deep wide scratches from it's front shoulders all the way down it's back and rear haunches. She lives in Rock Island, TX (blackland prairie country between Houston and San Antonio), with husband #7 might be 8 (it's hard to replace perfection ). The horse was dead when she found it. She called the game warden and he came out. Once he looked it over he said, nah, no mountain lions around here, must've been a pack of dogs :/ That was about 10 years ago. A few weeks ago, on my way back from the range, I was prowling... I mean riding around, the backroads in the rice fields west of Garwood, TX. As I was driving I saw something running in front of me. Pretty good sized. A lot bigger than a Bobcat. Tan color, whitish on the back of the legs. It was running like a cat does. Both hind feet pushing off. The tail end was 24", maybe more. No... I didn't pay attention to the tail which makes me wonder if it had a short tail. I only had a few seconds before it dove off into the high grass and rice canal (no rice in there, water, but that's what we call them). I never saw it go up and over the canal but the grass is easily 4' high along that area. So I stopped and looked for tracks right? Nope, smh, I didn't think of that until days later. Since 'there are no mountain lions" in that part of Texas, I'm going to assume it was aliens.

They ARE out there. They've denied for years they are in TN but finally now they admit it.

 

[Radman]

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.

 

[Radman]

I am only 10 pages into this & again, you came up with a keeper Marksman1941.
I think it's great how we've all laid testosterone, pride & ego aside to contribute or applaud this great thread & for it being allowed to run this long.
My camo hat off to everyone. Is this a great forum or what?

 

[Rosebud]

Always!

I'm try to get the video from him as we speak. I told him when he showed it to me couple years ago how crazy he was. Not sure what river their on, but its crawling with bears. One that looks like it weighs about 800 pounds walking by at feet away with them talking to it to keep moving. Saying, hey bear, hey bear. Then you can see a couple of them in the background that we true monsters. He says, we're not worried about the juvenile bears their afraid of most every thing on the river. It's the moms with cubs. The boars will kill the cubs on sight. He has a video taken of him playing a fish when a sow comes out about ten feet on one side of him and three cubs about ten feet on the other. The problem is, we're both to old to have any computer skills.

 

[marksman1941]

I am only 10 pages into this & again, you came up with a keeper Marksman1941.
I think it's great how we've all laid testosterone, pride & ego aside to contribute or applaud this great thread & for it being allowed to run this long.
My camo hat off to everyone. Is this a great forum or what?

Thank you! I'm happy it took off like it did. It's pretty cool to see exactly what you said; egos put aside and the real experiences laid bare.

I recognized that after my very long hike back to my truck which nearly turned into spending the night in the snow before a gentleman drove past and picked me up (long story, that's posted around page 25 maybe?), I was pretty nervous about being out in the woods after dark. When i shot my bear this year and my buddy and I were skinning it, I started getting freaked out as darkness fell. I wasn't scared of bears coming in, I wasn't alone, I had a good road to hike out on, I was fully prepared, and there were no actual dangers.

But, I was getting a bit panicky and anxious even after logicking through all of that. Sounds simple and silly to say, but in the moment admitting it to my buddy and trading stories helped a lot. He'd had a bad experience getting stuck outside overnight and poorly prepared and it took him a couple years to be comfortable getting very far from the truck, and hearing that was a fully helpful. I know we all like to be big tough dudes, but it can be helpful to own the bad stuff that's happened and the way it's shaped our future actions and perceptions.

This thread was mainly meant as a way to see what weird crap people have seen, but I expect there's some catharsis for some in seeing other folks who've been scared poopless by similar situations.

 

[Rosebud]

Hope this will play. If so, enjoy. Well it appears it didn't load. Sorry, I'll try later.

 

[epc001]

I SEE NOTHNG! says Sgt Schultz

( dammat cant get back to work y'all - THANK YOU FOR SHARING! )

my snow owl observing me from above ( i sensed the great beast while still hunting ) and trees crashing down around me ( the indigenous furbearers were smarter than the foreign skinned one ) during a wind storm stories seem so trivial now !

PS I am not a paying member yet, in fact i just read the PM Chris sent me in May today i'm so inactive. Yet as sort of a numbers person, the site could seriously publish these , ( i reckon we must have authorized some sort of release when we signed up) to help for site maintenance.

Its a great SITE. I hope its still around for our sons and daughters to enjoy , is why!

 

[MtPockets]

ALWAYS believe the compass!

Good story and MOSTLY I agree with your statement, but not always.

When I was probably 17 or so, I was hunting with a friend and his family in northern Mn. I had only been hunting there a short time and really didn't know my way around at all.
It was maybe a couple hours after sunrise, and Mike and I are walking this 2 track when we come across a Y in the road. We decided to each take a different leg and maybe one of us would push a deer to the other. We thought the road just made a big loop so we'd meet at some point.
So, off we go.
I walked for what seemed like forever and the trail was getting more and more closed in, now and then one of the tracks disappears in the overgrowth.
At one point, I give up on the idea of the road making a loop and stop to look at my compass so that I can just head back west and at least find the road. The problem is, even being an overcast day I was sure it was wrong. So I tested it on a long straight stretch of trail.
I checked it, then walked straight for maybe a hundred yards then checked again.
Very different readings. I don't know if it was the iron in the ground or the cheap compass, or maybe I just wasnt holding it correctly but it gave very different readings.

This property is much like others have described- surrounded by roads, so I'm not too worried.
I figured this trail (even though it's now solidly just a single track) was originally a logging road so EVENTUALLY would lead to a road, so I stayed on it.
I walked what seemed like forever when I came across a hunter in a tree stand. He was facing away from the swamp that I'd just walked through and was startled when I approached.
We talked a bit. He was very surprised that I'd walked through that swamp and pointed me to the gravel road which was only 1/4 mile or so away.
Great, I thought. We were camped on a gravel road and I was sure that was it.
Except it wasn't. I walked for what seemed like forever AGAIN and came across another gravel road.
Now Im sure this is the one.
Nope. It lead to a tar road. Now I'm really confused because I didn't know of any tar roads close to where we hunted.
At this point, I have to say that I WAS starting to hit panic mode.
After debating with myself and not coming up with a clear answer, I mentally flipped a coin and started walking.
It was starting to get late, but after just a short distance another hunter pulled over and asked if I wanted a ride.
Boy, did I ever!
I described where we were camped the best that I could and he knew the area well enough that he was able to drive me back to camp, but it still took 20 minutes or more to get me there.
I dont think I've ever been that glad to see camp!

So, that's the long winded version of "Sometimes You Cant Trust Your Compass".