What’s your spookiest hunting experience?

[Recon$$]

If I get anywhere near any snake, the last thing I'm thinking about is pulling out a camara or phone to get proof. Not aggressive my butt!

Snakes don't bother me at all. One day screwing around in the pacific I saw a sea snake and got up on him to check him out. That little ahole came after me for like 45 seconds. I was all over the place. Kicking with the fins, hard to get away when they swim way faster. Aggressive and poisonous little guy. I stayed away from them in the water after that.

 

[Son of a Gun!]

I was bow hunting for Elk and Mulies up on the Continental Divide just north of the Colorado border. The mountain I was on was pretty flat and I hiked about a 1/2 mile to a big stand of spruce on the side of this mountain as I knew there was a spring in the middle of this stand of spruce and I had killed a big Mulie there with a rifle the year before. As I hiked I could see there was a thunder storm brewing to the west. I figured I might get wet on my hike back. Well I sat until it started getting dark and the storm started with light rain. I headed back to the truck. I got about half way there and the lightning started! soon it was hitting close, I mean flash and boom right now! I started to run and I saw a flash and the lighting hit a tree close to me! The hair on my head was standing up and I don't think Usain Bolt could have caught me! I got to the truck and I could hardly breath I was wheezing so bad! I got in the truck and got the heck off that mountain!

 

[crm3006]

I don't get why you are coming off like I said that they aren't aggressive??
Maybe you need to reread exactly what I wrote.
Yes they are aggressive and yes they stink and once you know the smell you can usually smell them before you see them.

Maybe you should re-read carefully, what I wrote. Or, possibly, brush up on your reading comprehension skills.

 

[Black Hat]

Agreed. Once you've eaten wild turkey, a butterball just won't do.

Must be different to our wild "Bush" Turkey's.
My grandfather told me the only way to cook them is to stuff them with a house brick, cook them until the brick is soft, throw away the Turkey and eat the brick!
I'm enjoying the stories on this thread.

 

[C-130 Dude]

B in L was a contractor and his hunting partner was an employee he knew well. Just didn't realize the guy was a psychopath. I was supposed to go on that hunt but had to work. I had been hunting with the B in L before and he was safe and a good hunter.

Sometimes you just never know about people you thought were decent.

 

[C-130 Dude]

Snakes don't bother me at all. One day screwing around in the pacific I saw a sea snake and got up on him to check him out. That little ahole came after me for like 45 seconds. I was all over the place. Kicking with the fins, hard to get away when they swim way faster. Aggressive and poisonous little guy. I stayed away from them in the water after that.

I've seen a few. The only saving grace about them is most have small mouths and would have a difficult time biting you. Except on an ear, finger, nose, toe or somewhere it could find. Personally, I'd be moving on quickly. It doesn't pay to tempt providence.

 

[Allen Lone wolf]

A few years ago I was stalk hunting whitetail here in NW Alabama with my bow on Lamarion WMA (now Sam Murphy). I decided to wear my leather moccasins in order to be as quiet as possible. Moving around the edge of a customer I would take 3 steps while looking ahead for bedded deer then look at the frosty ground for fresh tracks. As I was about to put my foot on the ground I looked down at a 3ft copperhead stretched out in the morning sun apparently asleep. My foot that wasn't more than 6 inches from the middle of that snake slowly returned back to the ground where it just left from. I very slowly moved the tip of my bow limb over his head and pinned him to the ground and didn't let off till I was sure he was dead. I hung him on a bush a hoped that it would rain within 3 days. I proceeded to hunt looking more for snakes than I was deer. Lol

 

[Ol' Red]

I have had them do the same thing towards me, I would rather kiss a rattlesnake than deal with a cottonmouth

I hope that's not what passes for romance in OK.

 

[victor3ranger]

I hope that's not what passes for romance in OK.

It can at times lol

 

[Sending156s]

57 years ago coon hunting in Tallahalla swamp with 2 uncles. We were miles deep in the swamp & only had 1 16 ga shotgun between us. We heard what sounded like a dying woman's last scream, then heard another spread apart. The hounds quit hunting and headed back to our truck. We figured it was panthers……very eerie sound. I was just a kid & was scared. I pulled out my pocketknife on the way out. They stayed the same distance from us all the way out.
About a month later a farmer that lived about 4-5 north of us killed 2 panthers at his stock pond after he had lost a couple of calves to them. The swamp was a good place to grow up. There was a $5 bounty on beavers. Just had to turn in thier tails. The fur only brought about 35 cents each & are really a pain in the *** to skin, stretch, & scrape. A cousin & me spent all our time trapping for the tails as the only other way to make money was hauling hay square hay bales, & catching chickens in commercial houses.
When I joined the USMC 2 weeks after turning 17 my fieldcraft & shooting skills were more advanced than Marines with a lot of time in.

 

[Charles Duke]

Hunting camp in S. Ark formed by 5 buds back in the 60's who still hunt together today. We built a very nice camp house in the early 90's with all the comforts of home and included a walk in cooler with the covered lighted skinning rack just outside the door. Now a couple years after that project was completed, we had a pretty good opening week of deer season with everyone but one getting some bragging hunt story. That one last fella got serious and stayed out all day coming back empty. That next morning he come in about 10:30 with the same story, "seen nothing". As we were eating lunch he came busting out of his bunkroom and said "going to town" and was gone. He came back in a while with a couple of sacks full of stuff. There was doe urine, fox pee, drag cloths, scent sprays, camo face masks and a few other goodies. He made him a sandwich, took a shower, geared up and was gone to his stand in the creek bottom with a very determined look.
After dark we all had made it back and was helping a youngster clean his first buck. It was well after dark before the mad deteremined hunter came wheeling in. Jumping off he said " you aint gonna believe this, I got all scented up and did all the cover up to get into my stand leaving no human evidence. All I saw was a couple doe and one unknown right at dark. I got down, put another spray of doe urine on my drag, and walked back the my wheeler on the power line when I heard a rustle behind me. There standing right beside was a deer. Yeah, a young deer standing close enough for me to pet on the head. I said 'man this is some good stuff' to myself. The deer trotted off into the dark". We all were amazed and didn't know if he was pulling our leg and had a few brews in the stand or what. That was just amazing to think a wild deer would follow his scent up to him that way. A couple of us were sure interested in what kind of scent he was using though.
A couple days later we found out that one of the neighboring homes down the county road had lost his pet deer....

 

[fta0303]

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

My father and his family were stockmen, running a meatpacking company in Portland, Or in the early 1900's. One of teh things I was taught about stock is that any of them can kill you. They're all big, strong, hard as a rock, and mostly pretty quick. Domesticated, yes, but a streak of the wild runs through all of us. We all have a picture in our mind of a cowboy carrying his '73 Colt. He had a reason: protection against stock gone wild. Elmer Keith demonstrated it once, fell off his horse, foot tangle in the stirrup, horse runnin at top speed through the woods, as only a spooked horse can. Elmer saved himself; pulled his 44 and shot the horse. A man near our home in Central Washington kept a few head of buffalo as a novelty - one of them went mad one morning and killed him. A neighbor stepped into his pasture where he kept a mule - the mule went nuts and nearly killed him. Stock animals can be dangerous, a wise man carries his large caliber pistol.

 

[fta0303]

As much as we all like 1911s, if I was in bear country regularly I'd either carry a .44 or .45 revolver or a modern 10mm that you feel safe with a round in the chamber. "Cocked and locked" works for a lot of folks but I have seen or heard of way too many 1911s being removed from a holster with hammer back on live round only to discover that the safety lever was off. Less of a worry with a SIG or S&W, as much as I dislike plastic pistols.

Not a hunting story, but I was at Field Station Kunia, on my way to lunch when I asked the MP what weapon they were issued, as we still had a mix of 1911s and M9s in the Army then. He said "here" and drew his 1911, racked the slide and let it drop, as a live round popped out, he then buttoned out the magazine and handed it to me!

Once I drew a breath, I safely cleared the live round from the chamber, checked the weapon, closed the slide and lowered the hammer. I handed him the now empty and safe pistol and his live rounds and said "don't ever do that again" and explained all the things he did wrong with that process.

Interesting. I've carried a cocked and lcoked 1911 many years in a variety of holsters. The only times i found the safety "off" I'd been using a holster with a retention strap over the hammer or a thumb-snap one. Otherwise, that "Cocked and Locked" method is sound as can be. I've noticed that some of these holsters carry warnings "Not for cocked and lcoked carry."

 

[fta0303]

Yeah same here. They're just trying to protect them I guess. Many years later, maybe 1996, I was hom during Christmas. We were out riding back roads near my parents. Stopped to take a leak and heard the dogs running, so we waited to see them cross. Whatever it was, I never saw it cross road, but caught it hauling butt across the field
It was flying, like I mean fast. It went straight through a barb wire fence - not over, but through. It was cat - 100% - with tail, medium brown, probably 100 pounds, back stayed flat, no up and down bouncy movement. And did I mentioned it was fast. No big cats my arse.

Fish & Game here in Washington state always claimed there were no wolves in Wa. At that time, you could park your rig just outside of Tampico and listen to wolves howl at night. F&G also said there were no grizzlies south of Snoqualmie Pass highway. I don't know what was magic about that highway ! Father saw one crossing the North Fork Tieton River Road, probably 75 mi South of Snoqualmie... He challenged the Warden at the nearest FS installation, was told that F&Gwas aware of the grizzlies, but didn't admit to them so as to not scare people ! That was a dangerous little piece of misinformation.