What’s your spookiest hunting experience?

[Rosebud]

Bad place!

That was back when the hunting was pretty darn good in that area! I have spent my entire put together not far from there and although, never had an experience like that, have heard about similar things taking place in the surrounding area, many, many times.

 

[CNY Yote Hunter]

As with most of us I was younger walking into the woods before light for a deer hunt. I decided after sitting to move spots so I got up and made the move. Realized after I got to my new spot that I had left my seat back at the other spot so I circled back to get it. On the way back I had noticed tracks in the snow by my seat that I didn't recall seeing when I had originally sat down and found scat and pee as well. Thought oh well it was dark and I just hadn't noticed it. Grabbed my seat and continued the circle to the new spot. This is when I noticed the tracks were crossing over mine so the animal definitely came in after me and was headed the same way I had been. It was getting light at those point and I realized it was a coyote which struck me as odd cause any run in I've had with them is once they smell you or see you they are inside out and gone. Those tracks stayed following mine to my new spot, I sat back down in the new spot and not 5 minutes later from the same direction I came from was a coyote coming right at me with his nose to my tracks! It was a big mangy male and he got within 25 yards when I stood up. He looked at me, crouched down and growled. That was all it took to receive the slug out of that shotgun at that point! Never in my life still to this day have I seen a coyote follow a human scent, makes ya wonder sometimes.
Only other time I've ever been spooked is when a turkey crashes through the trees when walking to a spot in the early hours lol!! Or I had a beaver onetime slap his tail as I walked a trail along a pond in the dark. Sounded like a board had fallen from a plane and hit the water it was so loud!! Never saw the beaver but heard it is common

 

[Rosebud]

That's why I quit hunting public land!

I have never had a problem at night in the woods after two tours in Vietnam. I will admit that I am hyper aware at night and always ready to react to a threat, but I am always calm. I have had a deer step on my feet and a possum try to climp my leg among other encounters . I like the woods at noght. I am scared to death of other hunters, however. The most unnerving episode I have had was during turkey season a few years ago. I had had a hip replaced and was pushing the recovery period too much. I found that I had to get back to the car while I was still able, and the most direct route was through heavy brush and leaves. My exit ruined a nice setup for a couple of guys as I stumbled past them. They were mad and I was apologetic. When I was about fifty yards away one of them fired over my head and I could hear the shot going through leaves above my head. I went prone on instinct and was prepared to fire back but then I realized they were laughing and calling out that I should respect them in the future. I finally decided it was safe to get up and head out. They packed up and caught up to me during the mile walk out on an old road. They thought it was OK to joke around with me on the way out, but I did not trust them, and they probably never realized that I was locked and loaded and ready to pull the whole way out...... Another time I was standing in light brown brush at the bottom of a brown leaf hillside wrapped in an old brown burlap blind waiting for a hog when I heard movement nearby in some heavy new green growth. After a bit two young guys worked their way out toward me with shotguns ready and I just knew that if I moved, one of them would shoot. I waited until they were about ten feet away and facing away before I spoke up. You would have thought I fired the way they jumped..... Another time I'm wearing orange and working my way out through heavy brush when I look up and see some idiot tracking me through his scope from a tree blind and I know I'm three pounds of accidental pressure away from being shot.

 

[Rosebud]

My 12 year old daughter and I were laying on top of a shale-covered hillside waiting for some mule deer bucks to appear as they worked their way up from the bottom of the draw. She was in position behind the gun on a bipod and some deer backs were now visible. As she peered through the scope, off to our right, about 4 or 5 feet away, we heard a distinct rattle caught our attention. As soon as her eyes focused on the prairie rattlesnake just feet in front of her face, she jumped up and screamed and ran away from the snake and of course the deer bounded off and jumped the fence onto the adjacent private property. The hair stood up on the back of my neck for sure - mainly because I was concerned for her safety! The good Lord still provided a nice buck for her that year, so I guess it was a blessing?!.

Now, I tend to watch my step a bit closer on our hunting and fishing excursions - especially when she is with me.

View attachment 488648

Impressive young lady! You should be proud.

 

[edgartwib]

I've got a couple good ones.
1) The one theat scared my pops the most was a hunt in the southwestern NM boothill curca 2007-8. In NM after the draw due date the state raffles off the unsold game tags to NM residents. The caveat to this is they are hard, rural units. Well i got lucky and drew. It's is a hot desert unit bordering Arizona to the west and Mexico to the south the NM boothill. It was after 10am where we spent the morning watching a water tank with fresh sign to no avail. We decided to go back to camp because it was getting hot. During our drive out we rolled onto a border patrol truck, white dodge 2500 iirc. We waved and said hi and went on our way. Later that day we ran into another border patrol truck as we said hi he asked if we had seen anyone else, my pops said we only saw the other border patrol truck. He asked us to describe it and point out on the map where we saw him. The border patrol guy told us casually that they were not borderpatrol they were cartel. My dad bugged out.

2) cat story I was in my early teens on a desert mule deer hunt between Roswell and Artesia NM. We walked into a arroyo/draw with steep sides. The wind was with us so we casually picked out steps. My dad mentioned that he felt we were being watched. We kept on going we came upon a strong urine smell so we stopped to listen. I **** you not 15feet away was a blockhead mountain lion watching us from his/her den. It never moved. My dad has a 35mm photo of it. It was a very big cat head perfectly camouflaged. We both puckered and backtracked out of there fast.

3) full moon at white sands
This is fun. White Sands is a cool place. 100% surrounded by Government military reservations. Trinity Test site to thr north, NASA base due west and Holloman AFB to the East. A couple years ago the wife and I decided to camp on the full moon. When we got to White Sands there was no camping that nite because of a Missle test going over area. So we got a permit for the day after the full moon to camp. The camping area is a 1/2+ mile hike in hike out camping area. We set up camp and watched thr sunset to the west and shortly after watched the full moonrise from the east. It was a super pretty nite we were enjoying ourselves when all of a sudden 8 or 9 lights turned on in the sky. It tripped me out I mentioned this to my wife and she said you mean the light tower lights along the ridge. I EXCLAIMED to her that we were looking down a valley and there were no towers there. As i was explaining this to my wife, under the lights, a Rocket?!? shot horizontally in the sky it's flame trail sputtering out. I was hooting and hollering and my wife said she did not see that!!! I was loosing my ****, seriously cool things were happening and my wife was oblivious. After another minute another Rocket?!? shot across the sky. That one my wife saw, which made me feel not as crazy lol. A few minutes after that the lights above us went off. I joke about it being big brother testing some Marvin the Martians toys. Instill can't explain the sideways rocket. I talked with a retired AF guy about the story he said that the lights in the sky were most likely flares, he stateed that we know when the soviet ( his words) satellites are over head and we put flare above places where testing happens to blind their satellites.

My money is they are some sort of drone because they did not float thru the sky like flairs and all turned off at once.

4) Southern Oregon Bigfoot watcher?
I think about this woman alot. I was in the Siskiyou Mtns part of the cascade range right along the Ca/Or border. There was a old fire lookout that I was heading to. I was in my 91 toyota 4x4 pickup. It was a rough slow road. After several miles I drove into a clearing. There was a obese lady sitting in the meadow on a folding chair. I waved and she waved back and smiled. I saw her car a toyota camry parked at the other edge of the meadow. This was not a maintained road in any way. I stopped and wanted to ask the lady if was OK. I remember seeing her wave and smile and he car didn't look beat up so I figured she came the opposite way I came. I figured maybe the road was better going the other way. The road was not improved in anyway going the other way.
When I got to the fire tower I told the lookout what I saw he chucked and said she was a Bigfoot watcher. When I drove back she and her car was gone. I would have liked to pick her brain. Lol.


.

 

[Rick79]

Here's one that I cannot explain.

2003 in the eastern desert of Iraq late April or early May not to far from the border with Iran. We had been moving around a lot and had circled the vehicles up, set up security, and trying to get some rest if you were not on watch.

I had just come off watch and made it back to my vehicle to get some sleep, probably 1 or 2 in the morning. Laying on my back and looking at the stars was always nice because you could see all of them! I noticed what I thought was a satellite going across the sky, just a small light about the size of a star moving slowly among the stars. Then it stopped moving and started to get bigger, like it was getting lower, until it was about 5 times the size of a star. It stopped getting bigger, stayed that big and not moving for about a minute, then got smaller really quick and disappeared.

I don't have a clue what it was. Drones don't need or use white light, our air support was grounded while we were stationary (and helicopters make noise!), and flares don't move like that.

I didn't sleep much that night and always tried to find something similar after that but never did.

 

[scott0303]

Evening bow hunt in NJ at one of my normal spots. Didn't see much that Evening, as legal shooting light come and gone I was just getting ready to pack up as I am up 22' in a ladder stand. I hear deer walking toward me so I sit and wait for them to pass by.. after being below me and around me for 5 minutes they suddenly just bolt. So now I am (is it me or yotes). Then a few minutes later all is quiet and I pack up and head back to my truck. I get about 300 yards from my stand and hear something to my right. Flashlight shows 2 pairs of eyes and big yotes about 25 yards away. I'm like ok! Start to make noise now hollering. So continue forward again and Flashlight show 3 pair in front of me more yotes 20 yards away. So getting much more nervous now if that's possible. So I start backing up slowly back to my stand and my Flashlight show 4 sets of eyes. Now I stop and heading left to GOD know where off my trail. But only made it 5 yards and Flashlight finds 2 sets of eyes their too. I'm like oh **** I'm dead with only a crossbow in my hand. So I said F. It I'm heading to my truck. I didn't shoot my bow or anything just made the last 900 yards back to my truck with this pack following me the whole way.
I get to my truck and watch all those yotes take off. I thank the GOOD LORD for allowing me more time. Dont know why they didn't attack as I can't run and my Rheumatoid Arthritis n Fibromyalgia turned me into a much older person than I am. They could have easily and I mean easily taken me out. Not allowed to carry in NJ or situation would have ended way earlier. Told a hunting buddy about that and he said THATS WHY I CARRY WHEN HUNTING. I'm like what. He said happened to me before and I won't get caught like that again.

If I'm in the woods I have a firearm.

 

[riflelooney]

Opening day of archery 1993 Rural Green county, SW Pa. Hunted this farm for several years prior. Hunt a HUGE oak... No Stand steps up and stand on a big limb resting my back on the trunk...about 12 ft up .Killed 5 or 6 bucks outta this stand over the years... always saw deer. Made my way up in the early dark and began the sit. Beautiful morning. This place is a morning stand. Deer always between 7-8:30 raley before or after. As the morning progressed...nothing showed...I mean NOTHING. Devoid of everything... no squirrels... no chipmunks not a bird. About 9: am I decide to get down...lower my bow and climb down. Once on the ground I take my fanny pack off...leave my bow hanging on the rope... take a short walk,,, about 50 yards from the stand the woods change from open oaks to thicker second growth...cant see 5 yards in anty direction when you get in that stuff. there a deer trail that weave thru it and I begin to walk on it to look around... I hear a noise....a low deep growl... or i think i heard it.....just enough wind that I am not 100 percent sure. advance towards where i think it came from...may b 5 yards this time no doubt... I kid you not... its pretty loud... the scariest part is it is such a deep guutaral sound i feel it reverberate in my chest. What ever the hell this is... its holding its ground... Now i never saw it.. backed down to my tree...got my bow unclipped nocked and arrow and made my way to my truck... not taking my eyes off of the spot where I encountered whatever the hell it was. NOT a coyote.... Not a bobcat...I know what they sound like..... Again feeling that rumble on your chest.... sure as hell got my attention... . Got my buddys gathered up... went back within the hour... nothing... no tracks....no fresh kill.... simply nothing.... I will never know... but over the years I have pulled up cougar sounds on you tube... pretty similar.....

 

[marksman1941]

My brother had a couple rough ones. At about 15 he was plinking with a 22 in the woods and walked up on a dude who had committed suicide. Sittin in a lawn chair, middle of now where, half empty cooler of beer by his side and the aftermath of a .357 under the chin. That one scarred him to find. Especially when the police asked him to take him back up to the scene.

Several years later he was hunting rimrocks and someone started shootings at him. He's on an exposed finger of rim rock, no cover, and bullets start whizzing past and landing near him. He couldn't find the shooter, and I guarantee you if he had he wouldn't have hesitated. The guy does not miss. He made it off the rimrocks and back into the brush, then spent 6 hours driving around with a 20ga in hand trying to find the shooter. I can't blame him, but man I'm thankful he never figured out who it was.

 

[AGGRO]

Almost got ran over by a herd of Elk in Colorado at 3 am. Don't set your tent on an old game trail. Sitting in a tree stand at 4 am a giant dead pine came down right behind me. Sounded like someone set off a claymore. Birds squawking then complete silence again. No coffee needed.

 

[Allen Lone wolf]

About 10 or 12 years ago I was hunting from a shooting house my son and I set on a hunting club we were members of at the time. I'm in NW Alabama. On the last day of deer season at 8:30 am I look out the shooting house window the direction I came in and 60lb doe shoots across the road like it's tail is on fire. So I raise the window, pick up my rifle and lay it across my lap. The 3rd time I lean forward and check that spot a solid black panther, cougar, mountain lion, wampus cat or whatever you choose to call it was standing in the road facing me at 23 steps smelling the ground where the doe just crossed. It was knee high and about 100lbs. It spun in a flash running the direction of the deer. This is the first part of February another club member saw it the next day standing in the middle of a gravel road not a 1/4 mile from there. Fast forward to March 20th turkey season I'm walking in before daylight about 400yds from where I saw the cat and something is walking towards me in the pitch dark just off the road. I stopped it stopped not more than 15ft away. I have my shotgun shouldered but couldn't see nothing but a dark shadow. I slowly walked backwards on down the road a ways put my back to a tree and waited to daylight. I walked back to the truck on that muddy road and picked up the cats tracks following them back to the truck he had backtracked me. I'm 69years old and have never been afraid of anything, but that unnerved me. I have one game camera photo of the black cat that the fish and game tells me they don't exist. I met with them told them the story and they denied that I saw what I saw.I pulled the photo out of my shirt pocket slid it across the table keeping my hand on the photo I said what is this? He stares at it looks at me and said it don't exist. I put the photo back in my pocket he said let me see that. I said it doesn't exist got up and walked out. Never did take to being called a liar especially with proof in my hand. I was going to post the photo but for the life of me can't find it right now. My apologies for the long post.

 

[atepointer]

Between nearly getting trampled by a ginormous preggers cow or chased up the ladder by a ****ed off hog both in the pitch black dark on my way to lock ons in the woods.... I'll say the cow......she moved me outta the way so easily, but I was envisioning becoming a meat waffle during that 1.6 seconds of 'ohhhhh shiiii....'. Must have walked through 50 of them w/o one waking up....last girl panicked and jumped up. Whew.

 

[Calvin45]

N

Wife and I were deer hunting on a private ranch in No. Cal some years ago. We had hiked 4 or 5 miles from the gate when a thunderstorm blew up. Got dark, big wind, lightening - the usual. We're crossing a 40 or so acre field when wifey stops and says 'the ground is moving'. She's concerned. We stop, and as we're looking around - in the storm - I realize that the ground Did seem to be moving. It wasn't, though. The lightening had caused hundreds of thousands of tarantulas to leave their burrows and come to the surface. They were so thick we had to be precise in our footsteps not to step on them! Wifey was freaked. We had a long way to go back to the truck. I completely blew it when I picked one up and tried to explain that they are basically harmless. That went over big.

that is absolute nightmare fuel for me. Jeepers. My skin is crawling just thinking about that many large spiders, that the ground looked like it was moving. NOPE!!!!!!!

Thankful to live in a place where it gets cold enough for half the year that those types of creepy crawlers can't survive here. I don't care if they're basically harmless, I'm with your wife on this one!!! . There was a large spider on my deck the other day…by large I mean probably an honest 2'inch leg span, that's about it as big as they get here. My wife was very mad at me for "almost setting the house on fire" when I was so terrified of that thing that I couldn't touch it or touch something that was touching it…so I took an aerosol can and a lighter and flamethrowered the terrifying arachnid. Totally irrational and I understand that it posed absolutely no danger but the irrational part of my brain doesn't care and can not be persuaded. I've found cougar tracks by my own when hunting, I've been "surprised" by a curious black bear, I've been cornered by snarling unleashed BIG dogs roving around and I've confronted sketchy people loitering around my house at 3 in the morning fully prepared in all those cases to fight like hell if I had to. And none of those things trigger the visceral hair raising stomach sinking spine crawling TERROR that I feel whenever I see a big spider. I know full well I could lose any of those potential fights in mention above, that all of thos things are more dangerous to me and that the spiders really aren't at all. I don't care. YUCK!!!

Ugh my skin is actually crawling now.

 

[Calvin45]

Almost got ran over by a herd of Elk in Colorado at 3 am. Don't set your tent on an old game trail. Sitting in a tree stand at 4 am a giant dead pine came down right behind me. Sounded like someone set off a claymore. Birds squawking then complete silence again. No coffee needed.

No coffee needed but I might have needed a clean pair of shorts. Wasn't hunting but just this summer we had a huge windstorm like hadn't happened here in at least 3 decades based on the damage…we were out at a campsite and this wall of wind just slammed out of nowhere and while I was hurriedly putting the kids in the van prepping to get the hell out of the thick trees lo and behold a poplar tree landed on the roof of my van about one foot beside my head. Interestingly enough in the heat of that moment I didn't feel fear or even adrenaline, me and another guy just manhandled the thing off and we all got out of there. But later you sit and think about what might have happened….I have a thick skull but the tree would still win I'm afraid