What’s your spookiest hunting experience?

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.
Pat McManus, A great outdoor humor writer. RIP. Said someone should invent a mean cow finder. It would pick out the only cow in the herd that was just waiting for you to get close.
 
My scariest was actually my dad's. He told me this story when I was mid 20's and anticipating the birth of my own son.
I was about 7 or 8 years old, and my dad and his partner Dan Culley sometimes took me along on their duck hunting trips. One morning the three of us went to a new pond in the overgrown field of a long abandoned homestead. The seasonal pond had grown a large perimeter of reeds, cattails and marsh grass. We blazed a trail through the cattails in the predawn darkness, and started spreading the decoys. After that was done, dad remembered he had left his thermos of coffee back at the Jeep. He asked me if I felt I could take his flashlight and go retreive it. I was a little nervous, but I said ok. I made my way back through the 100 yards or so to the rig and brought back the thermos. When the sun got high we picked up the decoys and started back down the now tramped down trail. About half way back my dad stopped cold. In front of him, nearly centered in the path, was a half covered hole. The hole turned out to be a hand dug well. It was about 18 inches in diameter, deeply dug and full of water to within three feet of ground level. All of us had managed to miss it on the way in, in the dark, and me on my solo trip for coffee.
 
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's absolutely gnarly!
 
Zimbabwe. Lake Kariba. I was hunting a problem Hippo. We called the game scout to meet us on the shore, he had to be there by law.

He arrived at the shore, where the local fishermen met each day to sell their catch. A very unsavory lot of individuals.

There were words between him and a guy whose illegal net he had confiscated.

The guy pulled a filet knife and stabbed the game scout, who soon after, died.

We were in the boat, just off the shoreline when it happened.

This young man was set to rotate out of this area the next day.

I can never shake the feeling that had I not been there, hunting this Hippo, this guy would be alive. I know it's in no way my fault, but these thoughts still come into my head occasionally.
Put your mind at ease. Remember the old saying, "what goes around-comes around".
 
One more and I'll just read everyone else stories. This is fifteen years later than the Ak. Story. Mike, myself and two other friends are backpacking in the Smoky Mountains. We parked at the trail head on New found gap and stayed the night at Ice water Springs trail shelter. This was a winter trip and it was snowing by the time we got to the trail shelter. Nice enjoyable night But the next morning there was about ten inches of fresh snow. We had planned to go on the MT laconte the next day, but the weather was supposed to get worse.So we decided to just head home. We leave the shelter and I'm leading down the trail from ice water Springs back to the AT. It's nasty, tight and very steep on both sides. I'd brought a pair of mucklucs back from Ak. So I tried the out on the deep snow, big mistake. I'm carrying a fifty pound pack using my stick to help. The trail switched from one side of a sharp ridge to the other, I was making a move to the left side of a steep ridge when I just started sliding, sliding in slow motion. The mucklucs got no traction on the ice beneath the snow. I'm sliding towards a avalanche chute. In slow motion, I intentionally fall down and try to dig in with my hiking stick, I'm still sliding, Over the edge I go. Five hundred feet to the bottom. I slide down about ten feet, with my toes and fingers trying to get anything to grab onto.
Then I stop, A small stump caught me in my couch, ouch! But I'm alive. Now I'm trying to figure out how to get back to the top. I hear a voice above me saying "hay man, what are you doing down there". It's bear bait. My saviour! He and the other guys drop a strap and pull me up. I look back where I was shaking my head. That little stump was the only thing that could have stopped me. I'd be dead! I took off the mucklucs and put on the Herman survivor boots. I only lost two toe nails that hurt like crazy walking out. But I was alive. That day was the close(I am one of them) st I've ever been to death.
Since you had to bring up Alaska and snow and falling, I have to relate the following;
a bunch of military "hunters" (I am one of them) decide to go hunting for caribou one winter. Several of us had campers and several more had snowmobiles. We drive way back on snow covered roads where we see a small herd of caribou on a mountain side. The snowmobilers elect to drive up the mountain side and herd them toward us. We can see them several hundred of feet above us and all of a sudden one of the snowmobiles disappears. He was so focused on the herd he did not see a cliff. The snomobile and he dropped 50 to 75 feet straight down. Luckily for him and the snowmachine there was a drift of snow 5 to 10 ft deep below. The driver fell off and landed in the snow drift winded but unharmed.
The snowmachine buried itself staight down into the drift. We worked for several hours to dig it out and then to clean the very compacted snow out of the tracks.
No caribou were harmed at that time.....well as we drove out a second herd walks across the road in front of us. Everyone bails out and has to open the campers to get their rifles and ammo. We finally succeeded in getting two caribou which were divided amoung the 6 of us.
 
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
Nicely done young lady!
 
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.
See my post #80. Humans can be a problem.
 
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
I've heard that beaver slap hunting pods in Minnesota. Scared the 💩 out of me.
 
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
Nice buck!
 
Well for me it was on a break in deployments when I went to Belize with a friend. Let's just say their guest sport hunting was rather immature in 2010. The sightseeing was good. Accommodations good. Skill atnguiding good. Logistics for hunting - well….

We were in pursuit of Brocket Deer. To get to the part of the jungle, we had to break trail. Our guides had two trucks and about half a dozen hands to cut trees to bridge washed out trails in a jungle monsoon. We finally set up camp, pitched tents and got ready to hunt. One truck departed with some of the crew to be beaters.

When the rain broke, we went hunting. They handed me an old Mossberg 185 16 gauge bolt action, with a handful of Brennecke slugs. My partner had nothing but her wits. We were told to head a direction (essentially "keep the howler monkeys on your left and go a kilometer and we'll meet you". No guide, just us, one shotgun and five slugs.

The jungle was thick and full of trees with acid sap that leaves a scar if you get it on your skin. We heard a couple deer and never saw one or had a shot. We moved gingerly and after an hour or two had barely made half a click when I said "enough" and used my Bushnell Backtrack (early simple GPS) to get back to camp.

Eventually the guides caught up in camp and apologized. They agreed to take us on a night stalk (legal there). It started storming. I was sitting on the roof of the truck crashing around the jungle with a .22 magnum rimfire I had not shot or had proven sighted in. The scope was 90 degrees out (turrets on left and top) and the reticle was not level.

We spotlighted a Brocket at about 150 yards. All I could see in the rain was the glow of the two eyes. I didn't take the shot.

We broke camp in the morning and went real hunting. I downed about half a dozen with#6 shot in an old 32" barrel full choke H&R Topper. I later found out it had no working transfer bar! The firing pin was welded up so the hammer could strike it. As parts rusted and were replaced with jungle engineering. The teal were tasty.

I also took an Algoutie(sp) which is like a big squirrel. Hit it on the run at 58 yards. Guides were impressed and asked why I shot so well. I showed them that shotguns shoot better if you put the shell in the chamber with the headstamp right side up, not at an angle. That was the key to my success!

The Algoutie was tasty as an appetizer as well.

Anyway that's my story (and I am sticking to it).
 
I was headed up into I think Alison Canyon, its off the Macks Canyon area on the Deschutes River
My headlamp batteries went out so I was in the dark on the hike up.
If anyone is familiar with the area there is a train on the west side of the river that goes through before sunrise and it makes a noise that echoes off the deep canyone calls. Its an amazing sound. When the train is across the Macks Canyon camp it throws it's light into the canyon I was hiking in.
The headlight lit up the entire canyon and i could see two coyotes behind me.
I dont' think they were following me, but no headlamp and another 30-45min till sunrise was not comfortable.
 
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