What’s your spookiest hunting experience?

[264WM]

Mine was years ago this is what happened. Went cutting firewood and had filled the back of my truck with firewood and climbed on to the wood to place my chain saw in a safe place and I had a chunk of firewood role under my foot and my right leg slipped down between the tail gate and I went out backwards over the tail gate with my leg over the tail gate which tore the calf muscle bad. So that is how this story is set up. Then a few weeks later deer season opened and I decided to go too one of my favorite hunting areas. My leg was not healed and I could hardly walk which I should have stayed home. I hiked up a ridge ( limped that is) with out seeing any deer. So I decided to return to my truck by way of the draw on the east side of the ridge. Half way down I got into a thicket with a lot of down fall so moving was slow and awkward. Then all of a sudden a bear started growling at me and he was less than 20 feet from me but hidden by the thick brush. I was standing there with chills going up and down my spine so I slowly started backing out and left him alone. I figure he was on a kill. Thankful he did not charge as I would have had to shoot fast and accurate. May have only had enough time for one shot.

 

[memtb]

Another accidental firing…..or two!

About 30 years ago a group of guys that I worked with (I didn't make the hunt) and one's wife were elk hunting!

They decided to make a "push" up a steep, wide draw, sending the wife and another guy that wasn't in the best of shape up a 2 track to the top of the big draw that had a large opening. The woman was driving an older '70's model chevy 4x4 ……which as many of you know didn't have a lot of soundproofing in that mostly metal cab.

They parked at the clearing for a while when they decided that maybe they should chamber their rifles and be ready for the elk that may cross quickly…..this is where things quickly went bad!

As my buddy was closing the bolt on a round in his Model 70 …..it fired. Completely stunned and disoriented, he slammed another round home….you can probably guess what happened!

Both he and the woman developed instant headaches and were pretty much deaf.

One of the 210 Nosler Partitions from his .338 WM went through the frame taking out a brake line. Another went through the bell housing ….then took out the pressure plate! The woman's husband wasn't very happy with the destruction of his truck…..and the wife wasn't very happy about anything!

Later upon inspection, it was found that the trigger adjustment nuts backed-off …..stopping the sear from completely engaging! It had been adjusted by another friend that didn't locktite the nut or the jam nut. After many hours traveling on 4 wheelers, the nut apparently started to loosen! memtb

 

[Rosebud]

From 1980-1985. All hell would happen if we "broke" and had to stay. There wasn't much of a ramp there. Staying would have blocked most of what little parking there was. I did have a 14 hour delay. Met some great folks. But we never got to stay. My dad spent years in AK. He told me lots of stories about it. I was born there, but left when dad got transferred when I was 3.

I was there in 73/74. The 1st week I was there I was feeling the blue foxes on the island spam. People who had been there for months said what foxes? No one went past the main compound. Place was awesome if you explored it. All the left over bunker and gun inplacements . I found a rusted M1 carbine they sent to DC to try and pull a serial number off of. Got a letter two years later that said they were unable to get anything from it. I sent a letter back and ask for it back. That was the end of our exchange of letters. That being said, I was glad to leave.

 

[Old Rooster]

When I was a kid,we grew up in Mississippi and knew the woods pretty well.A huge tract of land about 500 acres was always called Virgil's Woods.
Stories of noises and accidents from many made all want to stay out of Virgil's woods except us.
I was 12 and my brother was 10 and we wanted to camp out overnight to prove everybody wrong.My uncles and cousins gave us one last warning but I drove my old 1951 chevy to a logging road and we camped.About dark we heard noises of howling and just knew if was our cousins and uncles so we called their names and cooked our hot dogs.When it got real dark something started throwing things at us,big sticks of wood and limbs.We told them,Donald Ray you ain't gonna scare us away so stop!The yelling and throwing things kept us up all night.The next morning we went home and told mom what Donald Ray and all our cousins had done and she got white as a sheet.
Donald Ray,Charles,Wilbern and all of Genes kids are stuck up in Crystal Springs and can't get home.The pulpwood truck is bogged down so Gene hiked home and will bring his skidder up there at first light.Thats when we turned white!
Never believed in Haints but that made us all believers in something we don't understand!Note to self:Stay out of Virgil's wood's!

 

[memtb]

I don't know if this was the same island that was involved in a WWII battle between the US and Japan or not. My step mother's brother was killed during one of the battles on the islands! memtb

 

[Rosebud]

From 1980-1985. All hell would happen if we "broke" and had to stay. There wasn't much of a ramp there. Staying would have blocked most of what little parking there was. I did have a 14 hour delay. Met some great folks. But we never got to stay. My dad spent years in AK. He told me lots of stories about it. I was born there, but left when dad got transferred when I was 3.

When I left it was on Reeves Airlines. Electra L188 i believe. We landed in cold bay and they took the cowling off the in board port engine. Poured a bunch of what I thought was oil in a pounded it with a five pound ball peen hammer then fired it up. So help me. Pilot came back in the cabin and said me and the crew are going back to Anchorage , the plane will fly fine on three engines. Anyone wanting to say here tonight is ok. We will come pick you up tomorrow. No one got off the plane.

 

[C-130 Dude]

I don't know if this was the same island that was involved in a WWII battle between the US and Japan or not. My step mother's brother was killed during one of the battles on the islands! memtb

That was Attu island.

 

[284wins]

I was bow hunting deer, so no human smell and was acting like deer like I always do...
Had see évidence that someone was hunting without my permission on my land. I hear a sound like someone was clearing is voice realy close to me... My first idea was Im going to get you poarcher... that when the sound turn to à yote call... answer by the rest off the pack, yes they hunt in pack like woulf around here, all seem to be inside 50yrds of me...

So off was my hunt and I started to sing all the way to my truck That was like 20 years ago if not more but it like yesterday to me.

 

[C-130 Dude]

When I left it was on Reeves Airlines. Electra L188 i believe. We landed in cold bay and they took the cowling off the in board port engine. Poured a bunch of what I thought was oil in a pounded it with a five pound ball peen hammer then fired it up. So help me. Pilot came back in the cabin and said me and the crew are going back to Anchorage , the plane will fly fine on three engines. Anyone wanting to say here tonight is ok. We will come pick you up tomorrow. No one got off the plane.

Thise old resips drank oil like it was going out of production. Some of those had the capability of pumping oil into the engines in-flight from barrels inside the hold to keep them topped off. Had to have bailing wire, bubblegum, duct tape, and a good ballpeen hammer for maintenance on those. You age challenged flight mechanics out there can confirm this.

 

[Rosebud]

I don't know if this was the same island that was involved in a WWII battle between the US and Japan or not. My step mother's brother was killed during one of the battles on the islands! memtb

Probably Attu, or Dutch Harbor. Attu is fourty miles long with six thousand foot mountains. Was a coast guard station when I was there. Shemya is in a group of islands inland from Attu, called the near islands on the maps. It was as just a postage stamp of a island.

 

[Rosebud]

Thise old resips drank oil like it was going out of production. Some of those had the capability of pumping oil into the engines in-flight from barrels inside the hold to keep them topped off.

We called it Reeves vomit Airlines. You didn't dare take off your seatbelt. When they were inbound from the mainland they went to Attu first. Then back to Shemya. Only 40 miles. they flew about 100 feet above the water. The stewardess would set down and buckle up. Looked like the waves were about to take us out.

 

[StuII]

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

I would have screamed too! Nice buck

 

[C-130 Dude]

We called it Reeves vomit Airlines. You didn't dare take off your seatbelt. When they were inbound from the mainland they went to Attu first. Then back to Shemya. Only 40 miles. they flew about 100 feet above the water. The stewardess would set down and buckle up. Looked like the waves were about to take us out.

That's fun! Try it at night. In the weather and mountains. Pucker factor +10.

 

[JustMe2]

My father and I were out goose hunting. I was about 12 years old. We saw a gaggle of geese sitting on a frozen lake so my dad said we should try to creep up closer to them. We belly crawled through the snow onto the lake and kept hidden behind the numerous snow drifts that dotted the lake. Soon we were in the middle of the flock and my dad and I stood up. All the geese started flapping their wings and it was really confusing initially as to why they weren't taking flight so we could shoot them. Turns out they were frozen in the lake. Within seconds, the ice broke loose, and my dad and I were carried airborne on the ice with all the geese. My dad very calmly started shooting one goose at a time until we descended back to the ground. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.