What’s your spookiest hunting experience?

[Sockeye66]

Here's the Fox.

 

[Mcranch]

Here's the Fox.

You keep it at the house?

 

[Hugnot]

Does fishing count?

While fishing in Alaska I frequently saw bear tracks. This was sort of scary. I then got a boat thinking the bears would be far away on land. After several nice boat fishing trips I forgot about bears, they really freak me out.

One day while drifting near a long stretch of straight shoreline I noticed that there were several bunches of sea lions clustered on rocks near water edge., This was unusual. I looked out from the beach & there were 3 monster black & white shapes, killer whales, hunting sea lions. They were as big as my boat, long dagger like fins. The nearest one gazed at me with eyes that seemed bull like. He/she was less than 50 yards away& could easily flip my boat over. I quickly cut off my gear with a knife and got the boat & me out of there.

Read about the whaling vessel Essex.

 

[Rosebud]

Does fishing count?

While fishing in Alaska I frequently saw bear tracks. This was sort of scary. I then got a boat thinking the bears would be far away on land. After several nice boat fishing trips I forgot about bears, they really freak me out.

One day while drifting near a long stretch of straight shoreline I noticed that there were several bunches of sea lions clustered on rocks near water edge., This was unusual. I looked out from the beach & there were 3 monster black & white shapes, killer whales, hunting sea lions. They were as big as my boat, long dagger like fins. The nearest one gazed at me with eyes that seemed bull like. He/she was less than 50 yards away& could easily flip my boat over. I quickly cut off my gear with a knife and got the boat & me out of there.

Read about the whaling vessel Essex.

Anything that actively hunts great white sharks has my attention!

 

[lyotehunter]

Sometime back in the early eighties, I was hunting elk in Washington state. I was near the Elbe hills hunting by myself, which was common. I slept in a canopy on the back of my truck. I was sleeping pretty sound when the truck started rocking back and forth very violently. It lasted about ten to fifteen seconds. I grabbed a flashlight and pistol, but there was nothing around the truck. I still have no clue what rocked the truck like that.

Earthquake maybe

 

[Orange Dust]

I have one for you all. I thought it was hilarious, but it totally freaked out one of my friends. We were up in Canada hunting waterfowl on the first day Aliens can hunt waterfowl in the afternoons. It was a pretty day and warm. We hunted on a lake that afternoon. We were out on a Peninsula on the lake and we were hunting on one side and parked the boat on the other. By the time we killed our birds and picked up and sacked all the decoys it was dark. Tim said "I'll go get the boat". and I told him I would go with him. We had to go through a thicket (Alders I think) the whole way. It was so thick you could only see a couple of feet in the daylight. Luckily there was a nice trail to the boat. Tim (a Cajun) said "this is great, we out here and nothing can get us. No Alligators, no snakes, nothing to worry about". I said "Tim, what do you think made this trail?" He shined his headlight down and was looking at a huge Grizzley track. He had his Benelli slung over his shoulder, and eases it into his hands, and said: "James, can you kill a bear with steel shot?" I said "If he's close enough". He was so freaked out by the time we made the 200yd or so journey I had to help him in the boat and drive. That was 20 years ago and we still tease him about it.

 

[Sockeye66]

You keep it at the house?

I skinned it in the garage, it's currently fleshed and stretched.

 

[CaneBrake]

Seems we all have some scary experiences with cats. I was hunting in late December just before our season closed. There was about 3" of snow on the ground. On the evening walk out at dusk in the bottom of a valley I came across a solo deer that we had been trying to get for a while. Regrettably, I made a bad shot and hit the guts. The deer sprinted up the side of a large mountain and I started tracking really slow so I didn't bump it if it laid down. Darkness falls and I'm about half way up the mountain still tracking when my headlamp decides to stop working even with fresh batteries. Luckily the moon was out enough that I could see the blood and tracks in the snow. As time passes I start to see larger tracks in the snow that look exactly like a cats. I brush it off to myself saying it's just a small bear and that the darkness is making it appear as a cat track. I end up finding the deer close to the top of the ridge. I didn't want to stick around because it's nearly 9pm at this point so I start dragging it down the mountain. As I'm dragging I start hearing what I could only describe as somebody screaming in pain. The hairs on my arms and neck stood up. For a good 30 minutes as I'm dragging this deer that's all I could hear. In the woods, in the dark with no light, dragging a deer that's slowing me down. It was gut wrenching. All ended up being good in the end. They say that mountain lions are extinct in the Appalachians but I've personally seen many trail cam photos that say otherwise and have since had a few experiences with them. Just because of that, I now don't like walking for long periods of time to get to spots in the dark anymore. I doubt one would ever attack me but the thought is hard to wrestle.

 

[RTK]

Here's my story, not as scary as some but left out to dry as the saying goes. I was on an elk hunt in Oregon that a few friend's and i booked, mistake #1.
Opening day the so called guides separated our group by dropping us off in different spots of the ranch at dark thirty. I happened to be let off some distance away from camp. The plan was they were going to bring me hot lunch around 11. Shortly after day break it started to snow and blow like hell.
There I am a roll of toilet paper, pack of smokes, small water bottle and a candy bar, mistake #2. Well 11 passes, then 2pm, then 3pm. I'm starting to get pretty hungry, cold and worried they aren't coming back. There is no way for me to find my way to camp because there is foot of snow over everything and I don't know which way camp is, mistake #3. I collected some wood then drop off a ledge where I had been sheltering and light a fire to stay warm, might be here all night. Now I'm really starting to worry, is everybody dead, did we hire some psychopath guide. After dark they finally came and picked me up. They said their vehicle had broken down and they were sorry.
I learned a few lessons that day that I will never let repeat.

 

[Mcranch]

Here's my story, not as scary as some but left out to dry as the saying goes. I was on an elk hunt in Oregon that a few friend's and i booked, mistake #1.
Opening day the so called guides separated our group by dropping us off in different spots of the ranch at dark thirty. I happened to be let off some distance away from camp. The plan was they were going to bring me hot lunch around 11. Shortly after day break it started to snow and blow like hell.
There I am a roll of toilet paper, pack of smokes, small water bottle and a candy bar, mistake #2. Well 11 passes, then 2pm, then 3pm. I'm starting to get pretty hungry, cold and worried they aren't coming back. There is no way for me to find my way to camp because there is foot of snow over everything and I don't know which way camp is, mistake #3. I collected some wood then drop off a ledge where I had been sheltering and light a fire to stay warm, might be here all night. Now I'm really starting to worry, is everybody dead, did we hire some psychopath guide. After dark they finally came and picked me up. They said their vehicle had broken down and they were sorry.
I learned a few lessons that day that I will never let repeat.

Yes, that is / was a nightmare. They should of had a backup knowing the area and potential issues that did arise. I would have been happy to see someone come but also somewhat peaved!

 

[idaho 6.5 x 47]

Central Idaho,
I glass this herd of elk, a decent 6 point
In it. One evening during bow season. To get to them it's 2 1/2 miles on an easy trail, most of it any way , it sidehills steep mountains a lot of the way.

It pours rain all night. I leave the truck 2 hours before daylight. Where the elk are at its super steep and waist high brush with some benches and sparse trees.
Im bugling the bull back and forth, he is answering me, but with 9 cows he wouldn't come in. Maybe because of my " great" bugling ha ha , im hunting by myself.
I have arrow on , bow on my lap , as i said it's super steep.

All of the sudden I hear a "bull" above and slightly behind me charging full tilt coming at me.
I spin around grabbing bow and attempt to get in shooting position
All of this is happening super fast.
I see the "bull" above me about 50 yards and 20 yards to my left, it was a round boulder about wheel barrow size rolling down the hill.
I proceed to fall over backwards with arrow on string , as it goes by I land head down hill.feet straight up hill.

I did inventory on my body. No broadband in me
The rock Rolled all the way, 800 yards to the bottom..
it wasn't that close to me but it still spooked me.
The elk slowly walked away.
Im walking back to truck , about an hour after dark really tired, walking on old skid trail, headlamp on low. I looked to the left out of corner of my eye. I see someone standing 3 feet to my left, I look at it, scared, it's an aspen tree.
No elk were harmed in this long story

 

[Rosebud]

Hunting in the back country, all by yourself is very dangerous. I know, I did it also.

Central Idaho,
I glass this herd of elk, a decent 6 point
In it. One evening during bow season. To get to them it's 2 1/2 miles on an easy trail, most of it any way , it sidehills steep mountains a lot of the way.

It pours rain all night. I leave the truck 2 hours before daylight. Where the elk are at its super steep and waist high brush with some benches and sparse trees.
Im bugling the bull back and forth, he is answering me, but with 9 cows he wouldn't come in. Maybe because of my " great" bugling ha ha , im hunting by myself.
I have arrow on , bow on my lap , as i said it's super steep.

All of the sudden I hear a "bull" above and slightly behind me charging full tilt coming at me.
I spin around grabbing bow and attempt to get in shooting position
All of this is happening super fast.
I see the "bull" above me about 50 yards and 20 yards to my left, it was a round boulder about wheel barrow size rolling down the hill.
I proceed to fall over backwards with arrow on string , as it goes by I land head down hill.feet straight up hill.

I did inventory on my body. No broadband in me
The rock Rolled all the way, 800 yards to the bottom..
it wasn't that close to me but it still spooked me.
The elk slowly walked away.
Im walking back to truck , about an hour after dark really tired, walking on old skid trail, headlamp on low. I looked to the left out of corner of my eye. I see someone standing 3 feet to my left, I look at it, scared, it's an aspen tree.
No elk were harmed in this long story

 

[marksman1941]

Anyone have any good stories from this year?

 

[Rosebud]

My adventure days are long gone. Unless I get attacked getting out of the truck/Kubota to get into a blind,or elevated shooting house. Buddy does have a mean breeder bull on the farm to watch out for.