Scary tales?

[shooter43]

Anybody have any scary or dangerous hunting experiences or stories theyd like to share?

[Major Dave (retired)]

alone. Parked my car half a mile from my stand, and started walking. I had scouted this area only once - for about an hour, the prior evening. The sky was very dark, both due to the early hour, no moon, and heavy overcast which prevented even the small comfort of starlight. No flashlight. Cold - about 23 degrees, high, gusty winds.

Completely engulfed by pitch black conditions, I couldn't even see my feet or hands - leaving me to stumble blindly, and rely on dead reckoning to find my stand location.

After about 15 to 20 minutes of stumbling along, all HELL broke lose - a stampede of a herd of a dozen or so SOMETHINGS!

They seemed to be all around me, and since I couldn't see even a yard in any direction, I couldn't tell whether they were coming or going!

My gun wasn't loaded, so I couldn't fire a round into the air to scare THEM away.

I just knelt down, ducked my head, and tried to make myself as small as possible. Braced myself for impact. Knew I was going to be trampled!

I knew the area had deer, elk, longhorn cattle, and maybe a few Bison!

By the sound of it, they faded away into the distance.

NEVER been so scared in my life!

Never found out what THEY were.

[Tuzo]

Long long time ago, during my teens, I was hunting bunnies along railroad tracks not far from home. These tracks skirted a small trailer park, bushes grew on the edge of the rail bed ballast, and used to see lots of bunnies along this track coming from the bushes. So when I heard rustling in the bushes I swung and pointed my shotgun at the bushes. Good thing I neither take nor took sound shots and keep the safety on until time to shoot because there were no bunnies those bushes. Two little kids were playing games and hiding in those bushes. I saw them before they saw me and swung the gun to my shoulder.

Thinking of that moment still makes me sweat.

[603Country]

The one that comes to mind first was a scare on a quail hunt in south Texas. It was in the early 80's and I had a couple of guys with me, and we really got into the birds. I was stalking a wounded bobwhite in the mid-calf grass in the open spots between mesquite trees. I heard a small bush rustle just to my left and I turned, just knowing that it was the bird. It was a huge rattlesnake. He started rattling, but didn't strike. Probably would have hit me above the snakeproof boots if he had struck me. He and I had eye contact at 3 feet. Whew! Yes, I shot him. Then I rattled with the shakes.

[TheNatureBoy]

The year I first started hunting (around 1994) I was sent through a large block of pines by my hunting buddies in an effort to flush out deer they believed to be bedding down there. My thinking was that I could pretty much walk a straight line to the other end but was I wrong. I ended up getting lost and eventually walked into a old house about 300 yards in. That scared the heck outta me because of the deep well that was surely some where on the property. I started looking for old roads or paths that led to the house but it was obvious that no one had been back there for a long time. To make a long story short I walked around in the woods for about a hour and a half trying hard to maintain my composure. I finally heard a vehicle in the distance and walked in that direction. I eventually found my way out and ended up about a mile away from where I first went in the pines.

[2damnold4this]

I was hunting on some private land that our club leased near an old church. I had walked between the graveyard and the church to get to my stand well before daylight.

While sitting comfortably in the stand, I noticed a light moving through the woods and I figured it must be another hunter. There were some new guys in the club and one of them must have gotten lost on the way to his stand. After watching the light for a few minutes, I noticed it went out not far away. I could hear a whining noise from time to time where the light had disappeared from the lost hunter. I hunted the morning without seeing any deer and then I climbed down and headed over to the last place I saw the light so I could lead the lost hunter back to the camp.

When I got the place where the light had gone out, instead of finding a lost hunter, there was an old grave that was sixty or so yards from the others in the graveyard. A small stone in the shape of a lamb sat on top of the grave.

When I got back to the camp, I discovered the new guys weren't lost. After I told them this story, no one ever slipped into that stand of mine and hunted it. : )

[jmr40]

I had an experience almost exactly like Major Dave's when I was about 18. while walking into the woods several very large animals raced past me very close in the dark. My 1975 era flashlight did not pick up what it was even though they were very close. They continued on for about 100 yards where they were finally iluminated by a light. It was 4-5 black angus cows that had gotten out of the fence on the adjoining property.Those black hides just absorbed my light and reflected nothing.

[Shotgun693]

We were rabbit hunting with bows, in about 1966. I sat down on a little pile of old dirt. Hearing something I turned and looked down. There disappearing into a hole was a little Rattlesnake. I'd nearly sat on him.
In about 1967 a friend and I were squirrel hunting in the Big Thicket. We walked into the woods and sat for about an hour but saw nothing. Following our tracks back to the car we saw where a really big cat had walked in our tracks following us into the woods. I had a single shot .22 and my friend had a 28 ga shotgun, not really guns for shooting a big cat. We made real good time getting back to the car. Luckily for me I was faster than my friend. He didn't appreciate being second.

[kennethlee]

I was about 12 or 13 and checking trap lines in the 60's. The isolated lake was timbered on one side with the Platte river about 150 yards through the trees. I had walked the three miles into the lake along the rail road tracks on a dark and chill Nebraska winter morning.

My cousin, who was always with me was sick that morning and I had to walk the line alone. It's not right to not check a trap line. Animals suffer and many, like the muskrat we usually caught, chew off their legs at dawn.

I was walking on the timber side of the lake, almost to the end and back onto the tracks when I heard a loud shriek. My body froze in place and my mind worked overtime. I was more than scared and made my way to the tracks and back home in record time. I was later told by my older brother that it was probably a beaver. Their warning call can sound just like a woman shrieking.

He was right. I heard it many times after that. It always made my blood run cold.

[therealdeal]

beavers can definitely startle people...I have seen it numerous times. I will never forget the time in college when we were camping and drinking beers and the beaver...approximately 15-30minutes after we saw him(or her) at a distance swimming across the lake(big beaver)...ambushed the fish tied to a stick but still in the water. All four fish disappeared within seconds and it the sound of the splash and commotion was very loud plus literally right next to us.

[Scorch]

Hunting geese one year in Nevada at Silver Lake just outside of Carson City. We had a real cold spell that winter, temps in the single digits for about 2 weeks, and the river flowing into the lake was frozen solid, as was the lake. We got in some cottonwoods along the river and waited for the geese to fly over to pass shoot them on their way to the alfalfa fields. My buddy and I both dropped a goose from the flock. Later that morning, there was a lone goose circling overhead honking, we figured it was the mate of one of the geese we had shot. After a long time of calling, it came within Hail Mary range and we tried skybusting. The bird flew off, but as we watched it we could see it geting lower and lower, finally landing on the lake about 100-150 yds from shore. We figured we must have snuck a few BBs into it, so we sat down and watched it. Pretty soon, it sits down. A little while longer and its head droops. Pretty soon, it just lays its head on its back like it's resting. We debated for a long time, and I finally decided I was going to go get it. After all, it was only 100-150 yards out on a frozen lake, right? As I started out towards it I kept expecting it to raise its head, but nothing. As I walk towards it, I could hear these "Ping" and groaning noises in the ice, you could hear them coming towards you and then pass you (someone later explained to me that was the sound of ice breaking because the level of the reservoir was dropping). I was walking carefully, didn't want any cracks or holes to suddenly swallow me up. Finally got to the goose (sitting in a puddle of blood, one pellet in the liver), picked it up and turned around, and it was like walking uphill on the ice to get back to shore, and it looked a lot farther to the shore than it looked like when I was standing there looking at the bird. Finally got back to shore, only took about 15-20 minutes total, my buddy was giving me a look like he thought I was crazy. A couple of days later the whole river and lake broke up, the ice was about 8"-10" thick, so I guess I really had nothing to worry about, although it was scary being on that ice that far from shore with the sounds of breaking ice traveling through it.

[TX Hunter]

One night years ago I was out Coon hunting alone. I had two Hounds an older gyp named Jewel and a young Male named Chief. Both hounds were registered Black and Tan Coonhounds. Chief was just starting to hunt and would come back to me alot. Jewel struck a track way out in the distance, i had a dim light back then, i cut through a thicket to get to the creek botton where Jewel was trailing. As i walked through the little trail through the thicket i heard something walking beside me, it walked by me for a long way, i thought it was my young hound and i said Chief why dont you get out there and help her ? As soon as i said that I heard Chief open on track several hundred yards away from me, I stoppd in my tracks and heard something walk off into the brush. I still dont know what was walking next to me and get chills when I think about it.

[chewie146]

I was fishing (sorry not hunting) in a stream by Chama, NM one year with my dad. The stream...we'd call it a river here...was about 1-2 feet deep and about 35 yards wide. It had some good holes in it. We were walking along, and I had just cast my little panther martin out there. Out of nowhere, something huge jumped in the water in front of me. I was splashed in the face and couldn't see for a couple of seconds. Turns out, it was a juvenile beaver. He was waddling his fat butt the other direction as fast as he could. It sure seemed huge at the time.

The second story I have is about hunting. It was just before first light, and my dad and I were trying to get into position on the edge of a meadow before the sun came up. We were going to sit and wait out the early darkness and hopefully see some elk. Well, those elk were out there alright. Something spooked them up towards us and they were on the stampede when they passed within 10 yards of my dad and I. The sky was just barely getting light, and you could see the huge bodies flashing through the trees. It was a little scary, but it was a huge adrenaline rush. That was a moment I won't forget, for sure.

[roberto mervicini]

Mid morning in june, fishing trout on a shallow beaver dam with a buddy near our camp nothern Quebec, we both started on the same side of the pond, walking in the shallow water and fly casting.... I am familiar with the place and advise my friend few time to be careful since under water several slab of rock are very slippery, I no longer pay attention to him and walk around the perimeter of the pond near the woods casting....at one point just behaind me a major splash just like a person falling in the water, convinced is my buddy I was about telling him I told you is slippery....When I notice He is about 70 yards on the other side of the pond almost at 2 o'clock and he is moving his harms pointing and looking my way... with dropping jaws.!!!
By then I freeze...I know that wathever is in the water behaind me is big..and no idea of his intentions.. slowly, slowly, I turn my head and almost came face to face with a huge moose that is busy looking at my friend on the other side. Maybe the fact that I was full camo wearing a fly net over my head with wind on my favor he acted like if am not there... I stay still and few second later he went on reverse and exit the pond.

[jstgsn]

was just about to pour a cup of coffee. The night was chilly, and very quiet. Without warning my head is being slapped with feathers and my orange wool hat is ripped off by an Owl. Spilled my coffee, broke my thermos, and knocked my gun out of the stand. Liked to scare me to death.

[HALL,AUSTIN]

I went out on a coyote hunt with my buddy and we figured we would give scent cover a try. We go to our lean-to with a 12gauge with #2shot and a .17hmr and get about 20 minutes into calling then we have 3 coyotes come out to our bait and start to eat, we were lining up out shots and about to do a 1, 2, 3 shoot type deal when we heard a big animal run past our little brush fort. A black bear ran up and chased off the coyotes. Not so bad right? Then we see why she ran the yotes off. About 30 seconds later a wandering cub comes into view.

They walked away without ever knowing we existed and it couldnt have been any more than 2 minutes start to finish, but it felt like an eternity.

[Hansam]

Scariest ever for me was squirrel hunting in January this year with a buddy of mine on his family's land. Their land had a small lake which they called a pond but it was about 10 acres in area and was almost 20ft deep at its deepest. It averaged about 10 ft deep around most of the lake - I'd fished it a lot with my buddy during the summer. Anyway not being much of an ice fisherman I tend not to wander out onto frozen lakes or waterways... see I'm an excellent swimmer but one of my great fears is to fall into a frozen over lake and be unable to get out.

Well we were on the far side of the lake and it was getting dark so we decided to call it a day for the hunt. Besides we'd limited out and were really just on a hike at that point. So my buddy says to me he doesn't really feel like walking around the lake and suggests walking across the lake. I was quite concerned and he eventually persuaded me to go with him. He re-assured me that it was safe - he and his brothers were just out on the lake yesterday ice fishing and there's about 12" of ice on the lake. That's enough to support a full size pick-up truck he told me. They'd been up and down the lake with four wheelers and it held up he said. Well I thought, "Fine, if it'll hold four wheelers with riders it'll hold me right?" So with that I walked out onto the lake with him.

We had gotten about 2/3 the way across the lake and the light had faded to almost black - of course it was cloudy and no moon was available for light. I reached up and turned on the LEDs in my hunting cap that my wife had given me as a gift (one of those caps that have the lights built into the bill of the cap) and gloated to myself that at least I had light. That's when IT happened...

There was a loud POP then a low rumble/groan and a very loud cracking sound could be heard. I felt the ice shake beneath my boots and I looked down just in time to see a large and clearly visible crack appear just in front of my feet. Well I just about had a melt-down and nearly dropped my rifle. I shouted a couple of colorful euphanisms then took off at a top sprint toward the closest shore.

Much to my dismay I got about 30 or so feet and slipped (no traction) and ended up falling on my face before sliding another 10 feet to a stop. Scrambling to get up to my feet I cussed and nearly soiled my pants till I'd managed to half crawl half run to solid ground. At that point I planted my back against a tree and checked myself to see if I needed new pants.

My buddy came walking calmly toward me as I looked at him, my LEDs illuminated his laughing face clearly as he approached. Once he was by me he helped me up and still laughing informed me that the crack was normal as were the noises - the lake was just shifting as the daylight faded and that happened every night. It did not however make for unsafe conditions on the lake and they'd spend many a night on the ice fishing through the night.

Then he said if I'd come out ice fishing with him more often I'd have known this and wouldn't have panicked like I did - besides in the event of broken ice (as were my fears) I was doing the worst possible thing. I would most likely have run right into a hole if there had been one. Gee that's really comforting isn't it?

[Vortexyz]

Silly looking back, but was very spooky at the time.

My buddy downed the second deer of the day at around sunset (30 mins left of legal light) and we dragged it back to where we were set up to butcher it. It got really dark real fast, and we were very close to where the gut pile of the deer I had shot that morning was. The area has lots of black bears and coyotes, so we were being nice and loud while we were working and did periodic sweeps with the flashlights while we skinned and processed the deer in to more manageable pieces. Every so often we would here rustles close by but couldn't for the life of us figure out where they were coming from. Then there was a big crash that came from the tree right next to the one we had the deer hung from. My friend and I dropped the knives we were skinning with, drew our back up pistols (our long guns were set down a few feet away) and hit the tree with our flashlights. Two big possums were about 10 feet up in the tree and clearly interested in what smelled so good . We had a good laugh and thought it was funny how skittish we were about it.

[egor20]

Not even a hunting trip.

I came back from a six month deployment and my wife and I decided to take a few day ride and camping trip. We set up the tent and and took care of the horses. Later that night after dinner the horses started getting antsy and nervous so we started to look around. Her mare started stamping so we decided "hmmm might be a bear" I got my SKS out and she got her Ladysmith .357.

Long story short;

It was a bunch of ground owls we were camped by comming out for they're nightly dinner also..




Moved our camp that night.

[big al hunter]

I was hunting elk along the Nisqually river in Washington a few years back when I had a most disturbing experience. This seems the place to tell it. My favorite elk stalking woods were between the river and a 30 foot tall bank (almost straight up and down). When I started my stalk thought I saw a patch of yellow move in the brush in front of me, my first thought was ELK!! I didn't hear it run off so I continued slowly making my way down the trail. I was in heavy timber about 200 yards from where I saw the yellow patch when I saw two elk come down the bank on my right. I was not able to see antlers or heads because of the trees, so I continued at a slightly faster pace. When I caught up with the elk they were 30 yards to my left and looking generally behind me (still could not see heads). I knelt down to wait it out and when I looked back at the elk both where walking backwards. Now I could see heads (both cows I had a bull only tag) and eyes. Both were transfixed on something behind me, and they were nervous as could be. I thought that the yellow patch I had seen earlier must be a bull elk coming to meet them, so I turned my head ever so slowly to look down the trail behind me. Nothing was there. I turned back to look at the cows and they were gone. They didn't make a sound leaving, usually it sounds like a freight train derailing when I get busted by elk. So I was concerned. I stood up and looked harder into the woods. 20 yards away crouched, ready to pounce is a cougar, looking right at me! I almost shot him. As I looked at his chest through my scope crosshair I remembered the warning I received that I would have to prove I was in danger and actually being attacked. My blood would have to be on his claws was the only acceptable proof of an attack. I did not have a tag so I decided to chase the big cat away. I picked up a stick and broke it on a nearby tree. No response or movement from the cat. So I dropped the stick and again aimed my rifle at him and took three steps toward the cat. That made him nervous. He started slinking backwards and twitched his ears. I then remembered I had a camera in my fanny pack. As I reached for it he stopped moving and watched me intently. I turned it on and pointed it at the cat and started clicking away. It was a 35 mm camera and the battery was low so the flash did not work, but the clicking made the cat turn and walk away. I left that piece of woods as fast as I could. Too bad the flash was dead the pictures did not turn out. In the three years following that 4 people, that I know of were followed by the same cat, in the same area. The 4th guy had a cougar tag. 140 lb tom. I watch my back track more now and have purchased a cougar tag every year since.

[Art Eatman]

I've racked my brain trying to recall any sort of serious spookiness. Maybe I just started out at such a young age in "running the brush" and camping out by my lonesome at age nine or ten, but I just don't recall any fearfulness.

I've come close to a few rattle-worms, but never otherwise felt twitchy--and I live in an area where at times we're bum-deep in cougar poop.

[BIG P]

I was hog hunting a allmost dry creek bed that feed a swamp, Close to the end of the creek the banks got real steep about 12' or so when I started to smell hogs & could hear some grunting.

So I eased up to the curve in the creek where I could see big holes in the bank & hogs were backed into them about 6 or 7,There was a big white sow standing in the middle of the creek.Out of nowhere my so called BUDDY gut shot that sow and $#@* hit the fan,I had nowhere to go.I was hunting with a SBH 454 handgun & all those hogs flushed down that creek bank with me & My good buddy hauled tail & left Me with it.I shot 3 right quick the others ran right passed Me,Sling mud & raisen hell.Talk about scary it was about 2 hours to the nearest hospital.Dont know witch was worse the heart attack or that massive movement I had in my pants.

[Art Eatman]

BIG P, that reminds me of the stories about javelina "attacks". A hunter can wander into the middle of a resting pack of the critters quite easily if he comes from downwind. When they jump to go, they all head in the same direction. He's in the middle, right? Okay, some of them will go in his general direction. Remember, they're very near-sighted. One might even run between his legs.

Result: A wonderful attack story, to be repeated through the years.

[Kreyzhorse]

I was on my first antelope hunt in Wyoming and came really close to stepping on a rattlesnake. I was walking and talking to my buddy as we headed back to the truck and my foot was going to come down directly on a small rattlesnake that was crawling across our path. Luckily my buddy saw it and grabbed me before I put my boot down on it.

Had I actually stepped on it, I doubt it could have bit through, or bit above my boots but either way it scared the hell out me.

[shooter43]

I have a story of my own. I was hunting deer with my uncle and his friend who is also a very good friend of mine as well. It was Friday night and we were sitting at camp telling stories. I was in the mood to get scared so i asked them if they had any stories. My uncle told me the story of how a very long time ago before the owners of the land we hunted on were even born, a battle was fought and every night on a full moon if you walked out on a certain road leaving camp and into the woods you could hear footsteps and see the ghosts of soldiers walking through the woods. I thought on it and dismissed it. Well the following Saturday morning at 5:00, we get up and go to the stands. Our friend is already up and in his stand before we know hes gone, didnt even hear him leave camp. My uncle's and my stand are about 50 to 100 yrds. away from each other on opposite sides of the road leading into either side of the woods. I walk to my stand and i hear footsteps. Knowing its probably my uncle trying to scare me i dismiss it. Less than halfway to my stand i felt a small tap on my shoulder. I flashed my flashlight and noone was there. In my stand i txtd him if he was following me, he said no and that hes been in his stand for at least 30 to 45 min. Knowing it wasnt our friend because he got up before us made me think. Since that day its given me chills when i thought about it. Still not sure if it was my imagination or not....