What is your "fear factor"?

[Byron Quick]

Snakes that are seen don't bother me. I've handled them, caught them and kept them for a time. Owls have landed on branches by my stand where I could poke them with my rifle. The only thing about spiders that bothers me is getting that darned web out of my face. I was poking around under a short, plywood tower stand when I looked up at the platform. Nice, big, fat black widows inches from my face. Now I left right then but I wasn't freaked out.

Hoots and howls are no problem.

But I stood on a copperhead one day without knowing it. Close enough to its head that it couldn't quite reach over the top of my eight inch boots. Darn thing struck three times with me totally oblivious. I had taken a couple of steps away when I saw movement in my peripheral vision. Saw the snake where I had just been standing. Looked down at my boots and saw three pairs of cloudy fluid dribbling down my boot. Put my twelve gauge auto shotgun eighteen inches from that snake's head. Pulled the trigger. I was shaking so bad that I missed twice.

Got out of my truck one day, pivoted and was face to face with a hornets' nest about the size of a basketball. Teleportation is possible. I was back in the truck with the door closed before the first hornet hit the window. I'd have been in a mess if I had locked the door.

But with snakes and hornets, it's not their presence. It's being unknowingly in their presence that gets me.

[roy reali]

California license plates.

[hardhit]

This troll like mythical Creature.

[phil mcwilliam]

After last weekends bushfires claimed possibly 300 lives in the state of victoria, Australia- I would say bushfire in summer when hunting the bush would have to be added to any fear factor list.

[Swampghost]

Skunk ape? Yep! I'm a believer. Been too close.

[Voyageur]

I cannot recall ever being nervous about being in the mountains alone or hearing strange noises. The mountains seem like a warm friendly place to me but I cannot say the same about towns or cities.

Last hunting season I did have a nasty scare when I ran into this:

[PaddyWhacked]

Dick Cheney

Swimming in murky water and having something brush up against your leg.

[youp]

Ruffed grouse.

Well truth be known it was a one time thing. I was trying to coon hunt with a bear hound, she would tree a coon provided no bear were about. Just black bears, no grizz here. It was a nice night for the woods and I normally hunted by myself. The hound decided to work on a bear, in an area that had been logged that summer. The remaining tree tops were thick with dried leaves. The dog was baying the bear, the bear was backed into a tree top. Bears have a reputation to charge a light. I never had it happen to me, but other houndsmen I know swear it happens. The little Mossberg 22 is stuffed to the gills and I am proceeding into the melee. The adrenaline is probably a quart and a half overfull. So I almost step on a 'partridge'... no doubt about it. The beating of the wings up my chest and wing tips caressing my face gave me about all the thrill I can handle.

[Shaun_300]

Not really scared to death over anything in the woods. The howl of a timberwolf sends chills up my spine/stands the hairs up on the back of my neck everytime! I'm not a huge fan of snakes, but we just have small, non-poisonous ones here, so I'm not that startled by them. A partridge that takes off in front of you will startle you quite a bit too, even if you're hunting them!

[chemgirlie]

I'm okay with most things. I keep a couple of exotic pets (I currently have a scorpion, a snake, and a tarantula), so I'm pretty much okay with all of the creepy crawlies. In my neck of the woods most things will leave you alone if you make enough noise.

However, there is one thing that almost made me pee my pants once. I was biking and saw 2 bear cubs come out of the woods about 25 yards on front of me. I didn't see the mom, but she couldn't have been far away. That moment was by far the fastest I have ever biked.

[Evan Thomas]

That moment was by far the fastest I have ever biked.

Which way did you go?

[bufordtjustice]

I was blessed (or cursed, depending on how you look at it) to go through the Jungle Warfare School in Ft. Sherman Panama many moons ago. I hate spiders, snakes and assorted crawly things and a jungle of course has those in spades. After spending a day or so being extra careful when you touched anything, you slowly begin to relax and accept your surroundings. Not LIKE but ACCEPT. There is a big difference.

I can tolerate anything as long as I see it first and can give it a wide berth. I think we as humans have lost a lot of our skills regarding sensing and observing what is going on around us. Maybe that is what really creeps us out. I mean, the fact that these things seem to magically appear right in our faces, etc.

Of course when it gets dark in the jungle, it gets really dark. And with no fire to see, the sense that animals and insects are conspiring against you is very real.

[sserdlihc]

was one time I was coming out of the the woods on my 4 wheeler when I saw a reflection in a thicket. I pulled up next to the thicket and shinned my flashlight and it was a dang mannequin! Scared me to death! I thought that I had come up on a body! To this day, when I drive by that thicket...it still wigs me out.

[madmo44mag]

"What is your "fear factor"?" was the thread title!

The sound of a bolt or round being chambered out in the dark beyond where I and my fellow hunters are.
This is a 12 on the pucker meter.
Other than that there are very few things in the woods that will get over a pucker factor of 2.

[bolt face]

Running out of wild land to get lost in.

[silvrjeepr]

I used to enjoy bow hunting the back swamps of Yazoo Wildlife reserve in MS. One morning I accidently stumbled upon a gator nest and mother gator nearby gave chase. My first and only thought? RUN!!! It's probably a good thing for me the thick trees kept her speed down and that I had a good head start (she was on the far side of the nest from me). I can't say how far she chased me (less than 100 yards for sure), but I didn't slow down until I had cleared the woods, the cotton field next to the woods, and the ditch that I parked beside (I'd say about 1000 yards all total). I'll bet it was a sight that morning to anyone coming in late to see a guy coming out of the woods and across the field at a full sprint then diving into his truck and hauling it down the road. I haven't hunted those woods since (happened about 14 years ago)

Another..

A few years later I started hunting a large patch of woods near Meridian, MS. One evening while hiking back to the truck flashlight in hand (pitch black dark), I heard a stick break behind me. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I grabbed my handgun, shouldered my rifle, and proceeded to shine the light to my rear (expecting to see the eyes of something hunting me). I saw nothing and proceeded on my way just a little more wary and careful. Jut then I heard the loudest wooshing and comotion in my life. I instantly flopped to the ground prone with my light and .357 shining around...

A few months later, I set up a ground blind and shot that damn turkey that nearly gave me a heart attack as he roosted less than 20 feet from me that night.

[roy reali]

200 pound chimps!

[Creature]

I dont dig snakes much...

[Socrates]

Centipedes. Living in Hawaii, just moved, living on the beach, at Sunset Beach, in the front room, right on the ocean. My bed is pretty much solid wood, built from the slab up. Bathroom is also on a cement slab. I go to the bathroom late one night, lights out. Step and feel this really sharp, painful bite on the inside of my foot. See at least a 6" centipede crawling off. Guess I scared her.

Not a fun night at the hospital, and, it of course required tons of antibiotics. Foot injuries are real bad, since blood flow isn't great, and, big old girls carry lots of germs.

Couple weeks later, wake up with some minor bites on my legs. Turns out the 'bed' was a huge breeding ground for centipedes. It was REALLY creepy when they tore the front of the house up to improve it, to see hundreds of centipedes running around.

I guess I got a bit more immune to the venom after the first, really bad bite. The minor bites were about 1" long, babies, I rolled over on.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/art...in_hawaii.html

10" centipedes??? Great.
Sharks:


Try surfing a 50 minute paddle out into the ocean, with one friend, in 20 foot waves, at a place named Great Whites... When you see a swirl, or unexplained action in the water, or fish jumping. Not to mention having something brush against your leg....

Chased out of the water at Point Sur by a Great White, with 3 of my friends. Found out later they have a bunch of
Great Whites that hunt that reef, and, none of the Carmel guys even think about it, as a surf spot. It's a deep trench, that comes out of very deep water, onto a shallow, healthy reef, with
seals and sea lions in the area. Perfect place for a low to high 30 mile an hour charge/breach. Also about the only place on the cost with perfect, offshore winds, during storms...

Skunks?
MY SO was drunk one night and petted one. He nipped at her a bit, and went on his way.

Worst for me is an unexplained noise at night, even now, in different places I've lived. Never been victim of a robbery, or home invaision, but, it does bother me.

[James R. Burke]

Wolfs howling or whatever you call it right at dusk when your walking back from deer hunting unloaded.

[rantingredneck]

The thing that gets my heart beating fast on a regular basis is jumping turkeys off the roost while walking to my deer stand before sunrise. Happens a lot, I know almost immediately what it is, but having 3 or 4 birds at once take off right above your head can be a bit overwhelming in the dark.

Not a big fan of snakes or spiders, but not overly creeped out about them either. That big ol spider hogdogs posted a picture of would seriously creep me out of I walked nose first into his web. As it is around here I do that a good bit with smaller spiders (around an inch or two across). I brush them off and keep going.

While eerie, I do appreciate the sound of a bobcat cry at dawn/dusk. Owls too.

The four times I've been most creeped out:

1) About 5 or 6 years ago I was doing some pre-season scouting and heard a rustle in the underbrush. Where I was walking there were knee high oak and gum trees and other brush that was moving as something was coming toward me. I had a 9mm on my hip and put my hand on it. About 20 feet away a possum appears (that's what was rustling). I kinda laughed until it started coming toward me. I backed out of it's path and it kept coming. We did a little dancing zigzag tango for about 50 yds. until I got fed up with it and punted him back the way he came. He went flying through the air squealing and headed the other way once he landed. In retrospect I should have probably shot him as he wasn't acting quite right.

2) About 8 or 9 years ago my brother in law was doing a deer drive through a thicket. I was set up on the edge of that thicket at the intersection of thicket, big woods, and open field with my .30-06. I see something break the thicket about 50 yds up from me and start to raise my rifle until I realize it's a black bear cub. Where cub is so is mama...... I radioed my brother in law and told him to get his tail out of that thicket.

3) About 3 years ago I was walking out from one of my treestands at dusk. I get to the edge of the woods/field and see a coyote standing in the middle of the field just watching me. Never had one not bolt when it saw me. This one just stood there looking at me like it was thinking, "Yeah he's a little big but I think I can take him". I recapped my muzzleloader and shot him. Big sucker too.

4) About 20 years ago (I was around 15-16 IIRC). My grandfather, uncle and I were heading from one dove field to another. We were on foot on a trail through a patch of woods that connected the two fields. I was the last one in line. They were 20 or so yds in front of me because I was carrying all the gear (young pack mule ). I started hearing this angry buzzing/rattling sound. I look down to my left about 5 feet in front of me and just off the trail and see a fat coiled up timber rattler. I eased down the buckets and shells and other crap I was carrying in my left hand and unslung my shotgun. I chewed him up with birdshot. I think my grandfather and uncle were more creeped out than me because they had walked right by it. That being said I don't see too many snakes while hunting, of course it's the ones you don't see.......

And of course aside from the creepy crawly and carnivorous creatures that are out there, there are the other dangers. Heights anyone? Yeah I'm still a little height shy and am a treestand safety fanatic now.

[Capt. Charlie]

That big ol spider hogdogs posted a picture of would seriously creep me out of I walked nose first into his web. As it is around here I do that a good bit with smaller spiders (around an inch or two across). I brush them off and keep going.

There must be some unwritten law that says a spider will build his web at the same height as a mounted horseman's face.

That's why I let my buddy ride point .

[rantingredneck]

That's why I let my buddy ride point .

See now I have nephews who are of the age where they are hunting with me a good bit. I let them go first so that "If we jump a deer you'll have a clear shot" .

[Socrates]

I should add lions, and the big cats. Even in cages, at paws length, they are both terrifying and incredibly powerful and beautiful.
The S.F. zoo has feeding cages, and, you can get about 5 feet from the cats. Well fed, yet they let you know they want to go back out, when done eating. A 600 pound male lion let go with a full roar, telling his keeper it was time for him to go back outside. Scared everybody to death. Children started crying, and, one young boy peed his pants right next to us.

I can't imagine meeting a big boy like that in the jungle, even with a high powered rifle, because chances would be real good he wasn't alone.

Also watched a female lion crouch, leap-pounce and pick a seagull out of the air. It happened so fast I literally never moved, even though I was trying to get my camera from my side, up into position, since I knew she was going to move. I can't imagine what it would feel like to turn a corner, or realize the cat was 20 feet away, and, not being able to even move before they had you...

[Playboypenguin]

SHUT UP SOCRATES!!! That centipede story is giving me a serious case of the willies. I was bitten by one as a kid and I am still afraid of them to this day. In fact I though a scorpion was one once in Arizona and freaked out in front of my men.