What is your "fear factor"?

[Chinny33]

living in CA, Im ALWAYS afraid of Mtn Lions. NO ONE hunts them so they have almost NO reason to FEAR me and all my guns strung across my body.

It makes me nuts thinking about having at least 2 guns and a big field knife, STILL isnt enough if I get jumped. IM DEAD.

Also I surf and spearfish, and Im TERRIFIED of sharks.

Who wants to be on the bottom of the food chain? Talk about feeling like weaksauce.

On land, we are the slowest creature out there. In the ocean, we're the slowest moving creature out there. No wonder humans invented things like knives, spears, and guns!!!

[critter44]

Well, I was hunting one very dry fall and sleeping on a riverbank in a very small tent. I had a bunch of coyotes chase a deer until it ran INTO the side of my tent and kicked me in the head! THAT spooked me pretty badly for a while. I haven't been right since the kick in the head-but maybe I never was.

[FrontSight]

Can't really think of anything...growing up in the Bronx with the constant threat of getting jumped by two legged animals, you sort of develop a fear of nothing after a while...

[texfar]

Where ya livin now Scrap5000.

Ken

[FrontSight]

Still in the Bronx, but the good part. lol

Have to go thru the bad part to get to the city, tho, and the subway can be a real experience sometimes in art of survival. Buses too...you'd be amazed at the numbers of wild animals in the concrete jungle

[wpcexpert]

We had those Bannana Spiders in SC too. The webs are insane. I got to watch the mating ritual from a treestand. That was pretty cool.

The scaredest I've ever been was on th ground, bow hunting up on the mountain, when a bobcat lets out a scream. Couldn't tell if it was in my hollar or 3-4 over the way the echo is up there.

But I guess my opinion is when I'm in the woods with a gun, I'm the baddest creature there. Nothing to really fear.

[johnwilliamson062]

centipedes and millipede. Just so many legs!!!!! move like a snake. The ones in the southwest are like 6 inches long and as big around as my thumb. SCARY!!!

[wogpotter]

I don't know, but it mumbled like an old grumpy man as it circled the tent, in the woods, 12 miles from a dirt road.

Pretty much anything I can identify is fine by me. Snakes I try to ID, if I can't then I avoid them. Hoot owls are kind of interesting, I seem to be able to call them to me without trying, just by imitating the sounds.

Mystery critters, mumbling to themselves at a 10~12 foot distance, in a circle Hmmmmm. I came very close to "explaining myself" to a game warden that night.

[troy_mclure]

yep unidentified noises make me twitchy as well, and sudden silences too.

[davlandrum]

In my younger days, as a complete newbie to the woods, I ended up at elk camp a day before everyone else - so I am all alone in the "wild". I used to just crawl under my jeep and sleep. It was one of those windy nights with lots of unidentified noises around.

Finally had to crawl out, "mark my territory" around my jeep, and then was able to get some sleep. Not sure it protected me from anything except my over active imagination...

It made sense at the time, but now is just flat funny to remember.

[HAMMER1DOWN]

Well, i can only remeber two time i have ever been scared in the woods... These are gonna be long winded!!!

1) I was out shootin squirells with my girl friend (her first time out hunting) and i gave her my old mans single shot .410, well we were just walking along she was behind me and then without warning she let loose one of them shells into the brush right in front of me...needless to say i almost crapped myself. When i turned aroun to ask WHAT THE F**K!!! she just pointed and when i looked she had taken down a bobcat...A BOBCAT... that was just sittin there i didn't even see it. i just sat there like why didn't i see that. she still hasn't let me live that down...

2) A couple of friends and me went out into the Sweetgrass Hills near my home for a day out shed hunting, well after a good day of picking up horns we were walking the 2+ miles back to the truck when we decided to split up and take a couple of coulees just for kicks.. It wsa getting close to dark and i was still about half a mile out when i walked by this bush when a frickin coyote, done started to bark and yip from right behind that bush it could swear i almost grabbeb one of them stars in the sky, after that i pulled out my walther .22 lr semi auto and just unloaded into the bush.. don't know if i got him but he stopped yippin and i high tailed it out of there.

Well i guess there was one more..

I was out bear hunting north of hungry horse in the great bear wilderness and as we were hiking (it had rained that night) we finally saw sign of bear but as we looked closer it wasn't the targeted kind of bear sign it was grizzly tracks!!! and they didn't have water in them like the deer and other tracks did... I didn't have a bear tag so i had brought my AR-15 and was just acting as hunting party guard. I wanted to turn around and go up a different one and the tracks just kept going. Never did see the bear(thank god) but i never did feel safe in that area it was just one of those gut feelings.

but those three are the only time i can ever remember being scared in the woods.
Thanks,
Bones

[BradF]

Bigfoot. I can't believe no one else has said that. One gets behind me ever time I walk out of the woods.

Seriously though. We had some yahoo turn some ostriches loose several years ago in our neck of the woods. One of my buddies had a close encounter with one of them alone in the woods after dark. The thing meant him no harm I'm sure but he dang near killed himself getting out of the woods.

[JonnyReb]

Even though i live at the edge of a populated city, we have our share of wildlife. On a rare snow day i was "still" hunting about 10 acres behind the house. As i finished my loop i saw something black, big and out of place at the base of a clump of bushes beside the path i was taking. I checked it out through the scope and it was a wolf.

After us watching each other for a moment the fella reversed out of the brush and began loping away from me. As i watched it move across the leafless opposing valley, it took the same path i had taken originally. It went in front of 2 of my deer cameras. I Got 35mm 5 by 7's of him to prove he was there. Black, yellow eyed, skinny and longlegged. Don't know how he got there but i think of him every now and then when walking back in from an evening stand hunt.

What really scares me more than anything is a treestand more than about 15 feet high. Heights never used to scare me but now for some reason they bother me a bit. Those 2 person ladder stands are right up my alley

[hogdogs]

Those ladder stands are the only way I will go up a tree to hunt. I am not confident with my self. I am fidgety, hyper, and most of all I could goof up and make a life changing mistake in a regular tree stand. But I do well enough on the ground...
Brent

[JonnyReb]

I will take a nap in a heartbeat and am scared i'll roll right out of that rascal if it doesnt have arms.

I admire whomever buys those tiny loc-on's and actually sits on them all day. First pi...urination of the day i'd fall.

Got invited to hunt an incredible area 2 thanksgivings ago. Wasn't expecting a hunt and was out of town. These wonderful folks soon had me fully equipped with coveralls/orange/gloves and a 94, 30-30 open sighted, that of course i'd never shot. Uh-oh....turns out it didnt matter.

I was dropped off at a trail that they said led to a clearing off a power line and i would see the oak tree stand. As stated, i found the nails in the oaks base and saw the loc-on WAY up in the tree. It looked bad. No rope to pull my gun up with. Stand 50 feet up...

I made sure the gun was unloaded(bad i know) slung it diagnal over my shoulder and started up. Sometimes it was nails, sometimes tree steps and sometimes limbs. I felt sicker the higher i went. Got to the top and there was a beautiful view of the surrounding clearing and power line. The loc on was just a sling seat and a small platform, held to the tree with a small gauge dog chain multiwrapped around it and the tree and nailed off. There was nothing to even grab to swing into the stand. I retreated.

I knew i had made a ton of noise and i gave up on the hunt. I sat at the bottom of the tree and contemplated the next two hours till dark.

I went back up. I got in the darned thing and sat. Out of breath and scared. Stayed dead centered and felt unsteady with just the wind blowing. Realized that if a 10 point came and did the chacha all the way around me, all i could do was try to hit him on my way down. I would never be able to twist to shoot. I gave up and with 100% pucker...climbed down.

Sat at the base, smoking cigarettes and feeling stupid. Saw something move across the right of way and was trying to stand up when i saw that it was the group of does that i was told crossed there every evening. I raised the gun but never even contemplated pulling the trigger or ever going up in a high stand again...J.R.

[danweasel]

My buddy who is native told me that owls are traditionally real bad juju. His Grandpa will go out of his way to go back to the house, grab a rifle and kill one if he sees it. There are the spirits of evil men back from the dead apparentely.

Anyways, I am scared of grizzies. Never was back home in California but for some reason there are scarier here. Maybe it's 'cause the woods are unfamiliar here, if that makes any sense.

[texfar]

I got a healthy respect for hogs at night folks. Was in a tree stand on my lease S. Texas near border. Lots of bogs, creeks etc, the particular place where I was. Dark, listening to turkeys thinking about coming out of the trees, about 30 min before you could actually see, owls hooting. Snapping teeth and growling around the area, Javalina. Next thing I heard put the hair right up. Very low growling and very very close and off my starboard quarter of the stand. I eased very slowly around and had my handgun in my right hand. Growling got closer and I still could not see what it was, only that it was coming! I was only about 6 feet up the tree and looked straight down the short ladder. Man it was a huge bore looking right up at me and just growling, really low rumbling growl. I can still remember thinking, "If you have learned to climb a ladder you are toast" was hunting deer and did not want to just shoot this thing unless he decided to test the ladder. He just kept look up at me and growling. He finally went away in no hurry. No deer that day and when I came out of the stand about 0830 I was very careful going back to my ATV. Got to the ATV and there were huge hog tracks all around it. Looked back and that sucker had tracked me to the tree from the ATV.

Went into a dense Mesquite thicket after a big wounded sow one evening turning dark and that is another story. Don't ever do it!!!

[alloy]

snakes dont bother me, but around here we have timber rattlers(LOTS) and copperheads. so i dont usually overturn rocks or stick my hands under fallen trees

black bears are the issue in my immediate vicinity. they are protected, and by some folks even fed. they arent mindful of people.

we got some bears

[texfar]

Beautiful place alloy!!

[alloy]

yes. but its a odd place, some state law, mostly national forest law, lots of national park law, and some state park law. then where i live is nature preserve. this is off my balcony, but its very confusing even getting in a car and driving down the road with a firearm. seriously. would like to put a truck gun rack in my pickup, but i think it would cause me more problems than its worth. so it all has good and bad. game is everywhere. hunting that game is something else tho.

i hear the moonshine is ok

[FireForged]

a dozen cave crickets falling on you when its dark and you dont know what they are....

[texfar]

Alloy, still awsome for a cup of coffee!! Will dig up some photos of my view from Texas and Turkey.
Ken

[indy245]

I can't even look at that picture of that spider without getting the heebeegeebies. That is down right wrong. I'm not sure that I could walk around in a place where I know I would bump into something like that. When we encounter spiders here the largest ones are maybe the size of a dollar coin. I usually have to get the missus to help deal with any spiders encountered, she hates them too but seeing how much of a little girl I turn into when around them is enough for her to milk it. Just thinking about them stands the hair up on the back of my neck, nothing else does this just spiders.

Indy.

[EastSideRich]

Any time I have a close call with one of these guys I can feel them crawling all over my skin for an hour or more. Oddly enough, bees don't bug me, but any kind of wasp immediately puts me into panic mode.
It comes from when I was 12 years old; I was walking through the woods with my younger brother on a camping trip. He stepped on a log and his foot went right through it (and got stuck). As he was trying to get his foot un-stuck, I could hear a buzzing sound that got louder and louder until I started to get stung. I looked down and saw that my sweat pants were crawling with yellow jackets. I ran back to our camp site, and jumped into our car and shut the door. Then I realized I still had lots of these little bastards stuck to my pants and was now shut in a car with them and they weren't happy. You can imagine how that worked out for me.
After all was said and done I had about 30 stings. Interestingly enough my brother didn't get stung once - even though he was the one with his foot in their nest. Now I have a full blown phobia.
A few years ago I was in our attic and stepped on a big paper wasp on the floor with my bare foot. Somehow it didn't sting me, but it buzzed it wings (right under the arch of my foot). I still cant go in there without my pulse quickening and getting real jumpy.

[FrontSight]

Oh, I do recall my first bowhunt up a tree that I had to climb up on nails, in oversized boots, in the dark, with no safety harness, in an unfmiliar place...that was NOT fun.

And another time when th bottom part of the climber started to come undone when I leaned a little too much to the right. I had a harness but still, talk about a focusing of attention. That was the last time I didn't bother to ratchet the pieces in!!