What is your "fear factor"?

[Socrates]

PBP:

Yes, it was REALLY creepy. I didn't realize the darn Hawaiian ones got up around a foot long. Sleeping on a nest, or feeding area didn't work real well, either.

Good news is once biten, the subsequent bites aren't all that bad. Course I never got bit by another one, in 10 years over there, or for that matter, even saw one the size of the one that bit my foot. It was HUGE.

Tiger Sharks are fun. Sitting out at Diamond Head, had one swim under my surfboard. Think watching a small, silent submarine, small being about 25 feet long, with 25% water increase in size, swim slowly by underneath you. Seems they come out of a trench, by Diamond Head, and commute through the islands.

[Inspector3711]

What creeps me out in the woods.... Not startles me like a pheasant or snake, but actually creeps me out. There have been a few times. I was hiking with the wife last spring on Tiger Mountain (east of Seattle). We were alone when I heard a snap in the brush behind us. A young man stepped onto the trail from the woods. He had a very creepy air about him and wasn't dressed right for hiking. His eyes weren't right. I just had a sense that he wasn't there to do good. I'm glad he was a apparently city boy and didn't know how to walk quietly.

I remember feeling glad that I went with the wife that day. Eventually we came to a Y and he veered off of our backtrail.

Other than that there have been times when I've felt like I was being watched. I always figured it was a cougar or bigfoot. I saw tracks when I was in high school once. We were deer hunting around Rainier Oregon and it was probably 1980. I wear size 11 shoes and these tracks made my hunting shoes look like baby booties. There was no reason for anyone to put tracks there and I stood next to them and barely left a boot print. Something heavy with big human style feet.... Anyway, it was reported and made the newspaper.

Snakes don't bother me much nor do spiders, it's the feeling that something is out there. It knows I'm there and what I am but I can't figure out what it is. Either that or a nutcase when I'm not armed. It does happen around here. People are killed hiking by other humans. I figure I've got a chance against that threat if I'm armed, other threats may happen so fast I can't react.

Cougars are the thing that worries me most here in the woods. The old books around here indicate that the old timers were scared of them more than anything else. The woods can be dense and they can get real close before you know they're around. Try defending yourself with a concealed pistol when you just noticed a cougar in the air on his way to you.

[Playboypenguin]

Good news is once biten, the subsequent bites aren't all that bad.

Must be similar to copperhead bites. The first time I was bitten I thought I was going to die. The two subsequent times were less and less intense.

Yes, I know...a person has to be pretty careless to be bitten by copperheads more than once in their life...but my grandmother loved to make blackberry cobblers and copperheads love blackberry bushes.

[AJD21]

I'm not ashamed to admit!

Spiders: Doesn't matter how large or small. Seeing that Banana Spider in person would cause me to never go outside at night again without a large flashlight and even then I would hesitate. Big centipides would have the same effect.

Sharks: I've been in the ocean but won't go out past waist deep. Just something about when my feet leave the sand of the ocean. I'm terrified of them.

Just one of those things. I have no problem petting a 10 foot Python and seeing one hang just 1 foot above my head didn't bother me but running into a spider web will send me into a full blown panic attack.

[butta9999]

My fear factor is realising i left my bolts and magazines at home for my rifles after driving 16 hours to the middle of Australia.

Have nightmares all the time

Sharks, spiders, snakes and all the other creepy crawlies dont bother me the slightest.

Held and caught snakes.
Been swimming with sharks.
See spiders inside my home i pick them up and put them outside. (except for the white tails kill those buggers) have been bitten by white tail, took 2 months to heal an still have a little scar.

[KC9LDB]

when i chipped my tooth today on a damn chicken bone. I hate the dentist, not the work he does, just the $$$$ it costs. So i lived out a fear for the day, just gotta see how much it will cost.

Outside fears are also feeling of being watched, my old security job was weird cause i would have to lock up next to a family's graveyard. ooo no good especially on those foggy nights at 1200 am on a full moon, this is in a Forest too.

[Socrates]

There are a couple animals, insects I REALLY never want to meet. That stupid little fish in the amazon that swims into your private parts.

Black Mamba's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmre5kI49rI
14 feet, and 12 miles an hour...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYAE1...next=1&index=4
Spiders that bite, and lay eggs in your head.

Funny, but the really nasty stuff all seems to be in Africa or Australia...

[hogdogs]

Socrates, My buddy in NZ don't mention those OZ or Africa critters when we speak... Just gators, cougars, wolves and bears along with venomous snakes.
Seems those new zealanders have no predators except tax collectors.
Brent

[Inspector3711]

The dentist.. I used to share that fear... Then I aquired a horrible intestinal disease last year. I have occasional flare ups that remind me of just how bad it can be, so far I've been hospitalized twice. Anyway, just go through that and the dentist will be a piece of cake.


I actually went in for a root canal in December. It was a molar and I was in the chair for four hours as there were 4 mishapen root tips. The assistant couldn't believe I wasn't complaining. It was nothing... Really.

[jamiejaf]

Sleeping under the stars, waking up to see a giant bull moose standing over top of me. He stepped over me like i was a log and kept going.

[silvrjeepr]

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.

Hehe A good friend's aunt used to work the the Jackson zoo and our crew would get special behind the scenes visits. She played a joke on us once when a new tiger (from the wild) came in. We all went into this little hallway and right as my friend (in front of me) turned the corner, the cat lurched at him and SLAMMED into the window just a few feet away. I've never seen another human turn that shade of white. We had to carry him out. She said it takes them a few weeks to get aquainted with things in the zoo... I saw his face and heard the noise... but never made it around that corner.

[Socrates]

At Marineworld, San Mateo, we went to the show. It started with sitting 1 foot away from the 'fence' 10 feet high, and, as we sat there, 5 huge tigers, and two AFrican Lions ran at us, and peeled off. After that, we learned from the trainers that the tigers would kick the stuffings out of the 600 pound lions, on a regular basis, after the lions started it. I really can't put in words the effect on your system when 7 600-700 pound killers, tigers and lions, look at you at one foot like dinner...

Only thing worse was the following act. 10 elephants, HUGE, running at you, and, peeling off, in near total silence, at a foot, running at you about 20 miles an hour, then they peel off. Keep in mind, any and all of those animals could either jump out, or, go through the fence, and wall like it was paper mache...

[FrontSight]

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

3rd day hunting in Wisconsin, finally bagged my "earn a buck" doe with a bow, darkness descended and I'm crawling out of the woods, and I mean literally crawling because the hill is on about a 50 degree incline and snow covered as well, and I hear the howling start.

Lonnnnnnnng, multiple howls, from every single direction around me.

So I howled right along with them.

[srt 10 jimbo]

I heard a story bout a Park Ranger who shot a Large Male Grizzly Bear. After getting a ration for killing an endangered species he said. "When I saw the Bear charging me like a freight train, There was no doubt in my mind whom was the endangered species".

[mtnm]

My fear factor- domestic sheep.

You should hear them things in the dark of night in the middle of the San Juan wilderness in Colorado; riding trails alone where only your horse can see where to go.

Sheep sound wierd at night, and the sound carries for miles.

My biggest fear factor is Little Red Ridin Hood- er no I mean the bigbad wolf.


Gene was run off a mountain by black hornets once. There he was with his foot caught, hanging upside down off a cliff. I let him rescue himself.

I had to hold the horses, yah know.

[mtnm]

I woke up one night alone in the Colorado Rockies with 400 demons surrounding me. Dog was snoring so I went back to sleep.

* They were coyotes- I learned later.*

"The Feeling" freaks me out more than anything. You guys know what I mean. You are alone in the woods, it is dark and nice and quiet. Then you get "The Feeling". ..., Bigfoot, .......Ever been there?

Only when being around bigfoot.

...or in Washington D.C. on the wrong street- the one with all the murders.

Last summer I camped with the Nez Perce and bigfoot was in 2- 3 of our camps. He must be a friend of the Nez Perce? He protected us from the wolves.

[BIGR]

Thinking that Bigfoot is watching me....
Just kidding on that one, but I do not care about stepping close to snakes in the woods, especially if they are poisonous and I am miles and miles from medical help.

Guess the most fearful thing is rifle bullets hitting in the close area around thy body and having to dive for cover. Or a 12 GA. shotgun blast at close range just inches above the head. Those things right there will instill fear immediately. Disclaimer: Don't try it at home though.

[sc928porsche]

A charging bear allways scares me. Try it once....you'll hate it.

[Swampghost]

Bears usually make false charges. Sows with cubs can be an exception. That being said, just stand your ground. They usually stop within 15-20 feet of you and then run off after their display.

[Mainah]

Okay, I'll admit it, last week I got scared by a coyote. And I'm a guy who snickers when he reads scary coyote stories on forums like this.

But I was on vacation in Arizona, and they've got a rabies problem. I was driving back from town when I saw the coyote on the side of the road, he was only four or five feet away from my car and he didn't run when I stopped. That was a big red flag.

He ended up crossing the road and approaching me after I parked. Like I said, I was on vacation, and without the options I'd of had at home. I yelled, he tried to flank me, but I got inside.

He was good-sized, and I'll admit that he got my blood pumping.

[FrontSight]

Mainah, rabies is no joke, and I can understand that one!

[hardluk1]

Bannana spiders in the early morning fog on an airboat with it in the middle of the web right in front of you at 20 mph. Walking 100 yards off a tram and looking down in 2 feet of water in the facahacthe strand and seeing around 20 moccasins around where you are standing and the light is not yet up enought to see well. That will kill a morning hunt.

[12GaugeShuggoth]

That will kill a morning hunt.

No joke. I was TRYING to be stealthy and sneak in to a swamp where I had seen a nice buck earlier in the season. Got my bow in one hand, and a little light in my other hand, looking down at the ground to try and avoid breaking any branches in the dark.....and that's when I walked through the worlds biggest spider web.....well at least it seemed like it at the time. Don't know what kind of spider it was, but when I felt legs moving across my cheek I dang near had a stroke and died right where I stood.

Being sneaky and stealthy went straight out the window at that point. I dropped the light when I smacked myself in the face with it , dropped my bow, and tripped backwards over a log that I had just stepped over 2 seconds earlier. Didn't fall, mind you, but made enough noise to wake up every deer in ........oh I don't know, the whole state of Virginia. I wore the gold crown of killing a morning hunt that day.

[Hunter Dan]

This scared the heck out of my, siting in a climbing deer stand at least 20 foot up a tree and moving my feet and the bottom part goes down the tree sat there a wile thinking what the heck am i going to do note to the young folks no cell phones well need less to say i got down that tree like a bear the other thing that gets me are quail the danm things will get up rite under you feet