Do you ever get afraid in the woods?
General Topic
Sometimes when I'm by myself in the wilderness, before dawn or as the sun goes down, I find my mind playing little tricks on me. I might start perseverating on a mountain lion putting the creep on me, or a couple of nor cal hillbillies following and jacking with the out of towner with the bow. I am planning on doing some solo overnight trips for blacktail this season, but I suspect that it's about 50/50 that I will be up all night listening for bears and drunk locals. I admire you guys who bivy solo in the middle of nowhere without a care in the world. Am I the only dude in the world that gets a little creeped out at times?
You are not alone. Been heading into the woods for about 35 years, once in a while I get the hebee gebees and have to get out of the woods as quick as I can. Can't figure it out, just figure it's better to listen to your instincts.
I have a friend that can't go into the woods after dark, I don't mean he's creeped he's flat out scared, so he's pretty much worthless when it comes to coyote hunting LOL.
Doesn't bother me being in the woods in the dark. What bothers me are the things that go BUMP in the dark.
One thing that has helped me is I always carry my .40 S&W. It may not be able to hit anything (especially with me shooting it), but having 16 shots if I need it is quite reassuring!
After last year and having a 400+ pound black bear come in, knowing that monsters like that are doing there own hunting makes me double think packing out a deer or elk in the dark! It also made me glad that I started hunting my deer and Elk spot out of a treestand! Having that thing on the ground walk up on me would probably have made my heart skip a few beats!
Your safer in the woods than the city.
Afraid that I might not fill my tag.
I've bumped in to my share of bears, lions and hillbillys. Most all of the lions bears run when they see me, just like the elk and deer. The hillbillys just think I'm one of them.
Yup, especially when I start seeing Bigfoot and all his family members everywhere! :) Seriously though, both me and my dad had chills down our spines one time while elk hunting here in NM. We were supposed to spend the night in a certain area but when we met up again at the truck I asked him if he really wanted to stay the night in this area and he asked me why. I told him that I had the worst feeling in the world about this place and I wanted to go right now. He said that he felt the same way too! We left right away and the feeling left as well as soon as we got out of the area. The whole time we both were looking behind us, to the sides, all around like something was out there watching us. Who knows, maybee something really bad happened there and it just left a bad spirit about it. Creapy.
I have gotten freaked a little when I was younger, but I ain't skeered of no Hillbilly. Hell, the Hillbillies know I am one of them!!!
Because I am as country as cornbread.....like Jerry Clower said, "I can drink branch water out of a gourd dipper."
It ain't the Hillbillys that worry me it's the strung out meth cookers.
Heck yes, I've been scared..... Try sleeping in the Alaskan wilderness with 600 lbs of moose meat 100 yards down wind. Then think back to the Grizzly Bears you seen during the day, and the wolves howling during the night! To top it all off it's the fall season, leaves are falling and you swear your hearing foot steps all around.
Here's the comfort: None of us will leave this planet alive, everyone of us will get our ticket's punched, be it while being a passenger on an airline flight, crossing the street, or playing golf, etc.....
Have faith when your time is up, it's up.
EXPERIENCE LIFE. There ain't nothing better then facing your fear and living to see tomorrow!
Had a pack of coyotes run an elk through my spike camp last year. I got scared, but i just layed there with my 9mm and my head lamp on 'till I feel back asleep an hour later. I wasn't even solo on this trip, but my brother slepps through anything;)
"nam" was enough for me! I hate the dark!
When I start seeing things after dark I just close my eyes and start walking........no problem.
From time to time I've had the "willies".But then I have a very active imagination.Also I've had Bears come in to Fawn bleats,that is enough to keep your mind occupied while going in or out in the dark.Still my rational mind tells me that I am very safe on the mountain.Also these days I always carry a cell phone and that adds a lot of piece of mind.
Work with a guy and his brother who will not get out of the truck until the sun is up and they are back in the truck way before the sun is down. When they asked me what time do I get in my stand, I said half an hour before legal shooting light, they could not believe what I said. I was confused that they were not in the woods at that time and they said that it was to scary out there. They are 24 and 20 years old.
Sure I've been scared in the woods. I agree that it's best to follow your instincts. But sometimes my mind can create things to be afraid of. The key for me is separating my instincts from that which my mind creates. It's all good.
Reference the picture; looks like a camera strap to me
I am the laughing stock at our camp. I am really jumpy...mostly because I don't like moose. Every close encounter I've ever had with moose ended with the animal running the other way (probably from the smell of my pants), but I am very jumpy about them. I jump at every noise and the hike in, before we all split up for the day, is always fun for the other guys.
As a general rule I am far more comfortable in the dark woods than in the city, day or night. There have been a handful of times when I have suddenly wished it were light. Probably the time that stands out the most is when I was about a mile in, far from anyone else or any sign of civilization. All of a sudden a pack of coyotes lights up, yipping and howling, literally all around me, I believe about 20 yards away. I spent some time in a handy tree.
"Reference the picture; looks like a camera strap to me"
I was thinking the same thing. It also vaguely resembles the top limb on a recurve, the real shiny white part could be the tip.
Stepping on a pheasant when you're walking out from your tree stand at night.
Speedbow, didn't mean to hijack the thread. Definitely an interesting pic.
As for being scared in the woods..... not in the actual woods, but a couple of my whitetail spots require walking through pastures. When I was a kid, I got knocked down by a cow and have been pretty much terrified of them ever since. Walking that 1/4 mile through the dark pasture seems to take forever. It's okay though, I try to eat as much steak as possible to even the karma :-)
I camped one time near Ovando, Mt. & just before dark I watched a Female Grizzly & a cub cross over to my side of the creek. I can tell you I got zero sleep that night. I was with a buddy , but we heard a bear fight about 100 yards from our camp during the night. We pretty much spent the night with our backs together & rifles on our laps.
I think it's a finger in front of the lens/flash at time of photo!
anybody ever run into the two guys from Deliverance ?
i tell you what I hate. walking through the crp to a plot of trees and hear somthing coming from the trees towards you. that owl soundded like a pack of wolves coming for me
My imagination sometimes gets the better of me, but it's the mornings, walking into the stand in the dark that are tougher for my resolve than the evenings.
I can walk through the woods in the dark after sundown and feel comfortable, because I was there for the transition from day to night.
In the mornings, I feel like an intruder. That makes me nervous.
iowaPete
Theres times that you hear somthing why your walking in or out in the dark. I was walking into one spot early, it was all most full moon wet and the wind was just right, I cam around a plumb thicket and came face to face with three does they didnt see me and I didnt see them tell the last secound. They blow like does do, I had to stand there for a couple min. to get my heart rate back done.
I am not afraid of the animals in the woods, just scared of the hill billies and deliverence people that might also call the woods home. Yesterday I took a backpack trip and came across 30 plus men practicing their militia skills. I was a long ways off from them but they scared me with their war crys prior to their target practice.
Not all that afraid of the woods, but walking into a skunk or some other nasty little creature with a sharp end does. Had a white hare scare the b'jeebees out of me once walking in early, i thought it was an old dried out deer skull. When I went to pick it up it jump in my direction not 5 feet away. Almost filled my pants.
Yes Glenn, a pheasant flying up by your leg in the dark will do it, I remember well and that happened in the mid 60's back when I carried a Bear recurve. Herman, I second that and thank you for your service to this great country. I would rather walk in the dark thirty am then walk out (a long distance) in the dark pm. But have had the privilege (??) to come out in the very dark after run ins with very grumpy bear two different years in the same area. I know what its like to feel something following you and your walking pace quickens, YIKES. Pat, you the man! Praying for you :-)
I've had a couple grouse give me heart attacks and blow a stock on an elk. Out biking last year in Bend, Oregon had the hair on my neck stand so I got out of the area quick. Returned the next day and saw big kitty tracks through the one set of tire tracks. Just haven't figured the gun mount on my Mt. Bike.
Somebody mentioned on this thread that he and his dad got a "creepy feeling" together. I'll get back to that. I was hunting in a bottom filled with water oaks once and I waited until dark to leave. When I was making my way out of the really dark woods to the field road to make it back to my truck, coyotes starting howling like crazy, sounding as if they were only a few feet a way. As I made my way to the road, it became a little brighter, as a little light remained from the last vestiges of the sun's light. Suddenly, something hit my chest and I jumped at what I felt to be about ten feet high--probably about three in reality---and when I landed, gasping for air, I witnessed a mighty mean squirrel bounding away, probably more frightened than I was....Now, I go back to the "creepy feeling" that a father and son felt together. Years ago, I lived in Tallahassee, FL. While there, a hurricane named "Katrina" came barreling in. Although it wasn't the most vicious of all hurricanes, it did pack some 100 mph gusts. After evacuating the trailor that we lived in at that time for a more secure motel room---the cheapest around that only my father was capable of finding--I lay awake the entire night listening to the constant barrage of rain pelting the roof and running water through the drain pipes. At what seemed the point of the storm at its worst, I lay tensed and bracing for the roof to blow off. It was then that I noticed my father's even breathing and the occasional snore. I awoke him and said "Dad, how can you sleep with this storm....the roof's about to blow off!!!" He replied, "Son, let ask you something.....what can you do about it?" Then he went back to sleep and within minutes he was snoring again. So much for the mutual shared "creepy feeling." Although not directly related, that spoke volumes to me. Nothing has ever scared me since in the woods......or the night....well, there was that party in the early '90's when I "woke up" after the lights were turned on.....but I can't remember her...uh...it's name.....
when i was a teenager, me and my buddies used to hang out around an abanded stretch of railroad track quite aways from town. we would go there sometimes in the middle of the night and hang out, smoke cigs, shoot the bull, whatever. there was a service sidewalk that ran parralel to the tracks that was carved into the hillside and was covered with overhanging trees and brush. it went on for miles into the hills. one night me and a buddy were walking down that trail and heard the nastiest, most gutteral evil growl about 2 yards away in the hillside brush. i actually felt my bowels grow hot and loose and it's the closest i have came to messing myself. Instinctively we did not run. We had know idea what it was. I knew it wasn't a dog. i halfway believed it might of been something otherworldly. It was so close and so loud and so damned wicked. a couple of years later i'm doing homework in the living room with the tv on when i hear that sound coming from the tv. the hairs on the back of my neck stand up anf i whip my head up to the screen. Discovery channel was doing a special on mountain lions, and there was a big old mountain lion growling like a demon. Creepy as it was, it was good to have some closure on the whole deal.
Walking in and out after dark 95% of the time dont bother me at all, But every now and then I get the creeps. I live in Southern Missouri and the forest here is thick, no feilds, just woods and Ridges..here is one perfect example:
I sat in my tree until dark, der came in and I didnt want to scare them off, so i sat there till the left..another half hour, now it is pitch black. I have one of those lights that goe on your cap and and big battery on your hip, and the chord runs up the back<--this is important vital info to this story-- anyhow it is bright, so I take off my coat, I let it and my bow and fanny pack down to the ground, I climb down, I dig the light out of my fanny pack, i strap the battery on my belt, I put on my coat, then run the chord up and slide the light onto my cap, I gather my stuff and begin walking out of the very dark woods. I hear something in the leaves behind me, I stop and look, nothing..I begin walking and hear it agian, i stop and look and nothing..now I know there is nothing, but the hair is starting to stiffen on my neck just a little bit..I begin walking and came to a spot where the tree limbs was low and I needed to duck under to get through, so I duck and walk through, but something GRABBED ME from behind, I freaked..i fought my way out of the grasp of whatever it was and turned to confront my attacker..then my hat flew off my head, along with my bright light..I freak out agian and fumble for the hat with the light and get hit in the back of the head..I now have figured out what it was that was attacking me and followed me through the woods...When I put my coat on, A small limb that I hat cut off the tree was inside my coat, the stub end was sticking out behind my head, and the leafy end was dragging the ground in the leaves..the stub end got stuck in the limbs i was going under...I stood there and laughed at myself until i was in tears for a good 5 minutes. :):)
Does the woods scare me? NO, I seem to do a good enough job scaring myself roflmao. In fact I love being in the woods after dark, I love to hear the sounds of Yotes and owls and all the bumps in the night..it is like being home to me, I thrive on it, it is half the fun of hunting.
Or rather I mean, I put the light on THEN put on my coat, I learned it is easier than having the chord hanging on everything..this being the reason i got a limb inside my coat as well. Duh
I can recall three times when I was creeped out by being in the woods. The first came when I was still hunting with a rifle. I was hunting black bear in Montana back in '96. I was hunting near East Glacier Park and ran it a sow grizzly with two cubs. I was walking down a steep incline that was bisected by a large hillside to my right, and to my left, an open pasture and another small hillside. I could not see around or over the hillside on my right.
I was on my way down the incline when the griz suddenly came walking around the corner of the hillside to my right. She was only 30 feet away! Then both of her cubs came around the corner, and there I was with a sow grizzly and her two fully grown cubs staring at me. Needless to say, I was not very happy about it, and neither was she. She stood up on her hind legs and whoofed, sending both cubs scurrying in the opposite direction. It seems like hours, but she finally dropped back down to all fours and ran off in the direction of the cubs. I'd be lying if I said that my underwear went unscathed by that incident!!
The second time was on a bow hunt in north central Wisconsin for whitetails. I decided to hunt a stand that was deep in the woods, but at the last second chose to hunt another stand that was significantly closer in walking distance, and I'm glad that I did! For I made it to the base of my alternate tree stand location in complete darkness and just as I was stepping on to the first tree step, Timber Wolves started howling, and they were close! They carried on for at least a half an hour and it sounded like they were hunting something down and killing it. The hair on the back of my neck, my head, my arms, my legs and on my butt were standing straight up!! When the sun finally came up and all was quiet, nothing moved. I, mean nothing! Not a bird, not a squirrel, nothing. Pretty creepy.
The last time was when I got home from work one very late night two days before opening day of the Wisconsin gun season, and I decided that I would retrieve two tree stands from a section of woods that I had permission to bow hunt, but not to rifle hunt.
It was 2 a.m. and SNOWING HEAVILY -- remember that -- and I didn't want to get my stands stolen from rifle hunters, so I gritted my teeth, got my cold weather clothes on and headed towards the woods. The area held some good deer, but the only bad thing about the land was that it was semi-open to the public, which meant you had to ask permission to hunt it, but the landowner couldn't tell you that couldn't as long as you asked permission first. That meant it was being hunted by more people than just myself and at the time several Asians were also hunting the property. No offense to anyone from Asia or anyone related to anyone from Asia. I'm just telling a story.
So anyway, here I am at 2 a.m., SNOW FALLING HEAVILY and I am deep in the woods with my flashlight and my backpack retrieving my stands. I got the first one without any concern except the snow was really piling up now, which made walking difficult, especially being weighted down. It was snowing so hard that my tracks leading into my first stand area were completely covered up. I got back to my car and placed the stand in the trunk and went after the second one. That's when I got as freaked out in the woods as I EVER have been!!
I got to my second stand location and I was just about ready to start climbing my tree steps when I noticed FRESH BOOT TRACKS in the snow leading away from my stand into thick timber!!! I was completely freaked out!! However, I did manage to climb the tree, more out of fear of being on the ground, and got the stand down. Walking back to my car in the dark was one of the longest walks I've ever taken.
Mind you, I did NOT see another car parked along side the road or had any indication that some one else was in the woods with me. That was thee worst feeling I have ever experienced being in the woods. The wolves were bad, the griz was worse, but those fresh boot tracks in a heavy, heavy snow storm was thee creepiest thing I've ever encountered in the woods!! It still gets to me when I think about it.
There was another bear incident in Manitoba last spring, but I'll save that for another time. Sorry, I rambled on.
Take care and Good Hunting!
Best Afield,
Steve
I haven't been scared in the woods as an adult. I've been spooked by flushing birds, put on alert and had to give ROW to a bear twice at O'dark thirty but I never really felt scared.
I'm fine alone in the wilderness if I know where I am,at least roughly,and want to be there.On the other hand,a couple times I've been truly lost and then had to harness my fear. I also had an experience in BC on a goat hunt where I was afraid to move up or down.Took about 10 minutes(seemed like a year)to calm down and make a rational decision of what to do.Guess thats different from the thrust of this thread but I don't ever want to go there again.Saw a panic side of myself I don't want to see again either.
I got freaked out a couple times as a kid when I got turned around, but only once in the last 20 years have I had to talk some sense into myself.
Friday night, the wife and kids went to bed, and I'm up alone getting my hunting gear ready for morning. Wasn't really tired yet even though I had to be up early, so I decided to watch a rented movie alone. I shut off the lights and layed down on the couch and put in The Blair Witch Project. Freaky movie, but movies have never bothered me before, and didn't that night either.
Until 5:30am the next morning. I'm alone getting my clothes on at the truck in the dark in the woods and all I can think about is that stupid movie. Then I start waling through the woods and I swear I am seeing strange things hanging from tree limbs and something is watching me. I literally had to stop and sit down for a minute and tell myself how stupid I was acting. I have never been afraid of the dark, the woods, or movies, but something that morning just triggered the dark side of my brain.
I agree with others though, I have yet to be afraid of the animals in the woods. I was a little scared walking back to my hotel alone at 2:00am in Miami once though...
Last fall in MT on an elk hunt. First time in the mountains. My buddy tells me that he's never seen a bear in this particuliar area that we were hunting. So, what's the use of carrying that extra weight of bear spray. He's late getting out of camp so up the mountain I go by myself. Mind you, I've never hunted bear and don't know much about them. About 15 minutes into my walk, I hear a noise (a wooof) and don't think anything of it. Again, (wooof) this time with more authority, so I stop and shine my light....all of a sudden I realize, holy crap that's a bear! I take a couple of more steps and this thing lets out a string of wooofs and starts running. I never did see it, but I sat down (probablly not the thing to do)and waited for about 15 more minutes before continuing. I don't know why, but I never got scared or worried. I have been nervous in the woods, but this day all was calm. Weird.
For you bear guys, just how close can you get to a bear before he lets out the 'ol wooofing noise? He seemed pretty dang close!
When hiking a REALLY remote salmon stream with partially eaten salmon carcasses every few feet and brown bear tracks all over I must admit to a certain amount of concern as I continued to cast for grayling or rainbow trout. When climbing a mountain slope so steep that if you slip you may fall several hundred feet I guess that I feel some fear of the possibility that I could slip at any instant. When sleeping at night with a game bag of sheep meat, moose meat, etc fairly close in grizzly country it is easy to awaken at any sound. I also had a brown bear do a false charge to within 10 feet of me and was very glad that it turned out to be a false charge. Just extremely bad conditions in which hypothermia is a real possibility should also make you feel your vulnerability. If you don't realize enough fear to be concerned and very careful in situations like this then you are probably more apt to have things turn out for the worst.
I think all kids have some reservation about the dark early in their lives. I know I did. I hated walking home alone from a movie in the dark in my small home town. If someone was walking behind me I would run home. But as time passed and I aged those fears left and I have always been very comfortable in the woods with basically lots of respect and no fears.
The same can not be said about a number of guys I have hunted with through the years. There have been several grown men, tougher than nails, that carry those fears and are incapacitated partially or almost totally when in the woods alone at dark..
I once bear hunted with a guy who never hunted the best bait we had, as he feared so much the long, steep hike through the thick pines to where we parked our bike or our vehicle.
I think most kids loose their fears about the dark as they age, but some never seem to loose them and thus carry quite a self imposed curse. It has to hurt them allot as a hunter.
I also know of a guy who played college football, is big and tough and all that, but is always back at camp before it gets dark and will never leave until its light enough to shoot animal, unless he is with someone else. Talk about a curse!
If one really wants to learn about himself he needs to go spend 10-12 days alone on a wilderness hunt in an area with lots of bear, lions, snakes, spiders, winds, storms, cliffs, limited water etc. If you can pass that test and stick it out, it will pretty well prepare you for any outing in the woods. I have found very few have the metal toughness to do that solo, and yet many could do it easily with just one other person.
As a follow up thread to this, it would be interesting to hear some stories about all the strange, scary or funny stuff that has happened to individuals while in woods at night. I know I have had my share of them.
Have a great bowhunt and don't let the dark keep you from it. BB
And always remember, to enjoy lions or bears before they enjoy you!
I'll have to admit to being scared in the woods twice...both while at work. The most dangerous weapon I was carrying was a pencil.
One time I had climbed up through a draw by hopping on rocks and so made no noise. The acorns were dropping like rain and I was sure I would see some deer. I was looking at my map when I heard animals coming down the hill toward me. Sure I was about to have a close encounter with a nice buck, I squatted down to "hide." Just then a nice black bear stepped out from the grapevines and rocks about twenty yards away. Well I thought that was pretty cool and wished for my camera until I saw junior following her. They disappeared behind a large boulder in front of me at 15 yards. I became a little concerned but no problem, I figured, I'll just stay motionless and let them pass, I don't think they know I'm here. As soon as I finished that thought a second cub rolled off the hill and climbed through the leaves and rocks to a spot that was 5 yards behind me. This is when I became "scared in the woods" because there was a sow with two cubs in a space of twenty yards and I was in the middle. I never saw any of the bears again...they just disappeared in the rocks. I never saw them come out of the draw and I never heard them moving in the leaves, I never heard them spook or saw them get back together. They were headed the same direction I had to go and I had just started for the day. I walked lightly all day long.
The second "scared in the woods" involved people. I was working timber company property and was supposed to be the only person on the property. I heard a vehicle approaching along the road so I ducked into the woods behind a tree. I watched two guys pass in a Toyota pick-up with an empty bed. I figured all is well, they have no gear and are just out riding around, trespassing but just riding around. That afternoon I was back along the road again when I heard the truck approaching. I ducked into the trees again because I didn't want to deal with any people. It's probably good that I was out of sight because now they had a full bed. There was so much marijuana stacked in that truck you couldn't fit another leaf on the pile! I looked over my shoulder all week not wanting to interrupt a harvest operation.
There is a third time but that woodlot was closer to an urban area and I don't think a story about the Pagans belongs on this thread....but I was truly scared!
There is nothun in the dark that is gonna get ya. Geez, what a bunch of sissies.
There were a few times similar to some already mentioned, like the coyotes starting to yip in a circle around me in the brush at dusk, on my first western trip. I knew they were just coyotes, but something about being alone and surrounded by them without seeing or hearing their approach.....
Or the time just a couple years ago when we saw a bear cross the road less than a mile from where we were camping for the night in Tennessee, on a non-hunting trip just looking at some places my buddy had seen while turkey hunting. Sighting the bear crossing the road wasn't spooky, just fun. Getting to sleep in the hammock slung between two trees at the remote campsite nearby took a little while. My buddy said if the bear came around, just knock on the truck cap door and he'd let me in.....
Probably the worst scare I ever got in the woods was on a solo deer bowhunt at a remote camp here in Indiana about thirty years ago. It was late season and I had the primitive campground to myself. Set up my tent and went hunting for the evening. When I returned to camp it was dusk, but not yet dark. I hung the gas lantern from a low branch of one of the tall pines around the campsite, and started supper. It was a quiet evening, and I could hear something moving in the leaves across the road from camp every once in a while. Figured it for a 'coon or possum or somesuch, as it didn't approach but just kept messing around over where the light from the lantern wasn't quite bright enough to make out anything. Wasn't worried by it, just slightly curious. When I was ready to turn in, I reached up and shut out the hanging lantern, and as soon as the light flickered out, all hell broke loose!
There was the sound of many things running rapidly towards me! My eyes were still useless from looking into the lantern as it died and I couldn't see a thing, but I was obviously being rushed by several somethings, human or otherwise, who had been lurking in the bushes nearby waiting for the advantage of darkness!
I groped blindly for the axe I had used to earlier to chop and split a little firewood. I knew it was stuck in the old stump about two feet in front of me, and my hands quickly found it. I jerked it loose from the stump and backed up quickly a few feet until my back was against the tree, and brought the axe into position as the footsteps got very close. I was determined to make two out of the first man, dog, or whatever reached me.
Just as I was expecting to get grabbed or bitten or clawed, the sound of the approaching critters changed to lots of flapping noises, and I was suddenly being showered with lots of sticks and debris from overhead!
Then....nothing. Only the sounds of something in the treetops around me shuffling around getting comfotable for the night.
As my nerves started to settle and my eyes regained some night vision I was able to make out the distinct forms of several turkeys among the branches. It became evident then that the flock had been roosting in the pines there, as turkeys are fond of doing. They had only been released a few years in that area and weren't hunted there yet, so didn't have the complete aversion to human presence that they later acquired. They had returned to their roosting area at dusk, and since someone had provided enough light, they continued scratching up an occasional acorn or two from the oaks across the lane from the camp. When the light was suddenly gone, they were in a real big hurry to get to the safety of their treetop roosts.
You need to watch out for these things!!!
I really can’t say that I am ever scared I think that I have been uncomfortable or uneasy a number of times but never really scared. Take for instance last week while on a black bear hunt in Quebec. Just before dark on a windy evening I heard what I hoped was a black bear approaching. To my amazement it turned out to be a dark gray Wolf that walked into the bait site and then walked back the path that I had my ATV parked. That walk back to my ATV was uncomfortable to say the least!
I once tripped over a Porky early one morning and received at least 15 souvenirs of my encounter firmly planted up my left leg. Now that was painful not scary.
Then another time while climbing a tree for a morning Bow hunt an owl struck me in the back of my head caused me to hit my head off the tree knocking off my hat and head lamp. Actually come to think of it that was a bit scary.
On another Bear hunt in Canada I was riding back to our camp on an ATV. I was on a Logging road running full out at around 45 miles per hour. I crested a hill only to discover that a cow moose was standing broad side in the middle of the road. I locked up the brakes only to discover that stopping on a sand and gravel path was like stoppinc on ice as a result my ATV and the Cow had an unexpected meeting. Let me tell you that the back side of a MOOSE is every bit as big as it appears. Lucky for me (and the MOOSE) my speed was down to around 15 miles per hour as my ATV bounced off the back legs or that beast. I went sideways nearly rolling the ATV and stopped a few yards off the edge of the road. You now what…. Forget what I said at the beginning…..I was scared….
Timber
the worst is that "BAD THING" that follows you to and from your stand in the dark ................ it walks when you walk ,stops when you stop ................... you never really see it ,but you know it's there ............ WATCHING ..........GUARDING ITS TERRITORY ........................ ONE DAY IT WILL ACT !!!!!............ 8^)
Yep. Depends on where. Northeastern US, nah... Western US sometimes. Canada, sometimes.
One of the spookiest things that I ever encountered was ... total silence.
We who grew up and live in the more populated parts of the world have no concept of the total absence of noise. It was really spooky the first time, until I figured out what was different.
I took a gal up a little canyon in Utah a few years back for a bbq. We had finished eating and were enjoying a little "desert". We had one my camo blanket over us. We were right next to a creek and had a little fire going. The firing was smoldering. It was about 12:30AM when I heard this "Thump" "Thump" right behind us. I slowly looked behind me and there on the trail was a cow moose with a calf, not ten feet away!
I wispered into the girls ear, I was pretty close, not to move. All a sudden I had a million thoughts run through my mind. I remember thinking I could run across the creek. I thought about grabbing the ax and taking out the moose's legs. But in the end we just waited and the moose just went down the trail. I decided it was probably a good time to get going. Things that going Thump in the night really don't scare me unless I have a good visual, ten feet is generally good enough!
Well I did blunder into several bedded caribou at night during a howling windy rainstorm about a hundred miles from the nearest human stucture. Only had about a mile of pretty open tundra to go across and be back at camp. About as dark a night I have never seen, could not hardly see my hand in front of my face. Headlamp with the hard rain ruined all night vision I had, so was going along with it off. Darn near stepped on one, think I may have kicked it with the wind in my face at 50 MPH. Just going back to camp via compass and checking the GPS. Just kind feeling my way along kind of like Helen Keller.
When they jumped and started grunting, I was sure glad they weren't brown bears.
Didn't have time to be afraid.
Garo
Just one story, related to BB's request. I don't typically get scared when backpacking or hunting in the backcountry. Not sure why, but maybe because I'm a pretty big guy and I'd put up a fight if a bear tried to steal my powerbars. One of the first backcountry trips I went on in Colorado, three years ago, I had my dog and a two man tent set up in the woods at about 10,500. My dog, like some of you, can't sleep a wink and spends all night staring out the tent. Well, finally it paid off, at about 4:30am, just half an hour before first light, when God knows how many something or others came running through my campsite, a whoopin and a hollerin. It felt like an earthquake! I had no idea what it was, but as I was packing out for the trip back, I realized I just lived through my first elk stampede, when I came across the herd in the meadow just north of my camp! Awesome experience and I've been addicted to backcountry hunting ever since! Just be safe and remember, in most parts of the country, you are the ultimate predator, and you've got the bow to prove it. -N
Only when it is the last day of my western trip and I am going to have to go home for another year! Never know when that western trip might be my last!
I have found that one thing that helps with any fears I have at night while in the tent trying to sleep is ear plugs.
Actually the thing that am the most scared of is skunks and it stems from a incident as a child. A skunk and I surprised each other when I was walking through the shelter belt by our house at dusk. I didn't get sprayed, but had nightmares about skunks for a while after that.
I think the thing that worries me most in the dark is moose. I had a very close encounter with one last season walking up to my spot. I heard some rustling just in front of me and assumed I had kicked out a deer. When I turned my headlamp on I saw two yellow eyes about 8-9" center to center standing what seemed like 7 feet off the ground within 15 feet.
I think to myself, How often are hunters really hurt by moose? I never seem to hear of anybody getting hurt in Utah. It doesn't matter though, they still make me nervous.
But I have to say, grouse have near killed me by heart attack.
I can't be the only guy that thinks of this one;
Walking out of some of those hell holes in the dark and knowing if I broke my leg it would be two weeks before someone finds me.
Couple of times I've been scared almost sh**less. First was my first time baiting black bears in alaska. had 5 BROWN bears come to the bait all within 10 minutes of each other. first a sow with 2 4-500 lb 2-3 year olds. one got to the bait and from behind them comes a huge deep woof and growl. Here comes about a 8.5 fot boar. mom and kids take off. the boar gets about 5 yards from the bait and we hear an even bigger deeper woof and then another boar runs in and runs off the other boar. Meanwhile momma is up the hill beating the crap out of the trees cause she and the youngsters got run off the bait. We left real quickly, right at dark. Major puckering on the walk out. heard one large snap about halfway back out to the truck and i about fell over trying to run away.
another time buddy and I had 2 freshly killed blacktail deer in our packs. had 5 hours of hiking in the dark in brown bear territory. every noise had me peeing my pants.
another was in colorado around the maroon belles area. I was camping by myself for the night. heard lots of noise then had multiple noses against the tent wall. I grabbed my 30.-06 and this went on for about 10 minutes. no headlamp working and my lantern was outside off! finally I get brave enough to poke my head out and there are 6 coyotes only 10 yards from the tent. I yelled at the top of my lungs and they took off running. I did not sleep a wink the rest of the night.
another was moose hunting in Alaska. was about 15 minutes before dark. a friend and I were still hunting. suddenly we smell something very rotten and foul. we look down and we were standing on a bear kill, mostly buried moose. Talk about crapping your pants! we looked around for the bear which we knew was near. Every snap or noise I heard on the 1/2 mile walk out i just about fell down I jumped so much.
The last one was solo dall sheep hunting in Alaska. had nothing to do with bears or critters. Storm blew in. I"m alone and it's blowing so hard my tent is hardly standing up. I'm on the only flat spot for about 1/2 mile. only 5 yards from a 500 foot drop off. next thing you know you hear the winds coming and it starts to lift the tent with me in it. I spent all night scared I was going to get blown off the mountain!
Went on a bear hunt 3 years ago in northern Maine. First night out my buddy drops me off and tells me he will be back just after dark, If I need anything call on the radio.
1 1/2 hours after dark and no answer on the radio and no sign of anyone coming. I finally reach him on the radio and he tells me he was helping other people that got bears.
I was a little worried about the moose in the area and the coyote, never worried about the bear coming in to the bait.
I was also worried for my friends safety when we finally saw each other! We still hunt together, but I take the car and drop him off 1st.
If you are honest we all have had our heart race a bit from time to time. I had a fog bank roll in and took visibility down to a few hundred yds. I was in heavy cover. This was when GPS would not pick up in such a canopy. Thought I was headed toward a clear cut to get better reception...went in a totally different direction. Pulled out the compass and got back on track! Never leave home without a compass.
I have had bears walk within 10 ft. of me while sleeping on the ground. Not as bad as being temporarily disoriented a long way from the truck with the sun setting. Also after that I always pack survival gear even when just doing a day hunt.
Nothing at night in woods except running out of flashlite power. When stationed at Fort Belvoir Va. my buddy and I got lost in DC ,we wandered a couple blocks in wrong area. We had a black cab driver come sceeching up opened door and said GET IN .
WE did without a question , He told us we were lucky to get this far,as the night before he called ambulance for soldier with entrails spilled laying on sidewalk.
He also refused our offer to pay,said saveing a couple honkies made his day.
Milt
w
Bearanoia - that's what I've been calling it since I was a kid. I spend a lot of time in the mountains and foothills of Alberta where both Grizzlies and Black bears are. Mostly, I have no problem with walking around in the dark or light, but occassionally I am struck with "bearanoia" and I usually listen to my feelings in regards to it. My most intense experience with it was when I didn't end up seeing a thing that spooked me, but it definitely affected me. I was hunting elk and walking down a trail when I started to get more and more nervous the further I went. It wasn't dark, so that wasn't a problem, and it had snowed a little a couple of days before and I was seeing no tracks of anything in front of me. But, the further I went the more "bearanoia" kicked in. After a bit, I couldn't make myself continue and had to turn around. By couldn't I mean I honestly couldn't take another step up that trail. I tried, but just couldn't get myself to continue even one more step - it was ridiculous but I had to turn around! I felt really stupid because 1/2 mile after turning around I felt almost completely at ease. I was kicking myself for days about that one, but the feeling was intense - I just couldn't go any further. A few days later my father, brother-in-law and I went up the same trail with horses. The trail was in the same condition and we could easily see my tracks in the snow. We had just passed the spot where I turned around when, less than 100 yards from the end of my tracks, a large set of Grizzly tracks came down to the trail. Now we are not experts in aging tracks, but they sure seemed to be the same age as mine were in the light snow. The Griz tracks went up that trail a few miles before he left. I have no way to prove it, but I feel that "bearanoia" in this case was God warning me that I shouldn't go any further. I rarely get bearanoia, in fact I haven't felt it in a number of years, but when I do, I listen.
About three steps off a fresh couger kill and had a grouse flyu up in my face, literally. I hit the grouse with my bow and knocked all the arrows out of my quiver. My son was chasing the grouse around on the ground and I was trying to get my heart working again and some breath back in my lungs. Finally the grouse got itself together and grew enough feathers to fly. Oh yes the great grouse attack is the scariest thing in the woods. Especially when cat is on your mind.
I doubt the man lives that has not had that feeling walking out in the dark that something is trailing you. Here in the west its more than a remote possibility. I've flashed my light and quickened my steps amny a time and grabed the handle of my knife for comfort. I think most of us have.
BB no trouble with anything on that list but spiders. Something in me is wired to fear and hate those things.
A few years ago about 30 minutes before full dark, I had a lone black bear cub waddle out of a cedar swamp and start eating acorns under the tree I was sitting in. For the first 20 minutes, I thought it was one of the coolest things I'd ever had the good fortune to witness. The last 10 minutes before dark, things started to get a little hairy.
Just as I started to wonder where mom might be, I glanced over my left shoulder and saw her float through a little opening about 40 yards away. I only saw her for a split second but I knew she was definitely a decent-sized sow. Maybe 250# - ish.
So now we have it getting dark fast and I'm in a tree between mom and her little guy. The cub showed no intentions of leaving anytime soon as he was sitting on his rear snarfing acorns with both front paws like a little vacuum cleaner. I could hear him chewing them as plain as day.
I've had quite a bit of experience with black bears over the years and although I wasn't particularly scared I definitely knew it would be best to make sure they were both long gone before I started climbing down. No suprises is my motto with bears.
I leaned forward in my stand and said "HEY" and waved my arms a little hoping to make the cub run off. He never flinched....just kept on scooping acorns.
Next, I abruptly stood up and said "HEY BEAR" a little louder and again, he just kept right on eating. In retrospect, I'm guessing that he couldn't hear me over his own chewing sounds.
Finally, right at dark, I took the arrow off my string and started beating it on the side of my stand and yelling "HEY BEAR" Unfortunatley, this scared him too much because instead of running off, he jumped up onto all fours, leaned his head back like a hound and let out a long, mournful, loud BAAAAWWWWWWLLLLL!!!!!
Before he was even finished wailing, I could hear her coming. Pissed off would be an understatement. She broke branches getting to him as big around and my forearm. She streaked right to his side (actually touching bellies) and started rocking back and forth snapping her jaws and huffing. She was looking for what spooked Jr and wasn't going anywhere until she knew exactly where it came from and could pick the correct escape route.
So now it's dark and I have an enraged sow and a bawling cub 10 feet from the bottom of the tree I'm sitting in and I have a good 500 yard walk to my truck, alone, without a light. YIPPEE.
After VERY slowly sitting back down to calm myself and come up with a plan C, the only thing I could think of was to try beating my arrow on the stand again so she knew where I was and could make up her mind to leave.
At the first tick of that arrow on the aluminum stand her head snapped in my direction and she hesitated for a split second. This is the point at which I thought things were going to get REAL ugly. Her tiny hesitation prior to running off was all it took to convince me that it was "game on" so I stood up in the tree and made myself look as big as possible and yelled at her in my most commanding voice...things I can't repeat on a family website.
I guess the combination of a 6'5", 250# swearing wildman finally convinced her that flight was better than fight because they both took off running then....right at my truck.
So now the mad bear is gone but she went the direction I need to go. It's past dark, my nerves are frazzled, and I still don't have a flashlight. That was one long walk out!!!!
So yes, original poster, I do get a little creeped out once in awhile....thanks for asking though :.)
I'll admit I would want absolutely no part of grizzly country after dark. One of the worst things is bumping herds of cattle in the dark and hearing all the smashing and dashing in every direction and not knowing if you're gonna get stampeded.
A time or two I have been scared shiftless. Only once with good cause. Never just had a case of gollywobbles cause of the dark. Even as a kid, 8-9-10 somewhere along there, I wandered the woods at night a lot.
We lived in the woods and I'd just go out my bedroom window and go pirootin around. Never gave it another thought.
Had to camp in the rough a time or two when my truck got misplaced but a fire and a candy bar pretty well took care of needies, no big deal.
But when folks start shootin at you and stuff, it becomes a little more serious.
I'm not spooked in the woods when it comes to running into bears and such. Flushing birds and sometimes little animals startle me but, I've had my fair share of unexplainable feelings as I mentioned in an earlier post I experienced with my dad when I was in my late teens. Nothing can describe that feeling. I was scared, I mean really scared. It was late afternoon around 5 or 6 (I think) so it was still really light out. We just both knew that we shouldn't be there and had to leave the area now! This wasn't the air stand up on your neck scary or imagination scary but a real feeling of something bad there. We have never been back to that particular ridge/drainage and it has now been closed off due to fire damage.
Great thread
Walking to my deer stand one hour before daylite. I always try to walk in without a lite.Just a few feet in front of me I can see something moving,I turned on my flashlite and found out I was on the wroung end of a skunk.I use the lite from then on.
Caribou hunt I was droped off two miles from camp,and then walked two more miles.I dont beleve I have ever been that far from another person in my life.Its broad daylite and the hair on the back of my neck stands up and you just know somethings watching you.Not sure what, but it sure was creepy.Cant wait to do it again.
Posted my worst moment on a similar thread last fall. I'll give the condensed version again. Thought I was being stalked on my walk in one morning, pitch dark and deathly quiet. Whatever it was that I thought was hunting me down kept getting closer and closer. I kept turning around trying to see what it was in vain, too dark to see anything. I was getting nervous as heck. Suddenly the world exploded around me when I stepped into a large covey of quail, they were bouncing off my chin, my chest, my back, I'm sure you can picture it. I was screaming my death song while fighting off the beast(s)that were assaulting me, dancing, and swinging my arms like a madman. I didn't find my bow until the sun came up, it was thrown quite a distance. I was way off the path I normally take into my tree, my senses had failed me because I was spooked.
Otherwise, heck no, I aint afraid of nothing in the woods.........................
I was walking to my stand without having my flashlight on one morning in the bottoms close to a river. I took a step and thought I just stepped on a snake. I jumped about three feet and turned on the flashlight. Sure enough, there was a snake---he wasn't happy. Same place a different time I had a snake climb the tree I was sitting in. Don't hunt there anymore. That has been about 30 years ago and I still think of stepping on a snake when I walk in or out.
Even though i like to hunt and explore in bear and cougar country, i'm far more afraid of meth cookin', weed growin' hillbillies. someone who has been up for a week straight cooking meth is far more dangerous than a critter...
"But when folks start shootin at you"
Thanks for reminding me bowriter. I had blocked those experiences out. The worst was while fishing so I won't go into it here.
My wife and I have one area we walk in the woods that spooks us day or night. If we have dogs with us they will act bothered and have their hackles up. The dogs are trained for tracking, and this is not a scent thing. It is like the whole place has a “bad feeling” about it. It is only one small portion of the walk, along one stretch, but it happens with friends, their dogs, you name it. It sure would be interesting to know what “it” is. Some years ago I had a special permit to hunt one of the watersheds in our area. While I was going into the area early in the morning I heard what sounded like a low growl coming from a thick brushy area. Not even thinking about it, I went over and took a look, including sticking my head into an opening and looking around. You had to check out with the rangers at night, and when I mentioned it to her, she said, “they released ten Cougar in here last month.” Now THAT scared me! Sometimes I ain’t the brightest bulb!~
Lions, Tigers and Bears. Oh My. Yes, I think about the deep dark scary woods sometimes, but then remember that I am scarier than anything else out there.
I have been walking still walking canyons hunting for elk, and have had the hair stand up on the back of my neck. Couldn't see anything, but knew something was there. Probably being followed by a mtn lion. It's happened to me a couple of times. If we have these instincts, I can only imagen what the deer & elk have.
2 years ago I had just had shoulder surgery, and was just barely to the point of being able to shoot my bow again. Early morning I was sitting a ground blind that I had built with branches in a hole made from some trees. I was waiting for that nice buck that was in the area. A black bear showed up instead. Fortunately it was season, and she didn't have cubs. I was good when she was on all fours at 16 yards broadside to me. I started to draw when she stood up on her hind legs, put her front legs and nose in the air. She caught my scent and was locating me. I was stuck in this hole with her in front of me, which was the only way out. Fortunately she turned long enough to give me a perfect side shot, now if the shoulder would just cooperate........yep, double lung shot. Was I scared? Didn't have much time to think about it, but the butt cheeks sure were sore from all of that puckering that was going on.
was scouting an area in the pecos wilderness one year, north of sante fe. i had spent the night and had a good morning, finding sign and seeing some elk.
i was rounding a corner with thick brush, the wind blowing hard in my face, heading towards a rock outcropping for a rest, a meal and to enjoy the nice view. as i was within about 10 yards of that rock outcropping, i noticed a brown creature through the brush - first thought was that it was an elk. it was a brown phase black bear that stood up and woofed at me. i reached for my side arm and started running away as it jumped down off the rocks. i had the pistol in my hand, sprinting away and trying to look back at the same time. no bear chased me and no shots fired. i stopped after a few hundred yards, caught my breath and had a good laugh. i'm sure he did the same.
generally, i am comfortable in the woods in the dark. like some of you, i am more concerned with pot growers or meth nuts.
cautious yes, prepared with a back-up plan, yes....scared no.
maybe it's my faith, maybe something else. but having been 1" from death 2 times in the last 8 years , has mad me quite aware of something...I'm not afraid to die. i don't want to die, but if it were to happen...I'm fine with it.
p.s. if someone up above is reading this....I'm not asking for an express ticket either....i still have things I'd like to accomplish before moving on if it's o.k. with you.
serb.
9:00pm recieved a phone call "I got my first elk can you help pack?" Knowing it was griz country I grabbed the 45/70 and out I went only to find the elk piled up in the thickest steapest patch of alders you find in B.C. 1:00am finaly have the elk dressed quartered and tied onto the packboards. 1:30am I hear "something" behind us about 80 yards, check with the flashlights and sure enough there's a set of eyes looking right at us! In the time it took to jack the 45/70lever and shoulder it the griz was about 8 yards away. Needless to say that lever action sounded more like a machine gun. On the bright side I'm still here to share this story and nobody except that griz got hurt.
Bigfoot.
You most certainly do too, have proof! You're EXACTLY right. And it probably saved your life.
It's called following your heart.
You and your Pa too, Sagebrush.
I used to get scared constantly and always think something was out to get me when I was walking in the woods at night. Then I read an old book that the best way to be in control over the things you fear is to make sure you assert your dominance over whatever it is that is threatening you.
So now, if I find myself getting stalked by a local hillbilly, sasquatch, upset landowner, angry bear...whatever..I'm gonna run them down and rape them.
I was afraid in VietNam. I've never been afraid in the woods. As long as I know they don't shoot back, I'm OK.
OT Man.......now you scare me!!!
I have a little bit of confusion with fear and anger. If something is following me in the dark and I know it, I just get pissed-off.
...cept I don't rape nobody over it.
raped ; raping 1 a: to seize and take away by force b:despoil
2: an act or instance of robbing or despoiling or carrying away a person by force.
Or: An unlawful sexual intercourse by force or threat other than by a man with a woman.
I cant see how nobodys NOT scared in the woods atleast 1 time a year. Theres nothing like sitting back at camp hearing all the stories of the big bear, wolf, panther, ect. they seen this morning. and the following morning you hear the bump in the dark and you imagination starts working over time. Mine does. Heres a story though: Around mid Oct. I walked to the stand real early because I had been spooking some deer. So I was sitting in my stand and was ofcourse hearing the leaves rustling and I just blamed it on the birds. And about 30min before I could kinda see my stand moved!!!! My heart sank, a few min later it jumped again. long story short when I could make it out I had a bobcat 4 steps down from the top. I tried to scare it and it made a ungodly sound so I shot it. So neadless to say it was a LONG rest of the hunting season.
B.w.
ExtremeArcher, that story about the boot tracks gives me the creeps! I think I might have stayed in that tree stand until dawn!
Leftybearfan talks about being scared by cows.
The property that we lease has cows on it as well. The first year they were off the property by hunting season, but not last year. After last season I have developed a healthy dislike for cows, as well as a healthy distrust for cows as well. I had them completely surround my pop-up blind one hunt. While 1 cow may not be that intimidating, being surrounded by about 12 of them no more than 5yds away from you can be quite intimidating. Same goes for walking in and out in the dark and having them following you or coming at you.
Every year we do an old growth, late rut alpine hunt. I mean when the snows have driven every last buck that was refusing to come down until the absolute last minute comes down to this place. We've seen bucks larger than we've ever seen before in here and often they are only 30-40 yards away already watching you when you notice them. It is a 3 hour vertical hike to get here, usually in 1-2' of snow and we call it the hunt from hell. When we reach the area the snow is rarely 6" deep in this awesome canopy of old growth and the trees are spaced oh so perfectly. It feels like monster buck territory, and it is. Only once in 6 years have I come across another hunter here. There was 3 of us and I was hunting with a buddy, we had a radio and the other guy had one and a couple hours into our hunt we came across a very fresh track that puts chills up my spine. It was pretty much a human footprint with 5 perfectly round toes, all closer in size than an actual human foot. They were smaller, maybe 8" long and 3.5" wide. We followed them for quite some time but they went down and we had a big rock bluff bench we wanted to hunt. About 45 minutes later our radio vibrated. Great, Steve put a buck down! We were stoked as we weren't seeing much. "Hey guys, there's the weirdest track up here..." We asked him what it looked like and he said it was almost human, distinct toes, and was about 13" long and very fresh. Me and my buddy looked at eachother right away. We asked which way it was going and it was going the way we came from, ours was going the direction we were headed. Anyways I do NOT believe in ssquatches, despite the numerous stories I have heard from normal people that experienced them first hand that I would never call a liar. All I know is that was not a bear track, not a human track and the fact that there was 2 on the same hillside seen by 3 sets of eyes makes me wonder what those eyes in my headlamp really are when I walk in/out of the bush in the dark..
The most convicning story I heard was from an old timer who used to log up the lake here, up in behind Lone Mountains, many years before there was a road within 10 km. He used to hike in solo 5km and was guaranteed a deer. Of course he was rifle hunting back then. Well one time he was headed up the same route he always took and ahead of him about 100 yards was a man standing on a grassy slope beside a creek. They stared at eachother for a minute and the guy yelled " Hello, are you lost?" As he had never seen a person back here before. Well he sid this "guy" looked like he was wearing a dirty stanfield and took two steps and disapeared into the bush. He noticed before he left there was a branch almost at head level. When he walked up to where he was, the branch was about 18" taller than him and the 2 steps he watched this thing take, covered about 2 feet of ground and a 4 foot wide creek. He had cleared them, effortlessly.
He tells stories of their saws being moved in heli slashes still to this day, where it is 100% unlikely a person would find saws. They leave them over night to save the hassle of packing them in each day.
This all happens in the same area where there is actually a guy who has spent his life looking and researching for these saquatches. Again, I am not convinced they are out there so dont call me nutty yet, but, there are some pretty convincing stories I would like to hear the other versions of...
This is the guy, Bindernagel's link...
http://www.island.net/~johnb/
here's a pic walking out one day.
Blacktailstalker, thank you for totally creeping me out. :( Maybe I'll ditch the bivy and start looking into cheap motels....
I'm good until the hair on the back of my neck stands up...Then I start to wunder!
When I was in the Ranger Battalion at Ft Lewis in Washinton state, we used to go to the field in the South Ranier Training Area a lot. It is about a 75 Sq mile area of the thickest, nastiest, temperate rainforested stuff you can imagine.
One night we were doing an ambush and I was put in on right side security with another guy, about 75 meters from the main patrol. We had a swamp behind us, and the moon was full, with scuttling clouds that would pass it and cause it to go just about pitch dark.
Anyhow, we were laying up, waiting for the ambushees, when all of a suddden, all the frogs stopped croaking and chirping. We started hearing footsteps coming through the woods, right towards us. It sounded like a human walking, only bigger.
As whatever it was got behind us, it hit the swamp, and you could hear the thing sloshing across it. Just then, a cloud passed over the moon, and it got sooo dark.
We got a call on my radio to pull back to the main body of the patrol. We crept as quiety as possible back to them, and they asked us if it was us, out there moving around.
We told my Platoon SGT that we were in position, but we heard something moving behind us. He had us set up a tight perimeter, take off our blank firing adapers, and load up with our "special magazines".
We stayed there 'till morning. Even with 30ish other guys there around me, I was seriously creeped out.
Then there was the time my squad got chases off a hill by a Bushmaster snake,, then the time we had Howler monkeys throwing s#!t at us, when we were in Panama. Big fun!!
I once had a turkey fly off it's roost, about 10 feet above my head, one time when I was an instructor down in NC. That scared the crap out of me.
When I have been out in the woods hunting, never had any concerns or worries.
Jay
I also watched The Blair Witch Project the night before going hunting. Creeped me out as well. Kept telling myself "It's only a movie" repeatedly on the way in.
I have been concerned in the woods a few times.
One my father, brother and me were on a fishing trip. There was this dam that we thought would be good for brook trout. Then we realized we left the hooks back in the truck about a mile back. My father fished and my brother and i went back to get the hooks and flys. Then all of a sudden I get a chill up my back, something was wrong but i didnt know what. So we sprinted back to the dam thinking maybe my father fell off. When we got there he was just fishing. So i mentioned the feeling to him and he said he also felt weired there, like something bad had happened. The fishing was no good so we started to walk out. About 100 yards from the dam some gunshots rang out from right where we were.
The second time was also in maine in the winter. I was walking up a logging road in a snowstorm that covered tracks in just a few minutes.After going around a bend i notice a track to the right and it appears to be a bear track, then I get closer. It was a cat track, about 4" in size. It lept across the road into some thick brush. Knowing it was probially in that brush waiting for me was pretty scary. This is real awkward as the track looked like a mountain lions but there isn't supposed to be any around here.
I have been concerned in the woods a few times.
One my father, brother and me were on a fishing trip. There was this dam that we thought would be good for brook trout. Then we realized we left the hooks back in the truck about a mile back. My father fished and my brother and i went back to get the hooks and flys. Then all of a sudden I get a chill up my back, something was wrong but i didnt know what. So we sprinted back to the dam thinking maybe my father fell off. When we got there he was just fishing. So i mentioned the feeling to him and he said he also felt weired there, like something bad had happened. The fishing was no good so we started to walk out. About 100 yards from the dam some gunshots rang out from right where we were.
The second time was also in maine in the winter. I was walking up a logging road in a snowstorm that covered tracks in just a few minutes.After going around a bend i notice a track to the right and it appears to be a bear track, then I get closer. It was a cat track, about 4" in size. It lept across the road into some thick brush. Knowing it was probially in that brush waiting for me was pretty scary. This is real awkward as the track looked like a mountain lions but there isn't supposed to be any around here.
I got that strange "chill" up my spine one time.
A buddy and I were spring bear hunting in Montana. We had been walking up this gated off logging road, which we'd been down in years past many times. There was an old abandoned cabin about 3 miles from the gate. The further along the road we got the more this "feeling", almost a nausea seemed to be creeping up on me. This was always a very busy bear road, generally with always at least a couple piles of scat, but we were about two miles in and we hadn't seen any sign whatsoever. It was weird, then I realized, heck, we weren't seeing anything. No deer, no birds, heck, there weren't even any bugs to speak of. The woods just seemed dead. I mentioned it to my buddy, and he said he was feeling weird/nauseous as well.
We covered maybe another half mile or so when we heard something weird, but truly could not identify it. We kept moving toward the sound and pretty soon it sounded like a screeching almost squealing sort of sound. Sounded like it was coming from the cabin up ahead, so we (being dumba$$ 21 year olds) headed for the cabin. It was getting more pronounced the closer we got, then the sound just stopped cold when we were probably a 100yards away, but it was definitely coming from inside.
We put a sneak on the cabin and came at it with guns at the ready, but we weren't ready at all for what we saw when we looked in the broke out window. There in the middle of the cabin floor, tacked down by it's legs was a still partially alive rat, partially skinned out and laying in the middle of a pentogram. The blood was still fresh and red and runny. The front door of the cabin was open and we walked around to it. There was water 2-3" deep all around the steps from an old spring, but no tracks leading across the dry floor to the rat, nor any tracks leaving the cabin in the dirt that we could discern. And no way to get in or out of that cabin without stepping in the water. There was no way in or out of that place without going down the road, and no one else was parked at the gate when we got there, and no one lived with probably 10 miles as the crow flies. There was no one in the cabin, but neither of us could shake the feeling something was watching us.
We got the heck out of there and were completely freaked out the whole walk out to the truck. As we walked out, the closer we got to the truck, it seemed the woods came alive again, and we jumped some deer, which dang near got shot as jumpy as we were. Birds were around. But an hour earlier that road had been as devoid of life as any place I've ever seen. That got the chills going pretty well. Thats probably the most just generally jumpy I've ever been to be honest.
The most scary creature we contend with is man. I have slept in the gila wilderness with wolves, bears and mountain lions. Its not near as scary as walking on central ave after dark. Grizzlies are probably the one thing I would be scared of. Our imaginations are big and can get the best of us. that is why alot of friendly fire kills in war are keep secret. Someone feed into fear and fell for the lie. However listen to your instincts and leave a area if something does not feel right and start hunting again. I personally pack at glock 40cal when bow hunting.
Blacktailstalker, not to try and upset you, just being honest.
"Anyways I do NOT believe in ssquatches, despite the numerous stories I have heard from normal people that experienced them first hand that I would never call a liar."
If you say you don't believe them then you ARE calling them a liar. You can't have it both ways.
Troy 2 flips; I understand your point, it's just that is the best way I can think of saying I am not convinced they exist without disrespecting them. Technically I am not calling them a liar as there could be a different explanation to the event that they are unaware of. I did not say they can not believe what they believe. I just hope they are wrong :) Good luck this season.
Bigfoot. yeti, loch ness. you guys are a bad episode of tales from the dark side. lol
take a deep breath and relax. there is NO real evidence of any of those myths being real. none.
for pete's sake a million people in the western woods , and the only people that ever see them all have the name bobby-joe, jim-bob, or betty-lou. lol
The strange people stories by far scare me the most. The unexplained boot tracks in the snow in the middle of the night is about as spooky as it gets.
have to agree. here in kansas I am scared to death of having a meth cooker come walking in on me, heck the county I hunt jujst a year or two ago had the highest meth production in the state:0
A few years back, my brother had shot a deer and got me to help him track it. By the time we got back to where he had shot it, it was already dark. After a little searching we were able to find it and we proceeded to grab an antler apiece and started dragging it out.
Now, the funny thing is, we're two of the biggest guys you'll meet. I'm 6'7" 340# and he's 6'8" goes about 360#. There ain't a whole lot down here in south Arkansas that we should be afraid of.
Anyway, we were dragging this deer out, and we kept hearing something "walking" behind us, just off the trail. I figured it must've been a fox or some such critter following the smell of the deer.
About this time, I lost my grip on the deer and dropped it. My brother took this as a sign that some ungodly carnivore of the type never before seen had "gotten" me. He took off like a dadgum flash of lighting running as hard as he could. ( for a big man he was pretty light on his feet) Of course, when I saw him take off, I thought, crap, something must have bout "got" him. So, here I go, trying to catch up. But I still hadn't seen the deadly creature that was after us. After about 15 steps or so, I yelled at him, "what was it?", when he turned around and my light hit him, the look on his face was priceless. Thats when he told me, he thought I was a gonner.
Gee, I guess I know who not to depend on if something ever "gets" me.
I have heard some strange noises in the woods, things I could not identify. Like the creaking car door noise. I figure it is a raven as they make lots of strange noises, but it could be anything. I did hear a noise once that woke me from a nap in the afternoon. I was elk hunting with a friend. After the bulls stopped bugling we climbed as high on the mountain as we could to get above their bedding grounds. After a quick sandwich it was nappy time. My friend is snoring lightly, but right down below us in a manzanita thicket I hear this grunting. I have never heard this kinda noise before. I am thinking bear, or lion, I wake my friend, he hears it too, and doesn't know what it is. The grunter makes one more grunt and then silence. I don't know what is worse the grunting or the silence. No more nappy time that day.
About 4 years later I rented a video on white tail hunting and there is this sequence where two white tail bucks are getting ready to fight and each of them is making the same grunting noise I heard on my elk hunt. I now compliment my friend on his excellent elk and coues whitetail deer calling.
Terry
Gee Coyote, I thought you were going to say naturalists, pigs, or something. LOL Bill in MI
While hunting with my brother in the East Kootenays area of British Columbia, we were pushing through alder thickets on a slide.
I pushed into a clearing, about 15 yards across, and there, in the middle of the clearing, was a good sized grizzly, standing on a dead elk carcass.
Grizzly popping its teeth, me pushing backwards, brother pushing forwards. Scared? Not me. Terrified? You bet!
When that bear popped its teeth, it sounded like .22 RF shots going off.
Luckily, the bear exited the other side of thicket, in the haste as I exited the other. Not many good things to say to brother at that time. :)
I guess most of us have had the "creeps" at times, while alone in the bush. This should serve to keep us alert, not to drive us away.
Hunt safe.
R.W.
When I was a kid I asked the game warden who taught the hunters education class if he ever got scared at night. He replied that there is nothing in the woods at night that isn't there in the day time so why should he be scared. I always tell myself that when that creepy feeling comes over me.
However if you want to see a grown man scream like a school girl try walking into a banana spider web knowing that big ole spider is some place on your person. God I hate those things......
Nothing absolutely nothing scares me anymore. Vietnam second day in the bush go into the middle of a fire fight had a fellow Marine die in my arms. Learned two very valuable things that night. (1) fear nothing! (2) do everything you want to do because you never know when you time is up! I temper that a little because I do what I want when I want unless it creates a problem for someone else. I do not like to cause anyone troubles so I will never hunt from your stand or stay in your area if I know you are there to me it's just good manners to leave. I also will not cause problems with the wife because I am being stupid about something, she is much to good a friend to act immature and be selfish about anything. Besides where can I find a rerplacement that would let me hunt 90 days a year during deer seasons?
Thunderflight, If my face were that hand in that picture, I would defintely be screaming like a school girl! What part of the country are those nasty things from?
Just this past season my buddy and I were hunting WT in northern MO. He had permission to hunt a new property and he wanted me to follow him half way to his stand so I would get a feel for the land and know where to come back to pick him up. It was a perfectly still, beatifully cool morning (well before light) and just as I turned to walk back after saying good luck, I'll see you around noon, I looked up to check out one of the most star filled skys I had ever seen. I began to notice that there were 3 stars that were considerably brighter than the rest and they formed a perfect triangle. They then started to move and went in exact opposite directions of each other (making the triangle bigger, if you will) and then disappeared. For about 1 second I thought, wow, that was cool. Then, for about the next minute I freaked out thinking - is this what the people on TV saw just before they were abducted? So then I walked back to my truck, drove over to the other property and had a great day in the woods. Weird.
I was brought up as a kid hunting every week.We did a lot of coonhunting with hounds back then so I was never really afraid of the woods.True that most of your predators hunt at night but an armed human is the deadliest critter in the woods and most animals understand this.There have been times both at night and during the day when those feelings I've seen others here mention come over me.They just make me a little more carefull untill it passes.What these feelings are I don't know.Maybe a predator lurking or just the spirit world I hope I never have to find out. Rock Walk softly,keep the wind in your face and watch your backtrail
I was shot in the eye by another bowhunter in 1983. He mistook me for a deer at dark. I am not scared of the dark, but I do not like walking back to camp or my vehicle anywhere near dusk on heavily hunted lands. It is a standing joke with me, but I do not leave the woods until it is pitch black and I carry a huge flashlight. I recently started wearing a headlamp too. That light is on as soon as my feet touch the ground.
So yes, I do get scared, but I am scared of the 2 legged fools in the woods. Nothing else in the woods has ever scared me, yet.
Dan
Hell No, it is the Urban areas that scare me ( people) and those using and selling Drugs.
Even driving on road is scarier than a Wilderness area.
Fl has gotten sodecadent that I am building outside of Tellrudie on Gurley Reservoir with 8 Mtns Ranges as views. Only thing they shoot there is ELK , Deer and Lions, not people like in FLorida.
Couple of times me and some buddies in our early 20's were freaked out when we were tracking a deer thru the woods after dark. We had coyotes close to us paralelling every move we made. Four of us jumped up an ironwood tree and hung out for several minutes before the coyotes ran off. Just got back from Chichagof Island Alaska. Hiking with friends and family thru the woods, smelled a God awful smell and didn't think anything about it. Later that evening, my friend who lives there asked me if I smelled the odor. I said yea and he said the smell was a brown bear, probably within just a few yards of our group. Wasn't freaked out at the time, but afterwards, I was a little on edge during our future hikes.
yep i been scared more than once,one time in upstate ny in a huge state park walking out of the woods after hunting turkey i get to the road and see my vehicle start walking toward it and hear a loud huff behind me,so i turn around and there is a full grown rottweiler growling and showing his teeth.I lift my 12 guage loaded with 3 1/2 inch mags and yell get it doesnt leave so i cock the gun and back toward my car thank god the thing i beleive knew its head was about to be blown off and it ran into the woods.Another time walking a farm fieldline to my tree stand i see in the distance something short and tan colered couldnt be a deer i thought so i glass it ohhh shit its a mountain lion.I didnt go to my stand that evening.coyotes dont generaly scare me but another time deer hunting in ilinois i got turned around in the dark on my way ouy of the woods and all i hear is yipping and it seemed the woods where full of these damn things rustling around me yep i got out thanks to my buddy and his surefire flash light pointed up but i tell yah i was a lil freaked out there.
Scared of the city, damn scared of the city.
When I was on my stones sheep hunt, the guide and I were riding back to the lodge on horse back. We had two horses, one with our gear and the other carrying a caribou. At a river crossing, we were charged by two grizzly bears that wanted what we had. The whold ordeal lasted several minutes and in the end we were down off of our horses and the guide (who didn't carry a weapon) kept telling me to shoot both bears as they charged. The whole thing is a long story, but I was a heart beat away from shooting the lead bear as they got to about 30 yards when they stood up and finally figured out what we were and they ran off. The reason I didn't shoot was because I only had two shells in the 300 win mag. and I felt our chances were better with me not shooting or waiting for point blank. I knew I could only do damage to one bear, not both, and I didn't figure I could kill either of them. It worked out for us, and was one of the coolest things that has ever happened to me. The funny thing is, I was never scared. The bears were doing what bears some times do, it was part of the risk of the adventure to kill a stone sheep and a caribou. At one point I knew that one or both of us was going to be hurt or killed. Luck was on our side that day. My point is, don't be scared, be prepared and use your head. God only knows what would have happened if I'd have wasted both bullets and wounded one of them. The rest of my shells were in my pants pocket, but they might as well have been in Kansas at the time. It is amazing how fast a big bear can cover ground.
I hunt next to a local park on the edge of towm. A few years back,a teenager invloved in making meth in the park, was murdered in the park. He was found dead about 150 yards from my stand, but a big blood spot the size of a dinner plate was about 30 yds from my stand. If I had been hunting at the time it happened.... I have thought about that a few times.
Has every one seen the movie Predator? You know the clicking sound he makes in the movie when hes standing there looking around. There is a bug or bird or something here in Iowa that sounds just like that. As a kid that sound always gave me the hebe gebes.
The only time I have ever been scared in the woods is when I waked under a bunch of roosting turkeys about an hour before light, a covy of quail that actually flew into me and a beaver slaping the water about 50 feet from me as I sneaked down the edge of a stream, all this before light. The scare only lasted a couple of seconds but I'm not afraid to be in the woods after dark.
Real close to my house, a few years ago, some coon hunters parked in a woods road and started into the woods with their head lamps. They walked right into a guy that had hanged himself from a tree limb over the woods road. My buddy stood there as his hunting partners screamed all the way out of the woods and never went coon hunting again. My buddy couldn't understand what they were scared of, the guy was dead, he wasn't going to hurt anyone.
This is an old thread but since its that down time of the year, maybe a good one to revive for ya all. Surely there are new stories to share of feeling watched and needing to leave.
Besides the positively identified critters (like bear & cats), some of the posters here have described what are likely sasquatch encounters but don't know it. When you feel you are being watched, stalked, or that feeling of dread that you need to get out of there, good to listen to your gut. Those who research bigfoot know for absolute certainty that when you feel your not welcome in an area, its time to leave. (Like what Fred Eichler described) Sometimes the feeling can reach nauseating levels as is also described above.
Oh and it sounds like BlacktailStalker had a good encounter by finding tracks. I'm wondering if anyone else here has seen the glowing red eyes before? (They can be yellow too) A well respected local bowhunter I know has seen these red yes. I never have and can't understand how any species could produce it. We're not talking about light reflection either but eyes that generate their own luminosity. That would scare the hell out of me and I've seen sasquatch.
OK so, this should get things going. lol
Yours Truly,
Dave
Yep, I'm always afraid someone is going to take a shot at me in the dark simply because they heard something or seen the brush move a little. Other than that I have no fears of the woods.
"Gee, I guess I know who not to depend on if something ever "gets" me."
QBeam,
You know what they say, you don't have to be able to out run the bear, you just have to out run the guy you're with!
As general rule I don't get scared in the woods cause here in Mo. where I hunt there ain't no Griz and very few Black bear,Coyotes don't worry me and most people are flailing around and never even see or hear me(I can be a quiet s.o.b. in the woods).
However there was 1 time when I was easing in to a ground blind I had made on public ground along the Mississippi river.It wasn't light yet and I was creeping along being VERY quiet I wasn't using a flashlight as I had been in to this stand on numerous occasions.There was this big Sycamore tree it had to be 6 or 8 feet around and I knew that I must make a left at that tree,so I started to make my left and go around the tree and I came face to face(literally)with a deer it exploded one way and I looked a little like Spongebob running around in circles.Scared the bejezus outta me I had to sit down and collect myself,let my heart rate slow down,then I had to find my release evidently I threw it in all the excitement it was quite the expierience.The moral of the story I noe use a flashlight with a red lens cover so at least I can see the shine of their eyes.
not a hunting story but fishing for walleye on lake Erie. we where camped on sout bass island and were out about 12 miles fishing a reef. the day was as pretty and sunny as one can imagine but in the matter of minutes a fog rolled in and we litteraly where in white and could not see much past 3 feet in front of the boat. we had been drifting and turning this way and that way so by just guessing we couldnt tell you which way to get back to shore. like mentioned about the gps was not picking up anything due to thickness of fog so we just thought we would wait it out and it would roll on thru. after another 1.5 hrs it was still hanging thick. now its getting to be about 2 hrs before dark and we started to get that panic feeling, well another half hour goes by and it starts to lift just enough that gps now picks up and we have our cordinates and start heading back to the island. we go about 2 miles and we drive out of it just like it was never there and we were back into sunny skies again. the thought of being on that big body of water and not being able to see the sky, only the water around your boat was an uneasy feeling to say the least.
Got pretty nervous once when a big 'ole 30 pound He-coon thought I was his new love interest. Don't care for that coon urine cover scent after that.
I love the early morning before sunrise. Dont really have to worry to much about anything.
Afraid? Yea, of the orange Army !!!!
When my cousin and I started hunting in the 80's, we would be heading to our stands together before light and I would try and freak him out telling him spooky stories about 3 witches that live in the woods that float around through the trees. Then there was an old dried up rock well and I told him that it was a hole to hell. It used to creep me out as much as it scared him. 25 years later we still joke about it. He sends me a text message last opening day morning asking me if i've seen any witches yet..!
I've never been afraid of the woods really, but one farm I hunt I would sometimes get the feeling I was being watched or followed when walking the old driveway out from my stand. Never had any weird experiences or anything, but it just felt weird. This past year when an old dilapidated barn was burned down by my inlaws, they both (serious people) swore that as the barn burned there was the form of an old man standing in a window looking back and forth between them and the burning barn. One of my stands happened to have been within 100 yards of this old barn and I passed it every time to and from my vehicle.
Other than that, I only get afraid of the woods when I know bigfoot is living in the area.....
Northwoods
The only time I was scared in the woods was on a deer reduction hunt, (gun). I was on my stand before daylight and when it got light enough to see I could see hunters in orange all over the place. I got my stuff together and picked the most visable path I could find back to my truck.
The only time was, sort of "afraid" while I was trying to call in a mt lion and bear with a predator call in two different areas and times.
If my head could have swiveled 360degrees, it would have as every sound or dark shape became a threat. I called in both, the lion got away free but the bear was shot at 25 yards with a pass through arrow.
Other than that, I feel very comfortable in the woods and look forward to many more solo bivy hunts and close encounters with big game.
Osprey--
I trust your Bigfoot finding expeditions were fruitful this year? Good to see you back. What news do you bring with you?
Cheers!
Got chased by a skunk one morning. Ran the forty in 2.9 with a bow in hand. I also went to the state track meet the next year in the sprint relay, 200m, and mile relay. Done pretty well too. But the passion to be outdoors will always win every race for me I hope.If it doesn't then so be it. The boogy man will just have to eat a mile of %@* before he gets me.
Somebody needs to put these posts in an article or something. Ya'll are killing me!!!
No,Never, Ever AHGGGGGGGGG!!!! sorry just had a centipede crawl across my desk.
I grew up in Bronx NY thats the real jungle not such a bowhunter friendly place. for that matter a very tough part of the country ,ive been shot at may 1985 , a good friend was shot and killed dec 1995, The woods were and are a lot safer to me. I recall walking alone towards camp on those dark cuts in alberta while bear wolfs in the background ,,,The bronx was to place to be scared not the woods ,,,, louis
I have had the encounter that Osprey talks about. I have felt that bit of nausea. I have seen glowing red lights. Everytime that this happens (since I am a devoted exercise thread guy) I take off my shirt and shine my flashlight on my pecs. the bigfoot always runs (we have little ones down here). I probably would not do that In Idaho where they are bigger...uh....bigfoots.
heartshot is that your manbobs that scare him or the fact that (you have little ones down there ) Missouri is the show me state ,, just pulling your chain ..louis
I have never been afraid of any critters in the woods but two different times I have had a gun pointed at me while in the woods by pissed off land owners, both threatened to shoot me, one shot three times in the air while making threats. Dragnet
dragnet i myself while on a diy elk hunt in NM was talking to a landowner at first he was very intresting fellow , older about 70plus ,, smart man ..very well spoken... After about 10 min of talk he asked me what i was doing here me being from ny and all .. I explained i was bowhuntinng elk , i purchased the next ranch over from him landowners tags .. WOW did he change he did a linda blair on me used every word in the book ffffff u ffffthe landowner ffff fish and game .... wow he went nuts the he said he was going to SHOOT ME ... if he was to see me again ,This was on a county road....Also the fact that there was a rifle in his truck made me a little upset .. If this man was younger i would have pulled him from his truck and beat him with his own gun .. I tried to calm the situation before it got out of control... He sped away ... cursing me ... At this point i was nervous , alone and hunting the open sage flats i was an easy target from a long distance.. I drove till i got cell service then called fish and game just to give them a heads up in case something went down ...Turns out they know this guy hes a retired Lawyer that has given them problems in the past ,, state police were then notified and payed him a visit ,,,I could have pressed charges , but i just wanted the police to have a clue if i was to be found with a bullet in my skull, or a arrow in him .. growing up in the bronx i dont take it to light when you say you are going to shoot me, I think thats what saved me i didnt back down when he threatened me ..i came towards him figuring it would be harder to shoot me with a rifle if i was close. MY street insticts saved my butt.. sorry for the long story its the people that are the ones we need to watch out for.... louis
About 20 years ago I had walked down of a steep clear-cut hillside off a landing into the edge of heavy timber. Something caused me to look up the hill towards the opposite side of the clear-cut. Here is a guy on his belly pointing his rifle at me looking through his scope. He was well under 200 yds away. I dive behind a big old growth Doug Fir. I'm then able to peek thru the ferns and he still had his rifle trained in my direction. What scared me most was that he was wearing such powerful bifocals that they enlarged his eyes many times their normal size. I stayed under cover but yelled at him a few times and waved a red bandanna. I didn't see him again but the thought of him not even being able to identify whether I was man or deer definitely shook me.
Besides coming face to face with a sasquatch 5 yrs ago while deer hunting, probably the most serious scary human-related incident happened about the same year while I was on my elk rifle hunt. I was moving through some extremely thick brush with lots of downed trees within. I'm making my way into the canyon bottom where a small stream runs. Well not 50' from the bottom, all of a sudden my heart falls to my stomach. Some guy was in the bottom and he fired his rifle right at me, or I should say at what he heard coming his direction through the brush. Of course I yelled, and when I came out of there, you could tell all the blood had left his face. I'm sure this guy was ready to give up hunting forever because he knew he could have killed me easily. He didn't see me through the brush, nor could he as it was so thick. Obviously it was the most Stupid Irresponsible thing a hunter could ever do. A brush shot when he had no idea what he was shooting at. I am definitely lucky to be alive after that one!
HornDonkey, no I don't go on expeditions, never have and probably never will. Gee, just maybe the stereotypes some think exist of those who have encountered sasquatch are wrong?
Dave
City hunter
Some times things can get out of hand in a hurry, it's hard to keep your cool when you have a gun pointed at you. Many times the land owner has good reason to be very protective of their property when they see a stranger. I laugh about it now but it was not funny at the time. Dragnet
of animals no, but one tme I woke up and found human foot prints where someone came through my camp during the night. I was in the mountians of NC and 2 miles from anything. That did freak me out a bit. Didn't want to be someones wife.
I enter the woods in the dark but carry a light. I am usually fine until i set up my climber. because i'm looking down and not around every sound tends to creep me out. but I'm usually fine. I think because I know that the sun is coming up soon. I tend to freak out if I'm "late" because i like to be up in the tree well before daylight.
coming down in the dark is another story. I wait till sundown before I start to get down. so by the time i'm packed up and on the ground it's dark. I know the woods come alive at night. most critters wait till that time to go on the prowl. knowing that and as many have stated, having a running imagination, tends to get me riled up. once you get it it's almost impossible to calm down. if that happens instead of freaking out and bolting for my truck I just start to make some noise. crack some branches, slap some brush w/ a stick, anything. it tends to distract my imagination and calm me down a bit. a friend once told me to yell as loud as you can. it'll calm you down and send the game running in all directions. probably not the best idea if you want to keep stealthy but if you need to become calm fast it works.
Jake
My wife and I were on a turkey hunt in Nebraska a few years ago. We walked out to the truck at 10 am on a Sunday morning to find a few local guys sitting on my truck drinking listerine. They tried to get us to give them our shotguns so they could "crack off a few rounds". My 870 stayed loaded until we got out of there. I have had a few other tense moments sleeping in the truck at rest areas. I'd rather deal with critters with four legs.
Louis,
I agree with you. I am much more worried where I live (Bed-Stuy) than I'll ever be in the woods.
Unless you remind me that Mtn Lions are around. I hate those things.
Oh yeah, and lightning when I am at 10,000 ft
And clowns
;-)
GG
There's far more to be afraid of in "civilization" than afield.
I am fine in the woods at night, its this scary goon I am afraid of!
not really.... sometimes if I am way out and the weather turns bad, I might pucker a bit.. as the late Sylvan Hart said, "if theres one thing I'm scared of, it's a cold wind, it'll kill ya...you'll just die like a damn fool!"
what's there to be afraid of with all those bigfeet out there to protect us.
Osprey--I wasn't referring to any general stereotype, but rather you're talk from last year. Hope I didn't seem too obtuse. I had mentioned that you should use trail cams, and you had talked about going out looking for bigfoot several times but that trail cams have some sort of Infrared that sasquatch can see.
Now that I think of it, wasn't it a trail cam that Fred Eichler caught his images on?
Short on time...talk with you later.
Warm Regards,
Oh... just recalling some of our not too jovial discussions in the past there HornDonkey, I'm sure you understand.
But since you raise what Eichler caught, think about it logically. What he caught was in daylight. Daylight would mask most any visible light spectrum (as opposed to after dark), so that could increase the odds for that particular camera not being seen by that particular Sas. However the odds decrease of sasquatch moving around in the daylight too, so what he caught was still against all odds, so to speak.
A few tail cameras also operate at 940 nanometers, which are believed to be above the range sasquatch are able to see it. How is this known? Because there are people who have other video and images, but evidence that the owners don't want released to the public for a variety of reasons. Still, much is being learned from those exercises.
Furthermore, there are other types of passive motion detection and Eichler's camera was set up for video too. I don't recall the details of what he had beyond that however. Plus some cameras emit ultrasonic frequency beyond our range of hearing, but from some pics you've all seen of various animals, some animals can hear it.
As I've mentioned in the past, I've got my own camera that doesn't use any form of IR but it must be handled very carefully, not to mention I must pack in and bury a full sized car battery to operate it for a few short days. I don't know if mine emits any sound. But until warmer weather returns and the snows melt, those efforts will remain several months away anyhow.
Only twice in 41 years of big game hunting did I ever have the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Both times were within 10 years from this date.
I was hunting alone and was walking in the dark back to my vehicle when I heard something walking to my right and close. I couln't see it since it was so dark but whenever I would stop, it would stop and start again when I started walking. Don't know what it was but it had my attension.
Second time was about 5 years ago when I thought that I put an arrow in a big bear that was 18 yards away. It was starting to get dark so I thought that I would go back to camp and get the other guys to help me find him and pack it out. Thinking that I had a wounded bear in the area was very creapy. A couple nights before I scared the guys when they were walking back to camp in the dark. Now, I thought it was my turn and when I got close to camp I called out to them not to jump out at me because I had a pistol in my hand. They weren't back to camp yet and we all decided that we didn't want to look for the bear that night. Next morning we found my arrow broken in half but not blood on it. After we watched the video that I had of the shot, we determined that the arrow went between his front leg and his chest.
I've had a few interesting experiences over the years. One I can remember in particular was on a Dall Sheep hunt in Alaska back in 1978. My guide and I were about halfway back to the base camp from our spike camp, with my ram and all the meat on our backpacks. We had to spend the night in a lean-to, as we didn't have a tent with us. There were a good number of grizzlies around the area, but we figured we'd have no problems as my .270 was leaning up against one tree at the opening of the lean-to, and my guide's .375 was leaning against the other tree. Only problem was, my guide had a problem with nightmares and sleepwalking....
During the middle of the night (I was sleeping toward the back of the lean-to and he was at the opening) he sits up in his sleeping bag, screaming...THERE'S A BEAR COMING IN THE TENT!!!!!!!!!!!!! You'd have been amazed at how fast I could exit that sleeping bag and crawl out under the back of the lean-to.
Long story short, there was no bear, and he was sound asleep as fast as it started. I couldn't sleep the rest of the night, but he couldn't remember a thing about it the next morning.
City hunter, definately the man boobs that scared him ;). Can someone post a picture of "what Fred Eichler caught".
Once again - Fred Eichler didn't "catch" anything on film. Talk to him or to his guides. It was all a big joke with one of the guys in a gorilla suit. Anyone who ever watches his show, or who has met the man, knows he's a prankster with a great sense of humor. Notice in the actual Eichler show video he says "I'm not going to say what is it, you make your own decisions..." Never says he saw a bigfoot. He just gives enough of a tease to let people with wild imaginations run crazy. And you will notice Fred NEVER gave any follow up interviews on the story, or cooperated with any bigfoot research groups. Case closed.
Well hi there Bowsniper, I was wondering when you would chime in. But you know what, its also natural for those who have come forward with an encounter of something 'unbelievable' of 'any' nature, to reverse direction due to all of the attention they receive. (Not that he has done this however!) They become overwhelmed by all the adverse attention and definitely Eichler got his share. But for someone who didn't previously believe in such a thing as sasquatch, is it really any surprise that he doesn't exactly say that's what it is? Also recall the 'freaky feeling of being watched' he described? That's not something that everyone knows occurs and fewer would admit to such a sixth sense either. So I guess he's pranking that he senses being watched too BS? Wouldn't seem to be the kind of thing that would build confidence of his clients? So are you saying his video was a lie against all his loyal patrons? Cause that would be stupid business choice and to have let them continue thinking that for all this time. He sure doesn't appear to be the kind of person, from what I've read about him, to pull something like that either. Only one or two people in past threads ever made such an inference about him, and most other bowhunters here didn't go along with that conclusion either. Besides, why would someone go to those lengths to be associated with sasquatch when there are individuals (like yourself) who call everything a fake? I sure don't see any press releases from him either saying it was all a publicity stunt. Do you?
I think YOU want it to be a prank BS because you've obviously solidified your position on the matter in past threads and thus left yourself no room to move. And after he read everything you wrote in past threads here as well, why would he dare share anything more with you during that hunt you booked? It would be political suicide to admit to you what he really thought it was. I've known literally hundreds of guides over the years and no self respecting reputable outfitter would want to get into such a potentially adversarial disagreement with a paying client. Especially one who clearly leaves absolutely no room for the existence of sasquatch in his hundreds of posts to the contrary. Call it peer pressure or just smart, but you've definitely made your mark as someone who can't accept there is such a thing as sasquatch (even though you are open to the possibility of Yeti on other continents), which makes you inconsistent too.
If you're ever out this way Adam, give me a ring and I'll take you up into the woods where you might have an encounter of your own. You'd have to be willing to spend the night up there. I could leave you there alone or stay in the woods with you if you'd feel safer. Honest offer BS. The best people to convince are those who refuse to believe.
Here ya go Heartshotathome
http://www.hunttv.com/video/latest/27
Osprey/Multiple - Stop projecting your own mental problems on others. YOU are the one who has so pushed this phony bigfoot stuff for so long, that you leave yourself no room to move. You have never admitted even the possibility that you could be wrong. Instead you try and play both sides of every inevitable hoax to ensure 'you knew it was fake all along' and yet still holding that door open for the real proof you expect to one day magically appear, for teh "I told you so" that will never happen. And how long have you been waiting now Osprey? How many YEARS of your life wasted since your first sighting and still nothing to show for it? How many fruitless trips lugging a stupid car battery to the woods because you invented some goofy idea about the frequencies an imaginary beast can hear from trail cameras?? How many hours starting at a dirty whistle?
And now you are imagining all these convoluted Fred Eichler story lines, based on a non-reality you have created. EVERYTHING you said above about the Eichler story is pure conjecture on your part, and utter nonsense. Think back to Occam's Razor with the simplest explanation being the most likely.
Fred is a known prankster and has included practical jokes in many of his TV show episodes. Fred never uses the word bigfoot or sasquatch. And the video clip really doesn't show anything worth getting excited about. Even in the bigfoot world many have noted how very human the size and shape of the object in the video appears. Its about the least bigfooty of all the bigfoot images being debated. And I would point out again that Fred never communicated with you in any way (even though you wrote him a sappy letter) so you really know nothing at all other than what was shown on TV. How can you pretend to ignore the obvious clue that Fred never provided ANY additional information to any of the bigfoot groups, nor has he ever offered any follow-up information or tried to help researchers [sic] with any further study of the 'event' in any way?? In every rational view these facts scream PRANK. And I even told you one of the guides told me first hand that it was just a guy in a gorilla suit. But STILL you are so deep in bigfoot world that you imagine its all a clever plot to hide the 'truth' from the world. Sheeeesh!!
Presume just for a moment that WE are the ones that are right, and you are actually nuts. What would the signs be? How many posts would the nutty guy make about bigfoot on a bowhunting site?
Forget the Eichler video. Forget the rubber suit in the ice chest where you had "sources back east that told you it was legit". Do you have anything new from bigfoot world to report?? If so, please start a thread in the community area so we can discuss.
The 'We' here is a handful of outspoken denialists like yourself BS. You can't even acknowledge that there are other bowhunters here who have seen the evidence and had encounters. You DEFINITELY have a 'patented' style of your own too and many of your peers can see how much this just gets your goat. I really wonder why?
And once again, it was only just over 2 (that's TWO) years ago that I began researching these creatures. Animals that I have seen previously and chose to avoid pursuing partly because I was afraid of them, but also because of individuals like yourself in this world who try to stigmatize everything to do with the subject. So your 'basis' for saying I'm wasting years of my life is a farce. Why don't you just take me up on my offer there BS? Too scared to face the truth? I already know they exist because I have seen them. That's all the proof I need. I SURE hope you get to see one one of these days.
Scroll up to Blacktailstalker's post as well BS, yet another bowhunter who can talk about it with maturity, present company excepted. There are thousands of stories just like his from all walks of life, all professions, all ages. It's you Adam who is sitting on the edge of reality in your denial. In fact, maybe you simply have an agenda that you MUST discount their existence, being that IS what the government has BEEN doing for decades. We all know the government keeps stuff from us.
As another member here once clarified in a prior thread, looks like BS can't help but argue on the matter. I guess the possibility of something else on this planet shatters his image of life and that just eats him up beyond control. :^)
Dave
Scared in the woods? Never.
At the trail head? I get nervous sometimes.
It's a rare instance where someone will go way back in the wilderness with intent to do harm to anyone. The pickings aren't that easy, the people are far and few between, and it's a lot of work to just get there.
The trail heads have road access so any dirtbag with a beater car and maybe a gun can roll up looking for something to steal or someone to harrass.
As far as lions, and tigers, and bears, Oh my! I don't sweat it. I've seen one cat, lots of bears, and one wolf and in every case once they knew what I was they were in high gear and running the other way.
The reality is that with the exception of griz there isn't anything to worry about in the lower 48 once you get away from the road.
the only thing about the woods that scares me is when i have to come out ,, then its back to the rat race ...louis
the only thing about the woods that scares me is when i have to come out ,, then its back to the rat race ...louis
Osprey,are the stories of Saquatch are what cryptozoology is all about.You got an answer for everything not to your thinking,I like that about you!But here in the real world this critter does not exist,unlike the bars you must visit.
Buy a round and all there agree with the payer of the tab,must be where you get your support!
I still like the way you ramble on and on,hope you make the next interview.
Back to the gist of this thread,no cause all the big bad critters are in the minds of those waiting for the next round to be ordered.
Osprey,are the stories of Saquatch are what cryptozoology is all about.You got an answer for everything not to your thinking,I like that about you!But here in the real world this critter does not exist,unlike the bars you must visit.
Buy a round and all there agree with the payer of the tab,must be where you get your support!
I still like the way you ramble on and on,hope you make the next interview.
Back to the gist of this thread,no cause all the big bad critters are in the minds of those waiting for the next round to be ordered.
Osprey,are the stories of Saquatch are what cryptozoology is all about.You got an answer for everything not to your thinking,I like that about you!But here in the real world this critter does not exist,unlike the bars you must visit.
Buy a round and all there agree with the payer of the tab,must be where you get your support!
I still like the way you ramble on and on,hope you make the next interview.
Back to the gist of this thread,no cause all the big bad critters are in the minds of those waiting for the next round to be ordered.
Sorry about that triple whammey,must be all that non alcohol beer taken effect,got to go downtown to a tavern and rattle off some bigfoot stories in exchage for more free booze,hope Osprey is there!
Wrong again Crapshooter, the only time I drink is a microbrew or two every few weeks and a fine wine with the woman in my life. So you're just gonna have to find another angle for your carp. Oh, I meant Carpshooter. Sorry, just can't seem to get crap and carp right. (Cringe)
Is it really that difficult for some people to be cordial without taking a shot? I'd rather not have to repeatedly defend myself when certain people speak. No Carpshooter, I do not stare at a bottle every day.
I'm more scared of going home late.
Been through to much crap in my life to be "afraid" in the woods - day or night.
Osprey - my "style" is simply to go line by line and point out the obvious nonsense in your statements. And the "we" I speak of are all of us here who do not believe YOU. That has nothing to do with bowhunters who have heard or seen things they can't yet explain. Or spooky ghost stories around the fire. Or hearsay, or old wives tales, or old Indian legends. Its simply a statement about your own personal [singular] credibility. The more you speak, the less believable you become... and for all your bravado, I doubt you have even a fraction of the anonymous support that you claim.
I would not take you up on your offer to run off to the woods together for two reasons (1) you appear to be nutty as a fruitcake, and you have made a few too many references to bigfoot rape fantasies and (2) there is no real scientific proof that bigfoot is real, and thus any search for an imaginary creature is a colossal waste of time. You have nothing to show us in two years of searching, so why would anyone think a weekend with you in the woods would be anything other than annoying?? If I went two years of hunting without bringing back a body (or even a good photo) I'd give up the sport.
PS - I scrolled up like you asked and Blacktailstalker actually said he did not believe in bigfoot at all. Stories are just stories until there is proof. And in all of American history no one has ever found a body, a bone, or even a piece of bigfoot ever accepted by mainstream science as real.
You guys should be afraid....VERY AFRAID!!!!
BS IS THE MAN. Always true to form! Always something rude and never a bit of hospitable response as the chip on his shoulder just won't budge. And once again, it is YOU who again seems to be the one who raises the raping issue. What that's all about? Maybe you've got a secret BIGfoot fetish there BS and arguing about it just gets you going? lol
I dig the way you only pick out that Blacktailstalker didn't believe in bigfoot at the time of his writing, but you can't deal with or mention the footprints he found. That's a major crux of the mystery there Bowsniper. Footprints are evidence!
Go out and do some looking with someone who knows what they are doing. I've said it B4. Obviously not alone since you don't know the first thing about how to solicit a response. However, maybe you just don't have the guts to confront that they in fact exist, or that they are much more savvy in the woods then you are.
In the spirit of the thread, here's another time I was, well not actually scared, but concerned for my safety.
It was several years ago on a solo elk hunt, yes one of them rifle hunts. It was the last day of the hunt and the weather had been warm and dry which made stalking near impossible. So being it was a solo hunt, and the few nearby hunt camps had given up and went home, I could only sit for long hours in hopes of getting lucky.
Well, it was a clear morning again with temps approaching 70'. I had just finished a few hours on stand since before dawn and was moving through a reprod area with large stumps remaining. I sat down on a stump for a break. I soon hear a herd moving right at me so slowly try to move to the ground as the lead cow is coming within 40' away and walking directly towards me. I could only get lower as she and the other's eyes go behind small branches. But I eventually was able to completely slump myself to the ground with only my head, shoulders, & rifle on stump in their general direction. But my rifle is not completely aimed yet even in the smooth movement to the ground. They are moving slowly and browsing along the way, the lead cow moves the small herd at a slight angle from me of only 20' away. But one cow & calf break away and come right at me. This cow & calf stop and are practically standing on top of me. I could touch both their noses and front legs with my right hand if I wanted. They are both breathing on me as I could 'feel' their breaths. I'm in full camo and somehow they are not alarmed by my scent. There is no way my scent could be escaping these two under such close quarters, but they are calm, probably because the lead cow is calm not 20' away by now with me in the middle.
So with what I know is by nature a protective cow not two feet from my head, I am trying to be invisible while the herd passes through single file. Then I see a young bull coming up in the line. Still I've got to be patient because there are half a dozen cows between he and I. Hopefully the cow next to me remains calm too and doesn't decide I'm a threat to her calf. All it would take is a single kick to my head to probably kill me. So now with this bull coming into view, I've got to raise my rifle just a few more inches with her next to me, breathing on me. I was able to do it. I had a face mask on under my boonie, so was able to peek up at the two a few times as well. Talk about a rush, but I knew I couldn't hold things calm forever and had to take the shot first chance I got. Bang! Dropped the bull. Cow and calf took off the other direction.
Man that was a great experience with these two elk there next to me. I'll bet no elk in history has EVER been so close to the butt end of a rifle shot either.
Geeze Serb, I'm still trying to get my heart back in my chest. That's one of the scariest things I've ever seen. Good thing it wasn't in the woods or I'd never go back.
Serbie as arnold once said in predator you are one ugly @&#$%@ @*%@@# . the face only a mother and serb himself could love .. how the hell are u ...
I am most afraid of people who disrespect public lands- those who drive behind the "no motor vehicle" sign, those who litter the woods with cans (pepsi or budweiser- doesnt matter in my book), those who shoot at anything. I was hunting in january, alone, and was at my truck for lunch when I heard a few rifle shots from up the road (archery only hunt) and a few minutes later a truck came towards me. I was parked at a dead end. They turned around and started talking with me I figured nothing of it but saw they had been drinking and then they proceeded to tell me about a few deer they had seen by the road not a few minutes before. I didn't mention the rifle shots and they proceeded to drive away. As they were leaving, I noticed them both look back at me, smirking, not something I see most people do. That look made me reconsider the rifle shots and their motivation to be out there. Not twenty minutes later some cougar hunters came by on a side by side with dogs and continued up a fork of the road that was open. They pulled by my truck and I noticed the tread on their tires was the same as some tracks I had seen up both of the forks that were closed! I realized that neither of the people I had run into had any respect for the land, much less me, and that I wasn't gonna stick around by myself to find out what the look from the guys in the first truck was all about. I assumed the worst in these people, but I don't take chances. People have told me stories, gloating about the fact that they killed a group of javelina, or they run down antelope in a truck and it makes me furious, ashamed and afraid all at once. I have the same spooks as everyone else- mtn lions, bears, but they aren't out doing anything evil, just surviving. People seem to have an evil streak that really gets to me.
One time walking out of the woods, my cousin and I busted a hog at around 3 yards..It let out a hellish roar and sounded like a train going through the brush..
Needless to say, it took a minute or twelve for our heart rates to come back down in the double digits.
Speedbow= That's no camera strap in the picture, it looks like a damn ghost to me if I've ever seen one. A figure of a women.
In addition to bow hunting for whitetails, I coonhunting ALOT usually 3-5 nites per week year round except for during bow season. I hunt alone probably 90% of the time. People always ask aren't you afraid to be out there by yourself at night? My reply is anything I run into is more afraid of me than I am of it, so if I give it enough room chances are things will work out ok and the only critters I really need to worry about are the two legged variety.
Peoples imaginations often trick them into believing something happened that really didn't.
When I was a young hunter I swore I saw a black panther while hunting in IL. I was very sure of it. I figured it probably escaped as some hillbilly pet somewhere. Looking back now I most likelly saw a scrawny black lab in low light. Very silly but I was adament about it for many years. Yet at least my story was plausible.
My point is that I don't think anyone can ever believe in Nessy or Sasquatch until an actual body/carcass show up. If these things are wandering around out there there is no way someone wouldn't have shot one or hit one with a car by now. If we can find a wooly mammoth frozen in the arctic I think we can find a sasquatch in Oregon. It just doens't make any sense. The same goes for aliens. I'm sure you saw something strange Osprey but you just aren't going to convince anyone on here you saw a sasquatch. If they had been spotted deep in the heart of the Amazon rainforest where few men have roamed I might entertain the idea but that is not the case.
I'm afraid of sharks, falling, cancer, and left wingers.
Speaking of old Osprey... wonder what he's been up to?? Been a whole year now since the original crazy bigfoot saga. Wonder what he has discovered in yet another year wasted chasing shadows at his secret research facility.
YOu bet I do! Thats why I hate hunting on the ground in the morning in an all natural blind. Hearing all of the critters scurrying through the brush freaks me out and I can't sit still. And to top it off I had a bobcat luck upon me early one morning and we both freaked out!
No reason to be afraid here in Tennessee....come on down!
Spring bear hunt 3 years ago....Walking into a bear bait with 2 5 gallon buckets full of bait, can't see 5 ft ahead of me due to the brush and have 2 cubs climb the spruce tree right beside me as I approached the bait...... Didn't think my "reverse" gear went that fast :)
If my senses were as keen while hunting as they seem to be when I'm in my sleeping bag...I'd be a heck of a lot better hunter.
so yeah, I get freaked out sometimes.
Classic thread revival.. I went down a rabbit hole of old elk threads with my coffee this morning. And felt like this one might need to be revisited the seasons right around the corner ;)
If you have ever walked into a covey of quail in the dark and not been scaird, you are already dead.
I've been startled many times but can't remember being scared of being in the woods. I'm almost always by myself when I hunt so I have pretty much gotten used to everything. I really enjoy the solitude.
Lightening storms really increase my level of concern.
A great thread to revive. Not sure I would call it scared but there is a certain pucker factor involved when one has to climb down from the stand into the bait pit after several bears just left.
Whatever happened to Serbian Shark and City Hunter?
Only afraid of th two legged creatures!
I was watched by a 150 lb mountain lion at 60 yards back in 2014. The whole ten minutes of him deciding if I was slow enough to was more exciting than fearful. I have been alarmed by roosting birds in a cedar tree next to my face as I walked by on a dark foggy morning next to a silent abandoned farm house.
I have discovered over the years that many hunters from the Midwest have a lack of understanding of predators. I've encountered guys on public land warning me of cougars, and talked to other folks scared of bobcats and coyotes. I think spending only a weekend or two a year hunting, people don't realize in most rural areas a coyote or bobcat will do everything in its power to simply disappear or put distance between you and him. The folks that heard a growling noise in Kansas, it was probably an armadillo. I've had them growl at me after a shot or startled them.
Only when a crazed cow moose was chasing me all over. When I had the cougar showdown at 10 feet in the deadfall I was not "afraid", but concerned, and my intensity dial was up to 11. Same with some intense lightning storms when I was caught out in the open.
Scared I'll wake up from the beautiful woods dream and there I'll be, sitting at my work desk.
Afraid I'll have to end the trip to the woods and go home.
Only when bit by a Timber Rattler 2 miles from car with no cell signal and no spot or In Reach! ;-)
I'm only scared of 11 year old zombie threads :) I've stepped on my fair share of pheasants in the CRP at 0 dark thirty. They don't scare me per se but they will wake you up!
My first true backwoods experience was spending the first night in a hammock after hiking 1.5m up to a mountain pass in the Colorado darkness. My buddy and I set up camp at 10,600 ft in the dark about 100 yards from rock face with a field small boulders. Every 5 minutes it seemed a few we tumbling and could not sleep a wink that first night. We didn't carry or have bear spray.
Since then I've hunted with a sidearm. The strangest thing though is I have uncanny confidence with a bear and wolf tag in my pocket. (Hunting MT these days)
Fun thread to say the least..
Yes, because I have to go home and back to work.
Never been freaked out. Have been concerned a few more times, usually in bad weather or low light conditions when are behind schedule reaching an objective like camp or the trailhead. I have only hunted in grizzly country twice but will be there two times this fall and I am more focused about food and not taking a short nap while glassing. I do not have issues with the spirits or goblins of the woods. Just worry about weather, injury, big predators and meth heads.
Only time was when I hunted in NJ where the bears are thick. Once had a moose walk by in the pitch dark close to me which was cool other then that I’m good. Now if I lived in mountain lion country that might be different.
Brotsky I almost revived the one on solo hunt fears. Where MC had his story of snapping his leg in deadfall.
That one's savage. If it's the guy I'm thinking I think he died a few years ago walking his dog. Life's a fragile thing.
Last year my buddy and I were walking up to find a tree to sleep under. And I about stepped on a skunk. All I saw was a tail pop up. We hoofed it away quick. That's spooky.
I would not hunt where I needed to worry about meth cookers and crazy locals. That's not relaxation. Go deeper.
I can't say I've ever been scared in the woods. I've spent my whole life in the woods in my free time. I've never owned a pair of snake boots so stepping in the middle of a covey of quail in rattlesnake country will set my teeth on edge for a second. So will a big hog huffing at me in the dark when all I have on me is an expensive stick and a pocket knife. Lately though, I'm toting an equalizer since they are more and bigger every year. I don't know how much good it would do, but it makes me and my better half feel safer. Back when I was losing weight and on two diabetes meds, I started having low blood sugars. Very little warning, so if I was on the back forty, that gave me pause a time or two. Once, by the time I got to where I could eat a small candy bar, I was feeling pretty goofy. My blood suger was 38. For those of you who don't know, that's just a few minutes from collapse if you can't reverse it. I guess the most dangerous thing that's ever actually happened was an old woman shooting at us for swimming in her pond. I heard the bullet smack the pond dam and it didn't take me long to tear through those dewberry vines and get the hell out of there. I looked like I had run through a barbed wire fence but it heals quickly when you're 14.
Reading this thread I noticed that not many are afraid, but a lot get "concerned" Haha. Good thread.
Last year coming down the hill covered in elk blood at 2am when a grouse flushed under my foot. I about shat myself.
A couple weeks ago hanging cameras I went and got a drink from the creek. Apparently a doe had the same idea and with the wind and me crouched down she had no idea I was there. She let out a bark and exploded as I stood up from about 10 feet behind me. I swore I was a goner.
I don’t mind the dark if I’m awake and moving. Falling asleep is a different story. Something about being asleep and not knowing what’s going on gives me the creeps. Put someone with me, even a small child and I’m good to go. I guess I’m just a pu$$y.
Only times I have been scared in the woods at dark was when I knew there was people around I couldn't see and, in a lightning storm. My friends and family make fun of me every year because I leave camp WAY early just to set in the quiet and peace of the dark for a good bit every morning. Also, when I'm hunting alone out of a camp with no cell service, I set for a LONG time after dark just to let the dark relax me. The longer I wait the harder tine I have making myself get up and get going. I just need it. Call me weird. God Bless men
Every time I hunt public land and walk in or out in the dark. There are some grade A dumb asses in the woods here in WI.
Over the years setting up camps in far up northern Quebec i had only one close encounter with a bear. came into the cabin i had just cleaned from his previous breakins. Always had a Ruger .44 carbine w/me. Buried him the next morning. On a bear hunt in QC one spring had a small sow come right after me as i lay on the rim of a gravel pit watching a bait. She is sticking out of the wall of my man cave. Never did like being the first guy out on a bear hunt as you were the last to be picked up!
Ive only been concerned a couple times. 1st was decending down a steep slope that had be thinking i could easily fall. I turned around and went back up. 2nd was hiking back to the trailhead with a friend during my first elk hunt. Was following my gps to a trail that ended up being much farther than anticipated. Its after dark and we are bombing down through alot of deadfall in thick timber. We land on a trail but cant figure out which direction to go. That was the point i thought we'd be spending the night in the woods. We sat down and after looking at his gps, discovered my "north" wasnt calibrated correctly. Got that fixed and we eventually made it back a little after 10pm.
Ive had a couple moose encounters, but they werent a big deal. I sat still for one and gave the others a wide berth walking out in the dark.
Honest answer? No. I get afraid when I have to leave the woods and go home!
I have been camped in a tent in the mountains for 6 months. Weeks without seeing another person. I lived in a tent in the boundary waters for 6 weeks with Bears all around. I've camped alone many other times in the wilderness. I became stranded in a blizzard, alone at 9000 feet & walked 15 miles in that storm to a loggers camp for shelter. I was never afraid though I thought I would not make it out alive. I have been "kinda" lost a couple times but was never afraid. Bowhunting I can say I have never been afraid. If I have ever been afraid, it was as a Corpsman with my marine company, squad on night patrol & not for myself but the bravest men ever that protected me. Being startled is a long way from being afraid...
Heck yes. At least twice I've been fairly far from my rig and had that ominous feeling come over me. Not that I was being watched, but that I had no TP after having yogurt for breakfast (I may jlbe lactose intolerant, if not generally intolerant).
Now THAT is scary!!!! YIKES!!!!
Reading all the rest of this thread, I remembered walking to a stand in the dark, (that I had never been to), just going off the outfitter's directions.
"Walk down this waterway until you get to the woods, and there's a creek at the edge, turn right, go about fifty yards and you can cross the creek. The stand is about fifty yards from the crossing. " Well, I walked down the waterway, made the turn, found the crossing, and started down the bank. The creek was more a dry branch, very little water in it, but about ten feet deep. Just as I'm feeling my way off the bank, about twenty turkeys exploded from overhead. I slid down to the bottom thinking the devil must be after me. It took a couple seconds to realize what had happened. Yeah, that scared me !
I’m with keepemsharp! Quail will stop your heart and blow a stalk all at the same time!
(I may jlbe lactose intolerant, if not generally intolerant). - Certainly intolerable. :)
Have been startled many times by exploding gamebirds. Almost blew my ear off with a stubby Ithaca Deerslayer when a pheasant blew out from under my feet once. But scared of the woods at night? Not really, I am only worried that I might not get out that night if lost or too far in with ass deep snow to drain my energy. That happened once.
When this thread started in 2007 I was indeed afraid of all things dark but thru hard work and encouragement of many on this site over the last 11 years I’ve beat it.
Now my biggest fear is driving to my hunts from the East coast and of course lightening, falling trees and fear of mechanical failure:)
Bad lightning storms definitely pucker me in the High Country. Other than that, can't say I've been "scared", but then again, I've never hunted in Grizzly Country...
Scared and concerned are definitely different, I am always concerned about bears and snakes but I won't be scared until they bite me or start dragging me out of the tent.
So far lightening is the only thing that has had me really scared. I was in a lightening storm that felt like I was under attack! I watched it blow a big Ponderosa apart less then a hundred yards away, it absolutely exploded the tree and sent pieces everywhere, there was an 8 ft piece that stuck in the ground like a spear! that strike was so loud I couldn't hear for a couple minutes. There was numerous trees that had big splits in them and were smoking, I was on a big flat ridge and all the trees were the same height so there was no where to hide and lightening was striking everywhere, I hope I am never in that predicament again.
I was on a Pig bowhunt once & the property had various stand locations permanently set. Just b/4 getting to my stand you had to walk down a creek bank (maybe 5 ft deep) across a 2 foot wide stream & up the other side. There was another hunter that came the same way to his stand but another half mile. We hunted till dark & then walked out of course. I was, of course gone b/4 the other hunter would come thru my stand area after dark. One night, I hug one of those burlap, Halloween shrunken heads, motion activated on a tree just as you start down the bank (I told no one in camp). It's eyes would open & glow when activated & made a "very" creepy sound. Other hunters & myself were gathered around a campfire when he arrived & he "never" said a word BUT, I know he had chit himself. I left a couple min early next morning & snatched the little bugger from the tree & yes, it activated so I know it worked. He went to a different stand the rest of the hunt. When the hunt was over & trucks were loaded for various parts of the country I told "everyone" but the concerned party what I had done & showed them the night monster, They all cracked up & said I was evil or words to that effect. I never told the fella but often wonder how fast he made the other bank & 1/4 mile to camp. Cruel? maybe. Bad, yep.. Oh, trust me, I have been the "subject" of a few pranks & ya know, it's one more thing that makes a bowhunting camp a little more enjoyable along worth the hunt. I smiled as I wrote this remembering that time.. Maybe I am evil.
I feel safer in the woods than I do in most cities. One morning years ago when I was heading into the woods in the dark I heard a fisher cat or distressed fox noise coming from the direction I was heading. It sounded like a baby crying and really creeped me out. I didn't turn back, but it took me a long while before I slowly decided to keep going.
NO..................... I live in the woods 4.2 miles in from a forest service road,,,,
There was one time when I was afraid in the woods. I was hunting and left my phone in my truck (like I always do), and I knew that when I returned I would have a message from my accountant. SCARY STUFF!!!
I was scared once many years ago! I had just watched the movie Signs(Bruce Willis, Aliens) there was a seen where the Aliens were in a cornfield. The next morning an hour before light I was walking into a deer stand. I started along the edge of a cornfield and my mind was thinking about the movie. Well the corn started to rustle and it was dead still and I started frantically digging for my flashlight. The rustling got closer my hair was standing on end. Turns out a mamma coon and several half grown young ones about ran me over!! I about shat myself!! I also got scared on 2015 in Kansas when I was caught out in a huge CRP field with tornadoes touching down all around me. 75 mph winds and a mile from the truck. I got beat up pretty good by whipping grass and rain pelting me! Shawn
Stumble into some freakin grouse in the dark. That’ll wake you up. The first time I saw a night hawks eyes on a road at night was a another spooky encounter. Their eyes glow emerald green when shine your light in them.
Had a couple deer in the field I was hunting, had to make a trail through the woods around to prevent from spooking them off. Hit a side road while popping out of the brush and there was a small bull moose on the other side of the road, maybe 5 feet away. I think I startled him as much as he did me. We both stood there and checked each other out and went our separate ways.
I stepped right over a rattler in WY hunting antelope a couple years back. He was covered in some rocks and never made a sound until I was past him, then started rattling. Didn't really scare me, but I was a bit nervous for the rest of the trip after that one!
Another: When I was about 14, I was fishing some bank sets on a little creek a couple miles from the house. I walked everywhere, and mostly nobody knew exactly where I was. It was a different time. Anyway, I had been on my knees next to the creek for five minutes getting my bank line set just as I wanted it. Got it done, stood up to admire my work, and saw a 3' cottonmouth coiled up just inches from where my hands had been. His mouth was wide open and I'll always believe I missed being bitten by mere seconds. I had daddy's old 12 ga. with me and I blew him into chunks. Then.....I had to sit down because my knees quit working. That's probably the most scary feeling I ever had in the woods. The story of almost being electrocuted wasn't in the woods, so I'll skip it ! :-)
not till I saw this movie I never go in the woods wo a back up gun
I was pretty scared of life in general all through the Obama Administration.
Creeped out and startled yes. Startled - knocking several turkeys out of their roost in the dark. Why in the world those things will fly off the roost in the dark when something walks under them - some times - is beyond me. Sounds like someone just dropped bowling balls on you with the branches breaking etc! That's definitely startling.
Creeped out and started by a racoon fight the morning after watching some terrible movie about a zombie virus infecting all the residents of a building...
I get a little nervous sometimes when I know there are bear's around. I carry spray now, 50% for bears, 50% for a tripping meth/heroine junkie I could encounter...
Will, come to think of it, I had several strange encounters with both animals and 'humans' while living in the Gifford Pinchot, and they could have turned real scary. Two meth guys in particular, luckily I had a couple equalizers in plain sight and they just moved on... I also had raccoons fighting in the crawl space under my house one night. they were actually bumping the floorboards and you could feel it. I had a female guest staying with me that night. She was from out of state, just happened to be passing through, and from a city. Needed a place to crash. After a couple hours of raccoon ruckus under the house, she got freaked out, was awake the rest of the night, and I never heard from her again, ever. LOL! She must have thought I was living in the true wilderness boonies (which I was...). :) Ben, I was pretty nervous up until around midnight on the night of the election in '16 until I got wind that PA voted for Trump, then I felt a huge sigh of relief. The fear turned to laughter when I saw all the Dems. sobbing and moaning, wailing, and gnashing teeth... LOLOL!!!
Yes. I’m a very lucky survivor of a flying squirrel attack once. Pissed my pants! Oh yes in the dark!
When in the woods where I live there are almost no large dangerous 4 legged treats, two legged yes and the two legged types are IMHO the far greater far more likely threat anytime anywhere we hunt. As I live and hunt in a state that allows while hunting those with the proper permit to carry a side arm I have zero fear. All the states I hunt in as a non-res either have reciprocity or I'm hunting on federal land where again as a permit holder can carry, I again have no fear. IMHO a hunter's single biggest threat to our safety is falling out of a tree stand, fallowed at a distant third by human predators, and I'm guessing that the percentage of hunters attacked by bears or Mt. lions is far exceeded by injuries as a result of falling from stands. Nowhere on earth do I feel more at home or at peace than in the woods, especially out west when hunting deer, elk or antelope. When I'm in the city it's a different mind set all together.
As a teenager I had an owl try to remove my stocking cap that I had pulled up on top of my head to cool off. I will never forget feeling the rush of air off its wings as it went in reverse as I moved " crapped my pants". Almost fell out of the tree.
I am afraid every time I go into the woods bear hunting.
Afraid I won’t see one at close range.
Only when I walk through a spider web in the dark. I'm afraid the damn spider is still on me. Man, I hate spiders.
A pack of growling and yapping coyotes at you at close range walking out at night armed only with a small pen light and bow ain't no fun...
If you aren't "very cautious"(scared)your not living up to the old addage,walking the white line...I'm not afraid,just VERY cautious.Hightened senses help with being aware of ones surroundings.
The last time I was actually SCARED was when I came off of the river because a storm was settling in overhead, and when I stuck my key in the car door I could feel enough electricity in my other hand (the one with the fly rod in it) that I thought I’d stuck myself with the fly or maybe somehow cut myself on the leader. And that was just from the flyline and the leader - not sure what it would have felt like had I grabbed hold of the graphite instead of the cork, but I sure as hell didn’t stick around to find out what was gonna happen next.
I’ve been creeped out just a little, though... once or twice. I’ll have to come back to that.
Oh yes ! Every time I think about the likes of the those on the political left like Obamas and Clintons and all the other liberal nut jobs that don't want me to hunt anymore.
Humans, dogs, snakes and cows. I am not fond of encountering any of those, in roughly that order. Bears, yotes, lions, wolves, I kinda like having around. Ghosts are meh, depends if they chill or give off those angsty shady vibes.
OK....
Not scared, exactly, but...
One afternoon on the way down an old logging road, I heard a coyote pipe up, sounding as if it was only 10-15 yards away. I’ve always wanted a nice coyote pelt, and I figured what better way to take it than with my recurve?
So I started picking my way into the brush, stopping at every step to scan for anything that might be a coyote. I was a couple of steps farther along when a second dog joined in; one more step and there was a third. Then a fourth. Then a fifth. Or so it sounded. After that, I couldn’t tell how many there were, but they were so close and so loud that I could feel the reverberations in my chest.
This was not the yipping that you hear at night, but deep, resonant, and booming - more like hound dogs. More than once I’ve wondered if it wasn’t a pack of hounds with a bear or cat up a tree, but I’ve never heard of hound hunting in September. I have a CD somewhere with several tracks that are just wolves howling, and these sounds were much lower-pitched at the low end, but the only logical assumption was that these were ‘yotes.
I had an arrow nocked and I was practiced at shooting fast; and I know that coyotes are quick to bail at the sight of humans - especially out west.
But the air had that same crackling, electric quality that you’d associate with an imminent lightning strike, and honestly, I just lost my nerve. I wouldn’t say I was scared, but it was such an eerie sensation to be so close to what was clearly a large number of pretty sizable canines that I decided that I didn’t need to go to war outnumbered.
Maybe I’ve read too many stories about packs of feral dogs, or maybe it’s because I once disassembled a coyote carcass that weighed #45, skinned out, and I know what’s under all that fluff.
But it just seemed like a bad idea to piss them off, under the circumstances....
When we were about 9 or 10 years old my best friend and I got chased by a pack of coyotes at dusk. We were luckily near one of the barns on their ranch and we were able to get there and into a tack room and close the door. They came right up to the door behind us, scary as heck for a couple kids. His mom didn't believe us, but the next week she was out for a jog in the same area during the day and a pack surrounded her and followed her down the road back to the house.
I almost stepped on a mountain lion at last light a few years ago. It was sound asleep and never heard me coming. It did hear me immediately nock and arrow and come to full draw at maybe 10 yards. The stand-off only lasted a few seconds before the lion pounced into the brush...without a sound. That was exciting.
