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Ever get scared while in the woods alone in the dark?

Only time I have been truly scared in the woods was in college. My girlfriend's at the time parents had a small hunting cabin. We were there one night "hanging out" by the fire when we heard what sounded kind of like a person scream in the field behind us. I grabbed the really dim flashlight we had and shined it in the field and could see two green eyes. I asked her if she wanted to see a bobcat up close. I started slowly walking towards the eyes with her following me trying to convince me to turn around and go back. I got to within 20 yards or so and I started getting a little nervous because I expected the bobcat to run and the eyes seemed like they were too high off the ground. A few more steps and I made out the figure of a large cat with a long tail. I told my girlfriend to slowly back up into the cabin. I didn't tell her until we were inside that it was a mountain lion and it had let is walk up to within 20 yards of it. We stayed in the cabin for the rest of the night.
 
Are yall just trying to creep me out with deer season a few weeks away?
This is why I always try to pack everything in on my back, so i can carry my pistol in hand on the walk in and use a stick to knock down the spider webs.
 
Do a backcountry hunt. Once you get over how lonely it can be, you realize how close most of us live to civilization and how we take for granted how close "help" really is. It gives you a different perspective. I'm always tense in the dark when coming or going cause I'm thinking about how much I may be screwing up my area.

On another note, rutty bucks wil come to you quick at low light. I can't tell you how many times I've rattled or called just before last light, climbed down 30 minutes later and the second my feet hit the leaves I can hear him coming. The call got him interested, the footfalls verified the location and he's on a string. I've had it happen in the morning as well. Quiet field edge turns to forest floor and anything staging comes right away to the sound. Usually it's a nice one trying to be the first to grab that "doe" when she enters the woods.
 
kbetts said:
Do a backcountry hunt. Once you get over how lonely it can be, you realize how close most of us live to civilization and how we take for granted how close "help" really is. It gives you a different perspective. I'm always tense in the dark when coming or going cause I'm thinking about how much I may be screwing up my area.

On another note, rutty bucks wil come to you quick at low light. I can't tell you how many times I've rattled or called just before last light, climbed down 30 minutes later and the second my feet hit the leaves I can hear him coming. The call got him interested, the footfalls verified the location and he's on a string. I've had it happen in the morning as well. Quiet field edge turns to forest floor and anything staging comes right away to the sound. Usually it's a nice one trying to be the first to grab that "doe" when she enters the woods.
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Don't think I'd do a back country hunt by myself... would be awesome to go with someone else though...
 
I did a backcountry elk hunt solo in 2013. I don't think I will do it solo again. I will probably still go out west solo some but I will be camping closer to the road. For most of the country we are the biggest nastiest predator out there. The more time you spend in the woods at night the more comfortable you will become.
 
Well......that happens all the time in Canada. It's just part of the hunt.


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I'm comfortable in the woods in the dark. Most concerned about 2 legged predators, but a turkey bumped off the roost will give me a shot of adrenaline every time!!


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I had a flying squirrel land on my leg one time after dark. I was waiting in the dark for a deer I could hear walking through the leaves to leave the area before climbing down out of my stand. I don't know who jumped higher, the squirrel or me. Fortunately for me, I heard several of the squirrels chirping in the dark prior to getting landed on so I knew immediately, or I should say, by the time my feet were back on the platform, what it was.
 
I had one my first time rifle hunting in Nebraska. My buddies have hunted this public land several years and labeled the trail in, "Cougar Valley". There are high bluffs on both sides of the trail some close to 100'.

The year prior my friends spoke with a member from the Nebraska dnr who said it had the highest population of mountain lions around. It wasn't the best place to hunt too late without a light and a dead gps but there I was, my first time ever in this country and I'm lost in the dark.

The sky was clear and so I knew my general direction and eventually found cougar valley. It was so dark in there that I could not see my own feet on the ground. While stumbling down the trail I hear some movement on top of the bluff to my right probably only 15-20' high. I grab my gun and then a bunch of rocks break loose and I screamed, like a man as I recall.

With the hair on the back of my neck like a wire bruch, I walked backwards out of that section of the valley. In my 31 years that was the most frightening experience I have been in.
 
I remember being a kid and hunting behind a cemetery. It was a great spot to hunt but to do so required driving through the middle halfway then walking halfway to the wood line. I would be psyching myself the entire drive there until I made that turn and my headlights hit the first tombstone...I promised myself I would overcome this fear so on the walking portion I would never run but I did quickstep head down just to not "see" anything. Amazing how getting older changes things..now I go anywhere and would rather not even use a flashlight! Lol!


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I been walking out into the woods in the dark since I was 12 years old to check traps before school.................then back out to reset after school until after dark..........im a predator guy hunting mostly public land so 90% of my hunting thus far has been at night............less hunters is what I like most..............DONT B SKEERED JUST B SAFE because ROAD HUNTERS CAN B AS DANGEROUS AS ANY GAME ANIMAL AS THEY CARRY GUNS & FIRE THEM WHEN THEY SHOULDNT.......Good Luck!!!!!!!!!!!:sunglasses:
 
Slender Man isn't a thing, but don't think about him when walking through tall grass at 4 am..

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Walking in the dark doesn't bother me too much but I did have one time I swear my heart stopped in fear. A screech owl ripped lose about 10' in front of me on a dark snowy morning I swear when that sound broke the silence my heart stopped LOL. Besides that I've never had a bad experience. I am more worried about other people than I am critters.


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Laugh all you want......just entered the timber before daylight. Put doe in heat scent on a drag rag and started to my stand along the edge of a swamp. On the way in I could hear a deer rubbing his antlers against a tree, actually I could see the top of the tree shaking every time he would rub it. Knowing that the tree seemed fairly large, all I was thinking. ...... BIG BUCK.......
I turned my head lamp in that direction trying to get a look at him but the timber was just to thick.
I decide to just hang out there until he leaves or daylight, which ever happened first. Not wanting to spook him, I turned the light off just incase he was still around at first light so maybe I could let that CVA smoke pole cough and put him down.
Next thing I know!!!!!!! This deer is coming at me in a freaking hurry!!!
All I could think of was " DOE IN HEAT"
I SLING THE SMOKE POLE OFF THE SHOULDER, POINTED AND MOVED BACKWARDS AND TO THE SIDE AS FAST AS I COULD.... Scarred to freaking death, and I can not see this buck that was either going to attack or do a remake of the movie, "DELIVERANCE"..
This buck passes me at 5 yrds, I guess headed straight toward the swamp!!!
At the edge of the water, this buck stops.....you know how in the mornings when the sky kinda gets that blueish look but it's still dark in the woods but you can see the blueish reflection in water?
This reflection revealed the charging buck to be a .......BEAVER!!, A FREAKING BEAVER! !!!
I could not help but laugh my ashes out of my smoked up clothes.

That was the worse case of buck fever I've ever experienced.
 
Autumnrider said:
Laugh all you want......just entered the timber before daylight. Put doe in heat scent on a drag rag and started to my stand along the edge of a swamp. On the way in I could hear a deer rubbing his antlers against a tree, actually I could see the top of the tree shaking every time he would rub it. Knowing that the tree seemed fairly large, all I was thinking. ...... BIG BUCK.......
I turned my head lamp in that direction trying to get a look at him but the timber was just to thick.
I decide to just hang out there until he leaves or daylight, which ever happened first. Not wanting to spook him, I turned the light off just incase he was still around at first light so maybe I could let that CVA smoke pole cough and put him down.
Next thing I know!!!!!!! This deer is coming at me in a freaking hurry!!!
All I could think of was " DOE IN HEAT"
I SLING THE SMOKE POLE OFF THE SHOULDER, POINTED AND MOVED BACKWARDS AND TO THE SIDE AS FAST AS I COULD.... Scarred to freaking death, and I can not see this buck that was either going to attack or do a remake of the movie, "DELIVERANCE"..
This buck passes me at 5 yrds, I guess headed straight toward the swamp!!!
At the edge of the water, this buck stops.....you know how in the mornings when the sky kinda gets that blueish look but it's still dark in the woods but you can see the blueish reflection in water?
This reflection revealed the charging buck to be a .......BEAVER!!, A FREAKING BEAVER! !!!
I could not help but laugh my ashes out of my smoked up clothes.

That was the worse case of buck fever I've ever experienced.
Click to expand...
Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!
 
wesfromky said:
I worry more about the remote parking areas after dark then anything in the woods, day or night...Gun for two legged things, and bear spray for four legged.
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I work as a conservation law enforcement officer for the state. This is what is most dangerous by far. In the past 3 months I've been a part of 2 manhunts for murderers (allegedly) in and near public lands and another 1 nearby I wasn't a part of which started in a city but the man was found in the mountains. I have also searched for people who went into public hunting lands to commit suicide and for others that were considered likely suicidal.

Remote parking areas especially if they are not too remote are hot beds for crime, normally small time stuff, but you never know...

That guy that said a man hid behind a tree in the dark and said boo, that man is creepy as hell not to mention supid.

But yeah, animal behavior is relatively predictable, human behavior is what's scary.

Nope ropes too, If I was to invent a camo pattern I'd call it copperhead camo.

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