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Scary or Weird Experience while hunting.

P

Powers92

New Member
Joined
Jul 30, 2024
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10
Tell me your weirdest or creepiest experience while your were out hunting or just in the woods in general.
While I was walking to my spot in GWNF at 3am in the morning, I had a flock of roosting turkey almost take my head off. I could feel the wind from their wings on the the back of my neck. I almost dirtied up my skivvies.

Same time 3am, different part of the national forest. Got to my spot. Set behind a fat tree on the outside edge of a saddle. I heard massive commotion, branches breaking, snapping, huffing and puffing about 30 feet from me in the pitch black early morning. I gripped my 454 Casull rifle, and just sat there shaking. Figured that if the noise got any closer I would just start shooting. After day light, i got up and walked to where I thought the noise came from and found big bear scat.

Kentucky, circa 2017, I was just hiking through the woods and meadows, found what looked to be a meth lab on wheels. Old trailer, no people and tons ( a grave yard full ) of small animal bones. No nearby road. I had no gun on me and hightailed it out of there as fast as I could.
 
Weird category:

Back in the 90’s I was hunting in GA. It was a haul to get where I was going and it included a hike across some flooded timber. This particular morning was overcast and cool with no moon visible. I was halfway through the first creek crossing when my flashlight died. Not cool. I knew I had a lot of downed trees to navigate, limbs to go over and another creek run to cross and I really needed a light.

I finished the crossing the creek run I was in and sat on the bank chilling with my eyes closed waiting on as much night vision as I could muster because I was going to need it. There just wasn’t any light to be had and I was debating waiting on civil twilight or going on blind. I knew where I was going and I had plenty of time as it was still a good 90 minutes before sunrise and I only had another 800 yards to go. Then it happened.

I was sitting there on the bank with my back to a tree when I saw a glow. It was gone before I could lock in on it because there was a decent fog as well and the light was quite scattered. While I sat there staring in the direction of the now gone light I saw it again in another direction. Same thing; couldn’t lock in before it was gone.

This continued with several more instances of faint light at random directions and distances. The time between occurrences began to shorten and finally I could take it no more….I had to know what it was. Finally there was a light near me, probably 30’, and I crawled toward it. It went out and I waited then crawled towards the next one.

I continued doing this until finally one lit up right in front of me while I was on my hands and knees. It was just under my head so I locked in on it before it could disappear.

Lightning bugs. It was lightning bugs. On the ground. Lots of them. Very damn cool, but I had deer to kill. I got up, grabbed my rifle, shouldered my stand and went on to the side hill trail I had found at the head of a small draw coming out of the bottom.

About 0815 that morning I killed this buck…

7540c4a727b25dc9260e815a8bd865b1.jpg


I’ve never seen that happen with the lightning bugs again, but would love to.

And my little man ain’t so little no more, but he still loves killing deer….

6cef926d274e65cd8ef09de8baf935a1.jpg
 
dalton916 said:
Weird category:

Back in the 90’s I was hunting in GA. It was a haul to get where I was going and it included a hike across some flooded timber. This particular morning was overcast and cool with no moon visible. I was halfway through the first creek crossing when my flashlight died. Not cool. I knew I had a lot of downed trees to navigate, limbs to go over and another creek run to cross and I really needed a light.

I finished the crossing the creek run I was in and sat on the bank chilling with my eyes closed waiting on as much night vision as I could muster because I was going to need it. There just wasn’t any light to be had and I was debating waiting on civil twilight or going on blind. I knew where I was going and I had plenty of time as it was still a good 90 minutes before sunrise and I only had another 800 yards to go. Then it happened.

I was sitting there on the bank with my back to a tree when I saw a glow. It was gone before I could lock in on it because there was a decent fog as well and the light was quite scattered. While I sat there staring in the direction of the now gone light I saw it again in another direction. Same thing; couldn’t lock in before it was gone.

This continued with several more instances of faint light at random directions and distances. The time between occurrences began to shorten and finally I could take it no more….I had to know what it was. Finally there was a light near me, probably 30’, and I crawled toward it. It went out and I waited then crawled towards the next one.

I continued doing this until finally one lit up right in front of me while I was on my hands and knees. It was just under my head so I locked in on it before it could disappear.

Lightning bugs. It was lightning bugs. On the ground. Lots of them. Very damn cool, but I had deer to kill. I got up, grabbed my rifle, shouldered my stand and went on to the side hill trail I had found at the head of a small draw coming out of the bottom.

About 0815 that morning I killed this buck…

7540c4a727b25dc9260e815a8bd865b1.jpg


I’ve never seen that happen with the lightning bugs again, but would love to.

And my little man ain’t so little no more, but he still loves killing deer….

6cef926d274e65cd8ef09de8baf935a1.jpg
Click to expand...


Speaking of things that glow in the dark have you ever seen Foxfire moss? It glows in the dark...coolest thing I've seen in the woods.
Nice buck!!
 
I’ve told this story before somewhere. I was in one of my remote tent spots with a buddy, about 4 miles from any road, yes there is a few trails if you know what you are doing but not many, I ran into my buddy about 30 minutes before complete darkness about a mile or so past my tent, deeper from the road, it was snowing pretty good, we were heading back together towards my tent when up in front of us, heading deeper into the woods, at least 5 miles or more, was 3 people, 1 man and 2 women, they were wearing fur coats, spoke broken English, and were dressed like for an opera, I will never forget it, if they had flash lights I didn’t see them, I had no idea what the heck was going on. I did my best to tell them to turn around and get the heck out of there, they wanted no part of it, and kept going, in a snow storm. I thought I was going crazy and if it wasn’t for my buddy being there I would still think that. The next day when I had cell service I called the local Forest Ranger and gave him a heads up, he said he didn’t have any reports of missing people and that was the last time I heard anything about it. These people weren't young either, I have no idea how they made it out of there or if they did.
 
Fell straight into a hole on a WMA that was around 4 feet deep and 3 feet across. It was in the middle of a field of golden rod. I was just walking through and the Earth opened up. I fell perfectly and landed like I meant to do it. I'm lucky I didn't get hurt and the I could climb out and it wasn't like a mine shaft or something. I told the DNR but it's still there because half of them are super lazy. On the way down, I was scared crapless. I should probably go back there and bring some fencing and surround and maybe put a warning sign up.

Another time, I was a mile deep on public land and it was below freezing and I was in a tree with like 4 layers on. A guy walks right by. He was alone. Filthy. Stringy hair under a ball cap. Looked bizarre. All he was wearing was filthy blue jeans and a filthy white pocket tee shirt. I didn't say anything and just let him pass by. He looked like he was on something. There is no reason to be where I was at unless you are hunting or something.
 
Wierd category.
A buddy and I hunted a spot on public land one early November afternoon. We had walked as far back as we could on this particular piece, so when we finally made it back to the parking lot and got to our truck it was well after dark. While loading our gear in the truck in comes another truck and parks next to us.
This guy and women get out both have hunter orange vests on but he is the only one armed. With this older shotgun, looked like an old browning with a long barrel. He starts talking loud enough for us to hear how excited he is to go hunting and they both take off out of the parking lot down the trail into the dark.
We just stood there and looked at each other, both thinking the same thing. That is not right...... called the sheriff. Deputy showed up pretty quickly and said he wait for them to back to the truck. Never did hear what happened. After this my buddy decided to have a sidearm with him whenever he hunts now. 25 years of bowhunting public with no worries before. Times have changed.
 
I decided to hunt a small piece of public land that was across a creek and on the back side of a very big ridge of private. The creek was swollen from rain. I put my chest waders on eased across (it was very sketchy). When I got to the other side about 20 yards from the creek, I came upon a pair of jeans hanging on a clothesline. So, I started looking around and calling out to make myself know to whoever was there. I found an old tent that a limb had fallen into and all kinds of stuff that indicated either someone left in a hurry or didn't leave at all. I looked around and didn't find a body. I don't know if it was like a fugitive that was living there across the creak to hide and on the back side of a huge ridge of private. Anyway, I walked down the thin piece of private about a mile looking at sign to hunt. So, on the way back out it was way past dark when I got to the camp and that was kind of spooky. I haven't been back to that spot, but I plan to one day.
 
I have had a few real close encounters with bear cubs when I couldnt see momma and and have been struck at a few times by cottonmouths and those were a little bothersome. But I think the one of the most unnerving situations was a January rabbit hunt. Twice in less than 20 yards we ran into decent size timber rattlers that were up neck high in the bushes sunning. Made it a little difficult to watch for rabbits getting kicked up because we were too busy watching the bushes for rattlers.

Weird/funny was when an owl caught a rabbit about 30-40 yards from where I was taking a dump in the pitch dark. Tree frogs and crickets one second and the next the bushes are thrashin and this rabbit starts squelin to high heaven. Next thing I know the squelin rabbit is gaining altitude and heading across the woods.
 
I found a booby trapped grow in Wayne NF in Ohio. It was already picked for the year but had a trip wire rigged up to god knows what. I didn't stick around there too long as I was not too far from a trailer park that I guessed was the origin.

Another time pretty sure I was being shot at in a warning sense right along the edge of private/public. That is a little bit scary but more just rage.

Wild animals don't really bother me I've had several too-close encounters with bears and snakes but it's not "scary", just like "whoa that was close".

But dogs, I've encountered a few dogs that really pissed me off. Where I grew up there were a couple backwoods clans that let their dogs run wild. Pieces of crap, the people. Dogs and people are the only things I worry about.

Again I wouldn't really say scared is the right descriptor but I've had some experiences in the woods too where I felt some kinda weird presence from something possibly not of our material world. I do believe a little bit in that sort of thing but I'm not scared of it either. Weird, thought provoking, sure, but I ain't skered.
 
BTaylor said:
I have had a few real close encounters with bear cubs when I couldnt see momma and and have been struck at a few times by cottonmouths and those were a little bothersome. But I think the one of the most unnerving situations was a January rabbit hunt. Twice in less than 20 yards we ran into decent size timber rattlers that were up neck high in the bushes sunning. Made it a little difficult to watch for rabbits getting kicked up because we were too busy watching the bushes for rattlers.

Weird/funny was when an owl caught a rabbit about 30-40 yards from where I was taking a dump in the pitch dark. Tree frogs and crickets one second and the next the bushes are thrashin and this rabbit starts squelin to high heaven. Next thing I know the squelin rabbit is gaining altitude and heading across the woods.
Click to expand...
Well, the good thing is your pants were already down, so you didn't pee in them LOL
 
I remember being young hunting by myself. This is an interesting story because it ties into the making of the mobile hunter I am today actually. Let’s start by saying young and very dumb.

Anyways, I was hunting a piece of public I hunted a lot. Before phones app usage but needless to say I shouldn’t have, but got turned around. The old summit climber tripper make ya fall down thing on my back. Well I got into some wildly crazy thick brush and I remember being again, young and panicking. The stupid stand was hung on everything and I got to the point I felt like I couldn’t move. My mind went to the woods were pulling me in and I began to very loudly say “let me go”. Still to this day have no idea who I was talking to but remember being completely freaked out.
 
I had permission to hunt a small 40 acre farm in central Florida. I walked in real early cause I was setting a ground blind and gonna sit for the morning and try to kill a pig with my .22. I walk back and begin to start setting up the blind and I shine the light towards the feeder and it wasn't there. I'm thinking to myself that maybe someone came back there and stole it? I lean the gun up and walk over to where the feeder was and I'm standing there looking with the flashlight and see 1 of 3 leg poles....then I see the barrel half floating in the pond and start walking toward it then all of the sudden about 20 yards away in the dark something starts huffing at me and crashing thru the palmettos. I pulled out my knife cause I had leaned the gun up against a tree over by the ground blind and just stood there anticipating something but the crashing is telling me whatever it was is running off. In my mind I just jumped a pack of pigs and my hunt for the morning is over. When the sun starts came up I went over to check my camera and the cam tells me that it wasn't pigs at all but a big sow bear and 2 cubs had knocked over the feeder the day prior and they had been bedded down gorging on all the corn. I found their 3 bed impressions on the ground. I walked it off and I had been 10yds from where they had been bedded down. It all happened to fast to get scared but afterwards I started to realize I had been in a real bad spot if she had chose to fight instead of flight.

I've been treed by hogs half a dozen times while walking trails in the off season. I wouldn't call it scary and i probably could have stood my ground with my walking stick but when u got multiple adults huffing at u and bluff charging it can be a little unnerving.

I was wading thru a swamp and there was a big bull pine out in the swamp I was walking toward. The big pines out in the swamp will have a small mound at their base from all the years of pine needles accumulated.....so as I step out of the water onto the needle mound I have a 4ft moccasin coiled in between my legs. It could have nailed me but it just gave me a mouth gape and a tail "rattle" and allowed me to move on.

I have stepped on 2 gators while wading swamps. Neither had much size to them....3 or 4 feet if I had to guess. Again, it happens too fast to really get scared in the moment.

The most scared I've been out in the woods was when I was walking a disked fire road that had chest high grass on 1 side of the road and a turkey took flight about 5 feet away from me from out of the tall grass....I hit the deck and watching it fly off while laughing at myself.

Here a story u guys might enjoy hearing......

And the lightning bug story reminds me that the grub glows too.....I never knew that till I was seeing weird glow spots on the forest floor and happened to actually see 1 of those tiny things
 
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Weldabeast said:
I had permission to hunt a small 40 acre farm in central Florida. I walked in real early cause I was setting a ground blind and gonna sit for the morning and try to kill a pig with my .22. I walk back and begin to start setting up the blind and I shine the light towards the feeder and it wasn't there. I'm thinking to myself that maybe someone came back there and stole it? I lean the gun up and walk over to where the feeder was and I'm standing there looking with the flashlight and see 1 of 3 leg poles....then I see the barrel half floating in the pond and start walking toward it then all of the sudden about 20 yards away in the dark something starts huffing at me and crashing thru the palmettos. I pulled out my knife cause I had leaned the gun up against a tree over by the ground blind and just stood there anticipating something but the crashing is telling me whatever it was is running off. In my mind I just jumped a pack of pigs and my hunt for the morning is over. When the sun starts came up I went over to check my camera and the cam tells me that it wasn't pigs at all but a big sow bear and 2 cubs had knocked over the feeder the day prior and they had been bedded down gorging on all the corn. I found their 3 bed impressions on the ground. I walked it off and I had been 10yds from where they had been bedded down. It all happened to fast to get scared but afterwards I started to realize I had been in a real bad spot if she had chose to fight instead of flight.

I've been treed by hogs half a dozen times while walking trails in the off season. I wouldn't call it scary and i probably could have stood my ground with my walking stick but when u got multiple adults huffing at u and bluff charging it can be a little unnerving.

I was wading thru a swamp and there was a big bull pine out in the swamp I was walking toward. The big pines out in the swamp will have a small mound at their base from all the years of pine needles accumulated.....so as I step out of the water onto the needle mound I have a 4ft moccasin coiled in between my legs. It could have nailed me but it just gave me a mouth gape and a tail "rattle" and allowed me to move on.

I have stepped on 2 gators while wading swamps. Neither had much size to them....3 or 4 feet if I had to guess. Again, it happens too fast to really get scared in the moment.

The most scared I've been out in the woods was when I was walking a disked fire road that had chest high grass on 1 side of the road and a turkey took flight about 5 feet away from me from out of the tall grass....I hit the deck and watching it fly off while laughing at myself.

Here a story u guys might enjoy hearing......

And the lightning bug story reminds me that the grub glows too.....I never knew that till I was seeing weird glow spots on the forest floor and happened to actually see 1 of those tiny things
Click to expand...
Florida Man. Fair to say many other guys down there have similar stories?
 
Use to have Pheasants behind my parents house in the high grass. Haven't seen any in years. But if you ever flushed one of those things trying to sneak thru grass you know it will get your heart pumping as they wait until you darn near step on em. Kicked a turkey up one time as well, but not in the middle of grass trying to be quiet and hunt deer. Hen bedded along a fence line.
 
Walking into my stand one morning by partial moonlight. I was in a field along the treeline, and I kept thinking I could hear something walking nearby, and it sounded like it was walking on 2 feet. I would walk a few steps and stop to listen. I could DEFINITELY hear something walking nearby and it was DEFINITELY walking on 2 feet. I fished around in my backpack until I found my flashlight. With trembling hands I quickly switched it on and aimed it in the direction I'd heard the sounds, fully expecting to see a sasquatch chomping on a slim jim. About 10 yards away stood a freakin EMU (yes, the giant bird) staring right at me. I managed to prop my flashlight up on the ground well enough to see "dirty bird" and the sight pins on my bow. Sent one right through the boilermaker, and continued on to my stand.

*I was aware that we had a couple of emu's living on our place that someone had apparently turned loose. One had left or died, and my uncle had nicknamed this last one "dirty bird" because it was so nasty. They had been down there a couple of years, but this was the first (and last) time we met...
 

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avgjoe said:
Walking into my stand one morning by partial moonlight. I was in a field along the treeline, and I kept thinking I could hear something walking nearby, and it sounded like it was walking on 2 feet. I would walk a few steps and stop to listen. I could DEFINITELY hear something walking nearby and it was DEFINITELY walking on 2 feet. I fished around in my backpack until I found my flashlight. With trembling hands I quickly switched it on and aimed it in the direction I'd heard the sounds, fully expecting to see a sasquatch chomping on a slim jim. About 10 yards away stood a freakin EMU (yes, the giant bird) staring right at me. I managed to prop my flashlight up on the ground well enough to see "dirty bird" and the sight pins on my bow. Sent one right through the boilermaker, and continued on to my stand.

*I was aware that we had a couple of emu's living on our place that someone had apparently turned loose. One had left or died, and my uncle had nicknamed this last one "dirty bird" because it was so nasty. They had been down there a couple of years, but this was the first (and last) time we met...
Click to expand...

Them things are MEAN!

BT
 
avgjoe said:
Walking into my stand one morning by partial moonlight. I was in a field along the treeline, and I kept thinking I could hear something walking nearby, and it sounded like it was walking on 2 feet. I would walk a few steps and stop to listen. I could DEFINITELY hear something walking nearby and it was DEFINITELY walking on 2 feet. I fished around in my backpack until I found my flashlight. With trembling hands I quickly switched it on and aimed it in the direction I'd heard the sounds, fully expecting to see a sasquatch chomping on a slim jim. About 10 yards away stood a freakin EMU (yes, the giant bird) staring right at me. I managed to prop my flashlight up on the ground well enough to see "dirty bird" and the sight pins on my bow. Sent one right through the boilermaker, and continued on to my stand.

*I was aware that we had a couple of emu's living on our place that someone had apparently turned loose. One had left or died, and my uncle had nicknamed this last one "dirty bird" because it was so nasty. They had been down there a couple of years, but this was the first (and last) time we met...
Click to expand...
Looks like a Dino to me. lol.
 
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