34 replies to this topic

[Cajun Executioner]

I hear stories of chubacabra and big foot. I even heard stories of demon like figures but I haven't had any of those creatures in my site. About the scariest thing that has happened to me in the woods happened last year. I am sitting in my 4x4 box stand that stood right on the side of a tree line over looking a field of cut over. It was a cold morning and the sun hadn't  lifted over the horizan yet. I could hear the rabbits and the coons stiring in the woods around me. I was happy. Then all of the sudden there is a loud crash on the tin roof of my blind that scared the poop out of me! Now this wasn't an acorn or a pine cone falling on the top of the roof. This was something big and I couldn't for the life of me figure out what just happened. Ignoring scaring the deer away, I turned on my flashlight and began to investigate when all of the sudden I came face to face with one of the biggest coons I have ever seen! Talk about jump out of my skin!! I had a tree that was no more than 3 feet away from my stand and that coon had jumped or fell out of the tree and onto my roof. It then jumped back onto the tree and when I flashed the light on him he froze... And I did too! After a few seconds (it seemed like an hour) he high tailed it out of there leaving my heart racing like Secretariat!
One other instance in the same stand I was watching a sparrow that was on that same tree. It was 4-5 feet from my stand sitting on a small branch. I guess I was camoflaged up good because that little sucker flew right into my stand! You wanna see something funny???? You should have seen me jumping, swatting, cussing and carrying on until that bird finally flew out of the window. Needless to say; I didn't kill anything on either one of those days... No chubacabra, no bigfoot but those coons and birds really had my heart racing!!

Anything spooky or scarey happened to you?

[SPECIALIZED]

Last winter while night hunting Coyotes with my crossbow at about 2 AM. Using a screaming rabbit mouth call and pretty well concealed in a clump of brush under a huge oak tree, as I had been calling about 30 min and stop to give it a rest, I heard a very loud commotion right above my head.
This shook me up a bit then I dropped my light, and something big hit the ground right beside me, let out a scream, and began hitting the ground several times with a loud whop,whop, all the while screaming very loud.

By this time with no light I was really scrambling to get away from what ever this horrible thing was that was attacking me. As I half crawled half slid back wards I found my flash light and promptly cast a light in the direction of the thing.

There sat the largest Owl I had ever seen, with its mouth wide open ,and ready for a fight.
The Owl finally took off hitting branches as it gained altitude, and I then started breathing regularly ,and tried to get my heart rate back to normal.

Evidently the Owl heard the screaming rabbit call and thought, there is an easy meal, then got tangled in the limbs as it zeroed in on me.

Let me tell you ,that scared the heck out of me, and have not forgot to watch out for Owls and Hawks while pursuing one of my favorite kind of hunting. Now on Coyote number 11 with my crossbow.

[Old Longhair]

I was sitting in my treestand one night and gothit inthe back of the head by a small owl. He was apparently planning to land on the dead snag that was ME. I felt his talons through my hat before he decided that I wasn't what he'd originally thought. Nearly jumped right out of the tree!

[fireguy]

I was moose hunting in northern B.C. and had been charged by a bull moose a couple days before so my nerves were a little wound up. There was lots of evedence of large grizzly bears all over the place so that was in the back of my mind as well.

I decided to go for a hike from camp on a rainy day and had just entered the bush which was very thick, and was in the process of climbing over a log that was about 3 feet thick. I got to the top of the log and heard a noise at my feet. about 12 inches from my foot there was a bear sticking his head out of a den and he was growling and snapping his teeth at me. I jumped back instinctively, proceded to fall backwards off the log onto my back, quickly stood up and stuck the barell of my gun in his face and pulled the trigger.

now a little shook up, I went back to camp whee my Dad and a couple other guys were. They asked what I had shot as I was only gone 5 min and the sound of the shot was wierd. I told them the story and we went back and had to crawl into the den and pull the bear out. He wasn't a huge beast, only a 5 1/2 foot black bear but he sure scared the hell out of me .

[Cajun Executioner]

OK... The real reason I brought this topic up... I haven't told this story to another soul. Not my wife, not my hunting partners and not my friends. Last year I joined the hunting club that I hunted and will not go back to. I had some issues with one of the board members but here is the REAL reason I will not go back.

I took over an old members stand that left the club. I didn't know much about this guy, all they told me was that he had been a long time member and was out of the club due to health reasons. He had a nice 4x4 box stand built just the year before and they told me that I could have/take over the stand so that is what I did. I hunted all of bow season and muzzle loader season but only rifle hunted one time... That's right... Only once. The one time I went rifle hunting, I arrived at camp that Friday morning and suited up and went to my stand. I love hunting during the week. Many times I went during the week I was the only one on the entire lease. As I sat enjoying the sun come up (and not seeing any deer). Out of the corner of my eye, I see someone walking through the woods about 70-80 yards from my stand. I watched him cross my shooting lane and disappear into the woods. I gave him a loud Pssst but he payed me no mind. I didn't want to shout at him, I was ticked off that he was in my area but I didn't want to cause more commotion than needed because I wanted to continue hunting. Besides it looked like he was heading off in the woods towards the tri-pod stand that was 500 yards to the south of me and I figured that I would catch up with him at camp and have our discussion at that point. I sat in my stand seeing nothing and I was getting more ticked off by the minute. This guy walked around scaring everything in the area away! So I made it out of my stand by about 8am (I normally hunt until 9 or 10am) and before heading back to camp, I rode by the stand to the south of me to see if the guy was in it but it was empty. I made my way back to camp, had a snack and fooled around the camp waiting for him to show. He had to pass by sooner or later because you have to drive by the camp to get to the access gates. Well an hour or so went by and when he didn't pass by camp I thought to myself that he may have been a poacher and that really ticked me off! I jumped on my four wheeler and went riding around looking for the guys truck. I rode the entire lease and couldn't find his truck. My stand was in the middle of an 8500 acre lease and there is NO WAY the guy walked from the perimeter of the lease to where I was hunting. Not unless he began on foot hours before day light or rode an atv, but I didn't hear any other traffic on my end of the lease that morning and you can always hear someone coming from a mile away. Now it's Friday morning and everyone was at work, so no one is there besides me... And this poacher guy, but I couldn't find him. I drove around the lease until 3:00 or so and went back to camp to get ready for my afternoon hunt. I went back to my stand and sat there wondering if this clown was still in the area. After legal shooting hours I packed my stuff and headed to camp. There were several of the guys there having a few cold ones when I drove up and after I unpacked my gear I went and asked them what the guy with the tri-pod stand on the south side of me looked like. The discription was nothing like the man that I saw. The guy that I saw was short... really short but the guy that they described was younger and taller and a little more round around the belly. I gave them a description of the guy that I had seen and they all got quite and looked at each other in a peculiar way. I asked them what was going on and one of the guys told me one word.... "Shorty". I asked them who Shorty was and they told me that he was the man that had my stand before I took it over. I asked them why was he still hunting here if he was no longer a member and what they told me made the hair on my neck stand up. But it wasn't just what they told me that made my hair stand on in, it was how they told me and the looks on their face when they told me. Shorty was no longer a member because he had passed away after a battle with cancer. He had that stand location for years but just had the stand that I was hunting in built before the previous hunting season and he never even had a chance to hunt in it because he was diagnosed with cancer. It was something that I would not have believed if it weren't for the look on everyones face. I said that it must have been someone else and they asked me how many grown men did I know of that matches the discription that I just gave them and were 5' 2" tall. I kind of laughed out loud and accused them of pulling my leg and they told me that I was the second person that has seen Shorty. The other person that had seen him would not talk about it. Not to me and not too anyone else. He had told one person and it spread around the campfire. He didn't want anyone to think that he was crazy and I have to say that I cannot blame him. This is the first time that I tell this story. Maybe talking (typing) about it will help me get over it.

Some people on this forum know of some of the issues that I had with one of the board members of the club. That was something that I considered quiting the club over on the night before muzzle loading season started. I tell people that I quit that hunting club because of that incident but reality is that I quit from what/who I saw the only day I went rifle hunting last year.

[Eddienc99]

Cajun, Charlie Daniels Sung it best, In his song the Legend of wooley swamp, I'm not a superstitious man by any stretch of the imagination, But theres just things out there in those woods that just cannot be explained, By no means are any of these so frightening as to hurt you unless you pscych yourself up that they do hurt. There are a couple stands I've had in the past that for some unknown reason would have the hair on the back of my neck stand on end and chills run down my spine, One of these stands sat near near where Kilpatricks calvery raided a homestead during the civil war during shermans march. Bout the only real explanation I can come up with for that feeling. There, The other I know what scared me, A pack of Yotes stayed not too far down in the swamp would always go in to that one with daylight and leave with a little daylight. Besides Some of my best hunting was done between 11 and 1pm.....

[Sopchoppy]

I've had one kinda neat experience and one that gave me the willies. First, was last year sitting about 25 feet up watching a beautiful sunrise. I had heard several owls hooting at each other and saw one sailing through the woods. He lit about 50 yards from my tree and just sat there for maybe 10 minutes and then set sail straight toward ME. Looked like he had a 12 foot wingspan!!! I jerked my cap off and started waving it and he veered off to the left. Don't know what he was up to. I did find my toilet paper!!

The other time was 3 years ago I was spending a week hunting at my sister's cabin in North Florida. Her place is in the middle of nowhere and all sorts of critters are there, deer, bear, and coyotes. I had shot a deer late evening and started field dressing. I heard a coyote bark about what sounded like 100 yards away. Another answered about the same distance but on the other side of me. Before long, the barking and howling was on every side of me and getting closer. I was only about 75 yards from the cabin so I decided me and my deer were leaving fast. I think it took me less than a minute to drag that deer back to the cabin. Never did actually see the coyotes and did not want to.

[firemedic396]

I am an amature paranormal investigator (ghost hunter) and have seen all kinds of things but never in the woods. The only experience that scared the crap outta me while hunting was when I was deer hunting in Maine one year. I was hunting near a swamp and found a neat little hollow that wasn't getting much snow on the ground and took cover there for a few hours. So I'm sitting on a blown down pine tree and it's dead quiet with nothing moving around me. I had gotten so darn warm sitting there that I felt kinda sleepy. The next thing I knew there was a cow moose standing to my left about 40 feet from me and a moose calf to my right about 30 feet from me. I had never heard them at all come and sneak up on me! They scared the crap outta me so bad that I had jumped which made the cow get really skiddish. She knew that something was there and could smell my scent but couldn't see me too well. She started getting aggressive and stomping her feet and blowing big snot balls everywhere trying to get something to move or to move away. I held still for as long as I could knowing that I was in a bad way because I had nowhere to run or a place to retreat to. Then I had the idea to quietly open up my backpack and get out my wrist rocket slingshot. A half draw with a small rock to backside of the calf got it running like crazy and the cow went chasing after it. The whole time I was doing that my heart was pounding so bad that felt like it was gonna leap out of my chest! That was way too much excitement for me lol!

[Cajun Executioner]

The first "paranormal" experience I had wes about 15 years ago. I lived with a roommate at the time and my roommates dad had an old college buddy that had a fishing camp just south of New Orleans on an island called Pointe La Hache. This place used to be an orange plantation and Leon (the guy that owned the house) lived in the plantaion house. The house was right behind the courthouse and back in the day they used to hang people right outside his bedroom window. Now this isn't a big plantation house like some might think. It is a small 2 bedroom house on stilts. Well anyhow, my roommate, his dad and I went to Leons for a weekend of speckled trout fishing. We arrived on Friday evening and Leon was grilling us some delicious blue tuna. We had the tuna and a few glasses of cheap scotch and sat around telling stories. Now the minute I walked into this place I had that creepy feeling. It just felt like you were not alone... And I am not talking about the other people that were there with me. I just had a "feeling" that you cannot explain unless if you had that same feeling before. (Firemedic, you know what I am talking about). So when it was time for bed, Lance, his dad and myself all went sleep in one bedroom that had a twin bed and a queen size bed. I was sleeping in the twin and lance and his dad was sleeping in the quees bed 3 feet away. Not long after laying down I could hear Mr. A. (Lances dad) sawwing logs and Lance was not far behind. Then all of the sudden I hear foot steps walking between the beds! I heard maybe 5-6 footsteps and there were no mistaking what they were. Man I pulled the covers over my head like a 5 year old afraid of the dark!!! A few seconds after the sound went away I peaked out from underneath my covers and there was no one there. There was enough light coming into the window from the street light behind the old courthouse for me to see that there was no one there. I started whispering.. "Lance, Lance, wake up!" but he had too many scotch and waters and he wasn't budging. So I laid in bed trying and trying to calm down enough to get to sleep. Well at some point I finally fell asleep. When we woke up the next morning I did not say a word about it as we went fishing but the whole time we were fishing thats all that I could think about. I tried to convince myself that it was just air in the water pipes or something like that, but I know what I heard. We only caught 4 speckled trout that morning and when we were making our way back to camp, Leon said that him and Lance were going to go catch a few crabs so we can make a shrimp and crab stew later that night. Well Mr. A. and I went back to camp to get a nap. I wasn't going back in that room. The house still had that creepy feeling and I wasn't about to go back in the bedroom. I laid down on the couch in the den/living room and tried to get a nap. Laying there I couldn't fall asleep and all the sudden the rocking chair that is no more than 2 feet away from my head starts rocking.... NO ONE WAS IN IT!!! As I was heading down the stairs with bag and fishing rods in hand, Lance and Leon were pulling up into the drive way. They asked me where was I going and I told them that work called and I had to go do some work! I never went back to that place!
Well later that year I was talking to another good friend that had been there before and told him the story and he said that he didn't see or hear anything but he felt that same creepy feeling and he thought it was haunted too.

That camp was lost in hurricane Katrina.

[Hurricane]

Note to self" Stay the hell outta Louisiana,you din't git this old by bein' stupid.

Damn CE~ I'da been gone the next morning if not the first night, my friend. GEEEEZ!!!

[Bamm Bamm]

good stories... None of mine are that good so I won't even post.. I think mostly Im just paranoid though=)lol..

also im staying out of louisiana as well..

[DaveHawk]

Hurricane, on 30 September 2011 - 07:32 PM, said:

Note to self" Stay the hell outta Louisiana,you din't git this old by bein' stupid

X2

I really don't let anything bother me. But the 1st time I got dived on by a Red Tail I did freak. He just about took off my nose. and pulled up at my flinch. He landed just 2' feet away on a branch and we had a stare down for a few seconds. He blindsided me , but isn't that what they do best. It's happened a few times scene but after the 1st time I pay attention to the other animals sending warning signals.

[Eddienc99]

Last night, Just before getting down, I heard a Muzzleoader go off, within moments the slug ripped through the tree branches above my head and I'm already up some 20 plus feet in my climber. Shot came from the other property.. That scared the brown smelly stuff outta me...

Edited by Eddienc99, 24 October 2011 - 02:32 PM.

[firemedic396]

Eddienc99, on 24 October 2011 - 05:15 AM, said:

Last night, Just before getting down, I heard a Muzzleoader go off, within moments the slug ripped through the tree branches above my head and I'm already up some 20 plus feet in my climber. Shot came from the other property.. That scared the? outta me...

Hey Eddie, glad that you didn't get hit and were safe following that experience. Friendly word of caution, you might want to edit your post and take the profanity out (the "S" word) just to keep things "G" rated for the younger kids reading on here. The adminsitration and moderators may not approve of that stuff lol. Thanks buddy, Greg

Edited by SPECIALIZED, 25 October 2011 - 06:58 PM.

[BigBowMan]

The only ghost I believe in is The Holy Ghost! Every once in awhile when going out on my new property the hair stands up on the back of my neck, but that's only because of the sighting of wolves within my area. I have never seen one and hope I don't but I can definately every now and then hear them howling. Now others will claim it's coyotes howling but when you hear wolves howl there is no mistaking that sound! There was also a black bear sighting and even a cougar sighting in my area. I'm thinking seriously of adding a sidearm to my personal just incase.  

[cal45]

I've had three incidents that kind of scared me. The first I was walking between two fields carrying a 357 revolver. I was out for late day chucks. Walking by a stonewall all of a sudden I hear a loud growl and some snarling. A professional gunfighter would have been envious of my quick draw with the sights on a Bobcat sitting on the stone wall with a rabbit. After a few seconds he jumped off the other side and was gone. Next incident I was bow hunting and coming out of the woods right at dark. Walking down an old road there was a brush pile next to the road. All of a sudden there was a loud scream about ten feet away and then it started growling and snarling. I flicked on my light and again a Bobcat had a rabbit he was protecting. I backpedaled the last one hundred yards to my truck. The third one was I was sitting next to a tree and all of a sudden heard the leaves rustling behind me. I could tell something was coming fast. I stood up and turned around to see a fisher coming right at me. At fifteen feet I started waving and shouting. He jumped on the side of a tree about five feet from me. He just stared. He wasn't scared or intimated. If I wanted to mix it up he was ready. Finally he jumped down and ran back the way he came.

[Kevinbear]

The human mind is a powerful thing, I've let myself get spooked several times over the years in the woods, it can be very difficult to calm oneself when your unexpectingly caught in the dark in unfamiliar surroundings. Last time it happened to me I was grouse hunting near Eagle Colorado {big woods} about 15 years ago, I almost came unhinged after getting turned around and unable to find my truck in the dark. After finally calming myself down and finding the truck {about an hour} I felt silly.
First thing I did when getting home was ordering a GPS and a really good flashlight!!!!!
Kev

[Spirithawk]

Yep, I once came upon a freshly harvested Marijuana crop and a drying house made from sheet plastic. Luckily nobody was around, at least not that let it be known, but it was a creepy feeling suspecting I was being watched. I skirted the area and made a beeline out of there back to camp. That was a very dangerous situation as that growers will think nothing of killing someone to protect their investment and stay out of jail. This was before cell phones so I drove to the Sheriff's Office and reported what I'd found.

One other time a friend and I were walking down a dirt road in the dark. We kept hearing something following us just off the road in the woods but couldn't see anything as we didn't have flashlights. Suddenly two hogs barreled out of the woods right in front of us, squealing and making all kinds of racket. We sure did some fancy footwork avoiding them and getting on down the road post haste!

[mechmark]

well it didnt really skeer me BUT years ago when i first started bow hunting, ibuilta 4x4 platform out of plywood with a bench seat and 2x 4s attac hed to a tree.

well i got there one morning about a hour before light and got all settled in and just as it first hinted day light i hear something coming thru the woods and it styops at the base of the tree

and then starts climbing up the tree ,i look over the side and the shape tells me its a hunter that has found my perch and would take advantage of my work so i let him git to the platform

and real quiet like placed my hand on his  thigh and gave my best bobcat imitation, i heard holy #%^& as he jumped to the ground running away and his bow banging on the ground behind him  for about a minute then heard a truc k start up and hauling tail out of there!!!

needless to say  i think i taught him a lesson   did not see any deer but had a good time   and wondered what he thought was after him.....

so whenim on public property and am tempted to setin someone elses stand  i think abouyt it a second and  say no i dont think so.....

[mechmark]

Spirithawk, on 26 October 2011 - 04:54 PM, said:

Yep, I once came upon a freshly harvested Marijuana crop and a drying house made from sheet plastic. Luckily nobody was around, at least not that let it be known, but it was a creepy feeling suspecting I was being watched. I skirted the area and made a beeline out of there back to camp. That was a very dangerous situation as that growers will think nothing of killing someone to protect their investment and stay out of jail. This was before cell phones so I drove to the Sheriff's Office and reported what I'd found.

One other time a friend and I were walking down a dirt road in the dark. We kept hearing something following us just off the road in the woods but couldn't see anything as we didn't have flashlights. Suddenly two hogs barreled out of the woods right in front of us, squealing and making all kinds of racket. We sure did some fancy footwork avoiding them and getting on down the road post haste!

spirit

i had a similar experience years  ago on paper mill land   only it wasnt harvested yet and i suddenly relized the orderly nature of the crop so i decided tomake a right turn and get out of there, i went a ways and then heard that sickenin sound of a pump shotgun chambering a round  and a voice saying boy get on the ground and dont look back!!!!!!

he asked me who i was up ther with  and i told him and he said after a few tense minutes he was going to blindfold me and lead me out of there.

well do you know how difficult it is walikng in rocky terain blindfolded? well i fell about a dozen times   and finaly  he told me to lay down and not move for a hour cause theyt would be watching   me and if i looked around before the hour  that was it.

well probably a 1 n1/2 later i got up and tryied to make it to the hiway (sound of cars)  and found myself several miles from  my truck needless to say i did not hunt that area again
and counted myself lucky  to make it out of there at all.

so when im in the woods im always on the lookout for a cultivated area as im stillhunting