What's The Scariest Thing You've Seen Or Had Happen While Hunting?

[Steve Valentine]

After seeing Clutons post about the Meth Lab he ran across with the booby traps I thought I'd start a thread about some things you've seen or experiences you've had that have kind of scared you or freaked you out while hunting. I know a lot of us go to some remote areas sometimes to hunt and usually alone so we can get into some hairy situations sometimes so lets hear about them.

Here's a couple that come to mind for me.

The first one happened at a Ft Ancient site I used to hunt a long time ago that is now off limits. I had gotten there early that morning and had hunted for about 3 hours and found a ton of stuff when these two guys came into the site and started hunting. They were on one end of the field and I was on the other and we were about 200 yards apart and I wasn't really paying much attention to them and keeping my eyes to the ground. Suddenly I hear this noise and look up and both of them are about 15 feet away and walking right toward me. For some reason I just got this eerie feeling about the situation.

They asked if I had found anything and I showed them a few things but I didn't get out the vial I use to put in the Beads, Drilled Teeth, Pendants, and the best Points in and one guy kept acting like he was trying to manuever in behind me. I kept an eye on him and when I would look he would act like he was hunting. I told them I was going to go and hunt the high end ridge of the site and took off that direction and they stayed there. About 30 minutes later I look up and they are right on top of me again and by then I was really getting a little nervous since both were pretty good sized dudes and I didn't know if I could handle both of them at once. They did the same thing with the one talking while the other tried to get around behind me. I looked down and there this pretty good size rock laying right close to me so I picked it and backed up a little and said "Guys, I don't what the hell you are up to but unless one of you want to wear this home then get the &*#$ away from me". I then backed away keeping an eye on them and once I got about 25 or 30 feet away I just turned and booked it to my vehicle. I just had a feeling they were going to try to knock me in the head and take everything I had found plus probably my wallet and keys.


This second actually scared the bejeezus out of me and my buddy. I actually thought I was going to die this day.

A buddy and I were hunting a spot we had permission to hunt which was a really large field right along the Ohio River. We had hunted for about 3 hours when we come to this ditch line bewteen two fields and we looked around in the ditch and then headed on up into the next field. Bear in mind there were no fences, signs, or anything between these two fields, just a ditch. We hadn't went 25 feet into the field when we started seeing points laying around all over the place and with the next 15 minutes or so we picked up around 10 good points each. That's when we heard a "zing" sound and saw dirt kick up about 15 feet in front of us. A couple seconds later we heard it again and the dirt kicked up closer to us and then we heard the sound of a gun shot and knew someone was shooting at us so we both hit the ground and started crawling on our bellies. Within less than a minute this Jeep came flying out through the field with 3 guys in it and one had a rifle with a scope which my buddy later said looked like a 30.06.

They were mad as Hell and he was pointing the rifle right at us and you could see the vein in his temple just pulsing. He screamed at us for a few minutes asking just who in the $*#@ had given us permission to hunt his fields and we tried to explain that we had been in so and so's field and didn't realize we had crossed into someone elses since there were no fences or signs. He didn't want to hear that kept pointing the gun at us and I actually thought the crazy S.O.B. was going to shoot us. I think the only thing that saved us that day was his son was with him and kept saying "Dad, put the gun down" and he finally lowered it. He followed us all the way to the car and took my license plate down and said if he ever saw us there again we would be spending some time in jail. I wish we would have called the law on him, but this was back way before cell phones and I guess we both were just glad to escape unscathed so we never did. I heard from a few other people that he done the same thing to them so the guy was just a real ass. If you don't want people on your property then put up fences and post it.

Now let's hear your scary moments.

[Indianasmith]

A couple of years ago Ray and I were hiking out of a creek, cross country, up in Delta County, TX. It's unfenced farmland, and as long as you don't have a gun folks up there don't generally mind your cutting across. Well, we saw a tent pitched in this one clearing, with no sign of anybody around. We noticed a clothesline with some objects dangling from it outside the tent, but it wasn't till we got a little closer that we realized that the objects were the heads and bodies of life sized baby dolls! Many of them were "decorated" with red and black paint to boot! We turned towards the road and saw that there was an old graveyard right next to the tent - and a rough pine coffin lying open next to one of the graves! We were both freaking out by this time, and then we saw that each headstone had the stub of a red candle in front of it! We had just about decided that we had stumbled across the worship grounds of a Satanist coven when I read the nearest tombstone. It said "John Edward Booth. His wife asked if her butt was fat, and the old fool told her the truth!" Then I realized that all the tombstones were styrofoam! The "casket" was a long wooden crate with the remnants of a jack-o-lantern inside it. Apparently someone had a completely kick-butt setting for their Halloween hayride, and we stumbled onto the remains. But it had us going for a minute!

[kirby]

Good stories guys.............

[arrow719]

I was hiking one day and noticed a little overhang about halfway up a hill. I climbed my way up there to check it out. When I got to it the opening was smaller than it looked from a distance. It was in the shade so I couldn't really see that good so I poked my head inside to try to get a better look. As soon as I got my head in there this giant owl (it looked 10 feet long at the moment) flew out of the overhang right into my face while letting out a loud screech. I fell over backwards and rolled halfway back down the hill. I think that was the closest I have ever come to a heart attack! I'm just glad nobody was there to see it happen, lol.

[Palmwood]

I've had a few scary moments outdoors, but the only one artifact hunting was a few months ago when I stepped on a water moccasin. I mentioned it before, and it didn't really scare me in the moment. I caught snakes all the time as a kid and they don't bother me, but when I jumped and looked back and saw that white mouth open in the classic warning pose I started thinking about how close I came and how far out in the middle of nowhere I was.

Other non artifact scares include stepping in the middle of a covey of quail in the pitch black edge of the woods one night, getting waist deep out in the middle of a cypress duck moss swamp one night catching frogs only to realize we were surrounded by alligators and water moccasins with one dinky flashlight, and trying my hand at scuba one day with no training and malfunctioning gear that left me stranded in the middle of a lake with almost a half mile to swim toting gear that made me sink. It was like one of those survival shows where the shoreline never seems to get closer. When I finally got to the shore I just laid there in the water wondering why I was still alive and thinking of how stupid I was.

[wily]

My brother-n-law and I decided to check out a field we had permission to hunt. I opened the gate drove in and as I closed the gate the neighbor lady from across the road hollered. As I turned I saw she had something in her hands, 12 gauge or rifle, didn't matter. This is a woman I see a couple times a week so I thought no big deal, wrong. She was drunk or stoned or whatever, and didn't recognize me. She started yelling and asking what we were doing. I told her repeatedly who I am and that we had permisssion to be on "Westleys" place. After a couple of minutes she went back inside her place. We were not tresspassing and were not on her property and the day was spoiled. My brother-n-law is a first responder in a urban area and has seen accidental shootings. We were so nervous we couldn't hunt. I still see her a couple times a week but I've never brought up that experience. I figure on letting that dog lay.

[neralich]

Very good stories!!
I had a couple stories almost as identical as Steves with the upset landowner, only difference were they didn't actually pull a gun out, only threatened...

[paleo_joe]

Seeing that big old cottonmouth open with fangs hanging down and hissing about 18" from my leg. Thank God it was a cold morning.

[Scotto]

Years ago I went exploring around a pond that was seldonm visited, and when I got down to the edge of the water I saw all of these little crosses. Here some sick mofo had crucified all of these frogs and toads, and they were hanging there alive on these crosses. I killed some to put them out of their misery, then heard someone coming so I hid, then just took off after they left the area.

Another time I was hunting squirrels with a couple friends on their property, and some whacked out city dude had moved into a house in the woods next to their property. This moron starts shooting at us, damn near hit us. Bullets were chipping the bark off of the trees right by our heads, and my friend yells at the guy, telling him we weren't on his property and to stop shooting! The dude started screaming at us to get out of there and keeps shooting. So I leveled my .22 and blasted the glass out of the light fixture over this dudes head, and he runs in the house and calls the cops. We stashed our guns, the cops show up and run the dude in for shooting at people.
Idiot, he could have killed us.

[Brian Higgins]

I had one when I was about 10 years old back then I rode the bus home and if there was no body home the bus driver was to drop us off at my Grandparents house .I went through the house and out the back door and didn't see Paw Paw or Granny anywhere. So I grabbed my Bike and headed down a cow trail that I Knew my uncle found some points on that runs down the hill to the creek now let alone this is about a quarter mile form the house and I'm by my self I get to the creek crossing thats made out of what ever that could be found old bricks and such .I jump off my bike because I knew those bricks and my bike wasn't going to work out two well .This creeks walls was about 6 foot tall in the middle of the pasture and the water was crystal clear about 3 or 4 inch deep and running .There in the middle of the creek was what I thought was a arrowhead so I jumped off the creek bank into the creek bed and this is where it all went wrong .This creek is feed by multiple springs and we all know how springs are on sandy land. I was stuck up to my chest in mud and felt like I was sinking It was scary as hell for a 10 year old kid let me tell ya .When you try to holler for help but they don't come and your adrenaline is pumping so hard that you couldn't hear anything over your heartbeat.I tried to get back on top of the ground and nothing would work .The top two or three inches of the ground was solid and the mud under it was so cold I finally got ahold of a root a d pulled my way out of it .On top of that when I thought I was a goner for sure I get up to the house and get a whooping for getting muddy and not telling them where I was going.