Thread: Scared in the Woods

Originally Posted by gabowman

I was along side a large hardwood hollar one morning before daylight and began blowing an owl call. It was still a bit before daylight broke but I figured if I could get some owls talking then I'd hear a gobbler. That particular morning nothing was answering except one lone owl WAY DOWN the hollar. Since he was answering I kept calling.Slowly but surely I heard the answers getting closer. Well, as daylight broke I could see this owl flipping from tree to tree as we talked to one another. By this time the sky was lightening up but it was still pretty dark oin the ground so I had began turning my head from side to side to try and hear a gobbler since my hearing wasnt the best and I did hear better out of one ear than I do the other. All of a sudden as I looked back down the hollar I saw that owl coming in feet first like he was landing on my face. Toi this day I dont know if that owl was what knocket off my cap mor I did it. Scared the ba-gee-bees outa me and I got up and left them woods.

When I was young and hadnt deer hunted too long, I thought it was the right thing to do getting into the woods before daylight, WAY before daylight. So here I go, with a homemade climbing stand on my back that musta weighed 30#'s on my back down thru the woods one morning. I think I was about 100 yards away from the car/road when all of a sudden there was this tremendously loud SCREAM just about right over my head and it sounded just like a real crazy woman in the woods! Climber on my back and rifle in my hands along with 6 v. flashlight and I RUN all the way back to the car. Well, I didnt find out until later on that we had screech owls and that was one of them.

And yep, busting a covey of quail before daylight will dirty your drawers too.:D

HAHA :D:D:D:D LMAO Thats so funny!

Some good stories.. thanks for sharing them... Now I know just about everyone of us that hunt has had some kind of encounter.. come on guys, tell us your stories too.

Here is a true hunting story that happened to me, about 12 years ago I was bow hunting at the end of October, it was a nice fall evening the rut was getting ready to start and I was running a little late to the place I wanted to hunt so I didn't have time to set up a tree stand so I decided to set on the ground and hunt. I was on the top of this hill over looking a creek bottom with some thick woods in it, after setting there awhile I kept on smelling deer urine so I thought to my self there must be a scrape close by. I was grunting on my grunt call every once in awhile and about dark I heard a buck grunt back across the creek so I decided to stay a little longer than I should of because I could tell the buck was getting closer and thought I might get a look at him. It was getting real dark so I grunted once more very aggressively and holy crap I heard the strangest sound I have ever heard come out of that creek bottom, I guess they call it a buck growl, it's like a long dog growl with popping sounds mixed in and out of the thicket he comes up the hill right at me on a dead run, so here I am sitting on my butt with my bow on my lap freaking out, I don't know if I should run, throw my bow at him or try and shoot him. I'm trying to get to my knees and trying to pull my bow back and he comes with in five yards of me and stops and he finally figures out that I'm not another buck and runs down the hill about twenty yards behind a large oak tree with him looking back at me, it was very dark but I could see his front shoulder, neck and head, so I shoot and blame I heard the arrow hit the tree and the buck runs back down into the creek bottom. I was so shook up I didn't go get my arrow, I was getting the heck out of there, it was dark and there was one pissed off buck in the area. The next afternoon I went back and got my arrow, just another couple of inches to the right the buck would have been hit. As for the deer urine smell I found out after I left the woods that one of my bottles of buck urine scent had leaked in my fanny pack so I guess the deer thought if I sounded and smelt like a buck I must of been one. Yes I scared but what a rush it was!

Great stories guys!

Keep adding to them!!

Ok i got one... it was a joke on my brother right before he left for iraq. Me and one of my buddies took my brother on his first deer hunt last year and my buddy had one of those Yetti "Bigfoot" costumes. One of those good expensive ones like on the Jack Links commercial kindof. Anyways, we told my brother we were going to drop him off and go somewhere else and that we had already loaded his gun (which we didnt) and then we would come back and pick him up later that evening. Hes so gullible so we told him that there have been bigfoot sightings all around the area we were huntin and told him to be cautious. Well we dropped him off near a stand and we drove on down to the field over and just waited for dusk. My buddy is a big guy and when he put that costume on it looked just like a big hairy yetti creature. Well as it started getting dark we snuck close to my brother and i sent him a txt message tellin him i was on my way and to meet me near the trail. so when he started climbing down my buddy took off in a full out sprint in his yetti costume towards my brother!!! My brother screamed like a little girl.... and took off running as fast as he could, and let me tell you, i have never seen him run so fast... My buddy was doing this grunting noise like an ape lol. My brother never stopped running until he hit pavement a near 2 miles away. When me and my buddy got to our truck and went to pick him up we couldnt find him. So i called and he said he had run into a nearby house with some folks he didnt even know and was telling them to call the police that he had just saw The Yetti!!! LOL. We later explained what had happened and he was mad at first but now looks back on it and laughs every time we talk about it

Those are both some good stories.. I think I would have freaked out on both instances, with the buck charging me and the bigfoot chasing me.. Thanks for the stories.

I am a youth minister here in Illinois. Well, we had someone in our church die, and I was helping the family get an auction together. I got in a guy's truck with him and we went to go pick up some other stuff in his truck. On the way back, he asked if I wanted to see his hunting ground...NOT A PROBLEM, as I'm always up to going to the woods. Well, we drove around, and saw some good deer trails. We saw a pond, and talked about the fish that were in the pond in the middle of these woods. He shared some stories of deer he has shot from there. We were talking about the boundaries of the ground...you know, just everyday hunting talk. Well, then, as we were turning the truck around to head out of the woods, we both looked at the right time (or the wrong time depending on how you look at it), and there was a guy running through the woods. HE WAS STARK NAKED! There were no cars around the property, no evidence of anyone living in the woods in a tent or anything...it was the strangest thing. Needless to say, I have never offered to check this guys trail cams...I saw enough (too much) that day.

If I were the brother pay back would be so much fun.

Originally Posted by ReelfootSlabs

Ok i got one... it was a joke on my brother right before he left for iraq. Me and one of my buddies took my brother on his first deer hunt last year and my buddy had one of those Yetti "Bigfoot" costumes. One of those good expensive ones like on the Jack Links commercial kindof. Anyways, we told my brother we were going to drop him off and go somewhere else and that we had already loaded his gun (which we didnt) and then we would come back and pick him up later that evening. Hes so gullible so we told him that there have been bigfoot sightings all around the area we were huntin and told him to be cautious. Well we dropped him off near a stand and we drove on down to the field over and just waited for dusk. My buddy is a big guy and when he put that costume on it looked just like a big hairy yetti creature. Well as it started getting dark we snuck close to my brother and i sent him a txt message tellin him i was on my way and to meet me near the trail. so when he started climbing down my buddy took off in a full out sprint in his yetti costume towards my brother!!! My brother screamed like a little girl.... and took off running as fast as he could, and let me tell you, i have never seen him run so fast... My buddy was doing this grunting noise like an ape lol. My brother never stopped running until he hit pavement a near 2 miles away. When me and my buddy got to our truck and went to pick him up we couldnt find him. So i called and he said he had run into a nearby house with some folks he didnt even know and was telling them to call the police that he had just saw The Yetti!!! LOL. We later explained what had happened and he was mad at first but now looks back on it and laughs every time we talk about it

No offense but this sounds like an excellent way to get some killed. Did it ever cross your mind that he might stand his ground and shoot your friend out of self-defense?






Anyways, my story is from hunting a plot of land that was WAY out in the boondocks. No houses for miles and a small river running through it. Anyways, I got there while it was still dark. I freely admit, I always get spooked when I enter the woods and it's still dark. But this time put it over the top. I had just gotten seated in my stand and was taking my "okay I'm settled and ready" deep breath when about 50 yards behind me I heard what sounded like a baby being murdered! This was by far the scaredest I've ever been in my life. Of course I was bow hunting so my self defense was minimal....I didn't know whether to climb down and take off running or drop the bow and just take off climbing by hand 20 feet higher in the tree.

It seemed like an ETERNITY for the sun to come up and I was really freaking out when I started hearing foot steps in the leafs. Something was coming right toward me from the river. I was about to have a heart attack when it finally came into view and sounded off again. It was a daggone bobcat.

I can tell you that I've never been so relieved in my life. But honestly, I don't think I ever went back there again once that day was over.

Originally Posted by ReelfootSlabs

Anyways, we told my brother we were going to drop him off and go somewhere else and that we had already loaded his gun (which we didnt) and then we would come back and pick him up later that evening.

Originally Posted by ekim22

No offense but this sounds like an excellent way to get some killed. Did it ever cross your mind that he might stand his ground and shoot your friend out of self-defense?

I was thinking the same thing, good way to get someone shot, but it's hard to shoot someone with an unloaded gun.
And as bobcat will scare you in the dark.. I often fear coming across them on my way out the woods.