I can only think of once that I've ever been scared out in the woods, and I'll tell you, I was terrified. I wasn't deer hunting, but rabbit hunting with my beagles. We were hunting in the Black River bottoms in Missouri, and we came up to a large tree that had gone down during the growing season. All the leaves were still on it. As my first dog got close, he froze, growled and then his tail went between his legs and he started backing off. I don't know about you, but when my dog is walking backwards, growling with it's tail between it's legs, I get worried. I looked back at my other dog and he wasn't coming anywhere near that tree. Hehadn't winded whatever it was yet, but he was taking the que from my other dog, and histail was between his legs also. I was only standing 20 feet from the tree when I said out loud "what's wrong, boy" and as soon as the words left my mouth, I heard a deep, gutteral growl come from that tree. My gun snapped up, safety went off, the hair on the back of my neck stood on end and I felt that sick feeling inmy gut you get when you know you're in real trouble.I did the only thing I could do. Backed off... real slow... just knowing something was going to come charging out at me. Imust have walked backwards through the woods for a half mile with my gun at the ready, and then kept looking over my shoulder all the way home, which was about 4 miles. I'll never know for sure, but I'm convinced that the only thing in that part of MO that could have made that sound was amountain lion. I don't believe we had any bears around there. I never saw any sign. Either way, I sure wasn't going to try to find out with only a 12 gaugewith #6 shot.