Kelly/KY

Alright Dave's post takes the cake. That's just ignorant.

My scariest was having the bottom of my climber slipping out from underneath me and me hanging by my hands off the bottom section 10 feet of the ground. Probably not life threatening, but scared the crap out of me. I learned a lot that day and still to this day avoid climbers if I have another option.

Kel

jmbuckhunter

That is why you tie the 2 parts together!!

Kelly/KY

You'd think i'd thought about that before I started, huh? I'm an idiot and I was new to climbing. Never again though.

mobow

I had a tree within 30 yards of the tree I was fall over once.....And it wasn't a small tree either....I can say this for sure.....Trees that fall in the woods DO make noise.

bloodcrick

last season when in the dark in my climber. I had forgot to tie the two sections together and was attempting to move the bottom section with my feet while sitting, sending it 25' to the ground leaving me stranded in the upper section.

Windwalker7

I'm an avid Pennsylvania archery hunter. I spend alot of time in the woods each year. I hunt many areas but this one area was different.
I'd always get the creeps when I use to archery hunt there. I hunt lots of places but nowhere gives me the uneasy feeling that place does.
I had a weird thing happen there one time. It might have been a bobcat growl at me. I don't know. I've heard a few recordings of bobcats but the didn't sound quite like this. Here's the story.

It was back around 1987. I was archery hunting near some apple trees. I've taken a few does here with a bow in the past.
Just as the sun was setting I heard a rustle in the leaves behind me. I turned slowly and saw three does. I waited for them to work their way in front of me for a shot. It didn't happen. I could still see them but they weren't coming my way. I thought I should stay until they work their way out of sight. I never liked being in those woods after dark for some reason. I didn't want to spook them when I climbed out of the tree. I hoped to get a shot another day. So I held in that urge to leave.

It was getting quite dark when I started to climb down in my climbing stand. I lowered my bow to the ground and dropped the rope I just went down a notch or 2 when I heard a loud growl. ( it was loud and close. it almost sounded like someone saying " rrrraaaaaaarrrrrrrrr"
I instantly growled back for some reason. I was trying to sound bigger and meaner. I was trying to act unafraid. My first thought was that it was someone messing around. As soon as I growled it growled right back. I could feel the fear swelling inside me. I started to rationalize what it was. It wasn't a person. There is only one dirt road into there and I could see and hear any cars from my tree stand. I could hear the gravel poping whenever any vehicle went up or down that road. None went down since I was there. It wasn't a bear. Growl was too loud and higher pitched.

I did see a bobcat earlier in the week from that stand. I thought that might be what this was but it seemed so loud. It didn't have that nasaly snarl type sound that cats make. I wasn't sure it was a bobcat now. As I was thinking, it growled again. I started climbing higher up the tree. I was scared. It growled again. What ever it was it knew I was there. I thought surely a bobcat would have run when I growled back.

I got out my flashlight. It was really dim. The batteries were dead. As I was trying to shine the light it growled again. I considered spending the night in the tree. I waited a few minutes and weighed my options. It growled again.

I decided to make a run for the truck. I worked the treestand down the tree all the while yelling and screaming " get outta here ....get...get outta here..... go on... get.." I got to the bottom and unhooked the stand grabed my bow and ran. I had the dim flashlight in my mouth, my bow in one hand and the stand in the other. When I got to the truck, i had slobbers running down my neck and was out of breath.

I'm not sure what it was. It was probably the bobcat. The growl was odd. It was like you would be saying rrrrraaaarrrrrrrr. Like if you wanted to scare a little kid, how you would say the growl. The few recordings I've heard of bobcats sounded more like it had a snarl type sound. This didn't sound that way. It was quite different I don't know. What do you guys think? I would think a bobcat would leave the area when it would catch my scent. Why would it answer when I growled back? I've always got the creeps when hunting there.

eatsleephunt

I have a list of scariest stuff.

My first experience I consider scary was while putting up a hang-on style stand in a creek bottom in Illinois when I was about 18. I was on my way down from the endeavor, when I slipped and basically free-fell to the ground (approx. 16ft or so). The bad part was one of the tree cranks hooked me in the gut on the way down. I pushed off the tree during the free fall to avoid total pennetration, but I still have a hefty 6" scar from the experience. My grandmother (rest her soul) fixed me up that day, and slapped me in the head I don't know how many times for being an ignorant dingbat kid.

Things went pretty well for quite a few years after that, but I finally had another close encounter when I was about 26 in the state of Montana. Not knowing much about the mountains, I proceeded to elk hunt way out into them in the evenings. One night a low, black cloudy rain front came in about 45 min. before last light. I was way in on a system of logging roads and trails when it hit. No compass. No GPS. I came out of the woods on a logging road which was totally different than the one I had come in on. I ended up just sitting down on a rock on the edge of a huge clear-cut and waiting it out. Two hours later things cleared up enough that I could see some man-made light in one direction. I made for that light, and about two and a half hours later (after sliding down rock chutes on my butt, wading through a.. deep deadfall (I'm 6'-7"), and basically being beat to horse pucky, I made a road I recognized. 5 miles later I was at my truck, on foot, very tired, sore, and completely reeducated on how I was going to go into the mountains next time.

The very next year I was still hunting my way into some elk wallows also during bow season, and ironically in the very same area, when I had an extremely enlightening encounter with a furry friend. I heard an elk squeal on my wallow up ahead about a hundred yards or so. His cows were mewing somewhat excitedly, but no other bull was returning the favor. I thought hey...he he he... I'll just pull out my bugle and give him something to be ticked off about. As soon as I bugled a stiff triple bark came back at me directly from the brush, maybe 25-45 yards away. I thought, hey, what do ya know, there's a bull right there. I bugled again. The bark came back again accompanied by some aggressive stomping. I stood there, bow in my left hand and bugle in my right, wondering what the heck I had just heard. Suddenly, it dawned on me that I was facing a bear. Not only was I facing a bear, but my wind was now going directly to it, and it was still there, no quarter! I remembered someone telling me that a griz sow and two cubs had recently been seen twice in this particular drainage. Gulp. I put the bugle up, stowed the bow, pulled the .44 and began backing up. I know you guys want a juicy story, but I got out without actually having to face off the bear. I was scared enough.

I was told that If I wore bells and whistles while hunting, I would run the bears off ahead of me. I was also told that the difference between blackbear and Griz droppings was that Griz droppings have bells and whistles in it. The things you hear when you move to Montana. Whew...!

BuckRogers

livinfortherut what state did this happen in?! sounds a lot like the crazy jerks around here in Iowa. I dont even go out when its shotgun season. scares the daylights out of me. As far as the scariest thing... hmmm i literally had deer surround me one morning walking out to hunt yotes. it was pitch dark and then they all started snorting at me but didnt run away. I had my finger on the safety but like it would have done any good because it was so dark! Ive also had to "talk" a badger out of fighting with me. And by "talk" my rifle "Black Betty" did the talking for me. other than those two ive been pretty fortunate.

NMFowler

It was my first NM mule deer muzzle loader hunt in the Jicarilla Mountains. I had just left camp for the evening hunt. I walked about 1/4 mile down a hill and across a dirt road to climb over another hill into the land I intended to hunt. I was maybe 150 yards form the road when I heard the exhaust of an old truck moving up the road. I was on public land wearing full natural gear camo with no blaze orange (my own dumb fault). I knew that I could have possibly been mistaken for a NM mulie with the amount of grey I was sporting, so I sat down to wait for the truck to drive by before continuing up the hill. Then the truck came to a stop maybe about another 50 yards further down the road from where I was sitting. After the truck had stopped for about 30 sec the passenger fired a shot out of the window though the sparse timber on the hill side. I could see the entire hill through the open timber and there wasn't a single live animal other than myself on that hill. I heard the bullet as it smacked into a tree about the same elevation as I was sitting. Then I heard the shooter say "it must have been nothing”. After the truck moved off I went back to camp and put on a pair of jeans and a white long-sleeved tee for the rest of that day, and drove into town for an orange hat that night. Let this be a lesson to all public land hunters.

Cougar Mag

My elk hunt in the Flat Tops of Colorado in 2005. I was about 1 mile away from my buddies and while they waited for me to meet up with them one said on the walkie-talkie a bear was headed my way. I figured it might be the same one I ran into earlier that afternoon. I shut off my talkie so I could carry my GPS, flashlight, and bow. I figured what good was the radio. It was dark by then and all the way back I started getting more jittery as time went by. About 500 yards from where they waited I heard a loud snap sounding like a limb breaking from behind. I don't know if it was anything or not.....but the hair on my neck stood straight up and I was litterally talking out loud to myself just for comfort and to let anything know that a human was around. I finally was relieved when I saw their lights a while later. Bad enough walking back in the dark by yourself through a strange forest, let alone knowing blackies are in the area.