Rob/PA Bowyer

Sometimes it' s not the fear that something is going to hurt you because you are human, it' s that the animal doesn' t know you are human....I' ve had several occassions where either foxes or yotes come in hard on you in the dark, a quick flash of the light usually stops them dead....and they move on quickly....I doubt they are targeting me, just crossing paths at unexpected timing.

ostdc

My fear isn' t what is going to " get" me as I' m walking in or out. It is losing my footing while climbing into or out of the relatively unknown tree in the dark without my saftey strap attached. I really don' t want to fall out of a tree.
I' ll often climb out of the tree while there is still enough light to see and find a spot on the ground for the last 10-15 minutes.
Brian

PABowhntr

I do not know about the rest of you but I am usually too darn excited when I am headed out to me treestand spots early in the morning to be afraid of anything. I can just feel the adrenaline pulsing through every inch of my body and that rush of confidence knowing that I am going to get my deer in only a few hours...

...ofcourse, by the time 9 am rolls around and I do not have my deer then the adrenaline wears off....but it is light by then...

I carry a flashlight whenever I walk in the dark. Can' t be too safe where I hunt though I do tend to get there hours before the regular yahoos.

RedAllison

dp how old are you? If you are young and/or new to deer hunting I can understand your " spookiness" with the woods in the dark. Once you get some confidence and realize that there is NOTHING out there that isnt more afraid of you than you are of it (unless you are in Grizzly country!) you will then be able to shut that flashlight off and walk to your stand in complete darkness without worry. I LOVE the woods and all the creatures in them big and small (I' m with ya on snakes tho, HATE EM!). I keep flashlight use to a minimum and rarely " bust deer" when taking it easy and going in quietly and in the dark.

It will come to ya,
RA

ps
lmao @ Mayer, those webs are TRUE " headnets" lol. Luckily they disappear after the first frost or so. Thats why under such conditions I carry my bow directly out front of me. That knocks down the " headnets" and also prevents small twigs from hitting me in the face or eyes. Try it!!!

Macdaddy

The only time that walking in the dark got real heebie jeebie was when I hunted the Taylors Fork drainage in MT just south of Big Sky. For those that have been there the sign that reads " dangerously high GRIZZLY population" is enough to start your hart once or twice on a walk back to camp. On the walk in we encountered a huge fresh track with a little track right inside of it. That gave me the willies for sure. I think it' s different when you go from hunter to hunted. Oh yea the 4 or 5 cats we saw were a little concerning also!~

Back here in WI there is nothing to worry about where I hunt. But every now and then I feel like I' m being watched,,,, and there he was gone.

dpv

Red, I' m 36. And I know it' s silly. I went out this morning before light to scout and get a couple squirrells. Found some good sign and took two squirrells. I spent 7 years in law enforcement, a few years in the army and have 8 years hunting behind me. I' ve also done some extended hiking/camping trips alone. Fell out of a tree in the swamp on the last day of the season cause I waited till full dark to try to come down. We don' t have much in the way of dangerous game here. Black bear and some mountain lions(or so the rumor goes). And it really isn' t the game that I worry about. it' s just that feeling when you are walking thru the woods just fine and then WHOOSH all the hair on our body stands out and the adrenaline pumps so hard that you want to puke, crap your pants and fight like hell all at once and you can' t figure out why. it' s when the " spider sense is tingling" and I can' t pinpoint a reason. I trust that feeling. have had to trust that feeling before and that' s what I dread. At least I know it isn' t just me.
Also this morning I experimented with an orange lense cover for my LED flashlight. it works better than the red one and gives just enoug light to keep me from breaking my ankles.

David

3 Step

I remember the 1st time the the truck dropped me off. It was at midnight and my " blind" was at the end of a 200 yd trail, surrounded by a swamp on all sides. As the truck drove off and its lights dissappeared over the hill, it became the darkest and scaryest place I had ever been. I could litterly not see my hand in front of my face. There I stood 10,500 miles away from home, an m-60 in one hand and a metal box of 308' s in the other. That was back in ' 69 and, believe me, it was super creepy! I was down right skeered! But I got over it and now a walk through an Arkansas pine thicket on a dark night is pretty nice.
And you know, there are 10s of thousands of our country' s sons that wish all they had to worry about is walking upon a skunk in a pin oak flat, or a copperhead on a pine ridge back here in the good ole USA.
Good Luck!

bscofield

SPIDERS

This is a serious concern of mine (fellas, that' s the smart-sounding way to say that I' m skeered spitless of spiders)...
I have a feeling that I' m going to run into a spider web one day and let out a sound that sounds SO MUCH like a doe bleet that I' ll be charged by the 4 closest bucks!

I HATE SPIDERS!

Dan324

I would rather walk thru the woods at night than walk thru the city. I grew up in the country though, I guess it is just natural to me.

Rogue

I remember one morning before daylight walking down to the meadow in Montana to catch the horses. There was just enough moon to barely see, the fog was setting low and as i got close to what I though was the first horse grazing somthing stopped me. What I had thought was a horse was a large boar grizzly feeding in the meadow. I stood at 40 yards with nothing more than a halter in my hands.

That bear fed away from me as i slowly backed up, he never knew i was there.

I was a tad jumpy for a while after that, but now that I dont live in grizzly country I love the woods in the dark.