Chris_H

Last year late in the season, I was sitting my stand on the edge of a field. There was no activity, and it was getting pretty dark. Boredom began to take over when 3 American Kestrels began scanning the fields... probably for rabbits and rodents. I don't know what I did to attract their attention, but the next thing I know, all 3 of them are screeching and false charging me! They would randomly fly straight towards me while calling, and then at the last second they would cut a dime to the left or right and repeat the process. I figured enough was enough, so I took a decent size stick from a limb beside me and chucked it at him the next time one of them took a straight shot at me. Haha ! I hit that hawk right on his dome! He kinda shuttered and flew off. He sounded kinda angry when he was retreating. His buddies followed...

Rick C.

More my stupidity than scary. Went bow hunting in full camo a couple of times during squirrel season on public hunting land.As I was walking through the thick stuff, the silence of the woods was broken by a shotgun at about 20 yards, didn't even see the guy through the brush. Another time I was in my stand and had a guy shoot up into a tree next to me, heard a bunch of shot hitting the leaves above me.

Now I have some orange on when I walk in or out, tie some orange around the tree when in the stand.

- Rick C.

Freezersfull

I think Hunting fool 42 hit the nail on the head...You hear the crack of a 30.06 or .270 about 100 yards away from you; that will scare the crap out of you when you think your the only one in the area...

younggun308

One of my hunting buddies said that one of his friends was bowhunting in the morning for deer in the woods, near a river, and as he was glassing, this bobcat shrieked 25 yards or less from his stand, and it scared the heck, crap and sanity right out of him, lol.

robbcayman

I always carry my glock for instances just like that. If anyone would have even fired a shot in my Dad's direction I would easily draw down on them. I am about protecting my family first, and worried about the consequences only later. That is just plain nuts, and I am glad no one got hurt.

Hooker

Last season I was sitting in my stand watching a coon piddle around in the creek about 10 feet from my stand. He worked his way behind me and then all of a sudden I hear something big crashing through the leaves and I hear the most awful screech/scream/gut wrenching shrill I have ever heard. I just got real still and didn't move. I was almost too scared to turn around and look behind me. I then hard the sound of crunching bones and slowly turned around to see this huge bobcat chowing down on that coon I was just watching. It scared me to death when the coon screamed. I swear, it made the most horrible sound I have ever heard. I can't even begin to try and describe it.

tschaef

No question, it was while a group of us were standing around planning a hunt when a large lab came running out of the bush and knocked over one of the guys, he fell backwards and the butt of his lever gun hit hard on a flat rock while I looked down the barrel (tried to react but it took a 1/2 second to happen).
Just another reason to only hunt with safe people that use their safety's and empty their chambers around camp.

HoytUltratec

Well it was 3:15 sometime after school when me and a couple buddys decided we were gonna wake up at 3:30 and do some yote hunting we had no specific location but had 4 places we could go we decided to try a farmers land that we knew well and said it was ok to take the pesky yotes off the land whenever we felt like it, well we go set up in a ditch line with a few trees and right next to a field, we set the tape recorder up and let it run and did some calling we waited 45min or so and nothing so we decided to pack up and walk out to a new location when we heard something traveling through the marshgrass behind us, almost as if something was following us, so we turned around and shined are flashlights in the direction, sure enough about 70 yards away were 3 coyotes, making quite a bit of noise so we turned the spotlight on just to make sure and sure enough 3 coyotes i was the one carrying the spotlight at the time so both my friends put there guns up and each fired 1 time, coyotes scattered right and left, we went to go look to see if we hit one but werent sure where or how far theyd been so we came back later that morning to find a nice coyote.

mcraddock

I got the scare of a lifetime while walking to my stand one morning well before daybreak. I used the paved road to cut the distance and as I stepped of the asphalt and onto the dry leaves in the culvert, I hear the most god awful scream right in front of me. I was frozen with fear and didn't even bring my rifle up out of terror. A few seconds later I hear something walk off but I didn't get my flashlight up in time to identify it. Could've been a bobcat or sometimes deer can scream like that I was told. So much for trying to walk in by moonlight.

mcraddock

As for owls, I had two Barred owls flare 3 ft from my face while turkey hunting a few years ago. They liked my calls and detected the slight movent of my hand on the stick and slate. Must of looked like a meal to them and they were on me beforeI could even register what was happening. Owls feathers are shaped for silent flight and man are they effective.