Gangly

It was about an hour before sunlight when i found the pile of dead trees that i sit against along a deer trail that gets pretty well used. This was the first year that i hunted that area and I wasn't too familiar with the area, I just knew that a deer trail about 25 yards from the tree pile got used HARD. So I sit down on the ground next to the tree pile with some bushes surrounding my backside. Everything is quiet for about 10 minutes, but then it starts. I hear slight movements behind me, and its still pitch black so I really cant see much of anything. The movements get louder and more aggressive as time passes. I'm not sure what the noise is and its really starting to make me a little nervous. The noises behind me get to the point where I cant ignore them anymore, they are coming from left, right, and directly behind me and Im getting really nervous now. I slowly turn around, gun shaking slightly (It was cold of course!) when all of a sudden the world EXPLODES. Everything around me goes ballistic and I darn near die right then and there. Turns out, a covey of some sort of bird family was living in the bushes behind me and were slowly awaking for the day. As I turned around to see what the noise was, I spooked them and they returned the favor. A 2 ton grizzly could have popped out of those bushes and would have gotten no worse a reaction from me than those dog-gone birds did. Luckily, I had the rifle safety on and managed not to shoot a round into thin air.

The second most scary thing that ever happened to me was at the very same spot where a bird decided to land on my crouched back/neck just as the sun was rising. I do believe that bird will forever know what dancing camoflauge looks like.

Maybe i should try hunting birds sometimes seeing how they like to be around me so much

marshall9779

I believe it was the first time I went hunting with my Dad when I was 11 or 12. I was in the stand with my Dad and he shot a nice 6 pointer. We got it dressed and drug down the mountain to the cabin at the hunt club. My Dad hd not taken the bladder out so we hung the deer up and hes was in the process of cutting the bladder out. At some point a hornet had flown into the body cavity and spooked my Dad while he was in there with a knife. I was standing a couple feet behind him when it happened. He jumped back and swung his arm out. I was wearing an orange vest with a string that secured the front together. The blade of the knife sliced through the string on me vest barely missing my stomach. I think my Dad was more scared than I was although I was freaked out. Lesson: Don't stand directly behind someone when they have a knife and are working on a deer.

Edcyclopedia

I was tracking a deer during a heavy deafening snow. I walked into a patch of thick hemlocks where I was hoping to jump the deer that made the track.
As I was carefully weaving in and out of the tress I came across a guy with the same idea. Unfortunately he had his barrel pointed right at my chest,
as he must have heard me coming thinking I was a deer??[]
I jumped backed and almost crapped a brick. The SOB turns around and walks in the opposite direction, he never so much as apologized or said a word.
I quickly came to realize I was very lucky and a bad accident could of happen.

johnl

this spring I was turkey hunting with my son I hear a turkey gobble and he is coming my way. I get ready as I think the turkey was about to come out into the feild whenI see my son coming .The turkey was him with a gobble tube .needless to sayhe got a long lecture about stupidity

Rebel Hog

Face to Face with a Black Bear in the swamp in total darkness...

whitetail_fanatic

Thats happened to me a couple of times to, lol. Feels like your heart is going to come out of your chest, lol.

MadOtis

My scariest was when I THOUGHT I was lost... One portion of our lease was clear-cut about 5 years ago. As anyone in central GA knows, when you clear-cut in Georgia, lots of thorny crap and weeds grow up quickly. A buddy shot a bruiser one afternoon close to dusk and we tracked it for about 100 yards through this thick, sticky, thorny, mess. We finally find the buck, but we're so deep in this mess that neither of us can tell what direction to drag the d*** thing in to get out. Now, the ironic thing is, we've been hunting this lease for at least 20 years and we ALL know the terrain well enough to be able to say something like: "I hunted about 60 yards west of the 'S' turn by where that huge oak tree used to be" and we all know exactly where he was sitting; so, none of us carry compass'es. About 9pm after dragging for what seemed like 3 hours, we both looked at each other and asked almost simultaneously: "Shouldn't we have crossed one of the logging roads by now?" We knew we were lost. The bad part is, the stuff was so thick, we couldn't even see where the moon was in relation to us, so, we were basically dragging blind. After the panic set in and we calmed back down, we remembered the "golden rule" of our lease: "If you ever get lost, just walk up-hill." We started dragging this creature that we were both cussing at by this point up-hill. About 25 yards later, we bust into one of the logging roads... we know exactly where we are by this point... we're about 3/4 of a mile away from where the truck is parked (which was about 40 yards from where the buck finally stopped... we had been dragging parallel to the logging road through this stuff for hours and never realized it. Moral of my story: even though I know the terrain and land I hunt on, I now carry at least 2 compasses; one in my back pack, one in my pocket.

kodiakhuntmaster

I was sitting in a little valley in the black hills of south dakota. I had just got there and hit my "can" call followed by a few grunts. Well, I called in a mountain lion. It walked slowly downwind of me, and crouched down with his ears laid back. He was maybe 50 yards from me. I stood up and shouted at him, but he didn't move, just sat there crouched downlooking at me. So I kept yelling at him (which did nothing), and walked all the way back to my truck backwards so I could keep an eye on him. What freaked me out is that he wasn't scared at all! Just ready to pounce the whole time.

crokit

I was in my stand just outside of Attica, ny, in Bow season. A violent thunder/lightning storm blew in suddenly. Lightning struck a tree next to me{ later measured at 14 paces}. "Barked " me and took about two weeks for the ringing to stop in my ears.

afrdnckhntr

first time i ever hunted by myself a screech owl went crazy right next to me and almost made me wee my pants