I had walked thru a thick area when I must of come 10 feet from a deer. It did its alarm call and broke the trees down exiting. But that was just enough that now I hate that sound in the dark. Even though I know exactly what it is.

haha I didn't know there were so many scaredy cats on this forum! nah just kidding, i was laughing reading this thread because i think i've had most of them happen to me at one point or another. I'm not scared of the dark but when you have a long walk through the woods at night you can't help but get a little edgy. coyotes also don't scare me but when you are walking through the woods at night and they start howling and carrying on it makes the hair on the back of your neck stand straight up. I know they are much too scared of me to do anything, but the sound of that howl triggers something in me, def has caused me to hustle out of the woods a few times. When it comes to scaring the living daylights out of me the biggest culprits are probably grouse and roosted turkeys. a grouse is a fairly small bird but when one takes off right out from under your feet they scare the living hell out of me. same thing with turkeys, so many times ive been sneaking through the woods when right over my head it sounds like an explosion and you look up just to see a turkey getting out of dodge.

Haha, yes, those two are both pretty notorious for that.

Man I'm so glad this post got started cuz now I don't feel as much of a sissy as I use to. Glad to know it's not just me that gets the crap scared out of me walking through the woods in the dark alone. I use to hunt this area that had a fire break cut through and I would walk the break til I got to where my stand was and then cut through the woods to my stand. The fire break is only about 8 feet in width and on both sides is thick woods. I was walking to my stand one morning in the datk on the break and out of no where this deer let out the loudest wheeze I've ever heard... needless to say My walking turned into a full blown sprint til I realized what it was. Another occasion I was walking through some pine thickets and I herd this crazy sound above me and looked up and all I saw was a huge black object flying over me..... this time I froze. I couldn't see cuz it was dark and then it flew into the little area of moon lite and realized it was a turkey that i woke up from its roosting. Out of everything though the worst thing ever is walking through the woods at night and hearing the loud ear wrenching sound of wild hogs squeeling... talk about an erie feeling.

After everyone reads these posts, I'm sure next time they are in the woods, they are gonna be thinking about this thread. Now all our brains are going to be thinking of Bigfoot (which mine does on occasion).[:@]

"My heart was thumping with adrenaline and fear. Quickly scrambiling to my feet and ready to shoot whatever it was, I had seen nothing."

Now that scares the hell out of me. To think it may have been someone else behind you, you were getting ready to shoot.....

Nothing wrong with getting ready to shoot. At least I didn't come back up gun's a blazin. And had I not been ready to shoot, it could have been Snow White and her 7 little devels about ready to massacre me.

I had 4 turkeys fly down from the roost about 15 feet from my head, while in my stand. That scared the crap outta me,I had no idea they were there.

i've flushed numerous flocks of Osceola Turkey's off their roost before day light, now this truely sounds like a chopper taking off. it's funny how startling something is when you least expect it.

The other day I was going to my stand when I heard something right behind me, I spun around gun ready and I heard it behind me again so I spun again and realized that it was my water battle rolling around in my backpack.

I had a freind that had some artilery simulators that he would rig with a trip wire on the trail to his friends stands. He would wait in the dark till they would walk by and trip the wire then laugh as the woods lit up and boom scared the guy crapless.