Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

enroute to your stand, when you hear something behindyou and scares the heck out of ya? Had that happen this morning.
I was walking down my normal trail with my mind off in La La land, thinking to myself what a nice morning it is. Closely resembles the cold winter morning you see in the scenes of "Christmas Story". The fresh snow was crunching under my goliath boots when I heard "another" heavier crunch behind me. I wheeled around on my heel at the same time yelling WTF, slipping and falling on my arse in the snow. My heart was thumping with adrenaline and fear. Quickly scrambiling to my feet and ready to shoot whatever it was, I had seen nothing.

Anyone else ever have the something like that happen?

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

Yes I have.

Maybe its just me, but lots of the time I find the woods to be a pretty scary place in the pitch black...

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

It happens to me all the time.

Bobcats and owls have both scared the crap outta me at some point. Hearing a bobcat scream or an owl hoot in the pitch black can seriously be un-nerving.

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

Ah yes... scared of the dark. it amazing what you mind does to your eyes when you cant see what is watching you :D. but yeah my imagination runs wild in the deep dark woods. lol

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

Ok, I have had quail leave a tree sounding like a helicopter bent for hell scare me before, but this was during daylight. 830 to be exact. And nothing else has ever spooked me like this before.

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

Screech owls use to scare the crap out of me before I realized they were a 2lb bird making that noise. Sounded like a rabid psycho horse creature ,running around the woods in the dark.

Over the years Ive calmed down and realized I'm probably the scariest thing walking around in the dark woods.

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

I had to LMFAO when I read this. This year in the Adirondacks, we got dumped on by the early nor'eastr. The 18+ inches of snow bent over many of the beech saplings. The snow caught in thier tops pushed them solidly to the ground. The morning I got my buck, I was walking through a small beech thicket and disloged just enough snow from a bow, that it wipped up in the air just as I walked by it, brushing me along the backside.

Startled the bejesus out of me!

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

I remember one night I'd stayed way after dark to avoid spooking a couple of deer that were nearby my stand, so on the quarter mile walk back to the truck, I heard something rustling in the brush about twenty yards from me. I figured it was just an armadillo, until it cut loose with a shrill, bloodcurdling scream that seemed to last forever. It sounded just like a woman being killed or something, it was that bad. Quickdraw McGraw didn't have nothing on me that night :Din a split second I had my rifle on my shoulder with the safety flipped off. Then it slowly dawned on me that it was a bobcat. [&:]I've heard them scream countless times through the years but never that close. After cleaning out my drawers with some leaves and a stick I headed to the truck ;)

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

One of my biggest problems is seeing things that aren't even there. I'm sitting in my tree stand and it's dark but you can see just a little bit of light coming over the horizon and I'm looking down @the ground and I could of sworn I just saw deer walk right below me!LMAO!

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

What I can't stand is when you're hunting in the evening and it's getting just dark enough for your eyes to start playing tricks on you, and then you THINK deer are maybe 100yds from you but you start saying, "Well, they could be shadows.."

Then you have to stay in your stand a good bit after shooting light because you can't bring yourself to risk spooking the deer.

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

haha..I cant begin to count how many stumps and clumps of tall brown weeds have morphed into deer right before my eyes in low light...and the harder i look at them the more "deer like" they seem to get...

glad its not only me LOL

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

Had a screech owl scream at dusk in the woods when I was setting my stand up. I couldn't run faster.

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

The woods i use to hunt had a creek running threw it and i always use it to get to my stand . I might add i don't use a flashlight just use the light of the creek to get me where I'm going .Anyway one night i was was walking down the creek way past dark with my bow in hand when i heard yotes on both sides of the woods , I mean they where yapping like crazy .Talk about putting the hairs up on your neck. I continued walking but with one hand on my knife ready to pull it if i had to.Once out of the creek i had to walk a long field to get to my truck I had my eyes looking everywhere and my ears wide open for any sound coming towards me, I finally made it to the truck got in and let out a big breath thank god . If you let your mind run wild it can scare the hell out of you.

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

Two years ago my dad was sitting in a stand near mine, he heard a deer walking behind him so he was watching to see what it was when all of a sudden two wolves about 50 yards on both sides of him were running full speed towards this and two more wolves were trailing inbetween the other wolves, they were funneling the deer. He heard them crash away from him but never heard if they got it, Im sure they did (wolves are intense) ever since then i have that feeling every time I go out to my stand. We have bears in our area too but they dont scare me as much as wolves

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

yea human imagination is a fickle beast.

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

Sounds like something under the snow, that you stepped on, popped back up.
Really it was Big Foot following you.

When I was 23 I was squirrel hunting.
I was walking on a old logging road.
I came to a cyrcle about 20 yards around.
A big oak tree in the middle.
A squirrel was in it.
It kept running to the other side.
I walked around 3 times.
The last time I came back around, A Giant Doe, and 2 other does jumped up at my feet and ran.
I scared the you know out of me.
I walked right up to them at least 5 or 6 times.
I was looking up, and didn't see them laying there.
After I got over that, I went back with my bow.

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

This thread is absolutely hilarious.

I hunt on a family friend's multi-hundred acre farm, and he has a rather large herd of cows and a few bulls that roam free on the land. They tend to stay either in the corn fields, in the winter, or near one of the various barns. Typically I hunt out of one of these barns, because they offer protection from the wind,a blind effect, and a window or hole in the wall to pop my rifle out of.

On my most recent excursion the owner had moved a piece of equipment in front of my hole, about four feet from the wall. I couldn't complain, it wasn't my barn, and it was a private farm to hunt on. I crouched, cramped in sub-freezing weather, in front of the hole, propping up my rifle. The herd had been moving around the barn, their mooing and munching was pretty loud. I sort of saw this as an advantage, their noises covering up most of my quieter noises. The deer were used to the cows at this point.

After about an hour and a half of not moving in the cold, I had mostly forgotten about theherd, and Ifelt a bit... uncomfortable, to say the least. I started to shift my weight backward to put my other leg underneath me. As soon as I moved a big cow RIGHT next to me outside thebarn entrancelet out a loud disgruntled moo and stamped the ground, and stared at me. Having forgotten about them, focusing on the hillside outside of themakeshift window,this scared the Holy Bajesus out of me! I fell back, my head and rifle hitting the machinery behind me. Now I had a pissed off cow five feet away, a bump on my head, and that little episode probably scared all the deer away!

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

Anyone ever get the feeling when your walking out to your car in the parking lot and something is watching you? I've had that happen to me many of times, and some of the time I go to a dead run for my car.

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

I used to let the yotes make me a bit nervous, especially when you hear a pack of them at night as your walking out.. But they are still there if you hear them or not..

Then I started thinking about how dang hard it is to shoot one while hunting them. If you make the slightest movement they are gone with the wind. Very skiddish and have never done anything but run from me.. In IL we don't have bears and not really any cougars (though there have been a few seen) so really there isn't much that is going to "get you"... cept yerself!

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

Coyotes honestly don't bother me in the slightest. As you said, they're insanely skiddish, and far more scared of you than you are them.

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

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.

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

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.

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

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

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

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.

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

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).[:@]

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

"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.....

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

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.:eek:

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

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.

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

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.

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

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.

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

:DRuger, that one takes the cake!

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

I've had a owl come at me in thestand, that ws wild. Of course turkeys and grouse and deer you don't see until they bust out right next to you. The dark, I was wearing my felt scent pads of estrous. Walked in in the way dark to my ladder which is a bout 1/2 mile into the mountain. I stop evry couple hundred yards to frshen. Anyhow I got in my stand and when it starts getting light I look uoa nd here comes Yogi, dead in my tracks down the trail past the stand! I always walkj past my post w/ the pads. He comes to the end of the trail and starts looking as the scent is gonme. That's when I asked where Boo-Boo was. So in the end I scared him, but i always keep thinking what if he had started down that trail 20 minutes earlier................

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

I remember I went out the next morning after watching the blair witch project for the first time. I was hearing things everywhere, then two foxes got under my tree and started their screaming. i was nervous til the light came!

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

My hunting partner is terrified of the dark, I have to about hold his hand going to a stand, it's quite a shame. I don't worry about bobcats and coyotes. If they want a piece then they can just bring it. Bears now...during last bow season while walking back to my truck in pitch darkness a blackbear decided to come crashing onto the trail right infront of me. It's the only time I remember intentionally throwing my Hoyt to the ground and I bet I could have made Billy Bonnie proud with how fast I had my SAA drew out and hammer rolled back. Luckily it took off after figuring out what I was. I jumped another on one of the mountains I hunt shortly after that incident which was funny as crap. Me or the bear didn't know each other was there until about 20 yards away. He jumped up and slipped and rolled/tumbled about 50 yards down a steep mountainside before getting his composure. I've only been scared one time though where I couldn't figure out what had scared me. Something made this horrible yawning schreek sound when I was checking traps late on night that I can't place to the mouth of any native wildlife.

RE: Ever be tip toe'ing in the woods...
 

I was scouting through the woods one summer day around late August about 4 years ago and was mainly out checking for any deer sign. We have a swamp out back and i kept on hearing this crunch sound just off to the back of me, so I decided to stand next to this tree big oak tree and hold still, sure enough it was a big black bear. I didn't even take a breath, better yet, I couldn't. I was only about 17 when this happened. It just went on it's way minding it's own business, but I can tell you that if I've ever felt my heart in my throat, that would be it! All in all, it was pretty neat to see a bear in the wild. Doesn't happen very often where I'm at.