Gunplummer

I was bow hunting a mountain in Maryland and started to work my way down because the leaves were still up and it was starting to get dark. I hit the open area and it was a series of hedge rows and fields ahead of me with a creek in the middle. The fog was rolling in and I was heading for a small bridge to cross the creek. Moving across in front of me in the swirling fog was the white figure of what looked like a man. I had to cross that bridge so I kept going, but some weird thoughts were going through my mind. We came together near the bridge and it turned out to be a kid in a food service uniform with a tiny orange vest on that you could not see from the side. He had a shotgun and was hunting doves after work. I don't care who you are, if you are confronted with something like that you don't know what to think.

shottyhunter24

Was out coyote hunting, had the distress call going....the neighbors dogs were barking in the background......oh and i know what a wolf howl sounds like. As i was saying we had the call going and i stopped it to maybe hear any crunching through the snow. And i was with my cousin and there was this calmness in the air as we hear this very low and very loud howling that we could tell was coming from the swamp....now this was way too low to be a wolf howl and we could tell it wasn't a bear. So my cousin and i looked at each other and we both got up as quick as we could and ran to our snowmobiles. As we looked back we see this very tall upright figure that had thick brown hair...it had the head shape of a human but could push down baseball width trees with ease....we even left the blind out there till the end of the next deer season. I'm still convinced it was Bigfoot.

Krypt Keeper

A few others. Nothing weird just being out in nature.

sitting my stand one morning bow hunting, sun has just started to rise. There is an 85 acre pond to my right, swamp on my left. I am sitting in a funnel of woods about 35 to 40 yards thick that the deer travel through. Suddenly I feel the whole tree move as if something just hit the top of it. Next thing I hear is this terrible scratching popping sound (similar to a cat on scratching post) but louder and I can feel it through the tree.. I nearly pooped myself.. Then the tree jerked again and it was gone. 5 minutes later a couple trees away same thing happens. I finally see what it is. Bald Eagle sharpening its claws waiting for light to go fishing.

Hunting the Sieka deer on Assateague island a few yrs ago, when suddenly one of the wild ponies walk up on to you. Something so big yet quiet. Not little ponies either.

Walking to the stand at 5:30am and bunch of doves jump out in front of you.

Almost taken out by a hawk while in the stand. I am looking at the ground and suddenly catch movement at eye level. I look up in time to see a hawk coming at me. I throw my hands up and he hit the airbrakes a few feet away from me.

Doing some scouting with my brother in law. He is in the woods and I am walking the edge of an uncut corn field about 50 yards away. Suddenly the woods fire to life. The field sits lower that the woods, and there is a 5 or 6 ft tall bank.. Doe ran out of the woods and dove off the bank right over my head. I meet up with my brother in law and he mentioned he spooked up a deer. Yeah, I saw..

Scouting in started walking in chest high weeds. When suddenly the thought went into my head.. "wonder where that mountain lion is we been seeing?" Basically walked backwards back out to my truck 300 yards away.

I am sure I got more, just have to remember them. There is a great thread on Archery Talk about this. Think its 40 pages long.. Everything from aliens to bigfoot throwing rocks at people.

Daveboone

Certainly nothing paranormal, but I did get the bejessus scared out of me my first night bear hunting in Canada. I had a long walk in to my stand through a tunnel like path through dense cedars, leading to the bait site with scattered bones and the smell of rotten meat. Sets the stand for being uneasy. I had a presumed bear moving around behind be before dark, but I never saw it. When it was pretty much full dark, I started down my stand to apparently startle a bear in the brush nearby. It rushed the stand snarlling, snapping and smacking brush around. Needless to say, I was back up in a hurry! I could see the brush moving from its activity, and it took about 10 minutes to wander away, making its noise the whole time. It took alot of nerve on my behalf to get out of that stand and walk out! My guide informed me that it would have to be a very good bear to act like that, so I had to go back the next morning... in the dark! I didnt sleep at all that night! I never did see that bear though.I love bear hunting, and have been 3 more times since, but I admit...I am allways spooky walking out of the bear woods from my stand. It adds to the fun of it.

warbirdlover

I had a friend that was up in the tree bow hunting. He was 20 feet up. All of a sudden something grabbed his shoulder very hard and he turned his head to see a huge owl had landed on him. The owl blinked his big eyes a couple of times and took off. He said he never was so scared in his life.

trmichels

One of my scariest experiences was when I was guiding one of the owners of Federal Cartridge Corporation on an elk hunt in the Salmon River of no Return Wilderness Area of Idaho. I'd seen a grizzly bear scent post trree the day before. My hunters were tired, and slept in, so I thought I'd go out and do some early morning scouting. Realize that I am not allowed to hunt while I guide, so I do not carry a rifle, and I did not have a pistol. All I had was a 3 inch Buck knife.

Anyhow, I'm walking through the woodes, when I heard branches breaking on the ground off to my left, but behind me. Knowing it could be a bear, the hair stood up on the back of my neck, and I got more than a little nervous. I never found out what it was (possibly a pine squirrel droping pine cones from the top of a tree), but I learned how "crowded" it can get when there is only you and a grizz in the same valley.

I've guided in Colorado and seen Mountain Lion tracks that were made the night before (I know because it rained the day before), and in New Mexcico when I was guiding Bud Gant, coach of the Minnesota Vikings, and my horse spooked at a Lion in the dark one evening, and never got scared.

I've hunted both New Mexico and Minnesota for bear, or hunted deer in wolf and bear teritory, and I do sometimes get jumpy as I walk in to a stand in the dark. You really should talk to yourself or whistle when you scout or walk to a stand in the dark when are predator hunting - so you don't accidentally run into an animal, but if you do it, you may spook the animal you want to hunt. So, it is up to you.

One other time, when I was instructing students at a guide school in Wyoming, I was leading a string of six pack horses along the side of a very steep mountain just south of Yellowstone Park. The second horse in line decided he wanted to walk on a trail that was about 5 yards below the trail I was on. He went down to the trail, dragging the third horse along, which stumbled, and dragged the rest of the string with it.

I was afraid the whole string would loose their footing and roll down the steep mountainside. All I could think of doing was to hang on to the first horses lead rope, head my horse up hill and rake it with my spurs as hard as I could, hoping my arm did not give out, and that the first horse would help me pull the other 5 horses back up on the upper trail. And that is just what happened.

It so happened that the guide school owner Bud Neslon, was right behind me and saw the whole thing. He told me later that he had never seen anything like it, and that I saved him thousands of dollars in what could have been dead or injured horses and lost or ruined camp gear. He was very thankful.

I guess the worst scare I had was when I was guiding and had my 8 year old son along. The duck boat flipped over, and even though he had a life preserver on, I was still very worried about him. When I found I could stand in chest deep water, I pushed him up on the overturned boat. It was a cold ride home for both of us.

MZS

The funny thing is that I would normally be hesitant about roaming around in a pitch black woods, but if I am tracking a deer, I think nothing of it.

Scariest thing I heard was a bullet whizzing by me a second before I heard the report. The guy I was hunting with was shooting at a deer even though I was clearly in view behind. Since then, I hunt alone.

LightsOut7026

About 4 years ago I was bow hunting on a new patch of state land, so the first evening I get into my tree stand and 30 min before dark (prim time) I started to hear foot fall sounds in the leaves coming from behind me, and they started to get closer and closer. Then the sound of foot fall was right under my stand, so I looked down and nothing there, but I kept my eye's below my stand. Then I started to hear the foot fall again below me and I can see the leaves being crunched down, and I watched it keep right on going at the same time I can see the leaves being crunched down and moving. Never new what it was and took my stand down the next morning.

TeamWiscoUNIT61

I have a few stories from over the years...the things i've seen/experienced still get to me when out on the stand! I won't write a novel on here but I'll just say, i've witnessed, first hand,a big tall hairy creature, bipedal, walked upright on two feet, no bear, and no drinking involved.. people call it different things(im sure you know what creature im talking about), I'll just leave it at: I've seen it

AdamTheHunt

I've got one for ya.

Last year I was in my stand over looking our small food plot. I had just walked into the woods and literally clipped my safety harness and sat down, it was dark. I went to grab the haul line which was tied to my bow when suddenly something runs right into my bow which was about 5 feet off the ground tied to the haul line just dangling. It ran right into it and sprinted off behind me. I had no idea where it came from, where it was, or what it was doing. It didn't make a single noise until it actually ran into my bow, there was absolutely no sound at all when I was climbing up the ladder to my stand or when I was in the stand. Plus I was using a flashlight to find my way through the woods and had done a quick look around with it before I climbed up into the stand. The stand is right at the edge of the food plot where its just pure land around 40 ft X 40 Ft until it hits woods, no trees, or bushes for anything to hide in. When it ran off, it wasn't a trotting noise like a deer, coyote, fox, or squirrel. It was sounded more like something dragging itself across the food plot. I couldn't see it at all, too dark. I turned my flashlight on towards the sound but nothing. I thought maybe a bird, but it was PITCH black out, why would one be flying? Then I thought of a bat, but the force it had that threw my bow was WAY too much to be a creature no bigger than a TV Remote. I don't know what it was or where it came from.

That was a scary morning. That stand has been retired from that spot, as well as the hunting property and the food plot. We actually just checked out the property today, its all over grown and there are ABSOLUTELY no deer, raccoon, coyote, fox, bear, or any other animal tracks in the entire property. Hope I don't have to experience that again.