Frightened in the forest.......
 

Alright guys and gals, I posted one on your funniest hunting story, so how about sharing your most frightening experiences in the outdoors. Even if you scared yourself.

RE: Frightened in the forest.......
 

I guess I should start this off...... When I was a kid, my dad and I used to go frog gigging. We were on the Sulfer River in NE Texas and had gone about 10 or 12 miles up the river when one of the guys in the party had gotten sick (due to a bit of over indulgance) and we decided to pull the boat on a sandbar and build a fire while waiting for him to regain his composure. While we were there, the other guy in our party of 3 1/2 spotted what appeared to be eyes at the edge of our fires light. Well, me being a 9 year old boy, I visioned many different boogers that may have come to the light to investigate the intrusion. My dad being the invinsible man that I'd always looked up to went to investigate, I grabbed a 4ft boat paddle and followed like a good son. Anyway, after a thorough look see, we found some fresh bobcat tracks in the muddy bank and came to a conclusion that was what we'd seen. As the 4 of us started back towards the fire, my dad decided he'd test everyones fight or flight reflexes and imitated the squal of a bobcat. The first 2 guys, took off in flight towards the fire and me, being armed with a 4ft boat paddle, couldn't let anything get my dad. So out of pure fear, I took a Mark McGuire swing at the source of the noise only to hit my dad flat across the chest abruptly stopping the sound. (As well as his normal breathing rate for the next 10 minutes) The real fear came when I realized that I'd just struck my dad and thinking of the possibility I may be the next victim of the boat paddle.:( My dad said he couldn't punish me for doing what came natural, but he has never tried testing my fight or flight reflex since. We laugh about it now, but it sure wasn't funny at the time.

RE: Frightened in the forest.......
 

Hearing Tazs' belch echo through the woods!!

RE: Frightened in the forest.......
 

My most intense moment in the woods took place this past hunting season.

My father had been attacked by two bull moose two days before this happened. We were hunting in an area I had scouted, and I was fully aware of the overabundant moose population.......but I failed to realize they had zero fear of people. It seems they have hardly any human contact, and therefore no fear whatsoever of people.

I had already filled my deer tag for the year, but took my rifle with me in case I might see a bear or coyote. I intended to make my way to a remote location and build a fire to sit by for the day, while marking it by GPS for future reference. After I had the fire going, I was walking around gathering wood - when I heard very loud footsteps and breaking branches. I looked up to see a cow moose staring me down.

Normally this wouldn't have concerned me, but knowing my father's experience with the rogue bulls I was a little nervous. The moose could have reached me faster than I could reach my rifle. I jumped up on a log, waved my hand in the air, and yelled "GIT!"
The cow just looked at me and walked a few steps closer. Then I heard another moose moving in my direction from behind a small knoll........I thought "great, here comes the bull.....now I'm screwed!"

Finally it's head peers over the top of the knoll and I see it is a calf. Now I feel a little better, but both of them are still closer to me than I am to my rifle. And no matter how loud I yell, clap my hands, and jump up and down, they don't budge. They take a few steps closer, the cow eyeing me hard. I jump off the log and run at her (while yeliing *&*#$^##%) and finally they both ease off a few feet. I kept running, turning towards the firs and grabbing my rifle.

The cow made a bluff charge, and I brought the rifle up, centering the crosshairs between her eyes. I did not want to shoot, but was prepared to if need be. I considered firing a shot in the air, but decided not to, and instead I charged at them again.....this time with my rifle ready. The calf took off at a gallop, and the cow ran and then stopped......looking back at me before taking off down the trail.

That was the most nervous I have ever been around wild animals.....moose are more dangerous than any bear, and deserve respect! In fact, a huge bull charged my vehicle last fall and totalled it!

RE: Frightened in the forest.......
 

Lady luck was with you my friend how is your DAD?

RE: Frightened in the forest.......
 

I won't take up too much space elaborating on his experience, but it all turned out ok. Basically he ducked behind a tree while he had the barrel of the gun almost to the younger bull's head.....he did a lot of yelling, bobbing and swerving, and stayed out of harm's way until finally the bulls gave up. It was a good thing he reacted the way he did IMO......if he hadn't kept his wits about him it might have been a very sad story.

RE: Frightened in the forest.......
 

I was rabbit hunting when I was about 14 years old, and I walked out of some brush between a cow and her couple hour old calf. She snorted and pawed the ground, putting on a hell of a display. Made one or two false charges. I made myself small, and moved backwards back into the brush. I had a 12 gauge shotgun loaded with #71/2 shot. I would have held for her head if I had to shoot her, but I was very glad she calmed down as I moved away.

RE: Frightened in the forest.......
 

I'll refresh this one a bit. I'm sure there have been more folks than this that have been scared a time or two. No one has ever had a covy of quail get up at their feet, parked the truck under a roosted turkey, picked up a deer that wasn't quite expired...............?

RE: Frightened in the forest.......
 

I was duck hunting on the Cheasapeak Bay and was snoozing a bit at midday with my arm resting on the side top rail of the blind and was awakened by a big blue herren (sp) that landed on my arm. You would have laughed your tail off if you had seen me trying to loose that thing, wings that spaned what seemed like the lenth of the blind, I thought it was going to pick me up and drop me out in the Bay somewhere.

RE: Frightened in the forest.......
 

I wasn't hunting, but once I was driving by an old cemetary, and out of curiosity decided to take a look at the grave stones. Nobody had been buried there for many years, yet someone was keeping the cemetary mowed. There were two graves over next to the fence and grave stones about 6 feet apart and the mower couldn't get between them and there was tall grass between the stones. When I went over there to look, a hen pheasant flew out of that little patch of grass. I bout' s*** my pants. I thought that ghost had done got me.