What's the Scariest hunting situation you have had ?

[fasteddie]

What's the Scariest hunting situation you have had ?

Here is mine ..... After I retired I started shooting woodchucks for farmers just for something to do . I shot most of them in Walworth , NY for a few farmers . I was not familiar with muck fields and had never been near one until I was on some property in Walworth . I was going through a muck field and was attempting to cross a ditch rather than walk a quarter mile and cross over a culvert . The ditch level was over 4 feet lower than the field level . It looked reasonably dry and I could see raccoon tracks on top of the ground . I climbed down the one side and took a step and my foot sank into the earth almost to my knee . My foreward momentum  caused me to take another step and I threw myself forward so my hands and gun were on the other side . I tried to move my legs but couldn't . All I could think of was quicksand .........

I started to panic as I didn't have a phone , I was over a mile from any house , and I was 4' lower than the ground level . I calmed myself down and again tried pulling my legs out of the muck and wasn't having any luck . I pushed my rifle up the bank as far as I could reach which wasn't far . I grabbed the back of my jeans behind my knee and pulled while hanging onto some brush . Was able to move it a few inches and then the other leg as I grabbed some higher brush . I finally got free but my heart was pounding a mile a minute .I sat there for at least 15 minutes until I quit shaking and went back to my truck . I saw the farmer a couple days later and told him about my experience and the old fart just laughed . 

Nothing like learning a lesson the hard way !  This was scarier than the time I had a guy shooting at a deer that was running up a bank toward me and I had to drop on the ground and lay flat while the deer almost ran over me . 

[The_Real_TCIII]

I took the Express elevator down a tree in an old TSS climber, that was scary. I also got very lost tracking a deer in very cold sleeting weather but it turned out I had done a huge circle. Never got that deer


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[Four Season Whitetail's]

Early Muzzleloading season, I hear my buddy shoot at dark on the other side of our farm, I drive around the other road to meet him at dark and he is standing at the road gate. shot a doe at last light. We throw the guns in the truck and grab our lights to head back in, He was a new hunter at the time, we find the doe in an old grown up field, he never gutted one so he held the light as i went elbow deep. A few minutes in the light is gone and i say,,hey cant see here? He says i heard something run thru here. I saw..whatever get the light down here, i get back to the job at hand and the light is gone again, this time i hear something also and stand up from being bent over with blood dripping off both arms only to see a Coyote standing about 20yds away snapping and showing teeth as his 2 buddies stand back maybe 30-40 yards. Before i could do anything my buddy freaks and starts screaming like a school girl and i start hollering at it with a fake charge, lucky for us it worked.  Not A Pleasant Encounter!

[First-light]

The feeling of being lost in the woods is never good. I have had this happen a few time. I guess the wort feeling was being up in a ladder stand and hearing shots and then the whirling of the bullets (3) passing very close to me. I had no where to go to protect myself. Needless to say that stand with the way the land slopes does not get hunted at gun season anymore.

[airedale]

A coon hunt years ago me and my hunting partner go in to my treeing dogs and find them barking treed at the base of a huge 60 foot spruce tree. All the other trees around it were hardwoods with no leaves where any treed Coon could be easily spotted but those old Coons are smart and this Coon climbed up into the big spruce thick with branches and needles where he could not be seen.

I shined the tree with my spotlight for about a half hour and finally saw one of the Coon's eye shine at the very top of the tree for a split second so I knew for sure he was up there but no part of him could be seen to take a shot.

Now back in those days a good big prime Coon hide was bringing $50.00 so there was no way I was going to give this Coon a pass. When I was a young guy I could climb trees like a monkey so that was my plan, climb up to a place where I could see the coon for a good shot and take him out.

Took my coat off and with my S&W K22 revolver in a shoulder holster and a 4 cell mag lite flashlight up the tree I went. The three was so thick with branches that it was pretty easy climbing but those thick branches also concealed the Coon from my view. I had to go right to the very top and when I was about 6 feet below the Coon I could see him well enough for a shot. 

Now this was a pretty tricky situation, I was sitting on a branch with my legs wrapped around the tree trunk, the mag light in my left hand and the S&W in my right hand. It was hard to be steady and I drew down on the Coon and squeezed off a shot. The instant the gun fired the Coon bailed and where does he land? right on my shoulders!! So here I am screaming like a woman with my legs wrapped around that tree beating the Hell out of the Coon with my Mag Lite. My hunting partner said it was a sight to behold, from the ground it looked like Darth Vader battling an unseen opponent with a light saber. Well I finally knocked that guy off of me and he fell to the ground where the dogs finished him off but that was pretty hairy deal for a while with that growling Coon breathing down my neck. The dumb chances one takes when they are young and foolish, potentially getting yourself killed for a lousy coon!

Al

Edited January 16, 2017 by airedale

[vizslas]

Airedale ....you are my new hero... that right there was a live action moment hahaha

[Jeremy K]

Mine was probably the night i didn't see any of the usual bucks that were cruising down the hill at last light . It was a full moon that night ,i decided to stick around ,well past legal hunting time to see what the deal was . I hear some crunching and think ,i guess theyre running late today . I figured i would watch them go by and head back with the piece of mind they were still around . Nope ,its momma and 2 cubs. SOB if they didn't hang out about 100 yards out of site and frolic for what seemed like for ever (of course in the direction i needed to take back) The neighbors land runs along the side road , maybe a 500 yard walk through an over grown field , i decided that now was one of those times i would rather beg for forgiveness and went through the neighbors field (trespassing) to the side road and back home. 

[growalot]

I have had more than a few and you've all read them...

[NFA-ADK]

Compass is never wrong?

About 3 miles back in some thick woods I find a really steep trail covered with water, after sliding down the first few steps I turn back to still hunt my way out.  I get to the open section of woods and take the wrong trail out leading to a pond I did not see on the way in.  So I go back to the open area and try to find the trial, I can not find it.  No big deal I though just take a compass reading and head towards the river.  Problem is the compass is showing my exit is down the steep wet trail heading in the wrong direction.  I headed back towards the river and made it about 50 yards from the crossing and recheck my compass, now it is reading correctly.   A few thanks where said in prayer at that moment.  One of the few areas in the ADK where you compass can be wrong.

This one is a bit long so bear with me. 

I am just going to swim across the river!

Camped at Lost ponds I have my buddy drop me off at the bridge by Moose River before first light.  I still hunt all day and make it back to camp about an hour after dark.  The next day my buddy hunts from camp and tells me to pick him up where he dropped me off the day before.  I hunted the hiking trail on the opposite side of Moose River looking for tracks as we had some fresh snow.  After hiking past our campsite with not one track found I head back early and get to about 300 yards from the truck before I turn the radio on.  I hear my buddy on the radio braking up bad but I do hear, stuck, by bridge, need help.  I run back to the truck still trying to talk to him and tell him to wait, I also caught on the radio the he wanted to swim across the river!!!   In a panic I drive back to the river and tell him to wait multiple times over the radio.  I get to the river and he is on the opposite side of me on the river bank(North).  "I am so tired, I am just going to swim across the river here" I said WHAT!?  After explaining how he would die and so would I trying to rescue him he took a seat on the bank and waited for me.  At one point I thought he was going to jump in the river and try to swim, one of the scariest moments in my hunting so far. I drove around the bridge to about 400 yards past where he was and left the truck running with the lights shining on my trail for easy exit.  After hiking in the thick swamp I was able to get to him, after a 15 minute rest I grabbed his gear and we headed out, he was soaked with sweat and exhausted.  I said "you still think you could have swam across that river with all these clothes, your gun and back pack?"  He said no, this location was deep and flowing fast.  Change of clothes and a hot camp fire and food fixed him up good but he was exhausted.  This was not an inexperienced hunter so his thought process at the time had me confused.  Exhaustion can be a big factor in making poor decisions.  (I figured he thought it would be easer to swim 30 yards vs hiking out in thick swamp 400 yards.)  Might have been easer if it was possible but not the safest, thankfully he waited for me.

"I was good enough for the Army but not good enough for Jeff."  (That's me.)  BS artist:  Me: I was at 3200 ft today on top of the mountain.  Him:  I was at 4200 ft.  Me: Did you leave the park because the closest mountain that high is miles from here?  Him: Maybe it was 2200 ft. Me: LOL In a heated conversation he asked me my weight then got into an argument the next night with another hunter after asking my weight he approached threateningly trying to get a response from me, it did not work.   Me: time to set up camp:  Him:  My back is bad I need to rest.  Camp done then all of a sudden his back is fine and he is ready to hunt?  Red flags flying everywhere on this guy then this happens.

I get back to camp and state:  I heard a shot, no answer from anyone.  Next day I am told one guy discharged his gun IN CAMP!  WT?  I was told after he left what happened.  Trying to relieve the presser on the fire pin he wanted to dry fire but never checked the gun, lucky he had the muzzle pointed up and no one was hurt.  Following year he calls and says I am ready to go up again, I said good luck but you are not invited to our camp, then he asks WHY?  That was his 3rd strike and he was out.  Gave him another chance at redemption but he never followed up, thankfully for me.

And some wonder why I am so strict with safety at hunting camp!

NFA 

No Fooling Around

Be safe! 

Most important job I have at camp is making sure everyone returns home safe, if you are a risk to that ending you will not be invited back!  Even if that risk is only to yourself!

NFA GETSOME

Jeff

 

[wolc123]

I only got scared one time while hunting.  It was at least 25 years ago.  I was hunting up in a tree-stand and saw a doe at the far edge of an open field on our farm.  She was feeding along the hedgerow and was about 25 yards beyond the effective range of my 16 gauge, smooth-bore slug gun.   I decided to climb down and try to close the range.   Before I got close enough, she walked thru the hedge-row.    On the other side was a long hay-field, about 100 yards wide, owned by a neighbor who does not hunt, but lets those of us on each side hunt there if we want to.   I made my way thru the hedge row, which was quite thick with brush.  I stepped out into the open and saw the doe out in the middle of the field.  I did not raise my gun, because I noted orange, right behind the deer, at the far back corner of that field.  I was also wearing a blaze orange vest and hat.   I felt the pressure wave of the first shot against my face a split second before I heard it.   It felt like someone had slapped me on the ear.   I hit the dirt, and the next 4 shots sprayed chunks of it all over me.  The guy never touched the doe, but scared me pretty good.   It took about a half hour for my heart rate to return to normal.  

I also got scared once while trapping.   That was about 35 years ago.   It was mid-winter and I was on my way back from checking traps on our old snowmobile.   I took a short cut across what looked like an open field.   A new subdivision was under construction, and I found myself on some thin-ice over a basement hole that must have been recently excavated and filled with water.   The ice broke and the sled went down.  I got soaked below the shoulders.   The temperature was close to zero.   I left it there an bee-lined it to our house, about a mile away.   Since I was already soaked, I took the crow-flies route, right thru the creek, rather than the long way around, over the bridge.   I was numb from the neck down by the time I reached the house.   I got out of my wet clothes, took a cool shower, and waited for my dad to get home from work.   We went back there with a long chain and his truck and hauled out the snowmobile.   It ran fine after it dried out.               

[Pygmy]

The first thing that comes to mind was my first Alaska hunt, a float trip  where my partner and I floated about 100 air miles down the Mulchatna River, which happened to be high due to daily rain at the time..

We encountered  sweepers, deadfalls, and lots of other hazards to navigation, any one of which could have upset and killed us due to drowning or hypothermia.. There were several times in those two weeks when you could not have pulled my ass off that boat seat with a tractor.....

[reeltime]

have had a few over the years while hunting.  the one that probably scared me the most was 3 years ago.

I was hunting with a friend and his 12 yo son ( his first year hunting)  we were setup for divers along the lake shore and I had also put out a few mallard decoys.  we were setting on/in among some big rocks.  I was to the left, kid in the center, his dad to the right. I had already laid out the zone of fire for the kid prior to legal shooting time, and again just at LST.

everything was good and we had a good number of divers when I look to the west ( my left) and I see a pair of mallards high but looking and cupping up to drop into the decoys.  a few soft calls and they were fully committed. When the time was right I raised the gun and dropped the drake mallard, next thing I know I am in the water! and my ears are ringing so loud I can barely hear..

Took me a split second to realize the kid had shot after I did at the hen mallard!!! he had shot at a dropping into the decoys bird right over top of my head!  I about completely lost my mind, probably said words he had never before heard in his life, his father didn't know what to say and as I told him probably best not to say anything to me.

We were done! I said we are picking up these decoys and we are done hunting! my hat still smelled of gun powder.... like I told him had he waited a split second longer he would have shot me right in the back of the head at point blank range!   Rest assured I will NEVER hunt with him again!

 

[growalot]

Pygmy,

I had a very good friend on such a trip in high school. They did flip and he nearly drowned...he described it and never was quite the same after. Then a year after graduation and buying a farm, everything he wanted,he was struck and killed by a semi along the side of the road...life's unpredictable.

[Pygmy]

Thanks, Growie...

                                     I'll be XTRA careful when I cross the street to go to Acorn for coffee in the morning....<<<grin>>>...

[airedale]

Here is another dilly and again it happened on a Coon hunt. I had my youngest son along that night and he was around 16 years old then. My dogs struck a track on the edge of a large section of forest and took it in deep, I would say we went back close to a mile before they made tree. When we got to them they had two big boar coons in clear view treed in two side by side in little white pine trees.

So I got the loaded magazine of my old Remington Nylon 77 auto 22 LR coon gun out of my pocket and loaded it up in the rifle and handed it to my son, I held the spotlight and let him pop both coons out. One at a time they both hit the ground like a sack of potatoes and the dogs were on them immediately to finish them. So after all the excitement was over  I put those two big boys in the large game bag of my old Carhart coon hunter's coat and we headed back to the truck.

I will tell you carrying two big 20 plus pound coons on your back trudging through a swamp in the middle of night with a dog on a leash yanking you around is tiring. Well about half way back I start to feel something stirring and moving around in my game bag and all of a sudden all Hell breaks loose. One of those big coons comes back to life and is in full battle mode fighting his dead companion in my coat. Thinking about it now and standing back taking the perspective of a spectator who by chance would happen to come upon that scene would have been crazy to say the least. 

My big fear when it comes to live coons is rabies, my dogs all have protective shots but I do not and the last thing I want to have happen is getting bit by a coon and have to go through a rabies protocol. Here I am running around jumping up and down yelling and screaming, first I have to get my rifle which is slinged crossway across my chest off so I can get my coat off. The two hounds hear that coon squalling and they are chasing me around barking up a storm. I get the rifle off and hand it to my son and get that coat off and throw it on the ground. Of course the hounds on now piled on to my coat trying to get at the coon dragging and mashing it in the mud. I almost took the rifle and shot the coat LOL but thought the better of that and find a good stout club. My son pulls the dogs off my coat and I then proceed stomp and beat my coat until I am sure that coon is dead. What a freaking deal!! When the escapade was over we had a heck of a laugh but it was a long cold wet walk back to the truck.

The trials and tribulations of coon hunting.

Al

 

 

Edited January 17, 2017 by airedale

[Two Track]

My two close bear encounters last spring while turkey hunting.

First encounter as in Sterling forest, one came in behind me 20 yards or less.  Since turkey hunting of course I had a tree at my back. Hear a huff, turned around and there was the bear. behind me.  Yelled bear and it ran off.

A week or two later on another state parcel, heard something move behind me. Look behind me, see nothing.  A minute later, same thing.  Figure it is just squirrel by the ferns.  heard something move a again, even closer, now I see a bear, 20-30 yards behind me. So, as last encounter, I yelled bear get out of here.  It runs down the slope I am on and across the trail I need to leave on.  I wait a few minutes and it comes back.  I yelled again, and it sounded like it ran further than just the brush on the other side of the trail this time.  I wallked on slope's ridge as long as I could see the trail below.  Then took the the trail back to the main trail/fire road to the parking lot.  The the direction the bear ran could have put him on/by that fire road.  Every squirrel and bird that moved, I jumped - all the way back to the car.

[BigVal]

I had just shot a doe and I got down to start gutting. After I finish up I was walking toward the atv when I see a coyote charging me, I put one between its eyes with a smug look on my face continue on. Then I see a squatch about thirty yards from me and he starts grunting at me causing me to shit my pants on the spot. Then he quickly turns and looks back as if to say good shot on the coyote that's dinner.

[dbHunterNY]

a few situations....

- first solo hunt as a youth.  never knew what a fox sounds like.  new/no moon light and flashlight batteries dead.  i was on the ground with it walking around wailing me at probably a close bow shot away.

- took a climbing stand ride down a tree trunk from over 20 feet up.

- this past season had a buck get close in the dark with dim head lamp shining on him.  rutting like crazy and he didn't know what i was and for a good few seconds i thought he was lowering his head gear handful of yards away to run me off until i made a noise. then he bounded back out of the light beam and watched me.

[wheelieman]

Outside of the fast way down the tree using a climber, There have been two times in my life where i was scared,I mean truly afraid, First one was on opening day around fifteen years ago, A large group of us set up a deer drive in Sampson State Park, The standers where on the north side of the patch we were pushing and we were coming from the south, Now if any of you have ever been in Sampson you know how thick and nasty this place is, Well the guy who set the standers out must not have been thinking very clearly, Instead of posting them up on a good wide trail where everybody could see one another he set them on a ditch line, Well that ditch line started out right by that wide open trail at one end and by the time it got to the other end the ditch was about 75yds away from that path, Essentially putting the standers in a diagonal line up through the brush, To make matters worse nobody could see one another and had no idea where anybody was, Well the deer busted out in the top half of this line and the shots started, The deer circled back into the drive and came out 168yds farther down the line of standers, When one of the guys, his first year hunting seen them he fired 5 times, hitting one of the deer, Then you could here screaming, Help! help! Then the radios went crazy, I heard my brother had been shot, So i hauled ass toward the screaming, I was relived to find my brother ok, But one of my friends lay there in a pool of blood, One of those 12gauge rounds had made it through the brush, It hit him right square in his right nostril and buried itself deep within my friends head, He was still alive amazingly, coherent and didnt seem to be in a lot of pain, Now people are losing it all around me, Trying to get my buddy to lay down, I seen that laying him on his back wasnt going to work, He would drown in his own blood if he did that, We propped him up allowed the blood to flow freely, It wasnt arterial bleeding but there was still a good sized puddle on the ground, It took almost 25 minutes for the ambulance to arrive on seen and stabilize him to be transported to the hospital, Where he under went surgery, The slug had shattered the bones in his face and had to be wired together, Thats not even the end of it, The slug had lodged about an 1/8 inch from the top vertebrae of his spine, The Drs. Decided it would be to risky to remove it and left it in, A  week after my buddy came home from the hospital he was laying on the couch watching tv, The shotgun slug worked its way through the soft tissues in his head popped through the roof of his mouth and landed in his throat causing him to choke on it, He manage to spit it out and it rolled across the living room floor, As far as i know he still has it, The slug almost killed him twice, 

The second time i was scared isnt as bad, But when somebody opens up and you can here slugs hissing past you, and see the leaves falling off bushes right in front of you, close enough to where you just stand there and dont know if you should move because you might get shot, measured it out 3 feet is how far away the bullets came, one more step and i would have taken atleast one round in the leg, 

Edited January 17, 2017 by wheelieman

[wolc123]

I am very thankful that I don't need to do deer drives to get plenty of venison to feed my family. Almost taking one to the head took all of the fun out of those for me.  Do you and your buddies still drive after that?  I rarely leave my stand or blind now, unless I know there are few if any other hunters around.  Still-hunting up in the Adirondacks is pretty cool.  

Edited January 17, 2017 by wolc123

[The_Real_TCIII]

Wheeliman you win

[Pygmy]

I agree with Real....Blowing a 12 gauge slug out of your sinuses is pretty scary....

It is almost as bad as the time I opened a door and saw my mother-in-law naked....

I had not mentioned that because #1, it was not hunting related, and #2  it is just too traumatic for me to talk about...

DAMN !!..Had to bring that up...Here come the VOICES again...I hope the Mermaid locked up the pistols again.....

[dbHunterNY]

forgot one...

hunting out of a tree down over a ridge with a field on top.  someone shot toward my direction.  little idea of how close or far away the bullet path was, but it was close enough to hear the bullet cutting through the air not hitting anything over my head.  it far enough away it didn't contact anything around me and sailed by.

[dbHunterNY]

yea wheelieman wins

 

[buckman4c]

I've been fortunate to have very few scary moments while hunting in 35 years but this past season made me pucker.

My son and I were riding our ATV's in to our bow hunting area when I saw a flashlight up ahead on the trail. I slowed and waited for my son to crest the hill. Once he caught up we continued on and I noticed the flashlight had moved to the side of the trail. As we approached and passed the other hunter, I look over and he has a hand gun leveled off at us as we ride by. Thought the guy was going to shoot me in the back. I also carry a sidearm while hunting and initially, for a very brief second, thought of going for my gun.

The move would have added risk to the situation as the handgun was on my "throttle" side which would have slowed the quad which was already only going about 5 mph and it was somewhat buried under my hunting coat anyway. Additionally and more importantly, my son was behind me and I didn't want to escalate an already risky situation by putting him in the midst of a gun battle. I butt puckered up the trail a little bit and called the local police about what happened.

They found the old fella and it became clear he's in the early stages of dementia. I didn't pursue charges and the old fella is banned from setting foot on the property.