Scariest hunting moment?

[The Insurance Guy]

Short story. Was sitting in a ground blind that I told my son to clear of grasshoppers, scorpions, spiders, etc..... About 2 hours into it, I heard something crawling around the blind, I assumed it was outside on top the blind. I looked up and a tarantula dropped in my lap. Bottom line is the blind was ruined with me yelling like a girl trying to get out. I hate spiders, and I now check the blinds myself for my own peace of mind

Oh no. If that happened to me more than the blind would have been destroyed. I'll pick up a live rattlesnake but a spider is a whole other story.

I may have torched the country side to kill that one spider

[The Insurance Guy]

Yep this is basically how I feel

[Cowpolks-TR]

My scariest moment hunting was in Idaho. My dad took me on a bear hunt for my 16th birthday. On the last day the guide and I climbed what seemed to be a mile up the side of a mountain. My first shot on the black beat was at 150 to 175 years. The second and final shot was at 50 or 60 years. Didn't have time to get scared at the moment but afterwards it was pretty scary.

[muzzlebrake]

Nothing will make a grown man scream like a girl like a harmless covy of quail at 5 am. especially after killing 4 rattlers the day before.

[Geezy Rider]

Me and my son were hunting one morning out on our lease. He was about eight years old. I set him up in a tower stand then I went across the creek to hunt a clear cut, right of way.

I made a hasty blind out of some brush and settled in with my side lock muzzleloader. Within about thirty minutes I heard a deer coming through the woods approaching the clear cut, so I ear the hammer back from halfcock and level it down the right of way in anticipation of the deer stepping out. Sure enough, the biggest doe I've ever seen is standing about eighty yards away. I settle the iron sights on her and squeeze off the shot. When the smoke clears I can't believe my eyes.....she's still standing. I've never missed before. I'm dumbfounded. Since she's still there I go ahead and reload. Just as I ram the ball home the doe takes off. Well I'm reloaded so I decide to settle in to ponder how I missed and continue hunting.

Twenty minutes later I hear the steps of another deer approaching the clearcut so once again I bring the rifle to full cock and level it down the right of way and get ready. The excitement of the hunt is immediately replaced by complete fear when my son steps out into the clearing. My God, I came so close to shooting my son.
The barrel was not pointed directly at him and my finger was not on the trigger but just the fact that he was down range scared the living u-know-what out of me.

I called him over to me and asked him what he was doing walking around my hunting area. He said that he heard me shoot and came over to help me with my deer. I told him that I had missed. He said, "Dad? You never miss??" I said, "Yeah, well, we can't say that anymore now can we?

I sent him back to his stand and about an hour later I killed a decent eight point at twenty feet. This time he stayed in the stand as directed.

From then on we carried radios with us when hunting apart from each other.

After we got back to camp I shot the muzzleloader on paper and discovered that my sights had moved. They were adjustable sights and the screw had backed out.

[flywise]

Fell out of a tree way out on Ft hood long before cell phones.
cracked a few ribs but nothing much else. I got lucky and hit the ground real soft.
I hit every limb on the way down so i was going real slow.

Scary because i had to climb back up that dang tree to get my back pack

Another time, turkey hunting Ft. Hood (again long before cell phones)
way back in there off of Cow House creek i found a spot sit along a creek.
These dang cobra helicopters kept making low runs at tree top level down the creek which was fine with me because i love watching them. Well after about 15 minutes of sitting on theis cedar stump watching Helo's i happen to look down and there was a copperhead right between my feet coiled up. Have no idea when he got there and pretty sure i got 5 feet off the ground by just flexing my butt muscles because in the air i was still in the seated position

[Buckwheat]

Oh no. If that happened to me more than the blind would have been destroyed. I'll pick up a live rattlesnake but a spider is a whole other story.



I may have torched the country side to kill that one spider

This is me to a T!!!!!!

[Raypo]

Mine is pretty bad.... very close call and i have the shakes just thinking about it....

So I grew up hunting my grandparents ranch in Mason county. We would stay at their house in Brady and drive out in the mornings. We would stop at skinnys and i would get one of their hot links and put it in a hot dog bun and put some nacho cheese on it. Grab a cold DP and maybe a honey bun and hit the road to the ranch. Takes about 30 minutes to get there then a 10-15 minute walk to the blind. Got in the stand and watched a beautiful hill country sunrise and deer piling into the feeder area. Normal morning on the ranch. So i am sitting there watching a buch of young bucks and does eat and out of nowhere i hear the most awful sound/growl youve ever heard. Deer all look up and take off.... And then this smell that will gag any person.... Im scared, and sweating. Preparing for the worst and thinking this is it.... I was in a panic. I had no idea what to do!! But i came to my senses and ran out of the blind and found the nearest tree and threw my pants down!! That hot link and cheese had caught up with me.... Close call, but after a few minutes and two socks later i had survived to hunt

That happens to me every time...

[Aggiehuntress]

I was out hunting with my FIL in Boerne for Axis. He shot a doe for meat and I went to help him track. He ended up shooting the doe a little far back (liver) and we had to track her for a while. we ended up in this flat of waist high yucca plants that covered the floor of an entire clearing. We start searching the edges of the clearing hoping to see blood since we had no idea where she went once she got into it. After searching for quite a while we decide to back out and see if we can find a dog (hate to waste good axis meat) We decided to cut across the clearing and about half way thru I am ahead of my FIL and literally right under my next step the axis shoots off and goes about 30 yards to the edge of the clearing. I am screaming like a little girl (something I just don't do) and am pretty sure I cleared about a 10 foot span. My FIL breaks out laughing at me before he was able to get another shot into the doe to drop her. I am just glad I did not mess myself, although it was close!! that would have been a long drive (1 hour) back to my FIL house!!

[old killer]

Because of my longevity I have had a few. growing up in southwest Louisiana in the 60's squirrel was the main game for youths. Anyone who has hunted the creek bottoms probably know when you step on something with the texture of a cow pie and begins to move and squirm, you immediately become a world class high jumper.
The most dangerous one was in northeastern New Mexico. In the unit I am currently hunting annually I found a number of springs that are the only water on the mountain.
I had a tree stand on a beautiful spring high up in a canyon. I had a tree stand and a popup for the rain and cold. I had a black bear come in to drink that had to be close to 300 pounds.
Two mornings later I was going in before daylight. As I rounded a ridge I heard what sounded like a herd of crashing across the next ridge. I felt there was no way I had spooked them but resigned myself to continue. As I descended into the canyon I heard more crashing above me. Thinking my hunt was probably over, I continued on the blind. Ten feet from the blind I heard the crashing getting closer. I thought, now the elk are running my way. I looked up the ridge and had to wait for what looked like a 1500 pound bear barreling down the ridge at me. At 40yards it scared me straight, no more drinking, cussing, and I promise to be in church every Sunday. Realizing the bear scared me was infuriating, I went into a blind rage and charged him back with both arms held high, one hand filled with a camera case and the other with a bow spewing my best Texas redneck.
Apparently that was enough, the bear did a 180 at 15 yards and went up the ridge as fast as he came down. After I settled into the chair in the blind I removed both belt knives from my pack and nocked an arrow and said a prayer of thanks.
Ten minutes later as it became light enough to see a little, I saw the bear walking down the ridge with a demeanor that said, I can't believe I let that thing buffalo me.
After the sun had been up for an hour I went back to camp. We now go in to our setups after we can see.
The bear in the spring is from this year, it is the only water in this canyon and a very popular place

[PROUDREDNECK]

I have some here`s one...

It happened and early morning, I was driving a ranch sendero looking for a good spot to do some rattling due to some big size tracks found in the place the day before.

parked the truck in a real narrow spot just wide enough to ride through it on a truck, right inside in kinda creek terrain trying to hide the truck`s profile...

Dressed in full camo and truck covered with a burlap camo fabric as well...I was standing behind the truck rear, leant the rifle on a close mequite and as soon as there was light enough to see I started a sparring rattling secuence...

Nothing happened, then another secuence a little louder and pause...nothing again, waited some minutes in silence then another secuence and pause...
repeated this two times but still nothing but the cold wind noise hollering...

Then I decided to walk a little away from the truck to try rattling from another spot then it happened...

When I turned to grab the rifle a REAL LOUD buck snort right behind me not more than 2 or 3 yards away!!

I tell you guys snorts at that distance are LOUD as hell... all I remember is having a cold eerie feeling on my back and then a felt a hit on my chest and my legs since I was landing inside the truck`s bed due to the scare surprise it was a sudden and perhaps a move I could not perform again withiout being scared

Then I heard the buck doing the same thing and crashing though the brush while getting away from the spot.

My heart was pumping as loud as the camp`s electricity engine and I smile cam to my face when I realized that both the buck and myself had a real scaring surpirse

[crazy8]

Quail,need i say more.

[Bowdark]

My BIL, a friend of his and myself were taking a break in the BT's near Jackson, WY when we discovered an old solar blanket buried up under a dead-fall......fearing repercussions of not investigating what very well could have been the remains of a fellow hunter, ("..but Your Honor, the elk were crankin' hardcore due to the rut...." ) we dug around and found nothing else.
Kind of surreal and really glad no one was under there.

Scary is a cow moose (with baby in tow) staring you down while you fervently pray.

[HC Sniper]

Scariest hunt

We had built a stand on the edge of a wheat field with a platform up in a tree with 2X4's nailed to the tree for steps. The last step was nailed across a fork in the tree. After hunting this stand one evening, I am coming down out of the stand. I step on the step across the fork and when all my weight is on it I hear a crack and it breaks. I am falling from about 10 feet. I throw my bow one direction and the arrows are flying out of the quiver in another direction. I feel like I am in slow motion. I remember thinking please dont land on the bow or arrows. I land flat on my back and of course all the air leaves my body in a hurry. I am laying there and I can't feel anything. I just know I have broken my back. I am trying to think what to do and all kinds of things are popping into my brain (coyotes, hogs, snakes, other animals that could eat me, etc...). My wife knows I am hunting but she won't be looking for me for at least 2-3 hours. After a while as I am lying there I start to get some feeling coming back. 15-20 minutes have gone by and I can finally feel enough that I can roll over and get up. It is painful but I manage to get everything and walk the 400 yards back to my truck and drive home. It was a longggg 400 yards. I was pretty dang sore for several weeks but no lasting injuries. I was very lucky.

[Clintbow]

My scariest moment by far was being 10 miles away from the hunting vehicle in Zimbabwe when I ran across a pride of lions. It was so intense and my blood pressure was probably the highest it has ever been. My guide was so cool, at least I thought. He motioned back for me to be silent and I could see several veins sticking out of his neck. His blood pressure was as high as mine. Scariest 10 mile hike of my life. I looked over my shoulder the entire time. The second part of that story is we were out of water and I almost died of dehydration. On the hike back, I buckled to my knees twice from dehydration. It's a long story involving Zimbabwe's evil dictator why we didn't have more water! Crazy!