Scariest thzing you’ve experienced?

ethan

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Dec 7, 2013
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Topics like this come up from time to time and they’re usually good reading. As cold out as it is I figured it would be a good time to read some crazy things that have happened in the backcountry. So, what ya got?.....
 

dotman

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Feb 24, 2012
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Hearing a mountain lion scream in the middle of the night not far from my shelter, freaky sound. Other then that there really isn’t anything scary in the woods.
 
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When I first started hunting deer in WI rifle season at 12 years old (can't quite recall age). I was told to walk to location X in the dark in the woods in the frozen cold of November.

Walking alone in those woods at dark when your that young really plays on your imagination. I thought I was seeing ghosts, demons, aliens, you name it. Hearing spooky sounds and the wind howling added to it. I was beyond scared. I kept reciting the Lords prayer to keep me safe...apparently it worked.

Now that I'm older and wiser. I know that it is ME who is the scariest thing in the woods ;) I am the boogyman.



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kicker338

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post falls idaho
Out elk hunting with my grandson, just finished throwing out a locater bugle and a real loud roar came from the brush behind us. Always wondered how fast I could get my 10mm glock out of it's holster. Turns out it was a bear, we surprised it as much as it did us.
 
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I love these threads. I ca remember one time when I got lost right before dark. I experienced the panic they talk about. I ran around for a minute then finally sat down and composed myself. I wasn’t far from my truck I just didn’t know which way to go. I prayed a car would come down the road and instantly I heard the faint sound of a car driving down the highway and was able to walk right out to my truck. It was scary for a few minutes. I’m much more prepared now and have really upped my game in survival and field craft.


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Shraggs

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Zeeland, MI
Two years ago, after stopping to do some calling to no avail. I stopped to rest and took pack off bear spray attached to it. I was texting my wife on inreach to due a burst pipe back home. For some reason the hair on my deck tingled like in a suspense movie. When I looked up, about 12 paces from was a big mountain lion looking right me!

Not armed, I slowly stood up on the log - he just turned and walked away, thankfully.

I now also carry in a very light weight shoulder rig...
 

Beendare

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Corripe cervisiam
Scariest for me;
Does telling my wife she was wrong count? Grin

Had a wounded Water Buff in Australia charge us on a bowhunting trip. The bull just about killed our assistant guide....smashed him up pretty good.

Jumped a big Brownie at 20' bushwhacking across an alder filled canyon on Kodiak.....luckily he snorted and took off, it was a 10 on the pucker factor chart

Climbing in cliffs on an alaskan sheep hunt. We got clipped in...couldn't go back down so we had to keep going up and had no business climbing like that with a pack and bow on my back without being roped in- stupid really.

Plenty of excitement factor honorable mentions;
Many hog charges- I used to do depredation so too many to count....a couple with just a bow.

Stalking a mulie crawling across a sage flat and came face to face with a Rattler at eye level. [I hate snakes]
Almost stepped on an Aussie black snake in the Northern Territories [did I say I hate snakes]

Shattered my ankle on a training hike in the mtns....just trying not to lose consciousness hobbling off the Mtn while my size 14 hung on the end of my leg swinging around like a dead fish.
 
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hodgeman

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Delta Junction, AK
Waking up in the middle of the night and listening to a big griz sniff and snort your head through the tent wall.

Yeah, don't want to do that again.
 
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S. UTAH
My scariest moments so far have been the couple of times where I could have injured myself but was lucky not to. A knife slip or falling down while trying to hike over difficult terrain. Being injured in the backcountry is scary. The other would be lightning. Getting caught in the open during a storm is scary.
 

Shraggs

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also got very personal with this moose. set up on a wallow, this guy came in to drink - 21 yards. he dug a hole, pissed in it then dunked his head in it, are started to grunt and walk towards me. i put the camera down and froze and was ready to jump behind a tree. he got about 10' from me and then started thrashing a small pine tree right in front of me! really wanted to snap another pic but didn't dare move thankfully i was down wind from him with camp and good backdrop behind me. View attachment 63837
 

Grambo

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Chehalis,Wa.
Mountain griz sow visited me while taking care of a moose in Northern B.C. . I was more than happy to give it up . Its a feeling I never want to feel again knowing you are NOT the top of the food chain . She had absolutely no fear of man.
 

Broomd

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North Idaho
Waking up in the middle of the night and listening to a big griz sniff and snort your head through the tent wall.

Yeah, don't want to do that again.
This happened to me in 1995 in northern Ontario, except mine was a 450lb black bear...The grease marks from his mouth (and our firepit) were on the outside of the tent near where my head was resting. I felt/heard his breath through the canvas.
We saw him around camp later that week he was huge.
 

Broomd

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North Idaho
Scariest experience....not back-country, but fishing...

Super Bowl Sunday 1989...
Buddy and I hit Lake Michigan for Coho in his 15' Larsen and 40 horse Evinrude. Madness.. It was about 50 degrees-unseasonably warm, wind howling from the south. Water was about 35* ....light blue, flipping cold water.

We took off out of Burns Ditch around 1PM, got about ten miles out. Limited out in an hour. Silvers were stacked like cordwood.
Buddies motor quit running, one cylinder at a time. Back up motor was DOA. We drifted for about 5 hours, those south wind waves were gigantic and blowing us miles out....soaked to the bone, wet, hypothermic.

About 9 PM, my wife called my bud's brother and they drove to the lake front. Everyone was wondering wth had happened to us, we should have been home hours ago. They thought they saw our small transom light miles out, drifting.

The Coasties had no cutters on the lake--it was Winter and normally the lake was locked in ice--and we were found about midnight by them in a Chinook chopper. They were methodically combng the lake with a huge spotlight...we saw them coming. They lowered the basket to hoist us up. The blue water spray, the noise, the turbulence....insane. And the blade static and shock from that basket is something I'll never forget.

In the end, the first thing that saved our lives was the fact that our anchor caught up on an old perch trawler net on the bottom. I remember the bow swinging/slamming around about 10pm and it held us from getting too far gone. The coasties planned on looking until midnight. They found us at 12:10.

Ever thankful, we thought we were goners.
 
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MTguy0341

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Nov 9, 2015
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Montana
Not really scary, but stepping on a ground hornets nest by accident and running through the woods getting stung always sucks
 
OP
ethan

ethan

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Dec 7, 2013
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Cool,stories guys!! I’ve not t had to many scary experiences. I’ve been caught in bad lightning storms at high elevationes which are never fun. Had an experience with a black bear that wasn’t necessarily scary, but was a second or two from getting that way. I was fly fishing alone one winter and the water was higher than usual, I misjudged the depth and took in just enough water over my waders to get me pretty wet. I was only a mike or s from my Jeep and didn’t think it was that gift of a deal as I started back but by the time I got to my rig I was pretty hypothermic and had a little trouble actually getting my door open. But that pales in comparison to some of these stories, keep ‘me coming!
 
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Missoula, MT
Bought a camper spring of 2014 and took it out the next weekend to go scouting. Camper was a 1996 model and the furnace needed a part replaced so we had to run a small space heater for the weekend. On the second night there was an electrical shortage behind the fridge at 1 in the morning and the camper caught on fire.

Scariest thing was the whole camper was in flames in as little as 10 minutes, they burn up quick and hot! No joke for people who have campers, make sure you have extinguishers that are up to code,your alarms work, and have fresh batteries. I heard the cracks and pops first before i ever smelt anything. I got up turn off the space heater since i thought something was wrong with it and saw the flames

941244509fc58964d146427e30acbd08.jpg


749d9a91301e5f4c1d8413e402ea58b1.jpg



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William Hanson (live2hunt)

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Missouri
Bought a camper spring of 2014 and took it out the next weekend to go scouting. Camper was a 1996 model and the furnace needed a part replaced so we had to run a small space heater for the weekend. On the second night there was an electrical shortage behind the fridge at 1 in the morning and the camper caught on fire.

Scariest thing was the whole camper was in flames in as little as 10 minutes, they burn up quick and hot! No joke for people who have campers, make sure you have extinguishers that are up to code,your alarms work, and have fresh batteries. I heard the cracks and pops first before i ever smelt anything. I got up turn off the space heater since i thought something was wrong with it and saw the flames

941244509fc58964d146427e30acbd08.jpg


749d9a91301e5f4c1d8413e402ea58b1.jpg



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Glad you posted this, reminded me to update all those things.

Live2hunt custom shelters
 
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