Your Scariest Hunting Experience?

[rcmodel]

Here is the top five in my lifetime.

1. Falling through the ice on a Federal Reservoir (Perry) in 10 degree weather up to my arm-pits.
While carrying 12 duck decoys, a Browning A-5, and a box of shells, in hip boots.
Managed to get out of the ice, and walk over a mile back to the truck with clothes frozen stiff as boards.
I was so cold when I got to the truck I was barely able to hold the keys in both hands to unlock & start it and get the heater running.
Thought I was gonna die!


2. Swamped by a Rogue Wave on a Federal Reservoir (John Redman) in Kansas!!
We were hunting the lake in a 14’ aluminum boat with a full camo cover, three guys, three shotguns, two bags of decoys, and enough ammo to start WWIII.
About 20 degrees, with a thin sheet of ice over the lake.

Calm cold morning, no wind, no wave action, no nothing.
The lake was a sheet of glass.
Chugging along, breaking skim ice to get out to an island below the dam when a 4 foot rogue wave swept across the lake and almost swamped our over-loaded boat about a half mile from shore.

I only heard the ice cracking northwest of the boat, saw a white cap coming in the moonlight, and had time to turn it into the wave or it would have capsized us for sure.
Turned out we took on about a foot of water, but the old Ouachita boat kept afloat until we could do some furious bailing.
Only the canvas side skirting from the camo cover kept enough water out to keep us from sinking.

All three of us were going 'WTH was that? And where did it come from??'

Found out later, there was a 5+ magnitude earthquake in southern Illinois which was felt throughout the eastern portion of Kansas.
Thought I was gonna die!


3. ‘Almost’ rode a dirt bike off into an abandoned & unmarked mine shaft.
On the side of a mountain at 0-dark-30 on a pre-season deer scouting trip near Cripple Creek CO.
Laid it down and skidded to a stop with both wheels hanging over the edge of a deep dark hole.
Thought I was gonna die!


4. ‘Almost’ stepping in a 40’ deep water well covered over with tumble weeds while pheasant hunting.
Only got one foot in before I fell over backward to keep from falling forward into the well.
Thought I was gonna die!


5. A friend and I were coyote hunting early one morning and killed two.
I threw them in the trunk for skinning later, as the guy I was hunting with was big into selling hides..

So, I take my friend back to his apartment complex and open the trunk.
The next thing I knew, a bloody snarling 'Dead' coyote climbed up over my cowering body, and disappeared down the street & around the corner going like he had just seen the White Light at the end of the tunnel!
Far as I know, he is still running, and that was 43 years ago!!
Thought I was gonna die!

So there’s my top five.
What’s yours.

rc

 

[MCgunner]

I shot a pig once, first one I'd ever shot, 200 lbs or so, shot him too far back and blood trailed him into the brush with my .357. When I caught up with him, he charged, I shot and won, but I had the shakes for the next 10 minutes.

I was putting out deeks in the Guadalupe Delta on a pothole there. I could hear the guys hunting the spot up from me as they went to their pot hole. My gun was in the salt grass 20 yards away, pitch dark except for a bright flare stack at a nearby plant shedding some light. I hear an animal coming in the marsh, thought it was those guys' dog, but it was a hog, had to be 350+ lbs, walked right up in my pot hole and stopped and stared at me. I froze. I could see his tusks by the light of that flare stack, were intimidating. I had no gun, so I decided to yell, jumped and waved my arms wide and yelled at him. He stood there for a few seconds, grunted, and just walked on. After that, I slung my shotgun and kept 2 rounds in the magazine when I was putting out deeks.

That's really all I can think of. I've hunted around gators, but never made me nervous like that hog. I've done a lot of water fowling. My hog hunting started about 20 years ago. They're the only animal I've been around except gators (which I never got a tag for) that were even half way dangerous. We don't have bear down here.

Oh, we don't have ice, either.

 

[MCgunner]

Oh, I got hit by a rattler a few years ago on my snake boot. Didn't really scare me at all, though, just sorta startled. I see a lot of rattlers out there, it's why I wear snake boots.

There's one fellow, is it "Kodiak beer"?, that has been attacked by a brown bear/griz. THAT was a scary story just to READ.

 

[Liberty1776]

early 70's - wading back after setting decoys - stepped up on a stump to look at something and my right foot went down inside the rotten stump. and then of course I fell backwards. had to stick my Model 12 into the water butt first to help hold me up til the guy I was with could come out and pull me up... could barely hang on long enough for him to get there...if I had been alone, I'd have died...

 

[rcmodel]

Dang!

That's a good one Liberty1776!!

Once again shows how thin a spider web our lives are hanging on.

rc

 

[hipoint]

Doesn't hold a candle to some of these mentioned, but scary none-the-less... For the record, using a .22 LR for hunting deer IS legal in western north carolina, or at least was the last time I checked (last year)

I was out on a farm patrol scouting for groundhogs, I only had my ruger 10/22 on me with a big aftermarket mag hanging out of the bottom. Something told me I should lay down a play sniper for a minute, no sooner than I laid down than a big herd of deer walked into our blueberry field. I was right beside their preferred "exit" to the field, so I thought "heck, I'll just lay real still, let that little buck get right up on me and blast him"... I laid real still... Let that little buck get right up on me, he saw me and started snorting, pawing, and rearing up bashing his front hooves on the ground. I thought, jeez, he means to come over here and stomp me! I guess he was about 50 ft. away at that point, so I put the crosshairs right between the eyes... CLICK... dang. real easy I moved my hand up to the charging handle, racked in a new shell... CLICK... dang. by this time, my slow movements were really bothering the buck and he was quite angry with me. again, moved my hand up, pulled the handle, the mag dumps about 10 rounds out into the action... DANG! I am dumping the rifle out, trying to clear the jams, finally get them clear and he is actually coming over to investigate further... That time it fired, but it was a squib round. THUMP... I saw the bullet fly like a pellet gun would and bounce off his skull. Luckily that was enough to make him leave, but I was pretty freaked out. I don't know what would have happened if I had stood up, might have run away, might have attacked.. a 10/22 makes a TERRIBLE stick to hit something with.

anyhow, that's when I quit using a .22 LR for deer, I had taken plenty before with that same gun, and a GOOD .22 shell will do it at the proper range but I can't trust the ammo anymore.

actually, that's probably more funny than scary haha, but I sure was scared at the time, all I could think about is how sharp those hooves are.

 

[hipoint]

before I get bashed, deer are varmints on my farm and we have depredation permits for them... BUT, this is a prime example of WHY you don't use a .22LR on deer!

 

[tarosean]

. Falling through the ice on a Federal Reservoir in 10 degree weather up to my arm-pits.

Ive done that, kind of.. I actually slipped on a large rock I was standing on, fell below breaking all the thin ice. Everyone swears I walked on water getting out.
I couldnt make the hike back up to the vehicle so I just stripped nekid and we started a fire.


Nothing else really scary, slips and falls that resulted in broken guns but otherwise I ended up okay.

 

[savanahsdad]

about 15 years back I was in a tree-stand, about 18' up, the stand was about 3'X3' with walls on 3 sides about 3 1/2' high you could set your gun in any of the four corners and not worry about it falling , real nice stand with a good seat it in it , at about 8am some deer came out at about 75 yards , got my gun up, picked out a nice doe , waited for a clean shot ,, then nothing ! dam... I forgot to take off my safety ! click off safety , aim ,,,, deer turned, no shot , nothing but tails ,, set gun back it it's corner, ... about 1/2 hr later, more deer came out, but closer , I slowly reached down for my gun , and bang !!! I never put the safety back on :banghead: ,and when I reached down ,not taking my eyes off the deer my finger pushed straight down on the trigger ! never touched the gun , just the trigger , and that's the day I learned what a 270win sounds like 10' from my ear ! about a week later A guy came into the spots shop were I helped out at to show us his LUCKY HAT , the brim had a bullet hole in it I guess his ears were ringing longer than mine by a good day !

 

[41 Mag]

Quite a few years back I had picked up a Contender in 7x30 Waters for a handgun only hunt in Wisconsin that I got invited on. After working on loads all summer I had settled on a pretty warm loaded, (for the Contender anyway), 140gr Nosler BT. It shot groups of less than 2" at 250yds. So after shooting numerous hogs with it during the summer and finding how well it actually DID preform on them, I had made my trip with no shots fired. A couple of weeks after that I was helping out my friend and his wife with a somewhat deer drive at his place.

We were actually hoping that one of the three of us would get a shot on a huge ol buck we had all seen hanging out in their front woods. IT was about a hundred acres or so and the plan was him and his wife would set up on the far side, and I would first drive my 4 wheeler down the near side which usually ran everything that way simply by the noise, and then I would still hunt back and forth through the woods towards them, stopping at the road in the middle to set up and wait. The hopes were that if the noise and my movement didn't get him moving that he would slip by one of us while we waited.

Well none of that worked out for the buck, but while sitting up next to a tree I had a bunch of hogs getup from under a fallen tree some 50'ish yards out from me. One of them looked to be a pretty decent sow. Least thats what I thought. I figured I would take it with the Contender so I set my rifle down against the tree, and eased out on my rear in order to get a clear shot. After several attempts to pick a hole through the brush I finally had a clear lane, and as luck would have it the hog stepped right into it at about 40yrd. I was waiting with arms stretched across both knees I dropped the hammer when the cross hair settled on it's lower shoulder. As the recoil subsided all I could see was this huge hog coming straight to me in a full tilt run with jaws snapping and tusk showing each time they opened. I had no time to get another round in the Contender to I ditched it and crab crawled backwards to my rifle. As soon as I got it pointed at the hog it was to me. I literally rolled out of it's way and shot at the same time. It took about 10yds to come to a stop and turn around but it was coming back for more. Just as I was pulling the trigger for the second time with the rifle it dropped.

We couldn't get the huge thing out where he was, but as you can clearly see the Contender and it's 14" barrel don't look very big up side his head. We have taken several hogs from that area that bumped over the 400# mark, but none with as nasty a temperament as this one had. He was coning to share the pain with me for sure.

Same place several years later, I was back down by the river again after the hogs. I had set up on a creek bank that overlooked a potion of pipeline. Just before dark I had the hogs coming out single file down their trail. I shot one big sow, another popped out, I shot it and another popped out. This went one until I was out of bullets in my little Ruger 308. Four of the five I got were laying right there in a neat area of about 5 yards. The third one had made it into the thick stuff but was only a few yards in. I could tell it was down but I wanted to finish it off quickly and start getting them ready to haul out.

I loaded the rifle back up, and walked the 30 or so yards over to the edge of the pipeline. I had to bend over and sort of squat down to get under the low hanging tree limbs where the hog had gone. When I did, it was just as if someone had hit me in the back with an axe. I lost all function of my legs, the pain was so intense I nearly passed out, and I literally just face planted right then and there. I sort of waited for the muzzle blast of who ever had shot me, it was the first thing that went through my mind. Then reality set in and I was laying face down not able to move not 20 feet form this very hurt, and very pissed off hog. Problem was I was laying on my rifle and wasn't sure I could get off it. I knew one of us was going to go, and I sure didn't want to go without a fight, so I summoned up all I could bear and pulled the rifle out, and finished off the hog. The other thing was I was 2 miles from anywhere, about 3/4 of a mile from my 4 wheeler, and my friend and his wife were about a mile in the other direction from me. I sucked up all I had in me to get to my feet. I have never in my life hurt as bad as I did then and there. I still had no idea what was going on, only that I cold hardly stand and walking was even more of a task. I managed to get back up the pipeline to the road, where luckily for me I could see my friends waiting by my 4 wheeler. They knew I should have been there and when they saw my light they came to get me. What I had somehow managed to do was to herniate two disc in my lower back L3 and L5 at the same time. Haven't got a clue as to why, but I know one thing, it was a VERY long 2 hour drive back home, and then a LONG 4 months of recovery and therapy to get over it. Yes it scared the bajeebers out of me. I couldn't imagine what had happened other than I had possibly been shot, or that I might have stumbled on some crackheads camp back there in the woods and he had literally hit me with an axe. Not to mention the hog I was staring at while laying there not able to move. Up until the instant I bent over and went under that limb I had no indication or pain what so ever in my lower back. So as you can imagine all sorts of stuff was running through my mind competing with the pain.

Or it could have been the couple or three times I have come face to face with poachers. Each time they and I were armed, but I guess the fact I had mine up and meant business, kept things from escalating.

 

[Boxhead]

It was a grizzly hunt in BC a few years ago. I took the shot with my 338-06, one I thought was good, and the bear started spinning like the little Taz devil we know muzzle in the wound. He spun from view and all went silent. We slowly proceeded heading up the ridge a bit having no idea where he may have headed but assumed to the woods above. We found him 50 or so yards up dead. My nerves have never been so I any hunt.

 

[PonyKiller]

Pales in comparison, but it's all I got. I was set up on a convergence of game paths just off of a hillside about 25 feet from walking path.I hadn't seen anyone in the area for days so for around here I was pretty secluded. About an hour before sundown I hear something off to the left. Before I could see what it was I knew it was someone walking down the path not any sort of game so I laid my shotgun across my lap and put my hands on my knees. I was sitting on the ground back against a tree orange from waist to head. He comes walking up the path scanning the trees looked me directly in the face and kept walking. I sat there motionless, not wanting to startle him, he went up the path, turned around came back and passed by again, this time looking the other way, I let him walk on again not wanting to starle him, hoping he'd cruise back from whence he came. He poked around the hillside for a moment, and again returned. This time he looked me in the face again and continued on, me still sitting motionless, at this point I come to the conclusion, he is either color blind, or oblivious, either way I don't want him setting up near me, so I wait for him to pass by a few steps, and give him a moderately loud very clear "hello fella, another hunter here!" in a very even un-confrontational tone. The guy practically jumps out if his skin , drops the barrel of his shot gun to the ground and starts scanning the forest in front of him. I stay seated and slowly wave my blaze orange hat back and forth and say "back here". He slowly turns and looks till he see's me.
He asks me if i'd been there the whole time, I say yes. He apologizes and tells me he's going back to his truck, he's done for the day , unloads his shot gun and walked off visibly shaken.

 

[GTLrider]

Deer hunting in New Mexico many decades ago when I was 16. I was driving a covered Jeep. My passenger friend was being very careless with the muzzle of his rifle - letting it point at my head. I told him to keep it away from me several times. As we were pulling into camp, he allowed the muzzle to point at my head one more time.

I stopped the Jeep, pushed the rifle away from me and told him with more vigor to not point it at me. He got mad, said it didn't matter because the gun was not loaded and slammed the butt against the floorboard of the Jeep. The rifle fired. I instinctively grabbed my head and rolled out of the Jeep. I stood up ready to beat the crap out of him, but saw that the incident scared him worse than it did me. He thought he had shot me and was in shock.

I later got back in the Jeep and from where the bullet hole in the top was located, the bullet couldn't have missed my head by more than an inch or two. I think it was the same year that a game warden was taking his horse (wearing a fluorescent orange blanket) out of his trailer when a "hunter" shot the horse.

The shooter later said he thought the horse was a deer. A deer? Wearing an orange blanket and backing out of a trailer with a uniformed game warden next to it? That was the last time I went deer hunting.

 

[Kingcreek]

I fell through the ice while hunting pheasants as a teenager. Crossing the creek in the same place I crossed it a half hour earlier. A few degrees above zero and a mile from the truck. I got myself out and moved as fast as I could.
Bow hunting in December during a snow that turned ugly into sleet and freezing rain. I should have left right away but the deer were moving. When I tried to climb down everything was glazed and slicker than snot. I slipped and went down on the wrong side of a 4" limb. I couldn't get down without getting up and over so I was hanging from my safety belt like a piñata. Tried everything. My cell phone could not get a signal and my spare safety belt was a mile away in the truck. I took off my leather belt and looped my arm through it and cut my safety line. Belt broke and fell 16' landed on my back, compression fracture L1, broke 2 ribs and chipped a couple teeth and still had to hoof it a rough mile and cross a creek to get to my truck. Ouch and more ouch.
Got lost in northern Minnesota boundary waters 18000 acres wilderness swamps because I didn't believe my compass, lots of iron ore boulders that can fuddle a compass. Had one AA flashlight. I found my way back to a firetrail but I had a match worth of light by then and I walked in the dark as much as I could. I got back to the cabin as the other guys were discussing how to start the rescue search. Damn was I glad to see the cabin gas lights.

 

[der Teufel]

Several decades ago, while still in high school, several buddies and I decided to hop in the family boat (an old plywood, 15-foot 'ski boat' that had a 25HP outboard motor) to go rabbit hunting at night along the Neches River between Port Arthur and Beaumont, Texas. The river used to meander, but was long ago 'straightened' for ship traffic. In the old curvey channels the Navy had stored dozens of mothballed ships. In the 60's there were old escort carriers and all kinds of cool vessels there. We figured we'd land in some remote spot and go after the rabbits in the marshes.

We are hauling heinie through one of these old channels in the dark, when suddenly we see something flash by. We're loaded up for rabbit hunting, meaning winter jackets, gloves, wading boots, and pockets full of shotgun shells and .22 ammo. We have life preservers in the boat, but no one is wearing any sort of floatation device. We look at each other with quizzical expressions, and then something else goes by in the dark. Now we're somewhere between curious and concerned. We're traveling about 20-25 miles/hour through the water. Yet another dark shape whisks by and someone says "Did you see that?"

"Yeah, someone else replies, what was it?"

"I dunno, but I've seen a couple of them so far" I respond.

I'm driving the boat, so I slow down and tell someone to come forward with a flashlight. They do and pretty soon we realize that we've been driving through a mooring area. The objects flashing by were floating 55 gallon drums holding mooring lines for ships. If we had hit one we would have seriously holed the boat and probably thrown everyone into the water. Did I mention that this was January or February, and the water was cold and deep?

We slowed to a crawl and put a guy on the bow with a flashlight and crept out of the area without further incident, but we were all more than just a little shaken.

 

[zdc1775]

When I was about 16 I was hunting our back fence line which boardered land owned by a paper company and leased by a local hunting club my grandfather and I were members of, anyway as I was walking out of a ground blind that we have I forgot to put on my orange vest. I made it about thirty yards before I realized this and turned to go back. Well some jack*** that one of the fellow members had brought out to hunt on the club heard and saw movement but couldn't verify what it was so he thought "Hey why don't I just shoot where I think this thing might be at?" So he fires one round hoping to either hit the deer or scare it so he can shoot again, only problem it isn't a deer he is shooting at it's me. He was about 75-80 yards away shooting a 30-06 and the round hit a small oak tree about three feet to my left and two feet in front of me. From where he shot the round must have passed within about a foot of my torso. Between the sound of the gunshot, the bullet passing, and the impact I honestly thought I would never hear again. I hit the ground and dug out the radio we used and called my grandfather and uncle to come help because somebody was trying to shoot me. I layed on the ground for about thirty minutes with my rifle pointing where the sound came from waiting for either the shooter to come or for my family to come rescue me. We didn't find out until later that one of the member had brought a friend and set him up in a stand over by the fence line. He also never would tell us who the friend was so we filed a grievance with the board against him and he lost his membership.

 

[CApighunter]

Stumbled across an active pot grow on public land. I turned around and headed out when I heard people speaking Spanish headed right towards me. I booked it in a different directio and made my way back to the truck. I drove as fast as I could to the main highway and called the sherriffs department. Never found out if they busted the growers or not, but I was scared for my life.

 

[Bull Nutria]

i read RC's 5 near misses and WOW he has been in some tough spots. i can't recall any thing as serious as RC described but i have been shook up a few times when boating at night either going duck hunting or returning.

one nite a few years ago a buddy and I were returning from a late pm duck hunt at the mouth of the Atchafalaya River delta in nov or dec, when white out fog set in as we head back to the landing. Luckily we had laid down a bread crumb trail on my GPS, it did not show the floating tree top in the river current that we hit at about 15 mph in the fog. well the branches of the tree were above water but the trunk hit the lower unit in my 90hp outboard 17ft runabout causing the bow to take a dive, well the water splashed over the windshield and at same time the lower unit rode over the trunk and the bow popped up. it was very close to submarine city and the water was very cold we would have been goners!!

i have retired from riding in boats in the fog at nite! there is no duck worth the risk!

Bull

 

[skiking]

A few years back I was spring bear hunting. Walking up a ridge I came face to face with a big grizzy. He huffed and pounded his paws into the ground and then charged. Stopped a few feet from me and ran off.

Another time I was hunting whitetails opening day. I was headed in before light and got a sick feeling in my gut, looked to my left and about 10 feet from me was a mountain lion with his haunches in the air. I fired one shot with my rifle pointed in his general direction. He stood up and walked down the road I was walking down.

There are more moments that are terrifying, don't know why I am still alive, and I still have a few years before I hit 30.

 

[OptimusPrime]

These are as close as I've been to dying (that I know of).....

Duck hunting on the Rock River in southern Wisconsin. My brother dropped me off and I was stringing out the deeks along the shore. He took the boat and had gone scouting somewhere while I walked along the shallows and setting up the spread. Suddenly, I realized that I wasn't moving but the water level was inching up. I had stepped into some sort of primordial ooze that threatened to suck me right down into Middle Earth somewhere. I didn't know what to do; it started as thigh-deep water but I was down to about mid-chest by now. The water was about an inch from the top of my waders and I was fast reaching decision time. The mud had compressed my waders around my foot so they weren't gonna get kicked off, and I had no knife on me, no gun, nothing that would help. I kept trying to pump my legs up and down like I was standing on a bicycle but nothing was working. Have you ever held onto a decoy and tried to pretend it was a flotation device?
Short story my brother came back in time and we used the boat's motor to pull me out of the mud while I hung on to the side. Solid ground feels GOOD. I THOUGHT I WAS GONNA DIE!

Another time there was a sapling that absorbed the slug that was meant for my chest. We were in the woods flushing out the deer, and a smaller group was outside the woods paying no attention. Deer came out and ran between the 2 groups as always. Us on the inside knew where the standers were so we held fire. The standers disregarded that little bit of safety and BAM. I saw the sapling explode before we heard the shot of course, but we hit the ground and screamed like we were getting shot at. Cuz we were. Upon later review the slug was stuck 9/10 of the way through the little tree with just his little lead nose poking out. A bunch of splinters and shrapnel had burst forth, and it was sternum-height and in my general direction from the shooters. Thank God for trees.

 

[LeonCarr]

About 20 years ago I was hunting hogs with a co-worker and his little brother in Ames just outside of Liberty, Texas. I had a Marlin 1895 .45-70 loaded with Remington 300 Grain JHPs, co-worker had a Winchester 100 semi-auto .243 (One of those that had the factory recall because they would go full-auto) and little brother had a Universal M1 .30 Carbine with a 30 round magazine. After walking around for about an hour, we run across about 50 hogs inhaling acorns under several big oak trees. We get behind a fallen oak tree and Co-worker shoots at one with the .243. All of the little hogs run off, and about 8 of the big ones start running TOWARD us. I shot one with the .45-70, and about one second later I hear "tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat" about one foot from my right ear from the little brother opening up with the .30 Carbine. I shot another with the .45-70 at about 80 yards and it spun him around like a helicopter rotor. When the shooting was over and the other hogs had headed for the woods we had a 343 pound Boar, a 252 pound sow, and a 207 pound boar with about 11 holes in him on the ground. Guess what made the 11 holes?

I got the Heebie Jeebies big time when the little hogs ran off and the biguns started running towards us.

RC, you should start carrying Ground Penetrating Radar on your hunting trips and motorcycle outings .

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

 

[critter]

My buddy and I were on a winter duck scouting trip. We were in a 14" Al boat in a flooded bottom land full of bald cypress trees-and frozen over. Ice was just about as thick as the boat would break, so going was VERY slow. We were about a mile out into the swamp away from land---and a SEVERE thunderstorm hit!

LOTS of near nickel to quarter sized hail and LOTS of lightning running up and down those cypress trees! Lasted about 20-30 minutes. Seemed like a WEEK!

We were VERY happy to get back to land once the fireworks were over!

 

[splattergun]

Duck hunting on the Bear R. in Idaho, I didn't choose the right driftwood log to tie on to while loading the boat in the dark. The current pulled the boat, line and log out into the river and the soggy log sank with the line. This shallow river, like a lot of western rivers, has a mud bottom, deep and sticky. I waded out in my hip boots, caught up with the boat just a few yards out, but like an idiot, I was on the down-stream side. :banghead: My feet were stuck in the sucking mud and the current was pushing the boat over me. So here I am, stuck in the mud being pushed over into the 37 degree water slowly but surely, and I couldn't escape.

I managed to push the boat to drift around me, but it was too late to keep my balance and I splashed into the mud. My buddy, laughing himself silly, came out and helped me up and out. Then he went downstream to a fordable gravel bottom and snagged the boat. Funny, yes. But if my partner had been up at the truck a quarter mile away, I could have drowned struggling to get out of that sucking mud.

He stopped laughing when he saw me shivering and realized the morning hunt was over before it began.

 

[351 WINCHESTER]

I wounded a hog early one morning at out hunt club. I had taken my brother in law hunting and he had a 12 ga. single barrel with buckshot. We looked for the hog for about any hour and on our way back I spied him in the brush. I put two .308 silvertips in him and here he come. I could not pick him up in my scope so I guess I dropped it and pulled my .45 gm. I put 7 slugs into him before he finally dropped. I asked my brother in law why he didn't shoot and I got no reply. I turned around and he was gone. I hollered and he was back at the truck in the truck with the windows rolled up. I never took him hunting again.

I stepped on a 6 1/2' eastern diamondback while rabbit hunting. I took several steps as I thought I had stepped on some cow dung when I realized there were no cattle where I was hunting. I turned around and he had curled up. I unloaded my nylon 66, reloaded in haste and unloaded again. I was shaking that time.

Numerous encounters with cottonmouths. I assume they are all armed and dangerous and shoot everyone I can. I even caught one on a plastic worm. I guess the last diamondback I killed was about 5' and my youngest son was with me. I had shot him in the head with my .38 wadcutter and put him in the back of the truck. Several hours later my son told me he was still alive so I cut off his head. I don't waste bullets on pigmey rattlers. I just walk up to them and stomp em dead.

When we were kids me and my brother were exploring my uncles farm in Pa. during the winter. The creek was frozen over and my brother fell in. I pulled him out and we hightailed it to the house for him to get warm. On that same farm another year I got in the hog pen and got chased by a rather big porker. I outran him and don't remember if I ever touched that fence or not, but I'm sure I did cause I wasn't more than 8 or so.

We were shrimping/fishing from the bank one night and I was in chest deep water and the tide was incoming. Three feet from me was a manatee (I guess) and I don't think I have ever been that scared.

 

[H&Hhunter]

I think waterfowl hunting may well be the most dangerous form of hunting in the world. No kidding almost everybody I know who's had a serious almost dead outdoors experience has been a waterfowl hunter who got into trouble with freezing water in frigid temperatures. these posts tend to verify my thoughts on the subject ducks and geese are the most dangerous game!

With that said I'll a couple of my terrifying hunting moments.

Aggieshakshak river drainage in the Alaskan Arctic early October 1992. At the time I was working as a bush pilot out of kotzebue AK and in between trips had a week off for some caribou hunting. I flew into a river bar and set up camp under a nice bunch of black spruce trees. The second day out I killed a good bull and spent the entire day packing him the 5 miles back to camp on my pack frame. It took me two trips for a total of 20 miles of hiking that day. I cached the meat away from camp and cooked up some caribou steaks, sucked down a medium sized cup of whiskey and retired to my little one man walrus tent and immediately fell into a deep exhausted sleep.

My spot up on the Aggie....This is a picture taken several years later after I had progressed to a Kifaru Tipi tent with a stove, but it's in the same spot as the incident.

I had made one almost fatal mistake in grizzly bear country however. In my fatigued slightly drunken state I'd neglected to take off my caribou blood stained long johns and place them away from camp. In my hazy state of exhaustion I'd crashed out still wearing them.

I was in a deep dreamless sleep at about 02:00 when I suddenly awoke with ice water terror running through my veins and my heart pounding in an instant primal fear induced adrenalin rush. I didn't know what had woken me but my sixth senses were telling me that something was seriously wrong and danger was near. I lay still for a moment and located my S&W .44 mag Mountain Pistol that was always by my side. As I lay there trying to figure out what had spooked me I heard a large animal moving very near my tent, in fact it was right next to my head. And then it made the unmistakable sound of sucking in a large volume of air and woofing in out. It was a bear right next to my head within feet if not inches. I froze except for moving the pistols muzzle into line with where I thought he was.

He heard me move and was silent for a moment. The grizz moved again, this time he bumped his nose into the tent fabric bulging it in and sniffing trying to figure out what I was. I cocked back the hammer and simultaneously screamed "GET OUT HERE YOU SORRY SOB!" (internet friendly version of what was really said) and was desperately trying to get untangled from my sleeping bag and unzip the tent fly one handed all while trying to keep the .44 pointed at the bear with the other hand.

I wound up halfway out of my tent with my legs still tangled in my sleeping bag desperately clawing my way around the tent to get a clear shot at the bear. The bear however had taken leave and I heard him crashing through the brush and headed hell bent for leather the other direction. Thank god he'd decided to run and not fight.

Camp was a wreck the bear had torn up everything he could get a hold of including my 6 gallon water jug which he bit and squished flat. He'd demolished my camp cook set and torn my tarp to shreds. I spent the rest of the frigid night calming down by a roaring fire with my .375H&H in hand. For some reason I no longer felt tired!

So how do I know it was grizz and not a black bear you ask? Simple case of deduction my dear Watson...

The track tells no lies. This is an unmistakable grizzly track as you can tell from the long front claw marks. Not a big grizz but big enough!

Here is better picture of the tracks where the bear came into camp.

My second closest call was in the Zambezi valley of Zimbabwe. Myself a friend and his girlfriend had been tracking a herd cape buffalo all day. We'd cut the tracks at first light and had been trying to catch up to the herd without success into the mid afternoon. Finally it was decided that we should head back to the land Cruiser as we had a long way to go to get back to the truck.

We proceeded back towards the truck and had been walking for several hours in thick forest when suddenly we broke out into a huge lush green valley or a "vlei" as it is locally known. It was a scene right out of a National Geographic magazine. There were multiple animals peacefully feeding including impala, bush buck, a kudu or two, warthog and on the far side three hundred yards distant a group of six cow elephant.

We stopped and were taking in the shear beauty of the scene when to our right a huge trophy impala ram stepped out of some tall grass and started grazing unaware of our presence about 100 yards distant. My buddy decided that he wanted to harvest the ram. There was a short conversation between him and our PH, Lance of which I could tell Lance was uncomfortable with the idea but my buddy was insistent and it was decided to allow him to take a shot.

Now let me back up a bit and add this. It had been briefed on the night prior to the hunt that if anything happens like an elephant charge or a buffalo problem the girl friend was to attach herself to someone with a heavy rifle and stick with them under all circumstances. Well we all know the old saying about battle plans and the first contact with the enemy...

So my buddy makes a beautiful shot with his iron sighted .458 Lott and smokes the ram. At the the shot the six elephant turn, zero in on the source of the sound and immediately start charging our direction. At first we stand there in disbelief thinking surely they'll break off and move away, but no, they are zeroed in and coming on with it. They have formed a loose wish bone formation and lead cow is out front blasting some shrill trumpets, her ears are pinned back and she is coming right for us.

It now becomes apparent that it's time to get the heck out of the way. I pop open my .470 NE double rifle and fling the soft point that I had loaded in my right barrel over my shoulder and quickly load a solid in it's place. As a group we start to run to our right to get off the line of the charge. The elephants shift direction to intercept and keep coming hard. They are now about 100 yards away and starting to look really really big. I am hanging at the back of the group with my double rifle, my buddy is in the middle and the PH is leading the way with his .470 NE double I figure we've got this thing covered. The girlfriend is just ahead and off to my left by about 15 feet.

The lead cow now at about 50 yards lets out another terrifyingly loud and shrill blast from her trunk which causes the girlfriend to panic. She drops and tries to hide under a very small bush, in her state of terror her legs simply gave out on her. I come to a skidding halt and bring my rifle up and put the front sight on the lead cows forehead and am simultaneously yelling at the lead cow to "PLEASE GO AWAY DON'T MAKE ME SHOOT YOU MA'AM" (Once again this is the family friendly version of what was really said.) and I am yelling at the girl friend to get her "posterior" up and moving right NOW! She is frozen the elephant are coming hard I am just getting ready to drop the lead cow with a frontal brain shot of which I have never attempted on a charging elephant, but I have read the directions....

This is all happening FAST, just as I'm getting ready to shoot our Matabele tribesmen tracker sprints in from the right snags the girlfriend by the collar yanks her off the ground, spins and drags her in a full sprint out of the way back to the right. I keep my front sight on the lead elephant and quickly start side shuffling to the right as well. At the last possible moment the elephants shift off course and continue on nosily crashing through the bush and on about their way.

Our PH simply states that hiding behind a small bush simply won't do in an elephant charge. We take a moment to collect ourselves the girl friend has a few tears to shed and we go and retrieve my buddies gorgeous impala ram. As I am standing watching the pictures being taken and the cleaning of the ram I walk over to the Matabele tracker. I thank him for his actions, he scantly acknowledges me with a slight nod of his head and continues to scan the distant bush with his never changing staunch expression.

Elephants are the most terrifying animal on the planet when they are in kill mode.