Strange Happenings In The Woods/Scary Hunting Stories

Trailed by a pack of feral dogs. It was like they were herding me towards a sheer cliff as they had me flanked. The only sight I would catch of them would be a quick glimpse as they were very adept at keeping out of sight but I could hear them running in the leaves and they would occasionally 'yip' to each other. I finally decided I wasn't playing and started back the way I came. They trailed me for a total of probably 3-4 miles until I got to the fireroad I had my truck parked on. If it had been late in the day or if I had fallen I am convinced they would have attacked.

how about comedy?

Ok this is when I was very young up in Oregon around a place called Crooked River Ranch, now mind you that this area it is NOT legal to hunt, and to top it off we were on the river, also a big no no.

Now when I say "on the river" I mean "ON the river". I am not talking on the river in a boat, skiff, or any other "approved" flotation device.

As it happens we experienced one of the warmest hunting days in years and it was shorts and tank top weather (that's quite unusual for there anytime) much less swimming weather.

So we start off with the three of us heading out to the river, one of us had an Eastern Oregon bow tag, the other another tag out of area. Now not one of us had a bow, or a legal tag between us but "oh well" says we. We were determined to get out deer! So as we head down to the river and start to climb in our "boats" and by this you must get a visual, one was a rubber ducky raft (no chit), one was a pool raft (the kind you blow up and lay on to get a tan) and the other was a kids miniature dingy (also inflatable) that held barely one person.

So off we go! As we are climbing into the river with our rifles (30-30, .308, .22lr) there comes across a couple of the local residents who stop on the road on a bridge that we had just climbed down from to the river and yells down "do you have to have a fishin license for that too?" In a very sarcastic manner while laughing themselves silly.

So begins our adventure. Well, shortly after bouncing off a few rocks they "flotation devices" start losing air fast and we are going down a swift river and sinking rapidly. After the rubber ducky had given is life and sank to the depths below we then tried to grasp on to the larger raft while the tanning one was quickly giving up it's life. Within minutes all the rafts had sunk and we were floating down the river holding our rifles above the water bouncing repeatedly off rocks and such as we go.

We quickly come to the conclusion that this is no way to hunt deer and need to find the high ground quick. There is a problem though, the banks of the river are lined with the thickest, most densely packed barbed brush you can think of.

After a mile or so and getting tired of white water swimming we decided that we had to get out. So we climb out on a little place that had about a foot of bare ground and decide what to do. Just as we reach the bank my buddy who also happens to be blind in one eye decides he sees a spike and wants the meat. BOOM! Goes the .308 as we both wheel around and ask him *** he is shootin at and explain that he just winged a spike across the river.

The other two of us look at him in a very po'ed manner and say are you going to track that "expletive" thing through the death brush? Well you are now! So we made him go track the deer across the river and after about 45 minutes or so he comes back and says he thinks he knicked it in the rear leg but there was no way to track it. We are quite unhappy as to him not placing his shot right but hey then again he is blind shooting off his weak side soo what are you going to do right? Now you have to realize that when he came back he looked like he got into a fight with a pack of badgers in a bad way.

He was literally dripping blood, there were so many scratches and so much blood that he looked like he had been drug behind a truck on asphalt and left for dead.

He was darn near crying he was in so much pain and we decided at that point we needed to get him some medical attention. But first, we are on the river with about a 300-400 ft hike straight up the walls and have to transgress about a hundred feet of this death brush before we even get there. So by the time we even make it to the wall we have lost the majority of our clothes and are bloodied beyond belief. It now looks like we are escaped convicts that just left a mass murder.

We somehow, still to this day I don't know how, managed to make up up the almost sheer rock walls to a plateau above. As we climb up on the top and sit to rest we look across an open alfalfa field and see what looks like about 200 head of deer!

OMG we say all at once. My buddy with the .308 looks through his scope and tried to isolate a buck, and after about 10 minutes says all be d4mned there aint a buck in the whole friggin heard!

We all can't believe this and hang our head in shame as the god's are just not favoring us today. We manage to limp back to the truck bleeding all the way climb in the old 66 chevy and head for home.

Now within about 2 miles of us leaving there is a what we believe to be a HUGE 8 point buck standing off about a 50 yards from someones house right next to the road

We all look at one another as we pass and say oh hell with it! We whip a u-turn up the road about another quarter mile and come back, and low and behold there is a man standing in the middle of the road with his hand out motioning us to stop.

He then says "I saw you kids staring down my buck and I suggest you leave" we that just tops it! Then lightning quick, my buddy with the .308 whips his rifle out and pops that big ole buck right between the eyes, you should have seen the look on that old codger!

Now you are most likely thinking BS and you are absolutely right! All but the very last sentence is true.

forgot to add

I would NEVER do anything like this today.

Boomer, you were what? 16? 18?

We all did some pretty dumb things back then. Alcohol involved by any chance?

Funniest thing I ever saw was a pheasant that flew up from under my feet. Scared me so I couldn't react, but that stupid pheasant flew about 2 feet and slammed into a fence wire. He bounced back down and lay there flopping for a few seconds, right at my feet again. Then he got up and took off again, successfully this time.

A Weird Hunting Story

Back in the very early '70s, when my crew was in high school, we used to hunt around one of the lakes that was owned by the city, but (back then) outside of the city limits (Raleigh, NC). One of my best friends, who lived by the lake went hunting following the path that went around the lake. He encountered a "gentleman" who was "buck-naked" plucking a dead chicken hanging from a string by it's neck from a tree branch. They were both startled and the guy said to my buddy: "Seen enough?" Well my friend moved back into the woods and went home. When he told me about it we went back to the site of the "encounter" and sure enough there were chicken feathers littering the ground.

Seems like a voodoo ritual to me.

I was told some time ago about some forest or swamp area in Michigan, possibly northern, that even the park rangers wouldn't go into because of some freaky stuff that hunters have heard/observed. This guy made it sound like the locals were convinced it was haunted or possessed. Any Michigan members here familiar with such a place?

WARNING - Two bad ones, both true.

A family friend was shot by a "mental" land owner while this 20 something kid was taking a road that skirted his property. The landowner took a shot in the trucks direction, it hit the man in the shoulder, he died instantly. Landowner is still in jail today. ~1990

FFL contact had a friend with a short brush rifle and a bad safety get excited when they stirred up a bull elk. Thrashing through thick brush and not being careful of where the gun was pointed, a stick caught the trigger at the wrong moment and shot him in the chest up through his neck, killing him instantly. ~2005 His friends had to pack him out 4 miles.

I Almost Killed My Best Friend One Time

I owned a cabin one time back in the mountains, and my brothers and a friend were staying with me during the deer season. We were all in the bed, and it was pitch black. I heard my friend go out the back door to the out house. Knowing he was scared of the dark I went out the front door, sneaked my way around to the back corner and felt on the ground for a rock. I found a big one, almost the size of my fist. With no light I was just guessing where the out house was and sent my rock flying. I was aiming to hit the side and scare him. Well, lo and behold I forgot that in the top left corner, right above the seat is a little window about 6 inches square. Wouldn't you know it, I hit that window dead on. I heard the glass break, uttered, "uh, oh!" and high tailed it back into the cabin, jumped into the bed and pretended to be asleep. I didn't want him to know I did it! Well, I waited for quite a while and he didn't show up. So I went to the back door and looked out. Nothing. I called out to him. No answer. So I got a flashlight and creeped out to the building. There was a big crack in the door, (not his!) and I shined the light in on him. There he was slumped down on the pot with his pants down around his ankles knocked out colder than a cucumber! I had nailed him right in the head through that window. He came to shortly and we got him inside. I figured he had a concusion, but he wouldn't go to the doctor. He never seemed any crazier than he had before, so I guess he was okay. I sure felt bad about it though.

How about getting shot at?

During regular deer season (rifle), I was sitting atop a knoll a hill looking over some really nice shooting lanes. My attire was a green coat, over which I have my orange vest and hat--more than enough fluorescent orange to avoid getting mistaken for game...
But down at the bottom of the hill I hear BOOM, BOOM, bullet flies past, BOOM, bark chips off of tree I was sitting under, BOOM--!@%# that almost hit me. I dive behind the knoll and hear a couple more shots as I'm hauling a$$. Then I hear "I GOT EM! YEAH! I GOT EM! YIEAH!"

I wanted to return fire so badly. If I'd seen that !$%!@% I tend to think I wouldn't have missed, so it's probably a really good thing that I never found him.

I was at my range that is located in the bottoms of a wooded area. I was doing some basic maintenance when I heard a distinct rustle in the leaves behind me. I turned around and saw nothing, plus the sound stopped.

A few minutes later, it happened again, only this time the noise was louder. It sounded like something big was crashing through the woods toward me, only I could not see it.

This had me spooked as I was looking in the direction of the sound, but could see nothing. I had just about convinced myself of the reality of an invisible Bigfoot when a slight bit of movement in the leaves some 20 feet away caught my eye. Mind you, my pistol was out and I was in a low ready stance.

Then I finally saw the creature. It was big and primitive looking, no doubt about it!

What happened? What was it?

Turns out, the sound wasn't all that loud at all and the creature was big, but only for its species. The creature turned out to be an armadillo that was rooting around under about 1 foot of leaves. The sound accounting for the crashing through the woods noise was because I had the volume on my electronic ear muffs turned up full blast.

Oh sure, it is funny now, but at the time, I was very concerned.

Box of matches.

One does have to say a word.
Just sitting outside, watching the fire, the moon and stars, and just shake that box of matches behind them and folks will jump out of their skin.

Mentors did it to me when I was wee brat, and I still pass forward as passed to me.
I am only 52, I got a lot of box shaking to still pass forward.

about that age

yes I was about 16 or 17 when that happened

Another excursion that a friend of mine was out on once while bunny hunting and ran across a group of very drunken men out shooting. Shots started flying their way as they heard the close by ricochets and yelled out that there were people out here. There was some laughs and the shooting continued in their direction although this time closer.

My buddies then rapped off a few rounds just incase they didn't hear them and then again a volley of fire and laughter. This time he yelled out "if you fire again I WILL return fire!" and once again they let off a barrage of fire all around.

They spotted their truck and unloaded about 90 rounds (3 mags worth) from 3 sks's into their old blue pickup. There ensued a lot of cursing shortly thereafter but no return fire...

I was 14 hunting ELK in utah. My brother and i go back to camp for lunch. We here a ton of shots (sounded like a mini-war) about 200 yards away. When we investigated with our spotting scope, we see about 9 guys shooting clay pidgeons off a ridge toward our camp Worst of all it was only the third day of the season and the ELK did not return...

Many years ago I was doing some early hunting in Montana, staying in a tent along the Dearborn river. One night I had to go outside to do somthing that required that my pants be around my ankles as I squatted. Anyway knowing there are rattlesnakes in the area I was careful to use a flashlight to get to the bushes, didn't see any snakes. anyway I did the squat thing and about the time I squatted heard this rattling coming from immediately behind and below me. Needless to say I think I made a quarter mile in something like three steps with my pants still around my ankles. To this day I don't know if it was a snake or seed pod on a bush that I brushed while squatting. That was probably the worst scare I've ever had in the field. Been after wounded bear on my hands and knees with a pistol, flew combat over SEA but none of that scare the bejesus out of me like that rattling sound so close to my lineage makers.

You need to keep an eye open for the Ditchweed / Locoweed / Wacky Toobacky growers in some parts of the country.
They set booby traps, fish hooks, pungi stake foot traps, and other dangerous stuff to protect their crops from the other hemp pickers!

Then I had a friend who shot an elk on the side of a Colorado mountain. As the hill was steep, he left his rifle leaning against a tree and hiked down to field-dress the elk.

Then he got pinned down behind it by another "hunter" about 450 yards across the canyon, trying to drive him off to steal his meat & rack!

Little did the rifle shooter know, but we were members of the 5th. Army Pistol Team, and my friend was packing a 6" Model 29!

It all turned out well, with nobody shot or killed.
I guess the sound of some 240 grain .44 Mag JHP bouncing off the rocks beside him made the game thief think of better things to do, and better places to be.

Then there was the time I was setting in my tree-stand when a black BMW drove up and parked down the dirt road a little ways.
Turned out, before long, one of our fine city leaders was getting it up the back-end from a long-haired hippie type dude.
Now, that was pretty scary, in a non-threatening sort of way!


rcmodel

Last year the wife and I were having a nice walk in Shenandoah National Park (The trail between Matthews Arm and Elkwallow wayside if anyone is curious) and I hear this "snap" behind us. There, about 75 yards behind us, is a pretty good sized black bear just standing there watching us. So I pull out my whistle (always carry a Fox whistle in the backcountry) and blow it really loudly and yell "hey bear, scat, get outta here" while clapping my hands loudly.

I think my wife (who'd never even seen a bear before) thought I was out of my mind but Mr. Bear kinda ambled off in the other direction and we resumed our hike.

BUT

I looked back and there's the damned bear following us again. We'd stop and he'd stop, we start up and so does he. He never got closer than about 75-100 yards, but he followed us for a good 1/2 mile until we got close to the wayside (grocery store, gas station, etc) and then he ambled off in another direction.

There was a ranger there fueling up his vehicle and so I reported this behavior to them. His reply was... "Oh that's Bruce, I'm afraid we might have to relocate him soon because he's starting to make a habit of following people hoping they'll drop food."

Ummm, yeah that's really comforting.

Went and got a Christmas tree one year . . . oldest boy was with me (6 at the time). As we were walking out dragging the tree, I got the "hair standing on the back of your neck cuz something ain't right" sensation. Turned around & there was a cougar some 50 feet behind us. Before I could grab my 45 out of a shoulder rig (and I'm pretty quick with it), the cat swapped ends & was gone. Never saw it again, but was much more attentive for the remainder of the hike out . . .

My first year hunting I had a pair of fighting squirrels fall out of my tree into my blind...it was intense.

a pair of fighting squirrels fall out of my tree into my blind

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That was the best one so far.

I once saw the devil himself out in the woods in the half darkness. I was 11 at the time, coming back from a squirrel hunt. Devil turned out to be a goat.

There was a ranger there fueling up his vehicle and so I reported this behavior to them. His reply was... "Oh that's Bruce, I'm afraid we might have to relocate him soon because he's starting to make a habit of following people hoping they'll drop food."

Click to expand...

Yeah, relocate him into the sites of my 30'06 during bear season. Yum!

Lights

Last year opening day of deer season my 9 year old and I were sitting in our pop-up. It was still dark. We were on the side of a hill near the top looking down into a drw with a spring fed creek running through it. Across from us was the hill going up. Probably 200 yds. Hard woods, a few pine and small cedar.
Anyway at some point we are both sorta staring into the darkness waiting for first light when we both see the following. Two brightly lit balls sorta bouncing/floating down the other side of the draw towards the creek. Appeard to be on the ground moving through the trees. One was bright red like a tail light. the other bright green like neon green. Appeard to be about the size on a basketball but our depth perseption was a bit off due to it still being too dark to see. This lasted about 5 seconds and dissapeared. No noise or sound.
We finished the hunt with no other incidents. There was no sign or evidence anything had happened.
I just dunno what it was. Very strange.

One of my favorites, but not as good as many of the other stories here.

Quiet morning deer hunting, not a freakin thing moving. After 3 hours, a little red squirrel comes out of a pine tree and starts eating something on a stump. I'm watching, all of a sudden, flash, a redtailed hawk swoops down and pins the little critter to the ground and starts ripping him to pieces and eating him.

This was twenty years ago and it still makes me laugh. I was spring turkey hunting on land that I had not hunted before. Got out about an hour before sunrise and set up the decoys on a small open ridge in the timber. Not the best set up but I had roosted a bunch of birds in the area the night before. As the light just started to break I noticed a large black "creature" on two legs about fifty yards away in the timber. It would suddenly appear from behind a tree lumber along in a jerky fashion before disappearing in the shadows again. It would occasionally almost purposely step out and look my way then disappear in the timber again. At first I thought that it was just my eyes playing tricks on me in the low light. But after I got a blurred look at it with my binoculars I was becoming convinced that I was being stalked by Bigfoot. Now mind you I primarily bow hunt and am in the woods in the dark a lot so this was not easy for me to accept. But the fact was that I knew that this was a critter that did not belong in my woods! I set there and witnessed this for some time and before dawn the “creature” had had enough and disappeared for good. I called for about thirty minutes but with no turkey activity I collected my decoys and left. I decided that I would not tell anyone about my encounter with the “foot” for two reasons. #1 as I hear it the food is not that good in the sate mental hospital and #2 my hunting buddies would of been on me like vultures on road kill. After two days I could not take it any longer because I knew I wasn’t crazy and just really needed to know what the hell I had seen. So I called one my best hunting buddy that hunted there a lot. And after the normal pleasantries I just came out and said “you ever had anything weird happen to you in that area? He immediately stated “You saw it didn’t you? Tell me about it”. So I reluctantly told him exactly what I had witnessed. He told me a similar story and we both swore to keep our mouths shut. A few days latter he and I along with my other two buddies were all together for lunch when the lambasting began. The Bigfoot jokes started and have not let up to this day. Turns out that the neighboring farmer had tried to raise emus and after he figured out that there was no market for a hundred pound chicken he turned six of them loose. Seems the locals knew about it and had lots of fun messing with those that didn’t. What did I learn from all this? My hunting buddies are a bunch of evil jerks! But I suppose I am stuck with them after thirty years of friendship. Foremost after the above events if Elvis himself landed a flying saucer in my back yard and told me who really shot JFK I would KEEP MY MOUTH SHUT!