Question for other hunters: am I alone in this?

Status
Not open for further replies.
I almost got lost going to my stand on opening day.
Click to expand...

There have been times where I was driving my 4-wheeler to my stand before dawn in a thick fog and just ended up in the right place without even realizing I'd taken all the right turns and whatnot. Maybe it's just subconcious since I've grown up roaming that land...on days like that if I was in an unfamiliar place I woulda been totally lost. However sometimes when I'm walking to the 4-wheeler to the stand in the dark I'll suddenly see a clearing or tree that I recognize as not being the right place at all and I'll think "how the heck did I get over here?"

brad cook
 
not afraid per say

the only animal that ever gave me trouble while hunting was a rancher's big bull and that was broad day lite.
i have been out in the dark and had the hair on the back of my neck stand up though, that'll get your attention.
we have someone here who's sig line is i ain't afraid of the dark i am the boogieman! i like that.
 
I gotta confess. I never got spooked in the dark woods before I saw Blair Witch. Which, by the way, was a very stupid movie...and highly effective on those with small minds. :)
 
This is not a hunting story, but it's along the lines of being alone in the 'wilderness'. Years ago I was on a solo trip to New Mexico during the winter. Late one afternoon, I stopped at the site of some ancient cave dwellings and there was no one else around except an old indian near the closed tourist center. The path was less than a mile long, and passed under some overhanging rocks and boulders. On the way back, I heard a deep, low growl. It raised the hair on the back of my neck. I stopped, listened, looked around up and down and saw nothing. I began to walk again, a little faster, and heard it again-louder and closer. I turned around, walking backwards, looking up and down, still seeing nothing. Although I was armed with a Ruger Security Six, it scared the hell out of me. I talked to the old indian about it, he said it was a cougar. :eek:
 
I've felt that way before too. Mostly when I was younger, but even now, every once in a while I get spooked. Don't know what it is, I think it is biological, something bred into us over thousands of years of surviving as a species. Happens to me in the early a.m. going to the stand, never in the evening walking out.

I can't explain it, but a few times I had the hair on my neck stand up on end when i walked through a few areas. Who knows why?
 
Nah, you're in good company as the above posts show.

The longest hour I ever spent in the woods was when I was bear hunting in Northern Maine. I had to walk about a mile down a logging road to a pickup point. I hunted till dark, climbed down, made the walk to the junction of two logging roads where I was sposed to wait. Someone forgot to tell me that another hunter was hunting right near that junction. It's now pitch-black, I'm in bear infested woods and here comes "crunch, crunch, crunch". Only when the other hunter flicked his flashlight on did I realize I wasn't about to be eaten.

There are other stories, but that's embarassing enough for now. :D
 
I'm much more nervous when moving in the dark
Click to expand...
That's exactly what I was trying to get across. The dark isn't bad. Moving around in the dark is bad because I'm blind from the dark and the noise of my movement makes me essentially deaf. Maybe if my sense of smell were better... ;)
 
Color me weird, I guess. I've always loved ratting around at night. I found out that I see better at night than most folks, so I see them before they see me. And, after so many years of walking hunting, I don't make much noise.

I'm cautious about old Rattly Snake, of course, or copperheads in that sort of country. I don't like to sleep on the ground because of a bit of worry about uninvited bedside companions.

I don't remember when I first read of some military unit with the saying, "We own the night." My instant response was, "No, I'm just loaning it to you." :)

I'm not saying I've never stumbled, or gotten a trifle confused as to exactly where I was. Some moonlight is definitely a Good Thing. But overall I regard the night as a friend...

Art
 
two times to be exact

I've been there before but I can remember two times that really stick out in my mind. Once in Pa. I was sent out long before daylight cause my buddy already got his deer so he told me how to get to an old empty oil well shack.
It was mixed rain and snow so once I found the shack I had to crawl in under it for some shelter cause it was broken down. I sat in there for about two hours waiting for good shooting light and also for him to push any deer my way. I swear I was sharing that shelter with some kinda critter cause I could hear it moving around. Even with my 06 in hand I was a little rattled. Another time I was sent to a stand on top of a hill (1/2 mile UP the trail) found the stand and climbed in to wait for day light. Sun came up and I scoped the area and found what I thought was a huge rub on a large tree. Got down for lunch and got a closer look at the rub. It was about 4 feet up on the tree and turned out to be claw marks from a cat. Some freinds I got.........
Both times I was sent into a new area that I was totally unfamiliar with so that didn't help at all.
 
I have known a few really big fellers who weren't at all fond of the dark. Personally I kinda like it, I can't hear very well but I do see well and I rely on better than average night vision for what is going on around me.
Oh, I have also been (underground) in areas too dark to see. In those areas I had to feel my way through. That didn't bother me either.
 
I gotta tell ya, I'm probably the biggest CS (chicken :what: ) in the world when it comes to the dark. I've always been like that. Only time it doesn't bother me is when I'm hog hunting with my dogs at night. Maybe cause theres so much goin on. If I have time to think, then my extremely overactive imagination kicks in and Kattie-Bar-The-Door. My biggest fear is Werewolves :D See, I told you I had an overactive imagination. I'm proud to say that it has never kept me from doing anything I want to, just wish I had cat vision.
 
On my very first hunt I was freaked out when an owl flew by and landed in the tree above my head. It was a big bird and it freaked me out. The next night I was attacked (I say attacked, but really it just kept bugging me) by a weasel. I didn't know what it was at the time, but I looked it up when I got home. That little critter just kept sneaking around on the sticks and poking its little head out.

Since then I have always been on the look out for birds and little critters. Also I have always been afraid of the dark. I don't even like walking up the stairs from my basement. During bow season I always worry about something jumping out at me, but when gun season comes around I don't worry about anything.
 
I guess I'm far from the only one. :)

I have a story that happened to one of my friends a few years ago.

He went up to Canada on a guided Black bear hunt. He was bowhunting from a stand, despite the fact that his guide had warned him not to leave anything in his stand, for some reason he got lazy and left his quiver of arrows in the stand overnight. The next day he went out and found that a bear had climbed into the tree and got a hold of his arrows, breaking and bending most of them and trashing his quiver. He found one arrow that was still good that the bear must have dropped, so he sat in the stand the rest of the day. Right about dusk, a good sized bear came into range and he arrowed it- the arrow ended up clipping a lung and the bear ran off into the woods- in the direction of his camp which was 1/4+ mile away. So now he was unarmed with a wounded bear somewhere between his stand and his camp, he didn't have a radio or phone to call his guide, and the sun was setting. :banghead:

He made it out OK, but I don't envy the position he was in.
 
No. When I am on my way out to my stand I am too busy concentrating on being quiet to be concerned about haints or dangerous aminals. Once I get there, I am focused on being alert for Brer Deer. It is a rare year I don't bag at least one and it is consistently right when it gets light enough to shoot.
 
I guess I'm kinda like Art when it comes to night vision. Mines pretty good. Got to playin paintball at night with some friends pretty regularly for awhile and it was amazing how much better I could see than them in the dark. I guess maybe thats why we don't play at night anymore :D
I'm still on edge though. Don't like when I'm busy doing something that gives away my position or lets someone/something get the drop on me. Maybe I'm just paranoid.
 
Yes, I am a little spooked walking to my deer stand in the dark- piney woods of east Texas. It's only about 50 yards off a logging road, and there I am with a .45-70 Marlin or .25-06 Ruger, a big old skinning knife, and an EAA .45 Bounty Hunter or S&W model 29, you'd think I was going to take on a troop of zombies or something instead of 100 lb piglets and east Texas whitetail 8 pointers.

I noticed when I used to hunt the company ranch in Edwards county that I was always less spooky in the dark when the guides would place me in a tower stand vs. a ground stand. I think it was an evolutionary throwback thing.
 
What worries me about being in the woods before light is some over enthusiastic nimrod shooting at a sound....

When I was about sixteen, I was making my way to my deer stand on the first day of deer season. It was probably 15 or 20 minutes before sunrise and I was concentrating on not getting lost. I didn't notice that I had walked under a tree where a ruffed grouse was roosting. If you've never heard a bird take off directly overhead, especially when all is quiet, it's enough to make you crap your pants....
 
HOW TRUE....one morning this past deer season (still dark) I was about 1/2 way up the ladder, with no clue a turkey had roosted in the same tree my stand was in-and decided to make its move then. It made one big racket getting out.....whooo......my pants were ok, though ;)
 
I guess some folks can be made to fear the dark, particularly if they're poaching. Well before daylight I was back in my woods on the way to a stand and heard a fence wire creak. I stopped and leaned back against a big oak tree.

A fella who'd gotten into the wrong place came along the woods road past me.

In a cheerful, happy manner, I said, "GOOD MORNING!"

Envision ultimate levitation...

:), Art
 
Here in Ohio, there isn't much in the woods bigger or scarier than me. If I ever feel a little freaked which isn't often, I tell myself that.

I usually go in and set up without a light. I have been startled a few times when I walk up on an animal, but really never have much issue.

I would not feel bad though, I have several friends who won't walk into the woods without their 5 D-cell mag light.

It usually looks like a grand opening spotlight at their stand. :rolleyes:
 
I'm pretty much the same as Art. I have above average nightvision and I'm probably a little over confident of my abilities. I've worked nights the majority of my adult life and I'm very comfortable in the dark. I try and become a part of it, if that makes sense.
The only apprehensions I've had in darkness is the possibility of stepping on Jake No-Shoulders in warmer climates, particularly around swamps, creeks, rivers and rocky areas. Not a problem here since it's too cold for Jake's liking.
 
When I was a young kid the noises in the woods in the dark spooked me. Then as a young man I was in the Army in Korea and sort of lost my fear of the dark. I am a retired game warden and spent lotsa time in the woods and marshes in the dark and rather enjoyed it. Now my wife keeps me in the dark most of the time. LOL
 
I'm not afraid of the dark, or being in the woods while it's dark, and never have been. I do fear, though (and always will), getting plugged by an overly excitable deer hunter who swore he saw a deer.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

M
  • Locked
Wolves in Wisconsin
Replies
3
Views
455
Robert
Robert
Olympus
  • Locked
  • Poll
Who Hunts By Themselves?
2 3 4 5
Replies
103
Views
5K
dbliz
dbliz
W
  • Locked
Am I Alone in This????
Replies
16
Views
1K
JPM70535
J
S
  • Locked
general hunting question
2
Replies
37
Views
2K
osprey176
O
B
  • Locked
dove hunting, newbie
2
Replies
27
Views
2K
Bill2k1
B
Back
Top