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Post by steadyeddie on Sept 21, 2006 14:30:27 GMT -5
;D What kind of suprises have you had walking to your hunting stand in the dark or any interested ones on the way out in the dark? Steady
When I was in my 20's on the farm, I had to walk a long way in the pitch dark on a no moon cloudy night. My stand was in the southwest corner of our farm. The wind was blowing 30 or 40 mph into my face as I was walking to my stand. The river goes behind my stand and I am going through the picked corn field,and the line of trees are at the end of the field. Just as I get to the end of the field, I just about run into some deer. Pitch black no light and all I hear was snort, alot of them and loud. I hit the ground and they ran the opposite way. Steady
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Post by dec on Sept 21, 2006 14:38:45 GMT -5
Skunk once, fortunately it did not spray me and my flash light caught it before I got to close.
Coyote one time on the way to the duck blind. Walking parallel to me about 30 yards or so away. Kind of spooky.
Last spring I fell into a woodchuck hole while walking in the dark going to get set up on turkeys. Lucky I did not break an ankle.
Two daytime scares:
On a Florida Everglades turkey hunt, I came within 3' or so of stepping on a honest 9 to 10' long gator. He lunged and I jumped (cat like ninja reflexes). He was laying in the tall grass along a sandy buggy trail. I walked past him a couple times every day after that, even in the dark, but I knew to look for him. Still scared the crap out of me.
Same Florida turkey hunt, I rounded a bend in the road and was 30 yards face to face with a Florida panther. Went back later that day and made plaster casts of his prints in the soft mud. Pretty cool sight for sure.
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Post by danf on Sept 22, 2006 20:59:35 GMT -5
About 5 years ago, I was walking out of the woods at dusk on opening day of shotgun. Above me I started hearing bullets wizzing through the trees. Fortunately I was in the creek bottom and there was a ridge between me and the shooters. Had I been sitting in my (at the time) favorite stand, I may have been dead...
Went and found the little SOB's as soon as I got out of the woods. They said they were shooting into a hillside, but I can't figure out how they were doing that and the bullets were ending up where they were. Had a talk with them and their parents. If it ever happens again, I'm calling the sheriff's department and gonna have a deputy meet me there!
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Post by indianagooseman on Sept 22, 2006 21:24:13 GMT -5
The scariest thing I have ever had happen to me in the dark is I jumped a covey of quail, sounded like hundreds of them, right at my feet . I almost crapped myself!
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Post by lugnutz on Sept 22, 2006 22:59:00 GMT -5
Last weekend, while down in Ky checking things out on the lease property, i was squatting down explaining to my 11yr old son what a scrape was, as i started to explain the overhead branches, i looked up and this green colored snake was hanging out of the branch over my head, at that point my body made several movements (none that i care to tell about), as i sat back some 10 ft away (were i landed) i actually saw my son reach up and toss the snake out of the tree. He looked at me as if i were "acting" silly.
Still makes my hair stand up on the back of my neck!
Lug
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Post by hornharvester on Sept 23, 2006 8:49:03 GMT -5
once while walking to my stand on a dark morning as i was going across the dam of the pond something came running right at me and went right by me to the water. i couldn't tell what it was until it got to the water, it was a muskrat.. didn't really scare me just surprised me. the only time im real leery of walking to a stand is hunting wild boar in Florida. out in the everglades when its dark, ITS DARK... you cant see your hand in front of your face. you ride 4 wheelers threw swamp trails in water that sometimes 3 ft deep and almost all of the swamp has alligators. i use a small LED light to walk into a stand that is good for about 50 feet. in the everglades there are all kinds of snake, spiders, lizards and stuff thats poisonous that stings and bites, plus panther and big wild boar. what worries me the most is black bear sows with cubs. the stands have corn feeders that fire twice in the morning and twice in the evening. sometimes a black bear sow will find a stand and just lay around there waiting on it to fire. the stands are only 10 -15 yards from the feeders. my friend who's in the lease there had to get up his ladder pretty quick because of a black bear sow with her cub. they are protected in Florida so you can't shoot them. some of the guys in the lease told me they've had to sit in their stands for a couple of hours until they leave so they can get down. one guy told me he takes the broadhead off his arrow and thumps them on the butt and they run off. once you are up in the stand its usually about an hour wait until daylight. you are stitting out in the everglades and it sounds just like one of the old Tarzan movies. you hear all kinds of squawking, screeching and wonder what the h_ll was that? its kind of spooky going to them in the mornings but once your foot hits the second step on the ladder you feel a lot better.  h.h. |
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Post by coyote6974 on Sept 23, 2006 21:28:51 GMT -5
During bow season last fall I was cutting across a field of standing corn on my uncle's farm headed to my stand for an evening hunt. Without warning I hear a shot off a ways to the northeast. Then I hear a bullet go wizzing through the air past me. I then hear it smack a tree in the thicket I was headed to. By the time I got out of the field to cover two more rounds had come wizzing by and smacked into nearby trees.
I got in the ditch bottom and circled back to my car and drove over to where I found a guy sighting in a scope on his muzzleloader. He was shooting down an old RR right of way that borders the field I was walking in. After a brief discussion about firearms safety and jail he left.
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Post by deerdude on Sept 23, 2006 22:48:15 GMT -5
a couple years back i got to my stand and got to the platform and turned on my light to connect my safety belt , there laying on my seat was the most big god awful spider i had ever seen.i hate spiders with a passion,would rather see a snake,i think.if i had set down on that thing ,they would not have been able to clean all the crap off the side of the tree or me. ;Di took a arrow out of my quiver and knocked it off the seat ,this thing made a thud when it hit the ground.dont know what kind it was but it never came back.beleive me i checked the tree and all every time after that.
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Post by bsutravis on Sept 24, 2006 4:38:15 GMT -5
The scariest moment I've ever had while hunting was along the lines of coyote's story.
I was 18 or 19 hunting in a small piece of Owen-Putnam forest that's off the main piece of forest property. Anyway, back then I just would sit at the base of a tree during shotgun season, so I found my spot on a ridgeline at the base of a big Black Walnut tree. Out of nowhere I heard what I thought was a huge bumble-bee.....that buzzing sound....for a split second and then SMACK, it hit the tree I was sitting under exactly 4 feet above the top of my head. I hit the ground out of reflexes and shock....staring in the direction it came. I never heard a shotgun report, or saw anybody. I dunno if the gun sounded as I was hitting the ground and it never registerd to my brain or what. It scared the crapola out of me! 4 feet lower and it would have hit me square between the eyes.....another statistic.
Now, I prefer WAY UP in the trees during shotgun season....I feel much safer 40 feet up in a tree than sitting on the ground.......even on private land.
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Post by danf on Sept 24, 2006 9:18:04 GMT -5
I can understand that feeling Travis, but in my case, I had I been in my stand I very well could have been dead. Only because I was on the ground and in the creek bottom was I saved from the bullets.
I lost count of how many there were, but there was at least a half-dozen, maybe more...
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h.h. 
