Close Calls and Scary Stories

Bowildee

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In the spirit of the new book by Meateater narrating close calls while hunting, I would be interested in hearing some of y’alls close calls and scary stories from hunts. For me aside from snakes the one that sticks out is stepping on a gator while duck hunting in late November. The alligator never moved an inch so it was fairly uneventful but needless to say the inside of my waders were one shade of brown darker.
 
Both my wife and I were digging nails into the wheel/dashboard listening to Brody’s story about the upper C. I have floated that stretch and run that rapid more times than I can count. Often with my children in the boat, and nearly always with one family member or another. My BIL just bought An old wooden Mack boat that he’s restoring and I made him listen to it also. Anyone that floats western rivers should listen to that one.

I discharged spray at a bear while (mostly) naked once up in @Salmonchaser neck of the woods. I’ve had some more ‘close’ calls than that (bear was as surprised as I was and left post haste) but im either blocking the memories or just old and forgetful. Maybe both.
 
Fell through the ice up to my arm pits when I was 16 running my trap line. Was out by myself and needed to walk home about 1.5 miles in pretty cold conditions. Remember getting very tired and wanting to stop and rest, but fortunately pushed on and got home. My mom was shocked when she saw me come in and got be warmed up and taken care of.
 
Had a heavy fog roll in one day years ago while out chasing mule deer. Before the days of gps. Didn’t have a compass. Knew the country very well but when you can’t see your hand in front of your face it’s tough. Wandered a while before I finally found a drainage I knew would take me out. Wasn’t lost but was damn sure confused for a while.
 
I had one tonight…

I was setting my last tree stand for the upcoming Virginia Whitetail season. I was 20 feet up in the tree and about to pull my tree stand up. My son was on the ground helping me. I had my tree stand about half way up when lightning came almost out of nowhere. It hit the ridge I was on about 300 yards away. All the hair in my arms started to stand up as the wind picked up. There was thunder claps everywhere and the sky opened up. My son asked me to get out of the tree. I was already on my way down. First and hopefully last time I am in a tree when a violent thunder storm rolls over the ridge I am on.

We basically ran off the ridge and 1/2 mile back to the car. Had a great lightning show for about 15 min then storm rolled past and back to bluebird skies. When we left the car it was clear and we never saw or heard the storm until it was already over the top of us.

I was about 80% done with setting up the tree stand but we both decided it was a clear message from God to head home. Soaking and still a little rattled we made it home.
 
Even though it didn’t happen to me I still look up at those doors when I open it. I see on average one snake every two to three years out there; he won the snake lottery that morning
All of my waterfowl stuff is in a 40' container. I'll be checking every weekend now when I open those doors.
 
Went duck hunting at the end of January. Busted ice at the ramp to get the boat in. Loaded a friends 14’ Jon boat with decoys, gear and 2 guys.

we headed out across the lake about 1 pm to the north side of an island on the lake we were at. Set up and got skunked…..

When we pulled all the decoys and came out from around the island it was dark and we were met with 3’ white caps…. We couldn’t feel the wind on the side of the island we were on.

We had a 3 mile stretch between the island and the ramp we had to cross. We kept the bow up and we’re making good progress when the motor died.

We ended up getting sideways to the waves and was taking on water pretty quickly. I threw decoys out of the boat and started bailing water with a bucket.

After a bit, my buddy was able to get the motor going and we made it back to the ramp. Sitting at the dock the boat had 4” of freeboard left with both of us out of the boat.

I haven’t hunted water from a boat since…. And that’s been 11 years ago. I seriously thought that’s how we were going to go out.
 
Went duck hunting at the end of January. Busted ice at the ramp to get the boat in. Loaded a friends 14’ Jon boat with decoys, gear and 2 guys.

we headed out across the lake about 1 pm to the north side of an island on the lake we were at. Set up and got skunked…..

When we pulled all the decoys and came out from around the island it was dark and we were met with 3’ white caps…. We couldn’t feel the wind on the side of the island we were on.

We had a 3 mile stretch between the island and the ramp we had to cross. We kept the bow up and we’re making good progress when the motor died.

We ended up getting sideways to the waves and was taking on water pretty quickly. I threw decoys out of the boat and started bailing water with a bucket.

After a bit, my buddy was able to get the motor going and we made it back to the ramp. Sitting at the dock the boat had 4” of freeboard left with both of us out of the boat.

I haven’t hunted water from a boat since…. And that’s been 11 years ago. I seriously thought that’s how we were going to go out.
I cant Imagine how scary that one must’ve been. Glad you made it.
 
When I was 16 I was hunting pheasants with my dad and our 7 month old Springer puppy in Eastern Washington. Every time we got near water the whole place was buzzing with rattle snakes. There were dozens of them. I was terrified my new pup was going to get bit and was watching her closely. I was not watching what I was doing and stepped right over the top of a rattler. Luckily it didn’t strike and I shot it right between my legs. My dad called it and we got the heck out of there. To this day I am leery of the early bird seasons until it frosts!
 
Last summer I was kayak fishing on a local river. Decided to hit a sandbar to water the grass. While cutting across the bar I stepped over a few logs that had washed up and stepped on a branch about as big around as my wrist. The branch then hissed and clamped down on my water shoe. Luckily my body chose running over fainting and I ended up back in my kayak and frantically paddled away. A few minutes later I realized I never did pee but was too shook to get back out.
 
As an adult hunter I’ve narrowly been missed by charging hogs, almost wrestled with rutting bucks and have been circled by a big cat. The one time I was truly scared was back in jr high. Me and a buddy dropped down into a local creek, I say drop down because it was easily 10-12 feet down into the one access spot. So we are walking along fishing and catching perch and bass almost every cast.
I jump a log laying across the creek and the water starts to boil with water moccasins. Me and buddy looked at each other and I must be a descendent of Jesus of Nazareth because I walked on water and good hundred yards to get the hell outta there.
It was like the scene from Lonesome Dove except we didn’t get bit. It’s been thirty years or so and I still think about it from time to time.
 
I was hunting elk and came across some wolf tracks. Since there were supposed to be no wolves in this area I decided to follow them. I looked up ahead of me and saw a bull moose standing in the open and watched him until a cow and a calf moose came out and he started grunting and following her. I kept hearing a strange sound to my right almost like a beaver chewing on a log I turned to look and another bull moose was chewing strips of bark off an Aspen tree only about 20 yds from me. I watched him until he walked off. I decided to go back to hunting elk. I headed off the way the last bull moose headed because the wind would be in my face and as I a rounded a big pine tree I darn near stepped on the bedded bull moose. He jumped up and I jumped back and slowly walked backwards. I had my rifle at the ready because he had his head down and was licking his nose. Then he laid his ears back and I thought "Oh sh!# here it comes" I stayed calm and kept my rifle on him until I was at a safe distance be hind a large tree. He calmed down and headed off. I decided to hunt a different direction too!
 

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I've had a few. I was moose hunting, walking through some 6' tall grass. I am trying to locate a creek. As I'm folding grass over that was over my head I found the creek. I had just stepped into a bear eating a salmon that was still flopping around at my feet. Backed out of there.
We were in the mountains hunting caribou off the Denali hwy. Me n 2 other guys on 4 wheelers. As usual we go future than most. Set up camp in a ravine where 2 rivers met. We had a nice boo hanging but the herd moved. As we're heading out a beautiful blond mountain grizzly is following our trial to camp following our trail. I fired a warning shot over his head. And watching him run a mile almost straight up the side of a mountain. Satisfied the meat safe for now we head out looking for boo. Long story shorter. We find ourselves looking down on our camp. A mile down the same mountain as the bear ripped up. And not enough gas to get back the way we came.
We head down the mountain aware that there was a rock face that dropped to the river bed and hopefully far enough to the east to miss it. I'll say I will never hunt in the mountains like that again. There was no stopping and touching the brakes just slid on the shale/ mt blueberry bushes . We guessed the right spot or we would have had big problems. I was a bit more of a risk taker then.
I'll end with this. I'm glad I made it and have these n any more lessons.
 
Around 1968 I was a kid hunting with my dad. We were on a ridge glassing. Our buddy was one ridge over and we see him point his rifle at us and motioning weird jestures at us we didn’t understand. Not comfortable watching someone point a scoped rifle at you and acting psychotic. Our friend eventually stops aiming and gesturing, walks to his Jeep to come pick us up. He takes us to a game trail that was on the other side of some sage. Mountain lion tracks. The big cat had walked right up behind us about 10’ away, checked us out and eventually just walked away. We didn’t see him because of the sage between us but he was checking us out. Roger was aiming at the cat, not us. He was trying to signal it had a long tail but his gestures seemed like he was putting something up his own butt. We just didn’t get it. I may have looked like a tasty morsel but luckily my Dad was a big man and I guess he decided rabbits were easier prey
 
Around 1968 I was a kid hunting with my dad. We were on a ridge glassing. Our buddy was one ridge over and we see him point his rifle at us and motioning weird jestures at us we didn’t understand. Not comfortable watching someone point a scoped rifle at you and acting psychotic. Our friend eventually stops aiming and gesturing, walks to his Jeep to come pick us up. He takes us to a game trail that was on the other side of some sage. Mountain lion tracks. The big cat had walked right up behind us about 10’ away, checked us out and eventually just walked away. We didn’t see him because of the sage between us but he was checking us out. Roger was aiming at the cat, not us. He was trying to signal it had a long tail but his gestures seemed like he was putting something up his own butt. We just didn’t get it. I may have looked like a tasty morsel but luckily my Dad was a big man and I guess he decided rabbits were easier prey

Lol classic
 
Fell one time. Busted my face up pretty good. Could stick out my tongue without touching anything. Lost a shitload of blood.4 miles or so from the truck. No phones those days, but no service there even now. I just wanted to lay down and rest, take a nap. I was so tired. Probly 14 inches of snow and I just killed a buck before I fell. Thankfully I wasn't alone or I would have laid down. My bud helped get me out. Doctors kept me good looking and my bud makes great bullets. Oh yeah.. Buck came out the next day. I used to be tough.. mtmuley
 
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