Not a bad looking shelter
Creepy experiences in the backcountry
- Thread starter Teaman1
- Start date
javihitter
FNG
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2024
Back in the 80s I finished my Arizona hunter education class and my Dad took me for my first archery deer hunt outside of Flagstaff AZ. We drove up with my Dad's buddy and his son who was 2 years older than I was.
The area we hunted was more of an elk area than a deer area and we saw very few deer over the course of a weeklong hunt. We hiked several miles every day but we weren't very wind conscious and never got close enough to any deer for a good shot and we only saw a couple bucks inside of 60 yards.
The last day of the hunt we all piled into my Dads Jeep Wagoneer for our final evening hunt. As a 10 year old I was tired and my feet hurt from wearing hand me down boots all week. I told my Dad and he told me I could sit in the Jeep while the other three hunted on foot from like 3pm until dusk that afternoon. Dad parked the Jeep off a road in a big meadow surrounded by tall pines. him and the other two guys went for good hunt walk.
I layed in the back seat of the wagoneer as long as I could and it got boring really fast. I couldn't wait for the guys to get back but my Dad told me to stay as quiet as I could so I hung out in the Jeep as I was told. About 2 hours in I heard sticks breaking. Hooray, my Dad and the other guys must be back. I sat up and looked out the window and saw nothing so I layed back down.
About five minutes later I heard more sticks breaking and they sounded close. I figured the guys were playing games with me and decided to get out and look for them as the boredom was excruciating.
I grabbed my bow and surveyed the area and didn't see anything.. I could hear sticks breaking back in the tall trees and it was getting close to dark so I followed the sound across the meadow into the trees toward the breaking sticks.
I went into the trees about 10 yards and stumbled on two mature bulls fighting and pushing each other around with their antlers. They were big as horses, less than 20 yards away and surprised and scared the crap out of me. I ran back to the Jeep and locked myself inside. The most perilous thing was me running back to the truck with a knocked broadhead on my string, thank God I didn't trip.
About 15 minutes later I heard more noise outside the Jeep and it was my Dad and the other guys coming back. It was cold and my dad was pissed I took so long to unlock the doors to let them in. I told them about the elk I saw and they could hardly believe it. My Dad said that experience would probably hook me on elk hunting for a long time. That was my first elk experience and 40 years later I still get giddy about elk. My Dad was right.
The area we hunted was more of an elk area than a deer area and we saw very few deer over the course of a weeklong hunt. We hiked several miles every day but we weren't very wind conscious and never got close enough to any deer for a good shot and we only saw a couple bucks inside of 60 yards.
The last day of the hunt we all piled into my Dads Jeep Wagoneer for our final evening hunt. As a 10 year old I was tired and my feet hurt from wearing hand me down boots all week. I told my Dad and he told me I could sit in the Jeep while the other three hunted on foot from like 3pm until dusk that afternoon. Dad parked the Jeep off a road in a big meadow surrounded by tall pines. him and the other two guys went for good hunt walk.
I layed in the back seat of the wagoneer as long as I could and it got boring really fast. I couldn't wait for the guys to get back but my Dad told me to stay as quiet as I could so I hung out in the Jeep as I was told. About 2 hours in I heard sticks breaking. Hooray, my Dad and the other guys must be back. I sat up and looked out the window and saw nothing so I layed back down.
About five minutes later I heard more sticks breaking and they sounded close. I figured the guys were playing games with me and decided to get out and look for them as the boredom was excruciating.
I grabbed my bow and surveyed the area and didn't see anything.. I could hear sticks breaking back in the tall trees and it was getting close to dark so I followed the sound across the meadow into the trees toward the breaking sticks.
I went into the trees about 10 yards and stumbled on two mature bulls fighting and pushing each other around with their antlers. They were big as horses, less than 20 yards away and surprised and scared the crap out of me. I ran back to the Jeep and locked myself inside. The most perilous thing was me running back to the truck with a knocked broadhead on my string, thank God I didn't trip.
About 15 minutes later I heard more noise outside the Jeep and it was my Dad and the other guys coming back. It was cold and my dad was pissed I took so long to unlock the doors to let them in. I told them about the elk I saw and they could hardly believe it. My Dad said that experience would probably hook me on elk hunting for a long time. That was my first elk experience and 40 years later I still get giddy about elk. My Dad was right.
mi650
WKR
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2021
- Location
- Central Michigan
Deer hunting on my grandparents farm one morning, about an hour before sunrise. I was sitting under an oak tree mostly surrounded by a burlap blind. There was a puddle of water 30-40' across too my left. I started to hear something walking thru the water, but between the blind and the darkness I couldn't see anything. As it got closer, I had my shotgun shouldered.
Eventually it got to where I could see what it was, a great big coon!!
It got downwind of me and very quietly left.
Eventually it got to where I could see what it was, a great big coon!!
It got downwind of me and very quietly left.Turkeytider
WKR
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2023
Things that make noise in the dark immediately take us back to the time when we hadn’t been walking upright that long !Deer hunting on my grandparents farm one morning, about an hour before sunrise. I was sitting under an oak tree mostly surrounded by a burlap blind. There was a puddle of water 30-40' across too my left. I started to hear something walking thru the water, but between the blind and the darkness I couldn't see anything. As it got closer, I had my shotgun shouldered.
Eventually it got to where I could see what it was, a great big coon!!
ScreamingPotato
WKR
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2017
- Location
- San Antonio
So way back on quite literally my first Western trip ever the wife and I got to Colorado after dark and were looking for a campsite. I'm driving around and looking at Google maps and we drive through a big open area with tons of deer. Wife had never seen a mule deer before so she's in full blown tourist mode, deer everywhere, she's trying to take pictures in the headlights and all. I pull over at a potential camping spot but didn't like it so I'm studying maps and she's shining a flashlight around. She sees eyes way across an opening there behind a tree, eyes were high then low kinda going up and down. She's trying to ask about if I think it's a buck because it's hiding behind the tree and the head movements were so rapid. I'm frustrated and tired and trying to figure out this Western camping thing and studying the maps so kinda blew her off. She says she wants to go look at it closer to see if it's a buck and I say no just leave it alone, she gets kinda bummed and I realize I'm probably just being cranky so I crawfish and say if you want to check it out it's cool but I'm gonna stay here and figure out where we're gonna setup. She heads across this field walking and it's a good bit further than either of us realized. I'm done with the maps and identified a spot I wanted to look at and she's still slowly walking across this field. Now I'm annoyed so I get out of the truck, was gonna holler at her to come back but she's way out there so I just watch. At this point I see the color of the eyes and the behavior as she's walking up to it and I went ahead and yelled but she couldn't hear me. Quickly I grab a handgun and take off walking towards her at a fast pace. I get maybe 50 yards from the truck and I see her almost fall over quickly walking backwards and clearly attempting, unsuccessfully, to hold the light steady on the tree. She's walking backwards about 50 yards or so then turns and runs straight at me. Sure enough she can barely talk, all I could hear was "it was a cat it was a cat it's a cat a cat it's a cat!" She had the eyes blinded by her flashlight and managed to walk up to within 15 or so yards of this thing before it jumped out into the open to figure out what this crazy woman was doing walking up to it in the dark. We got back to the truck and I said next time I suggest to leave something alone you should probably not be so disappointed, she agreed lol.
Blowdowner
Lil-Rokslider
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2022
Was this guy proficient outdoors? Is there any chance he fell asleep and was having a flashback? Did he express any gratitude?
Having read so much of this thread and enjoyed it, I feel I must keep it rolling on with one.
The Hunted:
I've hunted mid-western whitetails for several years, and had no shortage of encounters with coyotes, from taking shots at them with the bow, to being followed just out of the lamplight when dragging a deer. The howls now chill my spine every time, but it was not these experiences that make me feel that way, but an incident a few years ago in Wyoming.
The previous year I'd been lucky enough to hunt elk in Montana and Wyoming, done it tough, but learned a lot, including finding a nice couple of honey holes. I'd driven in a long way from other access points and been camping deep in a National Forest. Found a nice spot to camp vacant, and set up a wall tent. The mission for the trip was to learn more about elk behavior and hunt a cow elk with a bow in September. I was a few years away from drawing a WY general elk, and so wanted to familiarize myself with the area. I'd had some initial success but kept finding bugling bulls rather than cows, and all in places that you really wouldn't want to try and retrieve an elk from - dead fall, thickets and steep timbered slopes that worked every tendon and fiber of my muscles. After several days, I'd covered alot of miles, but it wasn't until I got late into the trip that I finally encountered a cow elk and twigged to what was going on - there was a group feeding and watering in a nearby meadow to my camp, but disappearing into a canyon as soon as they heard ATVs from other hunters echoing each morning before light.
So I worked through the edges of this meadow looking for sign and found a promising area of deadfall that seemed to have heavy sign of elk passage. As I examined it more closely, there was a good indication that the elk were walking past it in what I assumed to be the first few minutes of light. It was about a mile from camp, so I rose early, to set myself in ambush. It was about 2.5 hours before light. I got in quietly just in case I'd mis-judged the timing, and sat in the frosty morning air awaiting the sunrise. Something howled at a distance, echoing off the canyon walls, and I thought little of it other than how cool the echo sounded. But then it was joined by another, another and more until it seemed to be a constant rolling echo. Then they started to yip, and this being an area with wolves, and not having heard behavior like this I wasn't sure what exactly I was dealing with. The howling and yipping was coming closer, and fast, these things were on the chase of something...and I could hear them cresting each ridge and funneling through each draw as they grew closer and closer.
At this point, I was getting uncomfortable. I'm a big guy, but I only had a bow and my 357 on me, loaded with 180 gr buffalo bores for the guys in the big brown suits, and I wondered would 6 shots being enough given how many of whatever these hunting animals were that were coming close. Then the pursuit seemed to stop, really close, and the howls lit up above my ambush point, chilling me to the core, the same feeling I now get back east.
I balked - a hunting pack, baying for blood that was now close to me, a solo hunter who really wasn't prepared for this situation. I drew my revolver and turned on my headlamp to see at least 40 sets of eyes all along the ridgetop above me, looking down and focused on me - effectively triangulating my position. Trying my best to avoid panicking, I kept my head up and the light on the ridgetop illuminating their eyes and picked my stuff up, and backed down the hill...watching as they would take a few steps, then pause and seemed reluctant to follow, unsure of what I was. As I backed through a small draw and up to another little ridge, it seemed like I crossed an invisible line. As one, they turned parallel to the ridgetop, and began to howl and yip and resume the chase of whatever it was they were pursuing.
Backing off the ridge I ran like I've never run before. I was fit enough from a lot of preparation and perhaps 40 miles at altitude over the past week that I was hurdling dead fall left and right in the pre-dawn light. My headlamp sputtered and failed perhaps a quarter mile away from the site of the encounter. I made it back to camp at a pace that seemed unearthly fast. Arriving at my camp the come down hit, and I jumped into the car and spent the next hour trying to regain my breath I fell to pieces. As light came, I promptly packed up camp and got the hell out of there...feeling incredibly lucky to have not ended up the hunted.
Nowadays I bring a high capacity semi-automatic with me at all times when hunting, or if hunting with another in bear country have one armed with the revolver and backed up with spray for bears, and the other with a higher capacity semi-auto just in case I'm troubled again by the wolves/coyotes. Maybe not the scariest story, but still spooks me writing it.
The Hunted:
I've hunted mid-western whitetails for several years, and had no shortage of encounters with coyotes, from taking shots at them with the bow, to being followed just out of the lamplight when dragging a deer. The howls now chill my spine every time, but it was not these experiences that make me feel that way, but an incident a few years ago in Wyoming.
The previous year I'd been lucky enough to hunt elk in Montana and Wyoming, done it tough, but learned a lot, including finding a nice couple of honey holes. I'd driven in a long way from other access points and been camping deep in a National Forest. Found a nice spot to camp vacant, and set up a wall tent. The mission for the trip was to learn more about elk behavior and hunt a cow elk with a bow in September. I was a few years away from drawing a WY general elk, and so wanted to familiarize myself with the area. I'd had some initial success but kept finding bugling bulls rather than cows, and all in places that you really wouldn't want to try and retrieve an elk from - dead fall, thickets and steep timbered slopes that worked every tendon and fiber of my muscles. After several days, I'd covered alot of miles, but it wasn't until I got late into the trip that I finally encountered a cow elk and twigged to what was going on - there was a group feeding and watering in a nearby meadow to my camp, but disappearing into a canyon as soon as they heard ATVs from other hunters echoing each morning before light.
So I worked through the edges of this meadow looking for sign and found a promising area of deadfall that seemed to have heavy sign of elk passage. As I examined it more closely, there was a good indication that the elk were walking past it in what I assumed to be the first few minutes of light. It was about a mile from camp, so I rose early, to set myself in ambush. It was about 2.5 hours before light. I got in quietly just in case I'd mis-judged the timing, and sat in the frosty morning air awaiting the sunrise. Something howled at a distance, echoing off the canyon walls, and I thought little of it other than how cool the echo sounded. But then it was joined by another, another and more until it seemed to be a constant rolling echo. Then they started to yip, and this being an area with wolves, and not having heard behavior like this I wasn't sure what exactly I was dealing with. The howling and yipping was coming closer, and fast, these things were on the chase of something...and I could hear them cresting each ridge and funneling through each draw as they grew closer and closer.
At this point, I was getting uncomfortable. I'm a big guy, but I only had a bow and my 357 on me, loaded with 180 gr buffalo bores for the guys in the big brown suits, and I wondered would 6 shots being enough given how many of whatever these hunting animals were that were coming close. Then the pursuit seemed to stop, really close, and the howls lit up above my ambush point, chilling me to the core, the same feeling I now get back east.
I balked - a hunting pack, baying for blood that was now close to me, a solo hunter who really wasn't prepared for this situation. I drew my revolver and turned on my headlamp to see at least 40 sets of eyes all along the ridgetop above me, looking down and focused on me - effectively triangulating my position. Trying my best to avoid panicking, I kept my head up and the light on the ridgetop illuminating their eyes and picked my stuff up, and backed down the hill...watching as they would take a few steps, then pause and seemed reluctant to follow, unsure of what I was. As I backed through a small draw and up to another little ridge, it seemed like I crossed an invisible line. As one, they turned parallel to the ridgetop, and began to howl and yip and resume the chase of whatever it was they were pursuing.
Backing off the ridge I ran like I've never run before. I was fit enough from a lot of preparation and perhaps 40 miles at altitude over the past week that I was hurdling dead fall left and right in the pre-dawn light. My headlamp sputtered and failed perhaps a quarter mile away from the site of the encounter. I made it back to camp at a pace that seemed unearthly fast. Arriving at my camp the come down hit, and I jumped into the car and spent the next hour trying to regain my breath I fell to pieces. As light came, I promptly packed up camp and got the hell out of there...feeling incredibly lucky to have not ended up the hunted.
Nowadays I bring a high capacity semi-automatic with me at all times when hunting, or if hunting with another in bear country have one armed with the revolver and backed up with spray for bears, and the other with a higher capacity semi-auto just in case I'm troubled again by the wolves/coyotes. Maybe not the scariest story, but still spooks me writing it.
Yooper
WKR
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2016
- Location
- Upper Michigan
Wait, so were they wolves or coyotes? Cool story regardless, and I've had more than a few encounters similar, although never to the point of fleeing the scene. The howl of a wolf up close and personal is something to experience at least once in a lifetime!
QuickTrigger7
Lil-Rokslider
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2019
Curious to see if anyone’s ever seen any UFO’s as the sighting have been getting more talked about.
ZValentine
FNG
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2019
- Location
- Colorado, Montana Native
I've seen a lot of lights that I couldn't explain away as planes or satellites, but I mostly chalk that up to my ignorance on what I am looking at, so to me they were UFO but someone that knows they were probably mundane.
gerry35
WKR
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2021
- Location
- Mara Lake B.C.
40 plus sets of eyes staring at you would definitely be unnerving. Even one coyote would be a formidable foe if he was determined to get at you.
RockAndSage
WKR
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2019
- Location
- Lyon County, NV
Dig into the whole thread, there's at least one if not several things here that fit that description.
ScreamingPotato
WKR
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2017
- Location
- San Antonio
Yep. When I was a kid out hog hunting late at night in South Texas we saw what looked like 3 satellites come from different directions int he sky and meet in the middle and all turn North. The next day the news station had a blip about a bunch of UFO sightings in Oklahoma.
QuickTrigger7
Lil-Rokslider
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2019
Shawn Ryan just dropped a very interesting podcast on ufo sightings
I didn't know at the time, but based on investigating afterwards and on the sounds they made (and having seen a few wolves since), they were coyotes - but given they were in hunt mode, I was thinking I'm an easier target than an elk...
IdGoldHunter
FNG
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2025
- Location
- Ammon, ID
go_deep
DWKR
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2021
Not Backcountry, but still odd at best.
Couple weekends ago I'm working a night maintenance in Cheyenne about 3 a.m. I'm driving East on Pershing past the VA Hospital. There's a entrance to the VA hospital off Pershing and the driveway V's immediately NW and NE. The NE portion has a radar this is your speed sign about 250' back off the intersection pointing SW, it was really dark overcast night and the street lights along with the lights around the VA made it relatively easy to see. Just after I go past the entrance the this is your speed sign starts lighting up with random low numbers up and down, on and off all together, this catches my attention. By now I'm behind the fence that separated the VA from the road straight South of the sign completely out of the question that it's me at this point, then the sign numbers climb crazy fast and hit 47 mph, and stay there, had to be almost 2 seconds it held 47, then off.
There was nobody else on the road with me, there was no one driving up the driveway of the VA, not a single vehicle anywhere. I've driven past there several times since and unless someone is driving up that portion of the driveway, the sign isn't on, and if it is on, they're never even close to 47 mph.
Couple weekends ago I'm working a night maintenance in Cheyenne about 3 a.m. I'm driving East on Pershing past the VA Hospital. There's a entrance to the VA hospital off Pershing and the driveway V's immediately NW and NE. The NE portion has a radar this is your speed sign about 250' back off the intersection pointing SW, it was really dark overcast night and the street lights along with the lights around the VA made it relatively easy to see. Just after I go past the entrance the this is your speed sign starts lighting up with random low numbers up and down, on and off all together, this catches my attention. By now I'm behind the fence that separated the VA from the road straight South of the sign completely out of the question that it's me at this point, then the sign numbers climb crazy fast and hit 47 mph, and stay there, had to be almost 2 seconds it held 47, then off.
There was nobody else on the road with me, there was no one driving up the driveway of the VA, not a single vehicle anywhere. I've driven past there several times since and unless someone is driving up that portion of the driveway, the sign isn't on, and if it is on, they're never even close to 47 mph.
Similar threads
Featured Video
Stats
Latest Articles
- Fawn to Doe Ratios: Predicting Your Mule Deer Future
- BaseMap Hunt Planner
- TT#49 Gear Straight from the Expo
- Idaho Mule Deer Proposals: You got 4 days!
- What Mule Deer Eat with Luke Schultz
- TT#48 Everything Argali with Brad Brooks
- Argali Yukon 8P Tent Review
- The Evolution of a Buck Hunter–with Marc Smith
- Old Mule Deer, Rut Wrap, Better Venison & the Blacktail Deer Foundation
- Bergara MgMicro Lite Rifle Review