Creepy experiences in the backcountry

[49ereric]

I dont know if they were fighting or tag teaming something. But shit was going down.

Been while since I have heard something in the woods that just makes you stop real quick.

Plenty of info out there from native americans on the unusual owl sounds.
most animals make unusual sounds at times and they are considered future warnings. Fox scared me once with unusual sounds but then I saw him and connected. I shot a decent rack a few minutes later.
not sure if I scared the fox or if the fox was warning the other animals nearby.
always the issue is what does it means and it takes lots of time in the woods and experiences to understand.

 

[Anschutz]

I wouldn't really call it creepy, but it was a first. I shot a doe earlier this year about 45 minutes before being dark dark. I drug it over to a tree that had fallen over and hung it up and got to work. About the time I got the first hindquarter off, I started hearing Coyotes a few ridges over (maybe a half mile), getting the first inside tenderloin out, I heard a lone yote bark excitedly maybe 200 yards away. I did my best wolf howl (in Kentucky, so no wolves), cut the last inside loin out, and walked back to the Jeep and left. Again, not creepy per se, but it made the heart jump a few beats per second faster.

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[Pharmseller]

How big are your does?

I wouldn't really call it creepy, but it was a first. I shot a doe earlier this year about 45 minutes before being dark dark. I drug it over to a tree that had fallen over and hung it up and got to work. About the time I got the first hindquarter off, I started hearing Coyotes a few ridges over (maybe a half mile), getting the first inside tenderloin out, I heard a lone yote bark excitedly maybe 200 yards away. I did my best wolf howl (in Kentucky, so no wolves), cut the last inside loin out, and walked back to the Jeep and left. Again, not creepy per se, but it made the heart jump a few beats per second faster.

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[Anschutz]

How big are your does?

This is the first one I've shot in KY. She was a year old doe probably between 90 and 115. I'd say most does I see are around the 140-160lb range. Body size, they are about what I'd expect from a mature GA buck.

ETA: I just did a search and there are several folks saying they've shot does over 160 dressed in KY.

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[Backcountrycardio]

About 20 years ago in the cascades outside of Oakridge, OR my dad and I were doing an evening hunt on some private timber land (open to the public) about 45 till it was dark dark. We were driving up a dead end road and this old guy came out of the brush wearing logging clothes, even a tin hat. We stopped and he said he was a timber cruiser and he was trying to get out of there because he was catching a bad cold. We thought nothing of it, other than he was old and he popped out of an old rep-rod unit which we thought was odd.. We hit the end of the road and turned around, never seen the guy on the way out. Then when we got home we realized we never even seen another truck anywhere up there and that particular road was 8 or so miles long. I am sure there was an explanation, but still creeps me out.

 

[Mtns2hunt]

Lot of creepy stuff going on all the time. Just makes the hunt more exciting after taking the proper precautions of course. Normally I don't trust ANYONE. LOL

 

[EastHumboldt]

Really enjoyed this thread .. going back through and reading everyone’s adventures.

Thought I’d share one more. My buddy as he’s gotten older believes more and more in demons and strange religious happenings.
He’s always been a little dramatic at times with the stuff but as he’s gotten older he swears more and more by it.

His birthday is Oct 27, so his mom always threw him Halloween parties to his displeasure, but it’s usually been something we can do outside. Well we were about 13-14 years old at the time.. about 1030 at night… we kept hearing some strange noises in the woods.. well about 5-6 of us went to investigate .. could hear something moving high high up in the trees above us and would vocalize almost like a dying / injured drawn out cat meow..
Then we started thinking with the commotion we heard earlier did something attack one of his cats.. starting to get worried we went deeper in the woods and every step we would take the vocalizing would go further away.. we finally accepted we weren’t going to be able to catch the “cat” and turned around and started going back to the house… well the vocalizations and noises high in the tree started following us out.. well we turned around and started trying to get his “cat” again… and again it started going away from us.

We went deeper this time and crossed a fallen log … well as soon as we crossed over it .. 2 things happened.. his actual cat ran out from under the log and made a bee line towards the house and all our flashlights immediately died.. 4 of the group chicken shitted out and ran back to the house as fast as they could.. I was thinking this was some elaborate prank .. so stayed with it. Started causally walking out and as soon as me and him crossed over the log back towards the house… lights came back on ( I was holding one of the lights so it wasn’t just him messing with me )… cross the log back deeper in the woods the light would go off …. Repeated this and happened every time we tested it.
We finally decided to head back to the house and the strange sick meows started happening and following us back out of the woods .. still 20-30 foot up in the trees.. . As soon as we got in the field we heard this god-awful scream from whatever had been me-owing at us as if a
F-U scream .. oddly enough his cat wouldn’t leave the house for a week after that.

I also would not leave the house for a week after that.

 

[Gen273]

I am bumping this one back to the first page. We can't let one of the best threads ever die.

 

[505Wapiti]

If anyone knows a thread that beats the 80 pages in this one, please share. I'm having withdrawals, and need more new stories.

 

[49ereric]

Cutting firewood over the years in the winter I have this happen 3 times twice in the woods and once at a friend’s house cutting wood for my friend’s widow.
i’ll be sawing wood and suddenly my head jerks up spontaneously and looks at a certain spot while the saw is running wide open cutting and I know I am being watched but no one is there. No eerie feeling though.
i would stop and walk around but never saw anyone or heard anything and more open woods so no where to hide and no tracks in the snow. Two of the places I was cutting were gardens long ago of native Americans but long since abandoned and trees are mature.
i have spent lots of time in the woods as a hunter and know when I am being watched which is seldom cuz I usually spot deer or people first and people never see me cuz they make a ton of noise and or move to fast.
can‘t say for certain why my head snapped up though.
Native Americans just say Spirits watching and I take their word for it as it is their land and culture I live on-with.

 

[turbobrick]

My brother in law and I were hunting shorter than ears pronghorn in central Nevada. It was unseasonably cold and wet, mud everywhere and we flat couldn’t find goats. We drove way to the far end of the unit, and spotted one, but he skirted the foothills and we lost sight of him. Then just as light was going down, he popped out again, and I dropped him at 260 yards. Butchered him quick, had some Mountain House, and got into the rooftop tent as dark settled in with more rain.

I woke up a short bit later, to loud breathing outside the tent and the truck rocking a little. I immediately thought there was a mountain lion in the truck bed trying to get to the goat in the cooler. I grabbed a light and my 9mm, peaked out, and it was just a free range cow aggressively checking out the truck. My BIL and I still laugh about it to this day.

 

[wavygravy]

Not backcountry, but it happened last night so it's still fresh, and I love this thread.

My 2 year old was doing 2 year old things at 3am and it was my turn to lay her back down. I go in her room, settle her back down in her bed and sit down in the chair to wait out her falling back asleep. Of course so do I. I wake up an hour later to the sound of the door closing and I assume it's the wife giving me a break, so I get up and walk towards the shadow in the room (it's pitch black in there at night) and try to touch her. Miss the first time since she kinda dodged me, go for another touch and touch her robe and say something like "she's asleep but whatever floats your boat." I head back to bed... Wife is laying in bed sound asleep. I had touched the blanket on the dresser.

I said something this morning about it and wife says that yea she feels a presence in there sometimes... Whatever, as long as whatever it is handles their shift at night it don't bother me. Kid didn't wake up again till she was supposed to.

 

[Turkeytider]

Walked in at first light last weekend and found a couple of good sized owls that were whooping it up. Have never heard an owl make noises like that before.

Sure made me stop quick and figure out just wtf was going on, before I went any farther

Owls can make sounds that are other worldly.

 

[kodyshriver]

I’ll add another—several years ago I was bow hunting roosevelts on the Oregon coast and the area was mostly 2nd growth with some old growth. I had been chasing around a stud 7pt bull until dark and had a couple miles of hiking in the dark to get back to the truck. After about a mile, I saw a few different colored lights roughly 100yd through the big timber. My rational mind at first was confused that I had already made it to the road, and assumed that I was looking at three different guys—one with a white headlamp, another with red, and the other with blue. At the exact moment I sensed that the movement of headlamps were not consistent with usual human movement, a violent scream erupted from the area of lights—the blood curdling sound of a woman both in pain and furious, except it was probably 2-3x louder than an elk bugle at 100yd. I felt the sound throughout my whole body. Then suddenly there were no lights.
I snuck to that area hoping I wasn’t about to find a woman that had just been murdered, or have to shoot someone. Sure enough, as I scoured the area there was no sign of humans and wasn’t anywhere near the road. I tried running that sound through my mental database of animal sounds, but nothing matched. It wasn’t a cat.
It wasn’t a rational thought, but as soon as I heard it, I felt in my spirit “oh that’s just a demon f’ing with me.” I continued the rest of the way to my truck and went to sleep.
Not as creepy, but just weird—for the rest of the season hunting that area, I would not get into elk without first seeing snakes. As if snakes were a precursor to seeing elk, inextricably linked. It got to the point where I would see a snake and knock an arrow, then see an elk within a couple minutes. Ultimately the snakes failed me—never did kill that bull

 

[7Bartman]

Wasn't hoping for this to happen, but my son and I stumbled into a remote crime scene in AZ during his elk hunt.

 

[Turkeytider]

Wasn't hoping for this to happen, but my son and I stumbled into a remote crime scene in AZ during his elk hunt.

Yep, and people just go off willy nilly hiking and camping in remote areas and forests with absolutely NO thought to their safety, and God forbid anyone do something so crass as to even suggest that they consider taking a firearm.

 

[lhbackcountry]

This guy made me realize how inadequate I am in the woods if it’s pound for pound

 

[huntsman22]

yeah....

 

[tkhuntsman]

I am bumping this one back to the first page. We can't let one of the best threads ever die.

Right let's get this new year started with a bang.

 

[Corhunter]

Usually it's grouse that scare the shit out of me.

Just going through this thread… but ain’t that the truth!