Whats the most dangerous animal you've come across?

[lchavez]

Wow, some close calls. I've been hunting / hiking az for many years and have yet to see a bear, mountain lion or rattle snake. I do however plan on looking for a bear this year. First bear hunt.

 

[WestDan]

baby rattler. no noise, just venom. had one strike at me last fall when I almost stepped on it, but was able to see it just in time.

 

[Brock A]

Littlebuf sleep walking... no joke.

 

[Arbutusbucks]

I was turkey hunting early one morning state land in PA and walked up on a ford escape with doors open and airbags deployed...techno or some kind of music blasting. I walked around the driver side to investigate and this "human animal" swung a jäger bottle at me, he came at me from the front somewhere. I'm not sure how he heard me coming over the music. It was pretty easy to avoid him after I saw him and after a second it was pretty easy to see that he was using more than just alcohol. I just told him to take it easy and it would be alright. Called the cops and just kept hunting. Not sure if he got away or not, but I doubt he could go very far if he tried.

 

[Shrek]

Very big gator while wading a lake bream fishing. I was nipple deep and 300 yards from any dry land. Came around a floating grass island and there she was not 10 yards away. By her eyes and snout she was 12'+. She was big enough that she wasn't getting much longer each year just bigger around. It was dusk and prime time. I untied my stringer of fish and let it out behind me as I eased back the way I came hoping that if she came she would take the fish and not me.
Another time was a four foot rattler coiled at the base of the sign in board in the dark. I pulled right up to the board and opened my door and happened to see it by the light of the dome light before I stepped out onto it. It could of nailed me in my car seat if it had struck. Pulled forward and got out and shot it . That would have been a really short hunt if it had struck when I opened the door or I had not seen it.
Both those times make my hairs stand up when I think about them.

 

[G-unit]

Walking to your stand and wading through a dozen pigs in pitch black will pucker your cheeks
G

 

[LaHunter]

Cottonmouth snake

 

[husky390]

People, and I've almost stepped on a couple rattlers but they don't really bother me. I just stop, let them uncoil and go on their merry way.

 

[Backpack Hunter]

How do you let a mountain lion "Brush up against you"? I mean at what point do you say that is close enough mr. mountain lion.

I was sleeping and woke up to it standing over me with some heavy breathing going on. It walked from mid body to my head area with its body pressed against mine. Circled me once and left without looking back.
It was a rough night.

 

[justin davis]

I was sleeping and woke up to it standing over me with some heavy breathing going on. It walked from mid body to my head area with its body pressed against mine. Circled me once and left without looking back.
It was a rough night.

A cougar? Like from the bar?

 

[husky390]

A cougar? Like from the bar?

They're the most aggressive kind.

 

[69ChrisCraft]

Midnight canoe trip in Alabama...couldn't find oars so we used a shingle scraper and a broom. Spotted a gator and buddy tipped the canoe in the excitement.

Also, abalone diving in Mendocino I located a good crevice sure to hold a keeper ab..... Dove down to take a peek and came face to face with a Wolf-eel.

 

[LITTLEJOHN]

An Outfitters crazy horse or mule

 

[AK Troutbum]

Killed two brown bears in camp while deer hunting on Kodiak Island several years ago. We finally did this on the third consecutive night of them coming in the camp and taking all our deer meat, ripping our camp apart, and bluff charging us several times. It was completely ridiculous that we let it go on that long. The first night they came in there was a storm blowing and we didn't hear them until they were leaving, and they got all of our deer meat. The second night they showed up right before dark about 50 yards or so from camp. We could've killed them then but they weren't in camp and they weren't harassing us. As soon as it got dark they came in and started pressuring us, bluff charging us, popping their jaws, fighting with each other, etc. We only had two rifles with fixed scopes and we could never see them through the scopes because of the lack of light, it was pitch black. The last thing we wanted to do was shoot from the hip, and end up wounding them, then having a couple of wounded brown bears in camp. It was a pretty intense several hours that ended up going on until about 2 o'clock in the morning and they tore up our camp pretty good. On the third night we expected them back and we prepared a little better, taped mini mag lights to the underside front of our barrels so we could turn the lights on and still be able to pick up our cross hairs in our scopes and know what we were aiming at. They ended up coming back into camp around 1 o'clock in the morning and we finished it. This was on a fly out drop hunt and the weather did not permit our pilot to get out there and get us so we were kind of stuck. I've been bluff charged by bears before but it's always been in broad daylight and I've always been armed. This was by far the scariest situation I've ever been in and I thought there was a good chance we were not going to make it out on that second night.

 

[sojourner]

Crazy story AK!
I had a big 'ol sea lion swim right under me while abalone diving in the kelp forest. Just about gave me a heart attack

 

[Buglebrush]

Sharks, Gator, Black bear with cubs, Mountain Lions, Grizzly, Bull Moose, but the scariest although probably not the most dangerous was when I was doing some skin-dive spear fishing. I had a 50' rope tied to my weight belt running to a mesh dive bag fixed onto a tube. I was throwing all my speared fish in the bag and leaving a nice blood/chumming trail. All of a sudden there was a huge School of enormous Baracuda all around me. Those suckers were big and aggresive. I cut the rope and began the long snorkel back to the island. Totally unnerved me.

 

[sojourner]

Also got lit up pretty good by a jellyfish surfing off the north coast of Papua. That was scary because I was way out from the shore and I didn't know if I would make it to shore before passing out or something.

 

[norsepeak]

My 2yr old after we lost her blanket.....YIKES

Ha, been there, done that....madder than a wet hornet!

 

[AK Troutbum]

Crazy story AK!
I had a big 'ol sea lion swim right under me while abalone diving in the kelp forest. Just about gave me a heart attack

I heard that brother! I've had them actually bump me when I've been ab diving in Northern California. Either a sea lion or a seal, I don't know, but when you're in about 15 to 20 feet of water, can barely see your hand in front your face, all you can think about are white sharks, and then something bumps you, you spin around and there's nothing there, or at least nothing that you can see. That's some pretty scary stuff right there. I haven't been abalone diving in almost 30 years, I kind of miss it.

 

[charvey9]

My dad and I got charged by a bull Moose in Montana about 20 years ago. I was farthest away so he focused on my dad, who tried to run him off in a different direction away from me. With the bull bearing down at the last second my dad attempted to jump into a bush and tripped....the moose jumped right over him. We weren't hunting and did not have any weapons, just out looking around in late August.

The other would be walking up on a sleeping buffalo while hiking in yellowstone.

I've seen Grizzly in Alaska, but never had anything I would call a close encounter.