Ever get the heebie-jeebies while hunting in the dark?

The last time I got a bad case of the Heebie Jeebies, was when I pulled shore patrol down at the docks in Old SanJohn, Poetro Rico. My partner weighed about 150 lbs. soak and wet and was a Caspar Milktoast. Thankfully it was during an election period and all the bars were closed. Then again, there was the time I heard the wolves howling up at the boundary waters.



Be Safe !!!
 
You know, it isn't the coyotes that bother me, but the whole wide range of noises made by raccoons. They can make grunts that sound like hogs. They can scream like fighting bobcats...apparently when they are fighting. It is loud and very aggressive sounding. However, happy coon trills sound nice.
 
The worst spook I ever had was trying to hobble out of rough canyon country with a brand new freshly broke ankle. I knew where my truck was, but the fear of 'indecision' along with pain really made me question clear and sound judgement calls like, whether to stay put and try to put together shelter from the rain and cold (and freeze to death), or press on and risk further injury to myself (and freeze to death), or press on, pray harder, and hope for the best.
 
The last time I got a bad case of the Heebie Jeebies, was when I pulled shore patrol down at the docks in Old SanJohn, Poetro Rico. My partner weighed about 150 lbs. soak and wet and was a Caspar Milktoast. Thankfully it was during an election period and all the bars were closed. Then again, there was the time I heard the wolves howling up at the boundary waters.

Pahoo: Could you elaborate?
 
I love sitting around or slipping around in the dark. Coyotes don't bother me but feral dogs sometimes do. I generally carry something to deal with them. Funniest thing to hear in the woods around here is an armadillo. They sound like something big dragging and bumping thru the woods.
Coolest thing I've experienced is an owl. Sometimes I don't hear or see them, just "feel" one flying over. Awesome creature.
 
Climbing down from a tree in the dark, on a dead quiet evening and suddenly hearing coyotes barking and yipping will make a person pause on the way down the tree, I can tell you that.

Nah... just enjoy the "choir". :D

What's really spooky was camping north of Yellowstone in Montana. Wife and I watched the sunset and enjoyed the scenery. As twilight fell we hear wolves howling in the distance and one answer from our 4 o'clock position, probably less than 500 yards. Then another and another. So we decided to head back to the campsite we shared with 4 others. Just about the time we moved about 15 feet the nearby wolves quit almost mid-howl.

Q: What's worse than hearing wolves howling close by?
A: Not hearing wolves howling close by!

Ever try to walk 200 yards calmly in the dark when the wolves go silent? I think I sweated out a pint in that distance, my wife holding her Security Six and me holding my .41 Mag ... with only one mini-mag light between us! Our camp mates had a good laugh and assured us we were only exaggerating our fears in the dark.

The next morning I wandered back up that path with a cup o' coffee and my .41 to find that at least a pair of wolves had trekked that path part way to our campsite sometime during the night. When I showed the others they :eek: over it.


One time, while camping alone, I set up a trip-wire around the campsite with tin cans and stones. I set it high enough that it wouldn't trip for raccoon sized critters as I was more concerned about bruins. I went to sleep about 10pm and just before 1am it sounded like the Italian army was hitting my trip wire! I pulled the 12 bore up and jacked a round and waited until the noise calmed down. With a strong Maglite I checked outside and to my surprise, found a freaking Owl had snared himself on the wire and a short dangling line holding a can. It took a while to calm him and eventually cut him free. Fortunately he wasn't hurt and was able to fly off on his own. But I was sure a bear was outside!
 
I was crawling along in the middle of nowhere green hell that is the Oregon Coast range and totally unexpectedly found myself at an old homestead. For some reason, that just totally freaked me out. Not sure if because it was so unexpected, or the place was really haunted....:o
 
OK Pahoo. Lets be more specific. Did you get the heebie-jeebies at the Riviera, the Lucky 7 or the Black Angus?
Heck no, just ordered another beer and watched the show. Did get kicked out of one place but I can't recal the name. Then again, there was another time in Naples when I went with these two guys, up into the hills to a ****chblade factory. Didn't know what was going to happen but did spend some cash so I wouldn't waste their time. I did not haggle on the price of the blades, just paid it and thanked them when we got back to the peir. Had nothing to do with hunting but it sure was dark and scary.


Be Safe !!!
 
Two quick ones...
My older brother and I tracking what we thought was a bear in the mountains of south-central NM, not hunting, just scouting around...
Found some bear and elk tracks in the mud/dirt...
Followed that track for a while and came around an outcropping to find a VERY large black animal about six feet away!@!!
t'was a cow.
Scared the Bejesus outta us.

Out to take a leak the other night...
The joy of living in the country...
cat was messing with what I thought was a snake or turtle a coupla feet away...
t'was a gator, about a 4-footer.
Oh, joy!
p
 
Wandering around a dark industrial building at dark thirty in the morning sure. In the woods, no. I worked in that building every day and knew every machine, electrical and plumbing fixture and where things were stowed or supposed to be but it still spooked me.

Desert, plains or woods I am in my comfort zone. No burglars with possible evil intent wandering around armed with potentially harmful weaponry in the woods. At least not where I was. Only worried about staying warm and dry not about things that walk in the dark.
 
I was badly mauled by a bear here on Kodiak about ten years ago while deer hunting. For several years afterward, I was very nervous about bears and for good reason - there is about 1 bear per square mile here and they’re all grizzlies... We usually hunt blacktails by climbing up a mountain pre-dawn and glassing for them on the ledges below us when the sun comes up, to ambush them as they move from feeding to bedding areas.

Those climbs in the dark made me more than a tad "heeby-jeebyish" for a while after the mauling, I can tell you! I'd actually sweat, which is quite an accomplishment in Alaska at night. In the gloom, my eyes would turn every flit of a chickadee into a bear's twitching ear. My ears changed every dashing bunny into a bear. The first time I actually encountered a bear after the mauling made me feel weak and nauseous – and that bear was a good 150 yards away and going in the other direction!

At some point though, I just realized I wasn't afraid any more. Moving around at night makes your senses hyper-aware and after a while I was "tuned" again and felt comfortable. I could again accurately categorize sights and sounds with the rational parts of my brain, rather than simply puckering up and letting emotions rule me.

When I see a bear now, I get out my camera (but keep my firearm handy!). I’m not nervous at all – I’m the guy with a .350 Rem. Mag, not him! I don’t approach grizzlies, but sometimes they approach me. Bears are like dogs in that they telegraph their attentions. We all know instinctively when a dog is dangerous, and we need to take a look at bears and think “if that was dog, would I consider it a threat?” Most of the time, the dog is not a real threat and we accept that and act accordingly. If it is dangerous, we pick up a stick and let him know not to trifle with us. The same rules apply with bears.

Often, when bears approach, they don’t meet your eyes which a clear signal of “Let’s pretend we don’t see each other” – a clear sign of non-aggression and peaceful intent. Such a bear is a safe bear, and the thing to do is just to edge away at an angle (not directly away). The other tip-off to a (relatively) safe bear, is the threat display. These can be terrifying, but just like dogs it’s the barking dog that usually is the least threat – as long as you respond appropriately. 99% of bear encounters can be scary, but in reality they are relative harmless unless you run away and set up a prey/predator response – things that run away are prey in a bears mind - or shoot them and make them angry. Things (people) that stand their ground, are dangerous and not worth messing with in a bears instinctive behavior. Grizzly maulings are set up by running away or by surprising a bear (as in my case) at close quarters, or shooting without killing it – generally without cause, since if you follow the rules it should almost never come to that.

Actually grizzly attacks (generally) come from the bears you don’t see. These attacks are faster than you can imagine and come by surprise. These are generally starving bears, or bears previously perforated by toy hand guns like 44’s. Sometimes you never know – he’s got a tooth ache or is just in a bad mood after having his ass kicked by a larger bear.

My experiences are mostly with grizzlies/Kodiak browns and I’d have perhaps a hundred close encounters, all but one resolved peacefully by simply understanding the situation and responding according.. Black bears act differently, but most of the same rules apply. Stand your ground and speak gently. Bow your head and don’t meet their eyes. If the bear escalates into a threat display, it’s a test of your resolve, and at that point it’s time for eye contact, harsh guttural yelling and threat displays of your own. Fire rounds into the ground or over his head – zap him with pepper spray. 99.9% of the time he’ll get the message, and back down. They’ll usually edge away at an angle instead of directly away – in an attempt to keep his dignity, if you’ll excuse the anthropomorphic term.

On a personal level, I figure; "What are the odds I'll get mauled again?" And also, I figure I'm smarter about it now, which further reduces those odds. I don't repeat mistakes like stalking silently through brushy areas. Bears are pretty easy to live with if you just follow a few common sense rules – their rules.

Oh, one more point about bears. 90%+ of the bear attacks in Alaska (a dozen or so a year) happen in Spring and late Fall, before and after the berries and salmon have come and gone. They’re hungry and cranky then, and far more prone to attack.

Personally, I'd be a lot more nervous about stepping on a snake in the dark down where some of you guys hunt! I don’t think snakes have any rules about when they bite.


A high-country Kodiak blacktail, just big enough to shoot - with a camera:

deer-2.jpg


A kodiak from 15 yards away. Taken last summer, a few hundred yards from my house. He's playing the "I don't see you" game, which means he's safe to be around as long as you don't do something stupid:

aaabear.jpg
 
coyote hunting?

I was out to the woods for an evening coyote hunt on a friends property. Just after I hit the woods they said "by the way, a black bear with cubs was in the yard last night." I was hunting about 200 yards from the house. Went out, set my rotten meat out, turned on the electric call.

At one point I had a pack of them within range but couldn't see them in the underbrush.

Next thing I know, I wake up and its 2am, woods were deathly silent. That was one nervous walk back to the house.

Oh yeah, I forgot to bring a flashlight that day too.
 
Never until a few years ago. I saw a mountain lion whilst deer hunting for the first time. He walked out broadside and passed by me at about 10-15 yds away. We supposedly don't have mountain lions in our area (NW Louisiana), and game wardens will tell you- will swear up and down- that we don't. I believed them and dismissed others' claims of hearing/seeing them as drunks/idiots that probably saw/heard a bobcat or coyote and didn't know any better. Well, not anymore.

That being said, I'm still not scared, I haven't seen another big cat since then, but I am more cautious walking to/from my stand now, and give the limbs in the trees a glance now and then.

Jason
 
Browsing through this thread brought back a memory from several decades ago. I guess I gave the heebie-jeebies to a hunter.

I was back in my woods during deer season, maybe a half-hour before first light. I heard a fence wire creak, as sumdood was coming over the fence into my woods. "Okay," sez me, "I'll play."

I leaned up against a tree alongside the old woods road, where I'd be on his right as he came along. And, sure enough, he did indeed come sneaking along.

Have you any idea of how high a guy can levitate from just ambling along when a very, very loud, "GOOD MORNING!" hits him in the ear?

I like the night...
 
Bears after dark

More often than not I find myself in my bear stand after dark waiting for my partner to come and pick me up - or vice versa if I drop him off.
Both of us have had some hairy memories over the years.
If he gets one I usually hear the shot right before dark and I know I'll be sitting there for a while.
Last fall I was sitting there in the swamp in the dark waiting for the sound of his truck when a bear hit the bait about 30 yards away.
This happens fairly often just after dark and I realized that the bear would move along as soon as he heard me moving around in the stand.
No big deal.
That's just the way it works.
Since I hadn't heard my partner's truck yet I sat there squinting into the cedars trying to make out the size of the bear we had been feeding since August.
I could make out that he was an average bear in the rising moonlight.
As I watched that black ball of fur roll the bait bucket around another black spot at least twice his size suddenly rushed him at the bait.
This sent the smaller bear hauling a$$ directly toward my stand.
He collided with the tree that supports my stand with enough force to knock me off the stool and send my backpack sailing out of the tree.
He continued to run off back behind me someplace.
I never heard another sound over by the bait.
Neither bear knew I was there.
Or so I thought.
A few minutes later I heard my partners truck heading in my direction so I climbed down to walk the 1/4 mile out to the road.
I realized I was not alone when I turned on my headlamp at the bottom of the tree.
The bigger bear was standing 4 feet away from me.
Just standing there with my backpack between his feet.
I never knew I could yell that loud.
And off he went.
 
I had an owl or a wild turkey take off just above my head before sunrise. Scared the heck out of me.

My realistic fears are about snakes and other hunters.


BTW - Kodiakbeer - that photo of the deer is outstanding. Someone should paint it.
 
I had a bobcat scream about 50yards away one morning a couple hours before daylight. It is a hideous sound, and it freaked me out a little bit. I also heard one at dark while I was dragging a buck in once. Again, a pretty strange noise to hear (especially in the dark). It's hard to believe such a little cat can be so scary sounding.


Joe
 
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