How scared have you been?

[Broken Arrow]

Seeing these post on slobbering bulls in rut got me to thinking. Any good stories of times when you questioned your sanity? I have had two situations where i really questioned what the heck was going to happen to my safely. Both happened on the West side in stuff so thick, (vine maple jungles) where i thought this may be the end of me. Under 10 yards, covered in elk urine, elk screaming so loud it hurt my ears, all i could see was bits and pieces of the animal, one broke off a tree about 4 inches in diameter and stomped on it....never in my life have I heard such crazy sounds come from an animal. I ended up shooting one of the bulls. Both situations had me shaking with adrenalin so bad i could hardly stand....looking back however, it was awesome, and got me hooked for ever. What's you stories?

[jrebel]

Those are the times that make elk hunting so special.      It is a feeling that nothing in the world could replicate.  Not gonna lie, just reading your post make the hair on my neck stand up.  Can't wait for this years elk hunt.

[Button Nubbs]

I've never had an animal turn me to a bowl of hello like bulls do. I guess that's why I don't really put much effort into any other species.

[Sneekee23]

I have had several 10 yard encounters, but only one that I can honestly say I have been scared.  Opening day about 10 years ago after being out in the rain all day I dropped my father off at camp and told him I would be back in an hour and that I was only going to locate for the next day.  The first ridge I hiked out and began my calling sequence, in less than 10 minutes I had a bull crashing in.  This is when I learned that kneeling in the Pacific Northwest really doesn't present the best shots but it does hide you well.  Needless to say he came in screaming and urinating all over himself. When he was at 3 feet to my left he began spraying me in the face with urine.  I can say this was a great learning experience as well as one of the scariest.

[Russ McDonald]

This will only be my thrid season of elk hunting since I moved here so no good stories there.  I will tell you about when I shot my very first white tail buck when I was 12 years old. 30 yards away shot him broad side and he came a running straight at me and my brother.  All I could think of was keeping him in the scope and pulling the trigger with my .308.  By the third shot he was within 2 feet of me and my brother.  I could have reached out a grabbed his antlers.  He turned and rolled down a little rock pile but not after my brother shot it in the arse with his .410.  He wasn't old enough to hunt big game yet.  The deer was it is death throughs kicking on its back.  I try to shoot it in the head and missed.  I am shaking like a leaf trying to reload but then realized the buck was dead but my brother grabs a big rock and chucks it at its head.  Of course it shatters of the longest tine on one side.  It was a perfect 10 pointer.  So once we figure out that it is dead. My brother takes off because we are hunting on our uncles 100 acres, to get help.  So here is the scared part.  I am sitting on the deer gun loaded watching for wolves.  This was in the early to mid 80's in northern MN.  Wolves everywhere.  Needless to say I was jumping at every little sound until the tractor and trailer showed up 15 minutes later.  To me it felt like 4 hours. 

[Russ McDonald]

This will only be my thrid season of elk hunting since I moved here so no good stories there.  I will tell you about when I shot my very first white tail buck when I was 12 years old. 30 yards away shot him broad side and he came a running straight at me and my brother.  All I could think of was keeping him in the scope and pulling the trigger with my .308.  By the third shot he was within 2 feet of me and my brother.  I could have reached out a grabbed his antlers.  He turned and rolled down a little rock pile but not after my brother shot it in the arse with his .410.  He wasn't old enough to hunt big game yet.  The deer was it is death throughs kicking on its back.  I try to shoot it in the head and missed.  I am shaking like a leaf trying to reload but then realized the buck was dead but my brother grabs a big rock and chucks it at its head.  Of course it shatters of the longest tine on one side.  It was a perfect 10 pointer.  So once we figure out that it is dead. My brother takes off because we are hunting on our uncles 100 acres, to get help.  So here is the scared part.  I am sitting on the deer gun loaded watching for wolves.  This was in the early to mid 80's in northern MN.  Wolves everywhere.  Needless to say I was jumping at every little sound until the tractor and trailer showed up 15 minutes later.  To me it felt like 4 hours.

There is much more to this story that I have left out but we would all have to have a beer and I would tell you the rest.

[Tony]

One morning I found an area that looked pretty promising for the evening so me and a buddy checked it out that night. When we arrived my buddy sat in one spot and about 40' or so to his right is where I was looking off a different direction. My buddy calls me on the radio and says can you see that bull coming up this trail but I couldn't until he got to the top of the hill where we were. Once the bull got to the top of the trail he stood within about 2-3' of my buddy and after about 3-4 minutes he must of caught wind and turned and ran straight at me. I didn't move thinking he would see me or turn or something but nope not the case. I had to jump to my left when the bull was at about 4-5' and the bull spun around me then stared me down for a minute or so before he walked off. although it scared me while it happened it is probably one of the coolest things that has happened while elk hunting. I wish I would of had a bull tag that day.

[norsepeak]

Never really been scared of an elk, but have been mildly concerned....   This was two years ago, and really up close and personal.  3 feet! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XurEihAmag&list=UUurVHoLv6F0P1zro8yw6dbg&index=15

[Jonathan_S]

There have been a lot of times that I’ve had that scared feeling without knowing why, usually chocked it up to cougars or bobcats watching.   There have been a few times where I KNEW why I was scared such as having a black bear bluff charge me or pheasants and grouse exploding from underfoot. Another time, I sprinted down a dry creek bottom so I could easily jump up the uphill side, I came face-to-face with a black bear about six feet from me, growling and snapping.

Here is my most recent example of sheer-terror.  This was in March 2013.  I went for a hike up a canyon late in the day.  I went in four miles and had a lightweight pack on and a Walther P-22 (.22) for concealed carry.  I only went in four miles because the trails were too icy any farther up.  Anyway, the sun set around the time I turned around and it darkened quickly in the canyon.  Because of how slippery the icy trails were, I was jogging downhill because walking I kept slipping.  I broke into a loping run as I came around a sharp corner of the trail…

…two moose calves on my left and a cow on my right, I’m about five yards away!  Instinctively I stopped running but the treacherous ice caused me to fall straight onto my back.  Then I keep sliding until I’m right in between them and looking straight up at a towering cow moose who’s having a fit and snorting.  I saw my life flash when she reared up and came crashing down on the ice pack and roaring in the near darkness.  The two calves trampled past me, barely missing me and hiding behind their mother who did not back down an inch. 

I scrambled away and hid behind a tree with the .22 drawn and watched them gradually leave.  If ever I have been truly terrified, that was it.

[h20hunter]

Hey Bull.....


Awesome

[jrebel]

Reading Russ's post makes me think of a time recently that scared me...well I was scared my father-in-law was going to get trampled.

I had drawn a cow elk muzzy tag and was hunting with my father in law.  He obviously could only shoot a spike so we did most of hunting together.  Figured when we got in to the elk if there was a spike he could take it, otherwise I would shoot a cow.  Well second to the last day we sit on an old stand of mine and just wait.  My father in law is sitting about 50 yards away watching another trail.  Well as afternoon came upon us we hear an elk....or should I say, I hear an elk. I look to my right and out in front of us (but halfway in between) is this huge cow elk.  She is 20-30 yards away slightly guarding to me and away from him.  I look at my father in law and I think he may be sleeping.  I raise my muzzle loader and fire.  Pretty sure the father in law pooped his pants.  I hammered the elk in the front shoulder and it hit the ground. It got up spun around and ran right at my father in law......   I am trying to reload as fast as I can.... 

Well the elk only has 20-30 yards till it is on my father in law and there is no way I am reloading that fast.  I yell at my father in law and he gets behind a small tree that is not going to protect him.....   Well the elk dropped dead before it got to him, but it was close.  Needless to say we got a good chuckle out it after it was all done. 

[coachcw]

Elk not scary but cool ! I have had one real scary griz encounter where he ended up with the elk and I had no side arm 

[724wd]

Hey Bull.....


Awesome

 

[724wd]

my dad and i were bear hunting several years ago behind his house around mid- september or so.  I'd found an elk shed earlier in the day and he was packing it around when we heard an elk bugle.  he squealed back with cupped hands and the bull responded!    they talked back and forth for a minute or two and my dad raked a rose bush with the shed.  then we realized there was two bulls about 75 yards away!    and then we heard the crash of antlers and saw the dust flying   as we worked our way down the hill, the bulls were fighting their way up.  they would clash, push with their bellies nearly scraping the ground, then separate for a second before going at it again.  they trampled over 8' high rose bushes, small pines... anything in their way!  One bull had super heavy antlers with long, heavy tines.  he was really narrow, but beautiful!  he had stabbed the other bull, a really wide, but more spindly and short tined bull, and had blood on three of the tines on his left side.  the old man and i were watching with favorable wind from behind a 5' tall rose bush as the went after it over and over, getting closer by the second.  when they got to 10' and separated for a second, dad waved his arm to prevent us from being run over    .  both bulls had wide eyes and were panting with the exertion, but with the wind in our faces, they didn't really know what to make of us.  each one spooked about 20 yards back down the hill and then reengaged, fighting and screaming at each other!    it was the most extreme thing i'd seen in the wild. 

during elk season, a friend of ours shot the narrow, heavy bull.  scored 360-something.  he was holding out for a 380+, but 'settled' for this guy, so i did get to hold his antlers.  though our buddy may have shot him, the old man and I had a WAY better encounter with that bull!   

[Elkohol]

Not elk hunting but I remembered this video after watching yours Norsepeak. I would have craped myself if I was this guy.

Way too Close to a Grizzly

[Broker]

Not elk hunting but I remembered this video after watching yours Norsepeak. I would have craped myself if I was this guy.

Way too Close to a Grizzly

If that bear wasn't big enough to shoot, I sure don't want to be near his big brother!  WOW!

[Fullabull]

I started still hunting for deer years ago and it changed everything. I saw lots more deer but also starting seeing a lot of other animals I had never really seen much before (and a lot closer). I had never seen a bear in the woods (this was in CA) but started seeing them every year after I started still hunting.

Most of the time they just turned and ran. One time though, I was still hunting up a drainage trying to get to a logging road about 3/4 the way up. Just as I'm getting to about 20 yards before the road (and its nothing but small pines up to the road) I start hearing low growling. So I figured, OK, no big deal just another bear. I start making some noise and talk a little to let it know I was there and coming up, figuring it would just run back up the hill where it came from. As I step out onto the road through the small pines, I see a huge sow standing on the other side of the narrow dirt road with two yearling cubs right behind her....OOOPS!!! Luckily I was hunting with my rifle at the time. I stood there and just talked to her softly hoping she would back off, she just stood her ground and started growling again. I pull my rifle up on my hip just in case, then out of nowhere I hear a logging truck (which I haven't heard all day) way down the bottom of the hill. The sow heard it and it broke her focus on me, she huffed at the cubs who ran back up then hill. Then she turned to follow them. I have never seen such a large animal run so quickly up a steep hill like that before. In a flash she was 50 yards up the hill standing on a log looking back down at me. I started walking down the road whistling all the way so she knew exactly where I was and I wasn't a threat any longer. I didn't realize how hard my heart was pounding until she ran up the hill.

[RadSav]

Never scared elk hunting, but once out scouting for new bear spots I got caught up in a bunch of fishing line.  I got so irritated that someone had strung the line all over the place I didn't realize I was standing in the middle of a Mary Jane grow.  A BIG Mary Jane grow!  Two guys walk up to me with guns drawn.  One say's, "What the F(*& you doing here?"  I say I am looking for new places to run bear baits.  The other guy says, "I strongly suggest you get the F(^* out of here and hunt somewhere else!"  He didn't have to ask me twice   That's probably the most scared I have ever been in the woods.

[DoubleJ]

Never scared elk hunting, but once out scouting for new bear spots I got caught up in a bunch of fishing line.  I got so irritated that someone had strung the line all over the place I didn't realize I was standing in the middle of a Mary Jane grow.  A BIG Mary Jane grow!  Two guys walk up to me with guns drawn.  One say's, "What the F(*& you doing here?"  I say I am looking for new places to run bear baits.  The other guys says, "I stongly suggest you get the F(^* out of here and hunt somewhere else!"  He didn't have to ask me twice   That's probably the most scared I have ever been in the woods.

And you want me to go hunting with you?

[pd]

Hey Bull.....


Awesome

 

I have to agree: That is awesome!  (........hey bull........)

[2labs]

Bristol bay, right out of high school. Went from indestructible to despensable in about two weeks.

[manni7mm]

First bear I ever shot was from 20 yards out.  His head was all I could see leaning into the trail ahead of me.  3 or 4 yr old Boar.  I put my sights on him and waited until he stepped into the trail at full broad side view.  After I shot, he charged straight at me and dropped about 10 feet in front of me.  When it was all said and done, i figured I would not have got off another round in time because my arms were shaking so much.     

[Pigfuz]

I took my girlfriend out hunting last year for the first time.  We walked right into the middle of an elk herd and watched them for a while then started calling and talking back and forth with them.  As we turned to leave (deer season) I called a couple times on our way out.  Well a spike bull thought his hot cow was getting away and he came at a full charge.  Lets just say I pushed my girlfriend off to the side of the trail next to a tree and started yelling at the elk.  Luckily he figured out what we were and hit the breaks on all four hooves coming to a screeching halt at about 8-10 yards.  I was more in shock  than in fear but my girlfriend on the other hand... Well she questioned my sanity 

[Dan-o]

I got treed by a cow moose a long ways back. 

I was pushing timber for elk for my dad and I got too close to a cow and calf moose without seeing her.

I heard her stomping her hoof and she was close when she came at me.

Good thing I was young enough to go up a tree.....   Now I'd be screwed.

[NoImpactNoIdea]

Never really been scared of an elk, but have been mildly concerned....   This was two years ago, and really up close and personal.  3 feet! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XurEihAmag&list=UUurVHoLv6F0P1zro8yw6dbg&index=15

I had someone show me that video a year or two ago and I could have sworn he said it was him.  Your name isnt Dan by chance is it?

[huntnnw]

Hiking 6 miles in the dark to a elk spot by myself..at 3:00 am about a mile in I had a cougar start growling and hissing at me....I was a little freaked 


I shot a elk in ID 2 years ago..went to blood trail it and walked up on 3 cubs and momma..I knew immediately this wasn't good..she stood up at 20 yards..started grunting and chomping teeth

[Johnb317]

Hiking an hour back to camp after dark listening to a pack of wolves howling.
Same trip my headlamp picked up a pair of eyes looking pack at me, based on the distance between the eyes it wasnt a small animal, and since lighted pins aren't legal in Idaho.    (Bow hunting)

[boneaddict]

I've puckered a couple times. 


I had a huge herd bull really worked up one time.  He was targeted many times by hunters, but he was about as call shy as they come.   I had him fired up and frothing and finally brought him in with a challenge.   He liberated a tree of all its limbs right in front of Idabooner and I as we crouched on the ground watching.  He walked by within inches and I was just praying Idabooner was smart enough not to move.  I think he would have perforated us if he had.   I am not sure I had ever seen a bull so pissed off.  I was hoping I wasn't the next random bush he was going to curb stomp.   

A year later working the same bull, I couldn't pull him in out of this patch of trees, but I brought in a satellite that decided to rub on the tree I was hiding behind.   I was really getting skinny hoping a tine would hook me.    Same night black dark, coming off the mountain  a damn love sick spike was by me and wouldn't leave even after seeing/smelling/hearing me.   SOB followed me in the dark and barked at one point within feet behind me.   About sent me up a tree.   

Then there was the time I was night calling and my bulb in my flashlite died.   Told the wife to stay put and went back for a backup light.   A cow elk walked by her and pissed on her leg.   She came running full speed in the black dark almost running me over.......

[slim9300]

Those are the times that make elk hunting so special.      It is a feeling that nothing in the world could replicate.  Not gonna lie, just reading your post make the hair on my neck stand up.  Can't wait for this years elk hunt.

This is exactly right. I have never felt fear when a bull is in tight and I can feel the reverberation from his voice hitting my body, only a sense of excitement that cannot be matched nor explained.

I will take that back for one small exception. Way back on my first backpacking hunt in MT when I was 19, I was sleeping in a bivy sack near a small meadow and apparently a big mature bull decided to wander over and check me out. I didn't hear him approach since bulls had been bugling all night already and I finally had some silence, but at spitting distance he screamed his baddest challenge bugle right at my head. That bivy sack must have looked like the biggest caterpillar he had ever seen, because I struggled to get that zipper open for about 30 seconds after I awoke from a dead sleep. Lol.


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[slim9300]

Hiking an hour back to camp after dark listening to a pack of wolves howling.
Same trip my headlamp picked up a pair of eyes looking pack at me, based on the distance between the eyes it wasnt a small animal, and since lighted pins aren't legal in Idaho.    (Bow hunting)

Time for a sidearm or some bear spray, I don't think your bow would have helped.


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[TommyH]

Had a big 6 on a string, walking right to the tree I was hiding behind, at about 2-3 feet I could have grabbed his rack  I have it on video somewhere.

[norsepeak]

Never really been scared of an elk, but have been mildly concerned....   This was two years ago, and really up close and personal.  3 feet! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XurEihAmag&list=UUurVHoLv6F0P1zro8yw6dbg&index=15

I had someone show me that video a year or two ago and I could have sworn he said it was him.  Your name isnt Dan by chance is it?

Nope, not Dan.  And I am the one who took this video.  My guiding partner and I were between clients and decided to go get some video.

[throttlejocky20]

Had my butt pucker on the first bull i ever called in. He ran straight at me and stopped less then 5 yards to my left, smashed up a small tree then screamed. No way for a shot as I was laying in a fern. Dont tell anyone but im pretty sure i pooped a little!

Last season spotted a budies moose at about 100 yards as he was heading out of sight. We took off running after to get a shot,came around the corner and there he was a 50+ inch bull all rutted up less that 30 yards looking over his a$$ at us with a look that in mind my said I WILL F%&K YOU UP! I think I peed a little on that one!

[et1702]

Not elk.  But, way back when I was in college at NAU in Flagstaff, AZ, I was out archery elk hunting on back side of San Fransico Peak.  Walking into an area in the dark and something kept flying by my head.  Couldn't figure out what it was.  Then, in the trail in front of me, the darkness seemed to be moving.  The biggest black bear I have ever seen had his head stuck inside a stump eating honey.  Darn near walked into him in the dark.  Backed out as quietly as I could (since I didn't have a bear tag in my pocket).

ET

[Shawn Ryan]

Hey Bull.....


Awesome

Norsepeak, that was awesome.  Nice video; thanks for sharing.

While archery hunting, I accidentally sneaked up on a cougar that had just killed and eaten a porcupine.  I knew something was there, but I didn't know I'd find a cougar crouching in the brush 8 yards away with the freshly eaten porcupine between us. Glad he was done eating. Our brief encounter ended when, without thinking at all, I raised my hands and said "you can have it."  My brain stem meant to convey to the cougar that we weren't competing for the rest of the porcupine, though my prefrontal cortex knows that cougars don't understand English.  The cougar ran away and I quickly walked back the way I'd come.

[Old Man Yager]

No elk encounters, but the first buck I shot when I was 17 popped out of the brush at about 10 feet. I don't know who was more scared, but I got the drop on him with my lever action 30/30. Shot him right through one of his ears, and he jumped up about 5 feet off the ground. He then proceeded to run straight away from me at Mach 3 speed, and I rolled him with a terrible shot choice that hit him in a back quarter and came out the opposite front quarter. My buddies came running, they said the 2 shots sounded like 1 really long boom, thanks to the 30/30!

[HoofsandWings]

I guess I have to tell my ancient yarn.
We were hiking near packwood lake back in the 50's. All of a sudden we hear this blood curdling screem.
We looked around and then for some reason we looked up. There was an old growth fir wedged in and on top to the fir was a mountain lion. He looked at us and we looked him. We then broke the world's record for the 100 yard dash.
I do not remember my feet touching the ground.

[X-Force]

No elk encounters, but the first buck I shot when I was 17 popped out of the brush at about 10 feet. I don't know who was more scared, but I got the drop on him with my lever action 30/30. Shot him right through one of his ears, and he jumped up about 5 feet off the ground. He then proceeded to run straight away from me at Mach 3 speed, and I rolled him with a terrible shot choice that hit him in a back quarter and came out the opposite front quarter. My buddies came running, they said the 2 shots sounded like 1 really long boom, thanks to the 30/30!

You and saylean must have gone to the same quick draw class. 

[paulf919]

Great stories...!  Yowza. 

[Eli346]

 I was trying to cross over a ridge to get to the next valley in the morning before daylight. I had found a good place to set up for turkeys. I was going uphill through some waist high brush without a flashlight on because of a decent moon out. The wind was blowing gently from behind my right shoulder to left. All of a sudden I hear a cub bawling and climbing a tree not 15 yards up on my left side and almost at the same moment I hear brush moving, huffing, and teeth snapping in the brush behind my right shoulder about 10 yards away! I jacked a shell into my shotgun and just began talking in a low voice that it's all right. I held that gun to my shoulder with the safety off and backed down the hill talking the whole time. After I had taken a dozen steps back the sow crossed the trail in front of me at about 15 yards heading towards her cub, looking back at me quickly over her shoulder as she passed. After I got down to the bottom of the hill and my heartbeat got back to some sort of normal rhythm I realized how nasty that could have become in a hurry! I gave the bears the ridge line and walked around it with my headlamp on to the valley but it was too late for turkeys by the time I got there.

[Kowsrule30]

Only actually been scared of an elk a few times... It was my first day elk hunt when I was 11.. Still dark after Dad set me up... He barley got 100 yards away when all hell broke loose up the ridge.... By the time he found me in the fetal position in a small cluster of trees with a dead stump it was over... I was a little bruised with a fat lip and bloody nose... Apparently a good size herd of elk was just above me when Dad sat me on this great trail... When he got further down ridge they must have caught his scent.... One tried to jump me but didn't clear me all the way... Hit me in the face and threw me to the ground as I was able to scramble for cover luckily the rest missed trampling me..

I was much older now.... Drew a cow tag, so did my Dad... We ended up on the same herd from different sides of the ridge after we started out that am splitting up... I being lower in elevation the he.... Pretty open sage with a small cluster of trees... @ 25 head... All cows but one huge herd bull.... They're over 200 yards out with the muzzy I wasn't even gonna try... Got as close as I could till I ran out of cover and saw they were feeding toward me kinda... So I sat behind a down log... Turned out my Dad had been folowing them and was belly crawling in on them but couldn't get within 200 yards for the life of him all morning.... Then a shot breaks out when the closest cow was @150 yards out.... Here they come right to me... I'm thinking yeah... Perfect.... As they're approaching at mach 3 and within 50 yards now I realize I'm on their escape route to the timber... And am too nervous to line my sights up.... Then the flashback to my first elk hunt ever runs through my mind... Seamed like an eternity of pounding hooves around my head and body all over again.. And here they come.... I jumped up from that log and backed into some sage next to a Ponderosa in about two nano seconds while they made a freshly tilled up trail where I was.... I shot the last cow @ 10 yards quartering away after I felt it was safe again...

My Dad had finally crawled close enough to a straggler cow and shot her on the hill above me sending them into a stampede for my face again... This time I won...

[NWBREW]

I've only had a couple of those moments. One was during elk season years ago in the NE corner. Foggy, frozen and just cold as heck. My buddy and I were moving form one spot to another on the mountain when a nice 4x4 muley buck walked across the logging road in front of us. I asked my buddy if he had a camera....go get some good shots of this guy. He grabs his camera and I cut over where I think this guys gonna cross. BAM...he steps out not more than 15 yards away broadside sniffing the ground. No doubt he was on a scent trail of a doe.

That was cool but when he stopped and looked right at me he had a pissed off look. A REALLY pissed look. That was when I realized "I'm too close". He stared at me for about a minute and then continued along the scent trail. Doesn't sound like much but you had to have been there...it was intense. Below is a pictue of the buck as hes walking away. I 've got a picture somewhere of me between my buddy and the buck.

[krism83]

Scariest elk encounter happened on a deer hunt with a couple friends out near Quinault. I was set up about 30 yards inside the tree line with a clear look down onto the river bed and a nice sandbar getting blasted with sun. I set up for the better part of the day hoping they would come out to sun. 4 or 5 hours go by and I'm starting to lose patience, I start looking around for a good route out that wont put me into the wind and isn't to terrible of a hike out when it sounds like thunder is clapping right over my head. Confused because the sky is mostly clear I start looking around over the log im leaning against, when out of NO WHERE a 4 point bull and 5 cows come crashing down the hill about 10 feet to my left. They go racing by about as fast as they can run across the river and out of sight. I am sitting there in shock and pretty amazed at what had just happened for a period of time that seemed like 3 seconds but was probably more like a half an hour and both my friends come trotting up to me from the same general direction the elk had just come from. One of the few times I have been concerned while out in the woods.