How scared have you been?

[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.