# Who's brave enough...



## crazydrake (Mar 7, 2002)




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## OnHoPr (Jul 21, 2013)

The outdoors does create cautions in the mind set sometimes. Not necessarily bears and the big woods can bring these sensations about. I bear hunted near the Lupton swamp back in the the late 80s. I had a bear or bears coming in right @ 8:00 to 8:30 pm. I was just about to get down from the tree and I heard it tossing logs to get to the pile. I had to wait until it left before I got down. I was seeing specs of black on occasion thinking it was a black squirrel. I finally went to investigate the glimpses and found out the bear was laying on a 7' root clump from a hemlock blowdown watching me until I left the stand to come in to the feed pile. Trail timer was showing tripped logs 10 min after I left. So, I thought I would put up another stand to bushwhack it before it got to the blowdown. Well, the bear noticed me and started breaking sticks and stuff. So, I went back to other stand. During these encounters a sow and cubs came to mind. Now, if a cub would have been meandering around when I came down, mama might not of liked that. So, I did start taking the SBH and leaving it at the bottom of the tree for the walk out. I have chased them through the woods trying to get pics of them in my stocking feet after we would see on the side of the highway in the UP.

Sometimes I would go the the small creeks when the steelhead came up to pet them. Sometimes they would be under the undercut banks in the cedars. I always wondered if there might of been a ledge in one of those holes with a mink, otter, or massasauga on it. 

Weather plays a role sometimes in these edgy feelings. I shot a doe, or thought it was a doe, next to a big cedar swamp on the Au Sable. It ran back into the swamp 100 to 150 yds. I went to field dress it and found out it was a buck. It had horns polished about the size of golf tees laying down next to the hide after I spread its legs. It was the first week of Dec. When I went to do the dragging I got turned around and did not have a compass with me. After a smoke and recalibration I headed back to the stand. But, getting turned around in that swamp with a cold front coming would have not been a very pleasant night.

Actually, duck hunters do not take enough heed and pound their chest when it comes to marsh, big water, weather, and small craft. Probably more of them die every year than bear, cougar, snakes, or lost encounters.


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## Joel/AK (Jan 12, 2013)

Bears never bothered me, I respect the hell out of them but generally never worried about them. 

At night hiking around, I just made alot of noise and had my 45/70 ready to go.


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## Lightfoot (Feb 18, 2018)

I worked nights solo for the USFS. Bears, big cats, crazy survivalist and wtf noises. 

Spooked as hell a few times but to this day still get a kick out of solo middle of nowhere trips.


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## Lightfoot (Feb 18, 2018)

Lm


Forest Meister said:


> I'm not too concerned about bears. When I'm hunting I have a gun and when I'm working I am usually not all that quite. What gives me the heebie-jeebies is the thought of surprising a skunk in the ferns or in the half light. Bears are afraid of you. Skunks are afraid of nothing! FM


LMAO...I've been sprayed twice.


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## Gone Coastal (Apr 28, 2003)

Last night at 10:00 I heard guttural growls on edge of woods 25 yards from my front door. I went out with spotlight and less than 15 paces was a large bear staring at me. White eyes, Big next thing me gone. This morning I found various colors of bear scat right there. I wasn’t terrified but shook up a little.


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## GrizzlyHunter (Jun 17, 2005)

Gone Coastal said:


> Last night at 10:00 I heard guttural growls on edge of woods 25 yards from my front door. I went out with spotlight and less than 15 paces was a large bear staring at me. White eyes, Big next thing me gone. This morning I found various colors of bear scat right there. I wasn’t terrified but shook up a little.


Gulp!!! If that was me, you might have found another pile of scat right there.


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## Wiggler (Dec 23, 2000)

i had one female in Canada rattle my cage one time... her cubs were feeding in the barrel and she stood about 40 yards from me popping her jaws and growling loud... plus i was a couple hundred yards in a brushy swamp... walking out of there in the waning light i about peed my pants.. she followed me all the way to the 2 track... i could hear her.. . just couldnt see her.. fun stuff!


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

My dad had a cub come right up to him when he was mixing up some bait... he had to leave of course lol


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## Whitetail_hunter (Mar 14, 2012)

Not really bear hunting related but I've had some moments where I got quite nervous. My favorite is when walking in or out of the woods at dark, when walking you can hear something else rustling leave not far behind. When you stop walking so does it, after playing that game a few times your imagination starts going wild. Then you realize your bow rope came loose from the stand on your back and has been messing with you for 200 yards.


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## KCRuger (Oct 18, 2010)

Great thread. I have had the hair stand up on my neck a few times over the years. Last year almost stepped on a skunk. Also had the creeps leaving a bear bait in NH. Sat on the two track for about an hour and a half after dark waiting for a ride. Pitch black big woods/ mountains. Your mind sure will mess with you!


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

I've been left semi-alone in the dark woods as long as I can remember, so none of it really bothers me. At least in MI.

Some of my earliest hunting memories were actually just tracking jobs for my dad and gramps. I was last blood marker lol. Sitting on a log in the dark listening to coyotes and owls. Was creepy but at the same time comfortable.

One instance does stand out. My brother and I helped track a buck my dad killed. We got it close to the trail and my dad went to get the truck. About a 10 min walk. So I'm sitting in the dark with my brother and a dead deer with the flashlight off and we hear something trotting in the leaves. Then we hear whimpering like a pack of yotes wants to light up. I keep quiet and the light off because I want to catch one close enough to see it. We can hear them walking really darn close. I'm talking 10 yards and I cannot believe they dont take off from our scent. My brother was probably 6 or so at the time and really wanted that flashlight! They took off when the truck turned down the trail.


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## Captain Sea Cow (Mar 29, 2018)

Chee


jimp said:


> Do mountain lions tree their kills?
> I thought only Cheetah's did that.


Cheetahs don’t climb trees.. leopards do


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## JimP (Feb 8, 2002)

Captain Sea Cow said:


> Cheetahs don’t climb trees.. leopards do


Yes, primarily Leopards but so do Cheetahs and Mountain Lions.









Leopard









Mountain Lion


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## Captain Sea Cow (Mar 29, 2018)

I sat


jimp said:


> Yes, primarily Leopards but so do Cheetahs and Mountain Lions.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


nd corrected..prolly in lion country


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

Woodchucks climb trees too but dont mean its what they normally do.


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## JimP (Feb 8, 2002)




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## swampbuck (Dec 23, 2004)

I have had a few uncomfortable encounters, but I dont fear them. They live in the neighborhood also. 

They can cover about 50fps and hit up to 40mph in 3 strides.....so as far as carrying sidearms etc.......lol, your not that fast. 

My now ex asked me one time why I carried my 9mm when we guided, your not going to kill a bear with that...the look on her face was priceless, when I told her it was for me..lol


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## GVDocHoliday (Sep 5, 2003)

I've never been skeered of anything in the northern MI woods. Except hornets....and poison ivy. eff those things.


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## Cork Dust (Nov 26, 2012)

Hiking down from a bighorn sheep hunt the last two miles to our tent camp in the dark after we saw a mountain lion following us at dusk. I swear Rich was the Jonah. Two years later was manning a salmon counting weir on Kodiak Island when he shut the weir down for a couple day blacktail hunt. He killed two bucks, boned them and packed them up to head back to his cabin. He had to put two rounds in the dirt in front of a brown bear that followed him, but never had to try and kill it despite it not leaving him. Good thing, since he was shooting a Ruger bolt gun in .270 Winchester.

Dodging rattlesnakes that had moved out to absorb the warmth on the paved road section from Devil's Tower down to the Belle Fouche campground where our truck camper was. The three of us miss-judged how much daylight we had to get back around to the parking lot side on the trail system. As luck would have it our two flashlights had nearly dead batteries in them, which we discovered on the way down, requiring us to turn them on, scan a section of road and then walk forward, prior stopping to repeat. The closer we got to the campground, the more snakes. Later we found out there was a prairie dog town near the campground...Duh!


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## Nostromo (Feb 14, 2012)

Cork Dust said:


> Hiking down from a bighorn sheep hunt the last two miles to our tent camp in the dark after we saw a mountain lion following us at dusk. I swear Rich was the Jonah. Two years later was manning a salmon counting weir on Kodiak Island when he shut the weir down for a couple day blacktail hunt. He killed two bucks, boned them and packed them up to head back to his cabin. He had to put two rounds in the dirt in front of a brown bear that followed him, but never had to try and kill it despite it not leaving him. Good thing, since he was shooting a Ruger bolt gun in .270 Winchester.
> 
> Dodging rattlesnakes that had moved out to absorb the warmth on the paved road section from Devil's Tower down to the Belle Fouche campground where our truck camper was. The three of us miss-judged how much daylight we had to get back around to the parking lot side on the trail system. As luck would have it our two flashlights had nearly dead batteries in them, which we discovered on the way down, requiring us to turn them on, scan a section of road and then walk forward, prior stopping to repeat. The closer we got to the campground, the more snakes. Later we found out there was a prairie dog town near the campground...Duh!


There is nothing like relaxing in the great outdoors!


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## Cork Dust (Nov 26, 2012)

There is a potential downside to impersonating "meat on a stick"!


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## Ford 800 (Jan 5, 2010)

I, one time, had an owl turn at the last second, in flight, from my camouflaged face before daylight one morning in late October, while in a tree stand. I could feel the wind from it's wings touch my face as I turned to see it flying away. I could only guess that it saw my upper face movement and thought it was breakfast for it's talons.


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## Nostromo (Feb 14, 2012)

Ford 800 said:


> I, one time, had an owl turn at the last second, in flight, from my camouflaged face before daylight one morning in late October, while in a tree stand. I could feel the wind from it's wings touch my face as I turned to see it flying away. I could only guess that it saw my upper face movement and thought it was breakfast for it's talons.


I got wing brushed by a Coopers hawk once. I'm sure I walked into it's flight path and it had to quick adjust.


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

Ford 800 said:


> I, one time, had an owl turn at the last second, in flight, from my camouflaged face before daylight one morning in late October, while in a tree stand. I could feel the wind from it's wings touch my face as I turned to see it flying away. I could only guess that it saw my upper face movement and thought it was breakfast for it's talons.


My grandfather had the same happen years ago. He said he was all face painted up and moving nothing but his eyeballs and the owl came close enough to feel the wind as it put on the brakes, and landed in a nearby tree. He said that's the first time he saw one turn its head right around and look at him.


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## alaska86 (Sep 29, 2010)

Back in the 80’s I used to bear hunt in the Glennie area for bear. Over a period of four years, I showed three different friends my set up at a particular bait. On the way to the bait, all three of them, at different times, in the same area, would stop, and look around. I ask them what was wrong ? The resonse in all cases was, I don’t know but the hair on the back of my neck is standing up, and I’m getting a weird feeling. A few feet past that was a large Red Pine tree with horizontal claw marks on two sides of the tree around 6’ up. I had a track that was a measured 6 1/4” front pad. I never did get that bear.


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