Depends on how much I had to drink the night before. Do I still have the lingering bravery or do I feel so bad I wish something would eat me? I don't carry a loaded gun since i got on the archery train.

Illegals hunting near the boarder, black bear, and mountain lions were all a problem on my old lease. You must not let your mind scare you and realize you're the badest SOB walking around out there.

I'm terrified of mountain lions, had a bad experience as a child. I carry a pistol when I bow hunt, but not when I am gun hunting. When I was in college I took a course on wildlife management the instructor thought he would get me to confront my fear by learning more about them. I had to write a term paper and copious amounts of research about lions, which was not helpful. Among other things I learned that lions are quite readily human predatory, and in every environment where you find deer you will find lions. If you think there are no lions on your lease you are fooling yourself. I also know that I am more likely to trip in an armadillo hole, fall, and break my neck than get eaten by a lion so I use a headlamp.
MT

How many of your friends and family have been attacked by mountain lions?

I love being in the woods at night.
I have a buddy I hunt with who is a cop and an Army vet. He wants me to pick him up at the blind after dark.

Cracks me up

only me.

Did one get you?

I feel like I am walking through an unfamiliar neighborhood and that I need to get where I am going and sit down and be quiet. I guess that is why I stumbled around for about 45 minutes Sunday morning looking for my blind. It was dark and overcast with fog Sunday morning or at least that is my excuse.

When I hunted a ranch that had several big cat sightings I was always on alert. I once shot a doe right at dark for the landowner. It was lung shot and crossed a deep creek and I was by myself. Since it was cold and dark I let it lay until morning. Since I knew it was going to be a tough drag I left my gun behind. I found the deer covered with leaves and twigs, cat prints and scat right next to it. I walked out backwards with the hair standing up on my neck. I just knew that cat was watching me.

don't you just love the quail or rabbit the you almost step on in the dark and it burst out of the grass right in front of you!!! Wakes you up real quick like and makes the rest of the walk a little faster...HAHAA

I walk to the stand with no light. Most of our stands are about a 1/2 mile walk. Its not bad now, but before we got the tractor you walked in the rut of the road with 4-6 foot tall grass on both sides, that sucked. Quail make you jump. Only other thing ive had spook me was a rattler I steped directly over, all I had was a pair of binos and a 300 wby, no light, walked real fast for a few yards!

The trick is to not let your mind and eyes play tricks on you

I have a small led flashlight with me but I don't use it to get to the stand. Once I'm there I'll use the red light to get situated but doesn't stay on long. I never enjoyed walking alone in the dark.. I've seen some weird things on our place, but I've learned to deal with it and it has never slowed me down. And those dang field larks that roost in the grass get me every time!

What sort of weird things? I'm trapped in my office with all this rain and in the mood for ghost stories

Grandpa did swear his dad haunts our place. He also swore up and down we had mountain lions. when I was 12 or 13 alone in the back of the woods I thought for sure I heard one screaming.. sounded like a woman being murdered. Saw an emu once, a rottweiler, mesicans trying to steal our chilipetin plants, snakes, hangry cattle, and several bobcats. Course none of these things ever did anything to me but, the mind can get away from you in the dark.

Only thing has ever spooked me was the two breeder bulls that were very protective of the herd and 2 Llama's that somehow ended up in my section of hunting land. Guess the grass was greener on my side.....walked up on both in the pitch black of night now I carry a small flashlight....

I fear no evil because I am the most heavily armed M'er F'er in the valley.