Hunting Colorado a few years back north of Eagle off of the Colorado river. On horse back after dark going down old jeep trail next to a small stream letting the horse have his head toward camp when I heard something rustle the brush up hill fairly close to us. I had ridden cutting horses in my younger years and glad of it,or I would have been on the ground. Talk about it nearly running down both legs. It could have been a deer, bear,lion or elk.I know I made it a point to get out of the high country a little earlier the rest of the hunt.

In 2007 I watched a very large mountain lion follow my trail leading to my blind just before the sun came up. Every time I walk to and from my blind in the dark, I do it quickly and use either a red or green light. The broom weed was waist high that year and it is waist high this year. I have been extra careful this year so far because you can't see what lurks under the broom weed......

Get a CHL and you can still take your side arm with you.

I have always wondered about this. My buddies and I have tried to decide what we thought we could handle in hand to paw combat. Mountain loins and bears and massive hogs and we are gonners. Yotes though, I think I could take one down, possibly two. After that I am toast. Wonder if another thread on this might be fun.

As a kid in FL, we hunted 15' ladder stands over feeders in the middle of our swamps. One morning, my Dad climbed into his stand well before daylight. He thought he kept hearing something above him, but couldn't be sure. As the sun began to rise and the feeder went off, a sow & some of her progeny made their way in to eat. About that time, Dad heard a loud noise above him & looked up to see an airborne bobcat taking a leap at the piglets from about 18' up. Said it scared him a little, but was a neat enough experience that he was glad to have seen it.

Nothing better than that first walk in the dark with as much light discipline as possible on the new lease....not gonna lie, I got spooked by a quail flying off this am, they just make some good noise when flying off and I was already off my normal path because stupid me made te path too close to the feeder...nothing like a new moon to really make things dark outside!

Once I hear those coyotes getting closer, I start walking faster. Its worse in the mornings in my area. I have had them follow me through the brush.

[quote=Layemdown1983]I usually just try and make it to my stand as quickly as I can using the moonlight and the outline of the trees as my guide. One morning a couple of seasons ago I had just got dropped off and started my usual routine of walking to my stand, it is about 1/4 of a mile from the drop off point to my bow stand. This morning was different to say the least. I got within about 300 yards of my blind when I heard what sounded like a group of people were talking near my stand! This sounded like people Men/Women voices were sitting around a camp fire out in the middle of the woods. We hunt on about 700 acres and there are NO other hunters within a few miles radius. As I got closer I heard brush popping and it the voices stopped. I made it to my stand and checked the area all around my stand for human activity, Nothing. After the sun came up and I was done with the hunt I walked the perimiter of my stand checking for any other signs, nothing. This was by far the creepiest encounter I had ever had walking to my stand. I asked the land owner if any other hunters were near us, he said we are the only hunters within miles of his place. Pretty creepy!

Wish I hadnt read this.
Thats creepy right there.quote]

I dont really get spooked up in West Texas because I feel like I can see forever with no trees. However where I grew up east of Marshall, we hunted all along Caddo and points in between Marshall and Jefferson. Out there moon or no moon, its completely pitch black under all them Pines. Plus the wind gets buffered by the trees so when somethings moves in the pitch black, it aint the wind blowing anything around.

The most spooked i got was hunting right up near the north end of Caddo and to get to the stands we needed hip highs on. While walking through the water I heard something hit the water and coming splashing right at me. I couldnt see anything so I was in a moment of Oh F, oh F, oh F and then ahhh lets get some when a wood duck came skittering in on me. I just stood there thankful to still be alive from the monster wood duck that just about beat my a$$!

I have never thought about it as an adult...but I've had a lot of fun at my wife's expense. We had a mountain lion on the ranch some year's ago. I would drop her off about a 1/4 mile from her stand....and watch her hesitation getting out of the truck. Gun loaded...shoulders up around her ears because anyone who knows mountain lions knows they attack by biting the neck. ;-) Then watching her walking down the road like Elmer Fudd...classic.

Now as a kid I once had an experience that stuck with me for a long time. I use to sneak out with a friend and go spot lighting for rabbits...one night I'm walking back through the woods from my friends house to mine...it's a good 2 mile trek but even in the moonless night I knew the woods well. So one night about 2am I'm walking back with my trusty .22 and heard a large branch break to the left of me. I froze in my tracks and swung my fashlight towards to noise...a pair of eyes reflected back in the darkness...some 10' off the ground some 50 yards through the trees.

Although I was only 13 I thought "heck its a owl"...suddenly the eyes disappeared...another ground noise. My scanning pace quickened at the same rate as my heart. The eyes are back...roughly same height but now 30 yards to the left. My mind is racing...how can that be an owl?!? I instantly went into Rambo mode...firing as quickly as I could squeeze the trigger. The click was my signal to run Forest run...and I did all the way to the house! I didn't go rabbit hunting for a year!

Big Foot?

Heck yes...and a few years later the movie Legend of Bigfoot came out...with stories of sightings in nearby Arkansas...I was convinced of my own sighting after that bonafied documentary!!! ;-)

p.s. one of the best threads on the Forum this year!!!

I think my Stand Traversing Paranoia (medical term for the hibbie jibbies) started when I was 11 or 12. It was one of the first times my dad let me hunt by myself in southeast Texas. He dropped me off on a corned road that went up hill, where I set curled up in a ball behind a dirt pile. I had on a black and white coat and from the back probably looked pretty small. At that time I wasn't scared of much so the thought had never crossed my mind. My attention was mostly looking straight ahead up the corned road and occasionally looking back to make sure no pigs or deer were crossing behind me. I had the trusty old mini 14 laid down across the dirt pile and had been sitting there for about an hour. I looked back behind me like I had done several times before and this time noticed something on the right side of the road in the bar ditch looking at me. It was real low to the ground and was just crouched there. I studied it for a couple of seconds and had not yet moved, when I saw a paw come forward out of the crouch. Then another and another. I had seen this before from one of our barn cats stalking a mouse. It dawned on me this was a CAT and I was it's mouse. When I figured out I was about to be in a world of hurt I turned completely around to try to get a shot off at it. When I exposed the full length of my body and it saw more than black and white little ball it figured out I wasn't the mouse it was looking for. In two leaps it was out of sight into the woods with the last thing I saw being a long tail attached to a big gray body. It took a few minutes for it all to sink in what had just transpired and I had no idea what to do next. Do i fire shots in the air? Do I go looking for my stalker? I finally decided the best thing to do was to go to the truck and wait for dad to get done with his hunt. The only bad thing was I had to walk right past where the cat went into the woods. My gun was loaded and ready for action as I moved ever so carefully down the road to the truck. I had the most eerie feeling that entire walk that he was still close in the trees watching me deciding if I was worth the trouble of a meal. I got to the truck and locked all the doors and stayed there until dad came back. He didn't believe me until a few years later when he saw a cat jump out in the road in front of him while he was driving. I'm pretty sure that's the root of my fears and I often wonder if I would be here today typing this story had I not checked my back trail for game every so often that day. Or if they would have found me buried under a pile of brush and leaves somewhere for a few more meals.

I don't get the hibbie jibbies very often but flushing birds does make me jump. I have flushed coveys of quail, numerous song birds, and even turkeys but they only pail in comparrison to the time I had a rattlesnake rattle at me in total darkness. That went to a level way past the hibbie jibbies. That may just have been the biggest dose of adrenalin ever. I bet I jumped 20 feet followed by a 3 second forty and I didn't have any idea where I was going but I was moving! I bet that snake told that story to his buddies until the day he died!

read the thread and I am laughing histerically sitting here in my hotel in AZ...that has happended to me many times...spiders are my cryptonite...walking to one of our stands when the sorghum was really thick, heard pigs grunting really close...no amount of scent block covers up my reaction...

I can assure you of this, there is a difference between the hibbie jibbies and experiencing a lion stalking you. I don't know how or why but you have a feeling that can not accurately be described when it is dark and you are being watch by a lion.

oxymoron? This is too funny. Made me smile.

Dusk creeps me out way more than dawn. I carry my Judge loaded with alternating PDX and bird shot at all times so I'm ready for a cougar or a snake push come to shove. I'm more worried about a damn hog running up on me; they aren't afraid of anything out in West Texas.

He would spit me out cause i would taste like S***, me no likey Lions

I also hunt in Cass County and recently got this pic. That cat is about 15-20 yards in front of my stand.

The almighty hunter humbled by a spider. Wait til a cicada or flying roach gets in hte stand with you. lol

That is a large Bob! Almost looks like he is a mixed cat? Have any of you heard of a Bob cat and a Mountain lion maiting?

big bobcat!