Harriest predicament you've ever found yourself in while in the woods?

[Bushape]

The picture of the bucks down the hole reminded me of just how crazy things can get with barely a moment's notice so I figured there had to be some good stories on here.
I don't really have anything too wild but I stuck a doe during archery season one year on a 40 acre pasture (family land) surrounded by young pines (papermill land). Buddy that was helping me look for her in the dark wanted to leave toilet paper squares every so often on the blood trail but being young and stupid I dismissed it. After all I had been all over this land all of my life I thought. Eventually we abandonednthe search for the deer when I realized every pine tree looked just like the other and I had no idea where my truck was. Wondered around for what felt like an eternity before coming out of the pines on a seperate private pasture land. No real chance at death that night but learned a valuable lesson.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

The time I walked up right in the middle of a satanic worshipping act where they were preparing to hang 3 dogs. I was walking out from bow hunting, saw the fire, just thought it was teens partying or whatever and walked right into it. I quickly saw the symbols, the people, the dogs, and just kept walking fast right through it. It was on a right of way into a property of mine. I did find out they were Morgan Countians from car tags, no surprise there. I was 18 or 19 at the time, was pretty sure there was legally nothing that could be done so I just went on. I later returned in the daylight and the hanged dogs were there, hung to where they had obviously kicked for a bit just barely reaching the ground. I posted about it on here and several provided information showing where the animal thing was just something these sickos do. I started carrying after that

 

[Bushape]

The time I walked up right in the middle of a satanic worshipping act where they were preparing to hang 3 dogs. I was walking out from bow hunting, saw the fire, just thought it was teens partying or whatever and walked right into it. I quickly saw the symbols, the people, the dogs, and just kept walking fast right through it. It was on a right of way into a property of mine. I did find out they were Morgan Countians from car tags, no surprise there. I was 18 or 19 at the time, was pretty sure there was legally nothing that could be done so I just went on. I later returned in the daylight and the hanged dogs were there, hung to where they had obviously kicked for a bit just barely reaching the ground. I posted about it on here and several provided information showing where the animal thing was just something these sickos do. I started carrying after that

Welp I guess we can go ahead and shut er down after that response. Geez.

 

[Hillbilly Hunter]

The time I walked up right in the middle of a satanic worshipping act where they were preparing to hang 3 dogs. I was walking out from bow hunting, saw the fire, just thought it was teens partying or whatever and walked right into it. I quickly saw the symbols, the people, the dogs, and just kept walking fast right through it. It was on a right of way into a property of mine. I did find out they were Morgan Countians from car tags, no surprise there. I was 18 or 19 at the time, was pretty sure there was legally nothing that could be done so I just went on. I later returned in the daylight and the hanged dogs were there, hung to where they had obviously kicked for a bit just barely reaching the ground. I posted about it on here and several provided information showing where the animal thing was just something these sickos do. I started carrying after that

I have nothing compared to that. You win.

 

[Tom Collins]

Thread reminds me of the "This Happened To Me" feature from the old Outdoor Life magazines. Loved that.

 

[Hillbilly Hunter]

The time I walked up right in the middle of a satanic worshipping act where they were preparing to hang 3 dogs. I was walking out from bow hunting, saw the fire, just thought it was teens partying or whatever and walked right into it. I quickly saw the symbols, the people, the dogs, and just kept walking fast right through it. It was on a right of way into a property of mine. I did find out they were Morgan Countians from car tags, no surprise there. I was 18 or 19 at the time, was pretty sure there was legally nothing that could be done so I just went on. I later returned in the daylight and the hanged dogs were there, hung to where they had obviously kicked for a bit just barely reaching the ground. I posted about it on here and several provided information showing where the animal thing was just something these sickos do. I started carrying after that

They were likely on drugs and were tripping out on the ghost with a bow that drifted through their ceremony!

 

[Hillbilly Hunter]

Thread reminds me of the "This Happened To Me" feature from the old Outdoor Life magazines. Loved that.

That was a great column.

 

[cbhunter]

In the woods when I was maybe 15-16 a d hearing bullets whiz by me. It's a very weird sound and just as you start to wonder "what was that" then you hear the gun blast and it becomes very clear. It was 2-3 shots best I recall. I ducked behind a tree and hollered and it stopped. I don't think it was on purpose and directed at me but we did have some runs ins with others there. Dad and I had permission on 200+ acres. Had a couple guys from out of town try to run me off a couple of times. Come to find out the neighbor down the rd that owned 16 acres was leasing the neighbors 200 acres out to some guys out of dyersburg. He did not own it. We just let 'em have it after dealing with it a few yrs

 

[TnKen]

I shot a deer one evening and found it after dark in a creek, but it was still alive. We backed out to give it time to die. When we went back later my friend said he knew a short cut and we walked off a bluff. He stopped above me and I continued sliding down. I caught a sapling at the last minute before I slid off to the creek. Luckily I had my pack and was able to throw a rope up to my friend and I was able to climb back up. The picture shows the drop I almost hadn't

 

[DoubleRidge]

Thread reminds me of the "This Happened To Me" feature from the old Outdoor Life magazines. Loved that.

Yes! I remember that in Outdoor Life! Good stuff

 

[UCStandSitter]

The time I walked up right in the middle of a satanic worshipping act where they were preparing to hang 3 dogs. I was walking out from bow hunting, saw the fire, just thought it was teens partying or whatever and walked right into it. I quickly saw the symbols, the people, the dogs, and just kept walking fast right through it. It was on a right of way into a property of mine. I did find out they were Morgan Countians from car tags, no surprise there. I was 18 or 19 at the time, was pretty sure there was legally nothing that could be done so I just went on. I later returned in the daylight and the hanged dogs were there, hung to where they had obviously kicked for a bit just barely reaching the ground. I posted about it on here and several provided information showing where the animal thing was just something these sickos do. I started carrying after that

Poor pup. Probably kept up for a mile or two…

All jokes aside, these people outta be whipped in public.

 

[Chief44]

Short version of a long story but a buddy and I were fixing to take down a deer stand several years ago when a large limb fell out of a tree hitting him in the top of the head, gashing his head open and breaking a vertebra in his neck. We were not prepared for something like that and had nothing to stop the bleeding other than our shirts we had on. I managed to get him out of the woods and to the ER. He was very lucky it did not kill him. The really scary part was my 6 year old daughter was standing right beside him. If that limb had hit her, it would have killed her for sure. I now carry first aid supplies when out doing things like that. And catch myself looking up for hanging limbs, something I never thought much about before.

 

[Team Yuma]

Buddy and me were hanging some hang ons back in 2013. His son was about 10 years old and the time and with us. I left them after a while to run back to use the restroom and when I was driving down the road my buddy had sliced his leg wide open with a chainsaw just below his knee and he was clearing some smaller trees for shooting lanes. He told his son not to look down at his leg, and I looked at it and immediately helped him to the truck. We are about 30 minutes from the hospital and I swear I got there in 15 minutes. Fortunately, just had to stitch it up, but it looked way worse.

Also after some heavy flooding in the spring one year I was driving the old farm truck through a side field when I drove directly into a sinkhole that you couldnt see and the back caught the edge. I was literally hanging over the ledge and had to climb out the back as the truck was hanging there. It was about 10-12 foot deep and I was literally scared to death.

 

[13pt]

I'll give the satanic story a run for it's money, but probably still got me. We had a 4000 acre lease in Perry County for 10 years. The first two years we leased it got it for less than $2 acre (another story), but because of that only 5 of us leased it. It was literally 5 miles across at the longest stretch, so there was sections of hundreds of acres we had never set foot. Pretty much in the middle was a huge hollow we just called the big bottom. I had never walked across the big bottom, so got a wild hair one day in December. My buddy drove his truck down the main lease road to hunt the afternoon, and I rode my Rhino down another main lease road on the opposite side of the big bottom. Plan was I would scout from the south side, crossing the big bottom and back up to his truck on the north side, which would take all afternoon…then he could take me back to get the Rhino. So here we go. I initially decide to leave my .300 Browning A-bolt at the Rhino because I really just want to scout, and if I take the gun I'll end up still hunting, and besides…I really didn't want the challenge of getting a buck out of that big bottom. I walk about 30 yards and it's like God just hit me with a 2x4. I snapped out of my stupid idea of leaving my gun and turn right around and go get it. Fast forward about an hour or so. This day was really dry, so there was no sneaking around. I'm emerging out of a thicket across the bottom and can't hear anything for the noise of my walking in the leaves. As the woods open up, I hear something louder than me to my left coming out of where the thicket extends up the hill. It's a pack of 7 wild dogs (which we had only seen on cameras a few times), and they were wide open coming at me at 30 yards! The main thing I remember is the lead dog was showing his teeth, and I had seconds to react. I love dogs and definitely don't want to shoot any, so my first reaction was to scream to the top of my lungs. It didn't phase them, so with a couple seconds left I instinctively (literally don't even remember thinking to do it), swivel my .300 under my shoulder and shoot at the lead dog from my hip. How I did it I'll never know, but managed to drop him dead. The others piled up slamming on their brakes; however, they didn't run off. They cautiously walk a semi circle around me at about 20 yards staring me down. I didn't take any extra ammo, so I only have 3 left in the gun. I don't shoot anymore in case I need the ammo to fend off another attack. They slowly disappear back into the thicket. I don't even go look at the one I shot. I just make a bee line for my buddy's truck which is still 1/2 mile away…and there is zero cell signal where I was at! I think I trotted about 1/2 the remaining distance. When I hooked back up with my buddy almost an hour later I still could not talk without my voice shaking horribly. By far the most scary experience of my life. Guys if I had not turned around to go back to get my gun I probably wouldn't be telling this story today. We never seen those dogs again except on camera, and then never again after that season thankfully! I didn't own a handgun back then, but shortly after bought an FN 5.7x28 with 20 round clip and I've carried it with me ever since. Today I went to refresh a salt lick, and since I had to walk 200 yards that handgun was on my side! An experience like that makes one realize how fragile this life can be, so if there's a next time I will go down spraying lead!

 

[huvrman]

Tracking the buck in my profile in 2019. He was wounded and headed uphill at a 45 degree angle along a deep (500') ravine. As he neared the top he leveled out walking parallel to the edge of the ravine. As I track him, I notice the trail becomes little more than a 6 inch wide path on wet shale, situated on a slope that had to be at least 60 degrees. And just about the time I thought, "this could be dangerous" I slipped and began the slide down into the ravine. There was no stopping as gravity worked it's magic. I started on my butt, then rolled over on my belly, clawing at anything I could grab. But to no avail. Gun's banging off everything, pack is flailing, and I'm still sliding. With a ledge fast approaching, I figured I was about to end up in the boulder filled bottom of the ravine, with who knows what damage. About 10 feet short I spy a small tree at arms length and make a last ditch lurch and hook it. Thankfully I stopped. I ultimately made it back up the hill, and finished tracking the deer, who had died and promptly rolled all the way down that slope into the ravine. 5 hours later, 200 feet of rope, 3 150 foot traverses, and another 300 feet of carrying a quartered and caped buck uphill we got him to the side by side and on our way home.

 

[13pt]

Tracking the buck in my profile in 2019. He was wounded and headed uphill at a 45 degree angle along a deep (500') ravine. As he neared the top he leveled out walking parallel to the edge of the ravine. As I track him, I notice the trail becomes little more than a 6 inch wide path on wet shale, situated on a slope that had to be at least 60 degrees. And just about the time I thought, "this could be dangerous" I slipped and began the slide down into the ravine. There was no stopping as gravity worked it's magic. I started on my butt, then rolled over on my belly, clawing at anything I could grab. But to no avail. Gun's banging off everything, pack is flailing, and I'm still sliding. With a ledge fast approaching, I figured I was about to end up in the boulder filled bottom of the ravine, with who knows what damage. About 10 feet short I spy a small tree at arms length and make a last ditch lurch and hook it. Thankfully I stopped. I ultimately made it back up the hill, and finished tracking the deer, who had died and promptly rolled all the way down that slope into the ravine. 5 hours later, 200 feet of rope, 3 150 foot traverses, and another 300 feet of carrying a quartered and caped buck uphill we got him to the side by side and on our way home.

That just made me soar all over reading it

 

[Rancocas]

I've been roaming the woods for a long time.
There was the time I was lost in a blizzard on North Mountain in central Pennsylvania. I couldn't see landmarks because of the driving snow. I just tried to keep walking in a straight line until I found something I knew. Finally I stumbled out on a bluff top and knew where I was then.
There was the night far back in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. I lay in my tent listening to the wind howl and the cracking of trees all around me. Large limbs, even tree tops were splitting, breaking off, and thumping the ground near me. I could not see anything in the pitch darkness of the nighttime storm. I lay awake most of the night waiting for that fateful tree to find me, but when morning finally came the wind died down and I was okay. A large tree top lay on the ground only 10 yards from my tent.
In the wilderness of Ontario, Canada I was on a canoe trip, alone except for my dog being with me. It was a fishing trip and since I had crossed the international border I had not bothered to bring a gun with me. In my tent I was awakened in the middle of the night by my dog barking furiously. Outside, something big was walking around my camp area. A bear! My dog growled and barked. I yelled and banged two pans together to make noise. The bear continued to circle my camp all night. By morning it was gone.
In Arizona I was hunting deer. In the morning I had climbed high up on Mount Graham in the Pinalano Mountains. The day warmed up and by the early afternoon my canteen was dry. I had miles to go in order to get back to camp if I returned the way I had come. Or, I could climb down a ravine and cut the distance nearly in half. I chose the ravine. However, as I descended the ravine became steeper and was choked with brush and cactus. I had gone too far and was too thirsty to try to climb back up. I was climbing down rocky bluffs and crawling through the underbrush. I was parched. I needed water badly. Finally, just after dark I stumbled into camp. I made the mistake of guzzling plenty of water, and promptly threw it up. Then I slowed down and just sipped water slowly for the next couple of hours. Two days later I took a nice 8 point Coues deer buck.
There are more.

 

[TNTreeman]

I was bow hunting near a persimmon tree one afternoon when one of the landowners wives - who hated anyone hunting there started picking up persimmons and she squatted and peed . She never saw me but I saw more of her than I wanted to.

 

[tahtah]

one of the landowners wives

How many did he have?

 

[Volbuck777]

I was a kid maybe 12 or 13 years old, I'm sitting in my stand in a big deep hollow. It's my first time hunting this property and I walked off the ridge where the road was. My dad walked opposite across the road in another hollow. I remember like it was yesterday, Tennessee was playing Georgia and I had a little radio with an ear piece listening to John ward call the game. Suddenly I could see a truck drive up the old road bed and can hear cussing and screaming from a ways off. I call dad on the Radio and tell him what I'm seeing. He says don't move, don't talk, take your orange off. A guy gets out screaming goes around the truck and grabs a woman by her hair and they fight for what seemed like a while. I hear and can see everything plain as day he goes back to the truck and grabs something. I'm watching through my binocs and see a gun she starts screaming don't kill me. I freak out lay the binocs down. Pull up the 3006, scope him and i yell as loud and manly as a kid can, if she dies you die. Talking about somebody freaked out he swung around looking everywhere. I never moved or said another word. He got in the truck and took off. She yelled thank you and walked out also. I feel like I would have watched a murder that day if I didn't say anything. I never hunted that place again.