Spooky experiences turkey huntin........

[Hooksfan]

Let's hear some of your spooky stories that happened while you were hunting.
Mine was surviving a Sasquatch attack in Crawford County, KS.  I love setting up next to creeks.  I knew where the birds roosted on this property and I knew where there was a big Sycamore tree right on the creek.  The opposite side of the creek was a nearly straight up ridge about 60 feet up.  The birds were roosting about 100 yards down the creek up on the ridge and they loved to pitch down and make their way to the opening where the Sycamore tree was. 
On this particular morning, I had made my way to the tree in the dark and it was getting close to showtime, when about 60 yards behind me I hear a huge kaplooosh splash in the water.  I was a little startled, but I just figured it was a beaver splashing his tail on the water.  About that time, a turkey sounded off right where he was supposed to be and I went into turkey hunter mode.   I  quickly dismissed the splashing until all of a sudden it happened again.  This time I could hear a rock on rock noise and it hit me that there shouldn't be any beavers in this normally dry creek bed.  Then all of a sudden there was a frenzy of splashing----I mean BIG splashing.  My first reaction was that a hunter was up on the ridge above me throwing rocks--big rocks--into the creek to try to ruin my hunt.  The turkey gobbled again....  I scanned the horizon up on the ridge for movement and saw nothing.  Splash again......gobble....splash......gobble.  Then it hit me, a paperback I had read as a teenager about Sasquatch abductions talked about Bigfeets throwing rocks in creeks to warn humans out of their territory.  My blood went cold.  Gobble...splash....gobble.  I was having an inner turmoil.
Finally the splashing stopped, but so did the gobbling.  The next weekend my brother came up from Louisiana for our annual Kansas/Missouri hunt.  I planned on hunting the same place that the Sasquatch attack had occurred the weekend before.  As we were walking in, I relayed the story to my brother.  He said, "You're kidding me, right?" I was a little surprised by the reaction of my much bigger and older brother who still holds weight lifting records at the high school we both attended.  I had received more than one mauling from him and I knew better than anyone alive what his physical capabilities were.  It was slightly rewarding to me to see him so visibly shaken by the thought of Sasquatches on the loose.
We made our way to the setup on the opposite side of the field from where I had set up the weekend before.  We set up with our backs to one another Forrest and Bubba style.  About 10 minutes into our wait for daylight, I catch some movement coming my way.  I can tell it is moving along the cow trail that my legs are straddling.  I tell my brother I see something coming towards us.  Before he can respond, I make out the white stripes along the back of the SKUNK at about 6 steps.  I jumped, kinda startled and said "get outta here" to the skunk.  My brother, thinking the admonition was for him, tore down two saplings in front of him trying to get outta there before I could catch him and tell him it was just a skunk.

I couldn't breathe I was laughing so hard.  He was a tad bit on the jumpy side the rest of the weekend. 
Later I told one of my hunting buddies that hunted the same place and he started laughing and told me the same thing had happened to him on that creek.  He thought someone was throwing rocks in the creek also and he got up to investigate.  He had made it about 40 yards up the creek and spotted a doe standing in the creek stamping her feet on the rocks.
If he hadn't told me that, I would still think it had been a Sasquatch.
True Story.

[Eric Gregg]

I do not have a spooky experience as much as I have a spooky place where I used to hunt. My step dad and I loved to hunt a ridge line that to access it you had to park at a old country family cemetery, and I mean out in the middle of nowhere. I was about 12-13 when he started letting me go off on my own direction. We would park at that cemetery, he would go one way and I would go the other and would meet back up when it was dark. I hated walking by that place late in the afternoon. Never failed that my heart rate would pick up and my eyes were set like a flint towards that cemetery yard. Not only was that creepy, but coyotes loved that area too and you could here them hunting in groups, yipping and cruising for rabbits. If someone had wanted to scare the life out of me all they had to do was dive off in the bushes and wait on me to come by

[Jay]

This involves the same type of thing. I sleep in my SUV, so no one can beat me to a spot, and I had scouted a spot in Kansas I liked, but it was in the middle of nowhere in a pretty spooky area with a one lane dirt road winding down to a dead end along a river. I get up at 3:30, and get ready for a long walk. The skeeters are bad, so I got my mask pulled up to my eyes, and carrying my shotgun I walk out of the brush where I had backed my SUV into, just as a pickup came down the road. Thinking hunters I walk towards the pickup to see where they planned on walking in. Man, as soon as their headlights hit me, they slammed down on the accelerator, and go flying by me almost out of control, and disappear in a cloud of dust. I'm like standing there trying to figure what that was all about, when it dawned on me that I had just scared the crap out of a couple of guys with coming out of the brush in full leafy wear including a mask, and carrying a shotgun.  Later I found out people were catfishing at night on the river, and there was even a place to launch a boat at the end of the road.

[hookedspur]

  Good ones !

[drenalinld]

At least 15 years ago I was still quite new to turkey hunting and hunting alone. At that time our turkey population was REALLY good and the turkeys gobbled EARLY, sometimes an hour before sunrise. I was standing at the edge of a bluff on the side of a mountain in a spot I could hear turkeys for a long distance. Two turkeys started gobbling a little over half way down the mountain and it was still dark enough you needed a flashlight to make your way through the woods. These two turkeys were losing their minds seemingly gobbling every breath. This was Monday morning opening day of turkey season and I had been in the woods nearly every morning since January listening to turkeys gobble, keeping a journal of where I heard them and noting which direction they went after flydown. As that tends to do to an inexperienced hunter I was way past being on edge waiting for opening day! Being the level-headed hunter I strive to be, I made a conscious decision to wait ten or fifteen minutes for some daylight and maybe I would hear one closer. This lasted about 30 seconds. Those jokers were tearing the bone out and I couldn't take it. I grabbed my vest and gun and started trying to figure out how to get off the bluff and on my way down the mountain to shut up one of these loud mouths!! I found a spot where the initial drop-off was a little over head high with a tree a couple feet off the edge I could use to help aid in the initial descent. When I finally had my plan and was committed it would require both hands for the climb off of the ledge so I put the flashlight in my pocket and let my eyes adjust to the light for a few seconds. This means until them jokers gobbled again. So I get slid off the edge past my butt where I am  hanging by my elbows and seat cushion on my vest and reaching out with my feet trying to wrap around the tree and shimmy down to the ground when it all went down. Up until this point I had no idea there was a buzzard roosted on a branch right up under the ledge just a few feet from me. The buzzard finally became too uncomfortable being that close to me and let out an unrecognizable screech as it launched out from under the ledge and flew off to put some distance between us. I don't consider myself to be afraid of much of anything I can identify and know is around, but I do have a little bit of jumpiness when surprised and the unknown does make my hearbeat increase slightly. In other words, I let out an unrecognizable screech and had some sort of spasm trying to distance myself from the area the buzzard had vacated. I am not sure if I thought it was a panther or what, but my reaction was quick as a cat but I certainly did not land on my feet. I found that ground I was trying to reach and also learned it was far from level and more rocks than dirt. I tumbled, stumbled, rumbled, and crumbled several feet down the slope before coming to a stop in the fetal position and started trying to decipher what just happened. I was still trying to get my wits about me and convince myself it was just a buzzard when I realized the turkeys were still gobbling their heads off and that terror was over. On a side note, those turkeys shut up about 30 minutes later. I sat down and wondered what the heck happened??? When I stood up about an hour later after not hearing anything, the two gobblers flew out of a tree less than 20 yards from me, but that's another topic.....lol

[catdaddy]

I don't consider myself a spooky person. For example, when I was a kid, we lived next to a large cemetery and we had no compunction at all to headlight rabbits amongst the grave stones after dark. My dad was a fearless type of individual and he would not accept any less from his boys.  He subjected my brother & I to some scary situations that today I would never subject my son to. I could expound at length on this topic but for purposes of this venue I will limit it to one example.

Dad was a avid coon hunter and loved his Plott hounds. One night when my brother and I were 11 & 12 respectively, we were coon hunting on a September night in the Pearl River swamps, Copiah County MS. Around midnight, the dogs had swum the river and treed a coon on the opposite side. We had good tree dogs and good tree dogs won't leave the tree. The nearest bridge was miles away. So, without too much discusson, my dad had us strip off our clothes and swim the 50 yards across the river, leash up the dogs and swim back with them. I believe if my mother had ever discovered this caper she would have divorced my dad. This was a potentially dangerous and quite spooky event, especially for a pre-teen kid--but looking back==it was these types of events that helped to shape the man I am today.

I didn't intend to belabor my response to the initial poster's request for stories that had an alarming affect on us, but I thought it might help put the following tale in proper context.

In 2007, I was turkey hunting in Marshall County MS. It was a remote track of land about 3/4'ths a mile off the road. To reach the property , you have to gain access to two locked gates. I was on this piece of property early in the season when the temps were still on the "airish" side. The weather was not perfect for turkey hunting and he gobblers seemed to agree----it was after 9:00 AM before I heard my first gobble--it was a distant, weak gobble, but a bona fide gobble just the same.  That lone pathetic gobble was all it took to renew by spirits and off I went in that direction.  I got close enough to work this bird a bit, but I could tell he had some hens with him so despite my best efforts in luring him within shotgun range, he drifted off to the south. I backed away from my position with a plan to make a semi circle and get in front of this bird.

I did go far until I came upon a very steep sided, sandy botton creek with a 1/2 inch of clear water trickling in the bottom. I decided this would be the perfect travel route for me, I would be hidden by the tall banks and walk quietly on the soft sand. I had not gone up the little creek but very short ways when I saw something that literally stopped me in my tracks with amazement and gave me more that a touch of a spooky feeling. It was that kind of feeling that makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck like a mad dog. What I saw was a bare adult human foot print in the sand. It had crisp edges to it and I could tell it was fresh. Keep in mind it was cool, I was way deep in the middle of brier infested country and to my knowledge--there was not a house for miles. I rationalized that who ever owned this print was very tough or very crazy with a good possibility of being both. I was a bit surprised to find myself "spooked" at this situation and had absolutely no interst in proceeding any further up this creek. I deliberately turned around and eased myself out of there. For me on this day, it wasn't so much what I saw that gave me a chill, it was the imaginary image of what I didn't see that gave me the "willies" and caused me to leave a gobbling bird. 

[drenalinld]

Great stuff catdaddy, I was hoping you would chime in.

[redarrow]

Don't recall if it was turkey or deer season.My wife and I had a 16 ft .travel trailer on 10 acres we owned. It was back in the woods and fairly private. If you know anything about trailers they have the screen door on the inside and the heavy steel door on the outside. Just opposite of your house. Anyway I had finished cooking supper and decided to take the scraps and grease and such and toss it in the bushes about 20 feet away. Later on after dark I needed to water the bushes so I headed out the door.As I pushed open the two doors my feet hit the ground at the same time I slammed the doors shut behind me. Don't know if it was coyotes or bears but something tore the woods up in the direction of the grease I had thrown out.My hand was still on the door knob as it had just shut. I spun around in fear of my life ,focusing on the terror in the woods,and slammed into the steel outer door.Bounced back yanked the door opened and proceeded to collide with the screen door. Jerked it open and literally dove inside. The look on my wife's face was priceless as she hollered what the h^&l. Those doors still wear the dents from my knees.

[coyotetrpr]

I really don't have a story of my own, but thank you guys for sharing yours. This is good stuff.

[charlie]

Between these stories and snakes, I'm too chicken to hunt turkeys, now. 

[longbeard11]

Man those are some great stories!! LOL! I dont really have any spooky spooky stories like those but i do have one that scared me and my buddy and was really funny at the same time.

A few years back me and my buddy went up to one of my farms to turkey hunt and we got there early and got all our stuff ready and waited for it to start breaking day to walk across this big field and up the mountain side.  As we are standing there its breaking day and we can see what looks like dogs or coyotes running around in the far part of the field, but we couldnt quite make them out to see what it was, then they disappeared. So we walk through the yard at the camp and over to the gate to start going across the field.  We open the gate and my buddy goes through and I go through, im standing there getting ready to close the gate and my buddy walked ahead to where the hill drops over to the field, then hear he comes back peddling back at me with his gun pointed ahead of him yelling "ITS COYOTES, ITS COYOTES!!!" We put our guns up about to unload on them and they get up to us where we could see and it was a pack of dogs, a couple boxers and other different dogs.  They saw us and i hollered at them and they tucked tail and took off as fast as they could across the field never to be seen again.  I wish i could have taken a picture of my buddies face, he looked like he had seen a ghost and he was about to pass out!! LOL!! I will never forget that as long as I live, he was so scared and so embarrassed but we talk about that still all the time and every time i think of it i bust a gut laughing!!

Too funny!!! Thats what its all about.  Not really spooky, but it did give us a good scare that morning.  Im pretty sure if i remember right we went on to kill a great gobbler that morning. Great memories, keep em coming guys.

[Kylongspur88]

 A few close calls with snakes, but other than that nothing to mention. Tons of old cemeteries where I hunt. Nothing spooky though

[Tail Feathers]

I hunted a spot in OK called The Cemetery.  Guide said it was rumored to be haunted.

I heard a couple weird sounds but the wind was blowing about 40mph so that's what I heard...I guess.

I killed a nice tom there.

I also killed a tom in TN at a place they called The Cemetery.  One grave in grove of trees in the middle of a big pasture.  Come to think of it, I have good luck at cemeteries!

[hootn]

this past spring was camping in the forest the first few days of the season and getting out of your tent one morning and look over towards the canopy and there is cash, seeing that in the dark with a latern barely on scarrrrrry.

scott

[Tail Feathers]

I was set up in a good spot covered with turkey sign in central FL one time.
I had been there a while, calling blind, when I suddenly heard a deep, gutteral growl.  
I was up on my knees with my 12 gauge pointed at the sound without even realizing I'd done it.
I heard it again.  Long, low and deep.  The only thing I'd ever heard like that was an African lion a the zoo one time when he was mad a another lion.
I realized pretty fast I wasn't at the top of the food chain in the area and 2 1/4 oz of hevi shot wasn't enough for whatever made that growling sound!

I booked out fast.
A local told me it was likely a large hog in the cypress hammock.  I don't know for sure, I suspect he was right, but I left then and I'd do it again if I hear that sound!