BTDT. I used to hunt A LOT. Started manning my own deer stand at 8. Went hunting all over with friends, family and solo. Big game, small game, migratory, ran trap lines too. I've heard all manner of things rustling in the night when posted up waiting to kill something.
One time when I was about 17 I took off early in the morning for an early season squirell hunt. Drove to a series of draws a few miles from my house and slipped into one of them before daylight. Killed a couple at dawn and another about 8 AM. I'm still hunting down into the draw, when this cold chill runs down my spine and all the hair on my neck goes up. There was no sound at all, and in about 1.5 seconds I go from silent hunter to an overpowering sense of prey.
I tried to remain still and quiet while doing what we would now call a 360 threat scan. That doesn't ease my mind one bit. All I could describe it as is an incredible sense of dread. My subconcious was mostly feeling it from my left, though I had no indication why.
I start to ease towards the mouth of the draw which is about 250-300 yards away. I was composed at first, but that feeling kept closing in on me and by then I was full on spooked. At some point I dropped my game and did a full on jungle run with my Remmy 1100 swinging left and right. It was all I could do to not lay down covering fire as I ran to the clearing and didn't I look back till I was on the other side.
I have no idea to this day what caused that and it's never happened again. My buddies and I had hunted that draw a dozen times before and I had solo a couple of times with no problems. I knew it like the back of my hand, but that didn't make a difference. I was done and never returned to that draw.
Call me crazy if you will, but after years of dishing out death to critters as a hunter, I had a pretty good feel for what it must be like for them. Real or not, I recognized the feeling and trusted my instincts. When in doubt, GTFO is my motto.
One time when I was about 17 I took off early in the morning for an early season squirell hunt. Drove to a series of draws a few miles from my house and slipped into one of them before daylight. Killed a couple at dawn and another about 8 AM. I'm still hunting down into the draw, when this cold chill runs down my spine and all the hair on my neck goes up. There was no sound at all, and in about 1.5 seconds I go from silent hunter to an overpowering sense of prey.
I tried to remain still and quiet while doing what we would now call a 360 threat scan. That doesn't ease my mind one bit. All I could describe it as is an incredible sense of dread. My subconcious was mostly feeling it from my left, though I had no indication why.
I start to ease towards the mouth of the draw which is about 250-300 yards away. I was composed at first, but that feeling kept closing in on me and by then I was full on spooked. At some point I dropped my game and did a full on jungle run with my Remmy 1100 swinging left and right. It was all I could do to not lay down covering fire as I ran to the clearing and didn't I look back till I was on the other side.
I have no idea to this day what caused that and it's never happened again. My buddies and I had hunted that draw a dozen times before and I had solo a couple of times with no problems. I knew it like the back of my hand, but that didn't make a difference. I was done and never returned to that draw.
Call me crazy if you will, but after years of dishing out death to critters as a hunter, I had a pretty good feel for what it must be like for them. Real or not, I recognized the feeling and trusted my instincts. When in doubt, GTFO is my motto.