Afraid in the jungle alone at night

[jim Glass]

Posting this just for fun. Can anyone relate to this?

I always thought I was relatively fearless about most things until I started wild hog hunting in Florida at night. I hunted ducks and geese on the Mississippi River for 40 years when we needed to be in our blinds one hour before sunrise so this means launching the jon boat two hours before sunrise. Then it was a boat ride over several miles of backwaters littered with stumps and logs to the blind often in total darkness. Heck, I rescued hunters from the river water on two separate occasions, one was near death.

The first time I go wild hog hunting in Florida before sunrise I step out of the car and I'm afraid of my surroundings. By this time I'm 65 years old. I looked into the jungle a few footsteps away and I may as well have been staring into a lions cage. I couldn't force myself to step into the jungle. So, I decide to drive to town and buy a cup of coffee and a donut. I drive real slow then when I'm back I drink the coffee and eat the donut in the car. By this time the sky is turning daylight and within a few minutes the jungle is no longer dark. I uncase my gun and walk to the blind not understanding what just happened.

Next, I'm on an evening hunt and I'm in a tree stand. The sun goes down while I swat mosquitoes but I think this is really great. A doe and fawn wander into my bait pile then scamper off. It gets darker and darker and finally I can no longer see the ground, everything is black except some light in the sky. There are knocks and thud sounds in the jungle, then I hear a good size tree branch snap in half. I think I can hear footsteps. I think about "Big Foot" and figure there are at least 2 of them in the jungle. I decide it is time to go! This scenario repeats itself then I begin to tell myself, "you are a wimp, you have one of the most feared weapons in America, AR-15 across your lap and you are afraid of the dark". So I force myself to remain in the tree stand later and later in the evening. My night vision monocular was a great help because I could see into the jungle. Finally, time would fly by at night in the jungle as I watched the raccoons, hogs and other wildlife wander into the bait pile. One night I was out until 11:00 PM and didn't want to go home. It dawned on me my fear of the jungle at night was over.

[crashdive123]

Fear of the unknown can be over powering. Becoming aware (of the unknown) goes a long way to assuage those fears. Congrats.

[hunter63]

I can relate....and I believe most anyone does as well.

Spent many nights as a young man to get over being in fear or anxious in the woods ...at night ...alone.

Those feeling pass until we are faced with new country.....Then starts all over again until the comfort zone come back.

[madmax]

It can be like looking at a wall of palmettas WITH a flashlight. And there are things in there. The armadillos are noisy, half blind, mostly deaf, but they can smell real well. Listening to them rooting around in the dark would be disconcerting if you didn't know what they were. The sounds of Florida woods at night are so cool. I don't sleep much the first night out. Just lay there and listen.

[Rick]

...and then there are the dinosaurs.

[hunter63]

It can be like looking at a wall of palmettas WITH a flashlight. And there are things in there. The armadillos are noisy, half blind, mostly deaf, but they can smell real well. Listening to them rooting around in the dark would be disconcerting if you didn't know what they were. The sounds of Florida woods at night are so cool. I don't sleep much the first night out. Just lay there and listen.

No one sleeps the first night........and there is "The stick" that follows you around under the mattress and bag.

I was left behind in a box blind in a Louisiana Bayou....
The one of the other guys got a deer, they were hanging and processing it.....

Got dark, not wanting to get lost....just sat tight.....They showed up after a bit.
Worst part...they didn't bring me out a beer....
Had my carry hunting bag....I was set...but was a WHOLE DIFFERENT woods that I was used to.

[jim Glass]

...and then there are the dinosaurs.

This area has a large number of flowing springs. One of the other guys that hunts the lease was rinsing out a 5 gal pale in one of those springs only to find himself face to face with a 4' alligator. He said the gator went one direction and he went the opposite direction. On the positive side I have spent 10 winters in this area and have yet to see any snakes and I'm looking for them.

[kyratshooter]

The snakes are there.

They are hiding, and waiting!

One day you will move a bucket you have been sitting on to find a rattler coiled up under the bucket and do a back flip off the tree stand.

I found one living in the wood pile beside my cookfire at a week long camp. You never know where those suckers will be hiding!

[Seniorman]

You boys who are worried about rattlesnakes in your camp, should take along one of these mini-velociraptors to handle them.



No more snake problems.

S.M.

[madmax]

Of the FL poisonous snakes I fear the Coral the least. They have fangs in the back of their mouth and have to gnaw on like a little finger or something. The big rattlers are scary but they rattle most of the time. Cottonmouths don't. The ones that scare me the most are juvenile pygmy rattlers. Tiny. One poor lady got bit in the garden department of Walmart a few years ago. Babies tend to inject their whole load of venom.

[hunter63]

We have plenty of timber rattlers around "The Place"....but rare ever see one ...So not a big concern.
That said...I know they are here and pay attention in lumber and wood piles, under, canoes etc....and keep the weed mower around the cabin and out buildings.

We do have water snakes....and although they are supposed to be non-poisonous....I still stay back.
Cotton-mouths are not supposed to be here,... too far north....BUT no one told the ones that drop in the canoe, once in awhile.

Snakes are not big concern.......
I worry about people more than snakes.

[kyratshooter]

I am about the opposite.

I know I can hit a person at 5' with my pocket size .380, not so sure about a long skinny snake!

Especially with the snake moving around and me hopping around trying to climb up whatever broomstick is available while shooting over my shoulder.....

Will someone please insert the Green Anaconda song at this point. I can not get the link to work.

[hunter63]

Don't shoot a snake in the boat with a .380......carry duck tape

[hunter63]

...and then there are the dinosaurs.

Here ya go....Rick...not so bad....LOL

[Rick]

Now that song is the cat's meow!!

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[kyratshooter]

Don't shoot a snake in the boat with a .380......carry duck tape

I used to fish with a crazy blind guy that carried an old Baby Browning 25 automatic. He was deathly scared of snakes.

He was alleged to have sunk at least two fishing boats due to snake attacks!

http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Pr...nto-Light.aspx

[hunter63]

Duck hunting out of a canoe, on our river...with former SIL.
He was from Louisiana ...didn't like snakes was afraid of them.....
Was pretty cold.

Anyway we came across a dead maple that the beavers has chewed off ... tipped into the river...kinda blocking our way.

Told him to duck down. and we could slide thru the tree top.

Said,... "No Freaking Way, there are snakes in those branches.. waiting to drop in to canoe and bite us!!!!"

Told him to look at the little line of ice along the bank...."If there are any snakes in the tree, we could drive them into the ground like a stake....
He still got out and walked around......

[jim Glass]

OMG....those were cute videos!

[hunter63]

They stick in your head......

[Rick]

Jim, if you haven't learned by now, it takes very little to amuse us. Kids songs are pretty much our level. Muppets are a close second.