Strange Noise at Night

[MACK133]

This is my first post on the forum, and I want to tell a strange story of what happened to me while night hunting last night.

Let me start by saying that during firearms deer season, the gamebag on my vest had ripped and I had not gotten around to replacing it (remember that.)The last day of muzzleloader had ended and it was now 10:30. I had decided to go out into the woods. I couldn't ring up a friend to come with me, so I decided to walk into the nighttime woods to hunt for the first time with my 12 gauge in one hand and the spotlight in the other.

After walking about 100 yards through the woods, I came to a field. I was almost sure I would see a rabbit (I see them in the headlights driving back to camp on the quads), but I can't shoot rabbits after hours here. Sure enough, there is a rabbit 12 yards away...

Bla bla bla, 6 rabbits seen later, I have an opossum down. Because of my ripped gamebag, I walk back to camp, throw him in the freezer and head back out, hoping I could squeak in some foxes or coyotes who would be enticed by the possum blood. It is about 11:15. I make it to the field about 11:30 and I jump a few rabbits on my way to a "climax" in the field where it leads to a small dip for 50 yards, then dips up again and levels out. The whole field is about 200x100 yards wide. I planned on sitting at the climax, facing into a hedgerow with the wind at my back (did I do this right?).

Anyways, as I'm on sneaking up to the climax, I shine the spotlight into the "valley", and see three/four deer staring at me from upwind, one of them a buck. I thought maybe I could watch them for a while if I don't have any luck with dogs. Anyways just as I go to setup my seat, I heard something. Something very strange. It was almost like the "nittany lion growl" mixed with Gollum from LOTR.

I never heard of anything like that, and when I shined the light immediately after, the deer were perfectly spaced about 50 yards apart at the treeline. They were very skittish and started pawing the ground in a circle before bolting away from there. I had no idea what the noise was, so I maxed out the light's brightness and shined the light around the field. I know the mind can play tricks on you and show you what you want to see but I think I saw something small and black run across the field at my far end. I'm not sure though and it could just be me.

Needless to say, I got out of there pretty quick and tended to the opossum.

The next day (this morning), it was raining lightly and there was a low fog. Most of the snow melted (all of it was gone in the field itself), but I wandered the treeline looking for tracks in the snow. I saw...opossum tracks? Certainly the sound didn't come from an opossum, right?

Back at camp, somebody told me it was probably a bear, but I said there was no bear tracks. He had no response. I do know two bears were killed in that field during the past bear seaon.

My question is, what scared the deer and made that sound? If it was a bear, wouldn't A: The deer have smelled it from upwind of them B: I would have seen the bear come out of the hedgerow from downwind of them?

EDIT: BTW, I live in PA so we have coons, possums, yotes, fox, bear, bobcat, and supposed mountain lions.

 

[Liberty1776]

that sound you described, I have heard come from a pissed-off possum... but that's just my experience.

 

[easy]

Wind should be it your face, blowing your scent away from the area you are hunting.

 

[BigBore44]

Animals can make some strange sounds. I have heard deer growl. Not grunt. Growl. Don't think it was the deer though. But is it possible it was a combination of 2 animals? Maybe a bear growling and a cat hissing?

 

[41 Mag]

Do you have feral hogs up there around you, they make noises at times that will stand the hair up on your neck.

 

[BigBore44]

^ Another possibility. Didn't think about feral hogs in PA.

 

[buck460XVR]

I have heard both possum and Raccoons growl. Owls, also active at night, have been known to makes growls. The deer were probably spooked by either your movement or the flashing of your light. Remember they have night vision. If you could see them across the small field with the light, they certainly saw you in the dark. The fact that they stayed there after you put the light on them twice them surprises me. As for the black object you saw running across the field in your light that left no tracks........a small leaf or bird or even one of those rabbits will leave a larger shadow in the distance when a light at low level is presented. Could have been a rabbit hopping slowly away 20 yards from you at the lowest point of the beam of your flashlight. It would show a larger shadow at 50 yards and its speed would have increased the same amount as the shadow. Lights in the woods at night make weird shadows and have led to more urban myths than anything else I know of. Same goes for the growling of possums, raccoons and owls. Any large animal close enough for you to hear low growls would have left some kind of tracks even in melted snow. Here where I live, the continued shining of deer when one has a firearm of any kind on them is a serious violation. I suggest checking with local game laws before you do it again, even if it is just out of curiosity.

 

[Fremmer]

I've heard a doe sound a pretty weird almost buzzing warning grunt before, might have been a deer.

 

[REWTEX]

Chupacabra, I hear they are moving north!

 

[bubba15301]

bigfoot

 

[Flintknapper]

^^^^^^^^^^^

Also want to know IF there are Feral Hogs in the area.

That gutteral 'growl' is the very first thing I thought of (from your description).

Boars will make that sound (particularly if they smell something they don't like), it is most un-nerving the first time you hear it.

Could be any number of things.

 

[Inebriated]

Rosie O'Donnell when she's running low on carbs is known to make a raspy growl.

 

[kyhuntsman94]

Having lived in PA a while back, I highly advise you to double check the game laws. Spot lighting was illegal back when I lived there and I heard of people who got in a lot of trouble as a result of spot lighting - including losing their hunting license for multiple years.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Here is a recording of the hog sound I believe the folks above are referring to. I have heard them 3 times and they are some of the creepiest sounds I have heard in the woods.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVjNPGWdwFI

I recall them as being lower in tone, a long distance noise that sounds much closer than it really is. The sound almost had a tangible feel about it. I don't know how else to describe it without an in person experience with it. So the recording, above, will give you some idea what it sounds like, but not what the experience of hearing it in the woods is like.

Once you know what it is, it is pretty cool.

 

[Flintknapper]

^^^^^^^^^

Not a bad representation DNS. Most I have heard...are a bit more protracted and often end with a "huff" sound on the end, but I guess each Boar is a little different.

First time you hear it (especially in the dark), it will creep you out.

 

[buck460XVR]

The woods at night can be an eerie place.

Probably why it is the backdrop to so many horror stories.

Being an avid bow hunter and turkey hunter, I've spent countless hours in the woods, in the dark, alone, listening to sounds and not being able to fully identify what they are. Some times they are turkeys in the trees above me and I have gotten to close to them in the dark and blown any chance. Sometimes it's shrews scurrying thru the leaves in their non-stop quest for something to eat. Time spent breeds familiarity and thus I've lost the feelings of uneasiness of being there by myself. Walkin' down the street in a large metropolis in broad daylight scares me more. For almost 50 years I have walked, sat and stood in woods, in the dark, that held bears, coyotes and bobcats. For the last twenty, there are wolves too. My biggest fear is not them, but a skunk or porcupine that I might stumble over without seeing. I wish they would growl and warn ya, but they don't.:banghead:

 

[MACK133]

Nope, we don't have hogs in my area of PA (although they are supposedly moving in from Ohio in small numbers). Judging by the video, it was not a pig as my sound was higher pitched and more drawn out.

Thanks to all the responses, guys!

 

[Ifishsum]

Ive been hunting for 30 years and still hear something new every couple of years. Cow elk barking like a dog, coyote giggling like a girl, even familiar birds sometimes make noises I've never heard them make. Let us know if you come to a conclusion about what you heard.