A Reddit user said he hunts a deer property that sits in a “no firearms” county on federal land, which means the only weapon he can legally have out there is a bow. He made a point of that detail because it changes the whole feeling of what happened next. According to his comment in the thread, the property has a lot of coyotes, and eventually they got bold enough that he quit hunting one of the more productive sections altogether. The reason was simple: they kept tailing him into the stand in the dark.
He wrote that at first it was the usual kind of thing people try to talk themselves through. You hear them off somewhere in the brush. You know coyotes do not usually attack people. You keep moving. But the problem, from the way he told it, was how close they were getting and how aware they seemed to be of exactly what he was doing. He said he was walking in before daylight, carrying only a bow, and the coyotes were not just sounding off from a comfortable distance. They were following him toward the tree.
Another commenter in the same thread jumped in with a story that makes the picture even clearer. He said he had walked about a mile in on state land at around 4:30 a.m. and, when he reached the base of his tree, heard coyotes calling off in the distance. At first they sounded far enough away that he figured it was just another dark-morning coyote chorus and nothing more. So he started climbing. About halfway up, they called again, and this time there were about three of them within roughly 30 yards. He switched his headlamp from red to white and suddenly saw more than a few sets of eyes looking back at him.
That was the detail that seemed to stick with everybody in the thread. It was not just noise. It was intelligence. The second hunter said he knew the coyotes were probably just curious, but what got under his skin was the sense that they had surrounded him to watch what he was doing. He used the phrase “that level of intelligence in a predator,” which pretty well explains why it bothered him so much. It was not one coyote yipping from a hedgerow. It was multiple animals moving in the dark, adjusting their position, and holding close while he climbed into a tree with only a bow.
The first hunter came back in the comments and admitted that, yes, he knows coyotes generally do not attack people. He even said those particular coyotes were probably “fat and happy” because the property held plenty of game and there were easier food sources than a human. But he also added the line that made the whole thing land: “Still, try telling yourself that in the woods in the dark.” That was really the heart of both stories. Rationally, you know what coyotes usually do. Emotionally, it feels very different when you cannot carry a firearm, the brush is black, and multiple sets of eyes are hanging close while you climb into your stand.
Another commenter asked the obvious nightmare follow-up: what if you fell and broke an ankle out there? That question did not get some neat answer, but it sharpened what already made the scene feel bad. A hunter walking in with a bow is one thing. A hunter hurt on the ground with coyotes already comfortable enough to come in close is another. Even if the coyotes never intended to attack, the whole setup is the kind that gets in your head and stays there.
So the story that came out of that thread was not about one dramatic charge or some campfire monster tale. It was about hunters walking into the dark with bows, hearing coyotes at first from a distance, then realizing they were being shadowed in close. One man ended up quitting one of his best sections because the coyotes kept tailing him into the stand. Another got halfway up the tree at 4:30 in the morning, switched his headlamp from red to white, and found multiple sets of eyes within 30 yards all around him. That is the kind of hunting story that does not need a bite or a charge to stick. Sometimes just knowing they came in that close is enough.
What do you think — if you were climbing into a stand before daylight with only a bow and your headlamp suddenly caught multiple coyote eyes within 30 yards all around you, would you keep climbing, or come right back down and get out of there?
Original Reddit post: What is the scariest thing you have seen/ experienced when hunting?
