“What was that?”

A listener writes “I really enjoy your podcast and wanted to tell an encounter I had in 2013 in laurens county, South Carolina.

My 10 year old son and I were deer hunting about a mile from our home. We were hunting on a small cattle farm on the edge of our town. We planted food plots for the deer and have elevated blinds around the fields. Thick pines surrounded this particular plot we were hunting. It was clear and cool on this evening hunt.

Right at dark, I shot a deer and it ran back into the thick pines. We gathered up our stuff and climbed out of the blind to track the deer. So we started into the pines with flashlights. We followed blood for about 50 yards and from right in front of us comes and extremely loud “whoop”. We both stopped and looked at each other and asked “what was that?”. It came from the ground and sounded like it was about 20 yards away. I felt it as much as I heard it.It felt like it vibrated my chest.

I started scanning with my flashlight and saw the deer dead about 15 yards ahead. My son was really scared at this point. I acted like it was no big deal to keep him calm, but I was pretty freaked out. I felt like we needed to get out of there. We grabbed the deer and got it back out to the field. It felt like we were being followed, but we never heard or saw anything else.

We had to go get my truck, so we left the deer in the field. I fully expected that deer to be gone when we got back, but it was still there. The whole time we were getting it in the truck, it felt like we were being watched from the woods. Just typing this is giving me goose bumps. I think whatever it was was walking up on the deer from the other direction and we got there at the same time. The whoop reminded me of monkeys at the zoo, but deeper and louder. I’ve been hunting for 40 years and I know the sounds animals in this area make. I don’t know what made that sound.

I’ve also seen ghost lights twice on this same property right before daylight. I thought it was trespassers with flashlights, but when I looked at it though binoculars, the light was just by itself floating through the trees. Both times it was bluish white and it was “muted” and slowly dimmed and brightened as it went through the woods. Looked to be about as big as a softball. I was about 200 yards away from it both times. I didn’t really think the lights and hearing the possible Bigfoot whoop were related. But after hearing many stories of people seeing Sasquatch and weird lights, I thought I would include this as well. The times I saw the lights were in the deer seasons prior to 2013.

This property changed hands a few weeks after we heard the whoop and that was our last season hunting there. I know at least one other person saw the lights while hunting there, but nobody ever mentioned anything else out of the ordinary.

Thanks for letting me share this story. I have also noticed some trees broken 15 feet off the ground in an “x” across 2 different logging roads on another property we’re hunting now right down the road, so I’m keeping my eyes open for other things there.”