How do you guys and gals keep calm and pick a spot at the moment of truth on a big game animal? I can shoot at small game and varmints without any trouble, but when a deer gets in range I fall apart. When I see the animal approaching I tell myself over and over to pick a hair, pick a hair, pick a hair!! Then when it's in range my whole body gets numb and tingly and I always shoot at the whole deer. So how do you guys keep your cool until after the shot?
thanks,
Ken
Not that I'm braggin but it just dont bother me when a deer walks up, to me if I drag somethin to the house great and if I dont great, Ive had a good time anyway.
Thers a post I read just the other day basicly with the same question as yours and one of the replies that stuck in my head, a guy said it mite help to draw down on a smaller deer that you dont intend to release on just for practice,and it mite help deal with the buck fever when a larger buck walks up.
Whew I'm glad I'm not the only one with that problem been hunting for 8 seasons now and can hit small game no problem, but when it comes to deer I fall apart so I'm no help but I'll be watching this one for advise also
This might sound weird, but I create my own spot. I imagine a red dot from a laser sight where I want to shoot the deer. As soon as I make the decision that I'm going to take the deer, I stop looking at anything but that spot.
I get wound up no matter what I shoot at. It helps if the animal in question;
1. Gives me no time to think and I have to shoot due to haw fast it came in or
2. Gives me tons of time just out of range so I can calm down before it gets close enough.
Still hasn't worked out too well for me yet, maybe you better get some other advice! :knothead:
-Charlie
It helps to spend a lot of time close to deer and other game animals.Try to spend as much time as you can,before season getting close to them and working through an imaginary shot.You may not want to spook deer in your hunting area before season,doing this but you can do this anywhere even in parks.Try doing close stalks and use your camera while you are at it.Play the wind,make the draw and release.imagine this is the real thing.
The more time you spend close to deer,the calmer you will be when it happens hunting.All too often,when the deer comes into range for a shot,that may be one of the first deer we have been close to for several months.It gets exciting.
When the moment of truth comes,forget any thought about the outcome.Make it all about concentrating on making a good shot on a target,just like at home.Don't worry about not getting the deer or how great it will be to bring it home.Put any thoughts about success or failure out of your head and as much as you can,make it about the mechanics of the shot and the tiny spot you have picked to concentate on.Don't get too much tunnel vision however that you aren't also keeping track around you.There could be does watching you draw etc.
You also have know that your head won't explode if you don't get to take the deer home.At worst,you will get to keep hunting and you had some excitement.That's a very good thing.
Well, I didn't at first! After a bit of uhm practice it has come. Now it's just second nature luckily.
I guess I just had to work at calming myself down. I just had to shake it off in my mind. lol, I still remember the first buck I shot at which was just a year and a half old 8 point. I had just drilled a doe not even an hour before this guy walked in in the exact same place the doe did. I simply got the jitters and didn't concentrate and it passed just under his chest. He was bigger and I thought he was closer, but he wasn't.
I think I kind of rambled there, anyway, I relax a bit more now and I don't get the jitters until after the shot anymore. Take a little bit of mental practice. It just flows: deer, in range, good shot, release!
Be cocky about your shot AND your ability to make the shot. Know in your heart that your arrow is absolutely going where you want it to. If there is any doubt whatsoever don't take it. i draw on every animal i can while i am in the stand if they are in a position that allows me to do that unobserved. Early on, i had the same problem as you. After the shot, the shakes come. Practice and experience helps, but i don't want the feeling that you describe to ever go away completely. That's why i go! Try slowing your draw down a bit. Hold your anchor for a second and then pull on thru to the shot after you ARE completely focused. If not, you will miss or worse. Been there, done that.
To be honest, 3D shooting has gotten me into such a habit of picking a spot that it's now automatic. Like any part of the shot sequence, constant repetition helps create a situation where it becomes second nature.
thanks for the good advice. I know the area I hunt I went almost all season without seeing anything and then one evening when I was about to call it quits a little 6pt comes feeding through. I missed twice because my nerves got the best of me. I'm gonna start spending some time on the 3D range. Even when I'm driving and see deer out in a field I get excited; just ask my wife, I've scared her a few times by jumping out of my seat. :D It doesn't matter how much I see deer, I get very excited when I see fawns, does, or bucks.
Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. Wish I could always be calm, but it isn't going to happen.
Lots of good input for sure.
For me it is mental, I am a predator and I am doing as I was built to. That helps a lot. When I think of myself as a goofy two legged office chair weight I kinda get it in my head that when hunting I'm doing something "out of the ordinary" and I get nervous. Not sure your background but in sports the first game of the season was always nerve rattling, but after that got easier and pretty soon it was just another day. I think that is because mentally you start telling yourself that this is normal, not "holy crap look at all these people and lights, etc".
Works for me
I burn a hole in the animal and tell myself, pappa's bringing home dinner. Outside of that I don't think about much. When the animal becomes a meal and not a walking antler holder I am much more focused.
I'm gonna be dead honest with you. I've killed enough deer to be able to contain my emotions, now. I call it...just doing my job (what I'm out there to do).
But here's the honest part.....
I still get excited when I know I'm going to try to take an animal. And...I hope I always do. For one of us, it's a life or death situation. I hope I never lose sight of that.
I've been hunting since age 5 and I've killed countless deer with a firearm and a couple handfuls with wheels and I get excited everytime. I do believe that I get more excited with traditional tackle though because it feels so natural and I enjoy it more than any other type of hunting. The area I hunted this year I never saw many deer but all the places I've hunted growing up and during my military travels I don't think I ever went a whole day without seeing a deer. So maybe once I move back closer to home and get in an area where I see more deer I will calm down enough to make the shot and then fall apart like I do when hunting with other equipment.
for myself i try and concentrate on the spot i want to shoot and block out everything else around me.now when more then one deer is around it's kinda different because now you have to focus on other deer in the same location as for them not to spook. movement if neccessary may blow the whole deal,but when this happens,when more then one deer is around,i still have my main focus on the one i'm trying to shoot,but also paying close to attention to their body language.it is tough to keep it together at times but after awhile it'll come naturally.
I always think don't screw this up knowing I will not get very many opertunities. It usually works for me. After the shot I need a place to set because my legs are to shakey to stand!
I always get an immediate high when I see an animal that I am going to try to shoot. Then I tell myself to "act like you've done this before" and I calm down. After the shot is when I get the adrenaline shakes that I hear people talk about.
Gregg, I'm gonna have to give that a try and see if it works for me also. I might even put a little note that says that on my riser or limb so I see it when I'm drawing.
I think it gets easier with success. I used to get pretty nervous before the shot, and now, after haveing shot many animals with a bow I tend to keep it together until after the shot. Esp in cold weather. I shot the biggest buck of my life last year out of a treestand and never got a bit nervous before the shot. After though, I had to hold onto the tree I was shaking so bad. When I see an animal I get a little excited. When I decide I am going to shoot it everything goes on automatic mode until I let the arrow loose. That just seems to be how it is for me anyway.
Bisch
The more of them you shoot the easier it gets, so go get some more animals. Gary
2009 was my first season of hunting. I hunt on the ground from natural cover and I had 3 or 4 encounters that left me in a frazzled state to say the least. My problem was growing the stones to capitalize on my opportunity.
The last thing I remember before I finally shot my deer was thinking "Nick... just draw your bow". Not "Nick...kill the deer", just "draw your bow."
That drawing motion signified my commitment to the shot and instantly gave me the confidence I needed to take the deer. My body took over after that. Since then I've tried to put myself in shooting situations that cause a bit of anxiety whenever possible so I can practice working through it.
Joining a scored 12-week 3D league and shooting with a partner has helped immensely.
Small game definitely helps too!
Having bow only hunted for 21 years (over 1/2 my life) I've lost track of the number of whitetails I taken with a bow. Well over 100. With that said I still catch myself on occasion falling completely apart, heart racing, short of breath. To tell you truth it's a catch 22 w/ me as i don't want to become "mechanical" in nature as it did w/ a firearm or compound bow. That feeling coming back to me is what I never forget about the 1st doe i shot w/ my recurve 7 years ago. I dang near shook myself outta the tree that evening..LOL The situation, not the animal seems to bring on my panic attacks. Weather more than one deer is there, is it alert, etc.
That being said...the only thing that helps me in those times is talking to myself....I mean REALLY talking to myself...lips moving and all.LOL I make it no diff than when I'm standing out front or in the basement shooting when I discuss my form, release, and how bad my shot was w/ myself. I just say...breath, breath, now...look right there...there....she's gonna step...draw...pick...release...
Sounds like a funny thing to do, don't know when i started doing it, but it works for me.
Typing this makes me want to call my sychiatrist.....
I can only consiously think about one thing at a time,so I deliberately think about three main points in my shot sequence,my stance,my anchour,my follow through.
That for me takes the onus away from the animal and places it on the shot.
The picking a spot thing,I simply know where I want to hit the animal and why,so that's where I aim.
Peole can say thie and that but everyone has there own way of dealing with it[buck fever].Some people never get over it.I grew up with a guy we call hindquarter LEE he can't bow hunt becuce of it.He'd shot as soon as he saw brown in the scope.And he still dose it 25 years later.Not as bad he says but his boys just laugh and say right.My cousin PAT I must have put in in a dozzen stand that he missed buck out of.He finely quit bow hunting after about 10 years of misses.
For me I look at the crease where the front leg mets the body.After 97 bucks 33 with selfbows I still get torned up now and then.I
It's just something everyone has to deal with in there own way.I know I've shot at a few whole deer before.Just hope you can get a hand on it.
Shooting 3-D helped a lot but when it comes to live game, especially something with bone on the head, I always look for the knee joint and follow it up to the shoulder blade and "find a spot" a few inches behind the blade and burn a hole in it followed by some sharp steel. It sounds like a lot to do when you have a critter within 20 yards I can do this pretty much within seconds.
It's something that takes my focus off the headgear and/or the whole animal and makes me concentrate where I'm supposed to be looking (in the boiler room).
What I do may sound silly to a lot of folks but it works for me and I've had great success harvesting critters with my tradtional gear.
Find something that works for you and practise.