I think most of us get that adrenaline rush known as "the shakes" or "buck fever" or whatever you call it.
I try to think of something beside the deer and look away till it's time to shoot to try to calm myself.
What are your methods?
That is a really tough question to answer. For me it seems that controlling my breathing helps and simply mind over matter thinking. I enjoy watching them and try to just wait to get excited after I shoot.
I get more excited when I can hear a deer then when I finally see them. When I do finally see one I make up my mind if I am going to shot or not and if I decide to shoot I am so concentrated on making the shot I do not get nervous
When I first started hunting Deer, it was with a gun. I used to get buck fever so bad I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. I don't know how many Deer i shot at before I got one, but it was a few. I believe only a true hunter at heart gets buck fever. Like the cat getting ready to pounce or the bird dog on point, a true blooded hunter has an instinct for the kill. An excitement that sometimes is hard to control. I would like to say after all these years I have learned to conquer it, but that would be a half truth. Once in a while it still gets the best of me.
usually it doesn't get me but Friday it sure did. I think its cause that would have been my first bow kill ever and he was 125" deer easy. I try to look away from the deer's eyes and stare at their tail then when its time I'll let em have it. Much easier for me with a rifle though being a sniper helps hahaha. but this bow hunting adrenaline is something else!
I try to concentrate on what I need to do in preparation for the shot. Don't get fixated on the Deer. I talk to myself to keep a cool perspective. I think that's key for me is to talk to my self a little. A little pep talk so to speak.
I focus on the mechanics of getting and making the shot. I remind myself that the distance is the same as.... any of several scenarios I practice at home.
Getting excited is part of the hunt and if you don't then idk why you would spend the time. You also need to learn to control this so that you are able to make a clean ethical shot on an animal.
My recommendation is to "decide" if your going to shoot the animal or not before (as early as possible) the shot is even presented. Once the buck gets closer into your range concentrate on his movements. Pay more attention to him being alert, relaxed, what path he will be on when he is in range ect... Once he is in range for a shot pick your spot and don't look anywhere else.
I don't have a method. I get shakes when a shootable critter first walks out. Something happens when I decide it is time to shoot and it all goes away! When I draw, I feel as calm as I can be, As soon as I release and see the arrow hit the animal, I go to pot and start shaking like crazy (especially when it is cold)!
Bisch
I am with bearsfeet, if you don't get excited time to take up another endeavor. Also good point about concentrate on the situation not letting your mind get you in trouble. After the shot I got to sit down or fall out of the tree.
I talk myself through it trusting in God, I always pray for a good hit or a clean miss when I first sit in the stand. I win either way.
Mine will sound dumb but for me it works. If I see a deer early enough I convince myself I'm not going to shoot and I don't even want the deer. Then decide when I can actually get a shot that ok I do want him and take the shot. For some reason it works for me. Can't explain it. Haha
My friends and I call it "Elvis Leg" when you cannot stop your leg from hopping. Switch from foot to foot and the leg w/o your weight starts jumping. Love it and hate it all at once. Doesn't happen every time I see deer and really is not at all in relation to the size/buck/doe/fawn or even if it is a shooter or not in my mind. It just happens at times and others not so much.
If it ever quits altogether I think I'll hang up the bow and golf more.
QuoteOriginally posted by Bisch:
I don't have a method. I get shakes when a shootable critter first walks out. Something happens when I decide it is time to shoot and it all goes away! When I draw, I feel as calm as I can be, As soon as I release and see the arrow hit the animal, I go to pot and start shaking like crazy (especially when it is cold)!
Bisch
X2
I get excited about any deer not just the bucks. It is always the worst early in the season with months of build up to getting into the woods. It is the worst when they come in kind of slow and give me just enough time to think about it. A lot of times I settle down if it takes a long time for them to work in. If it is fast, I have little time to get wound up. The best bet for me is to not think about missing, or in any way putting presser on myself to have to get the deer. I just try and get total focus on observing and prepping to shoot.
QuoteOriginally posted by Stone Knife:
I talk myself through it trusting in God, I always pray for a good hit or a clean miss when I first sit in the stand. I win either way.
Same here kind of, but we don't talk about missing. :D Only clean kills or no opportunity for a shot.
QuoteOriginally posted by nomansland4404:
Mine will sound dumb but for me it works. If I see a deer early enough I convince myself I'm not going to shoot and I don't even want the deer. Then decide when I can actually get a shot that ok I do want him and take the shot. For some reason it works for me. Can't explain it. Haha
Not dumb at all. I do it a lot. Shot more than a couple of bucks I had no intention of shooting. Once on the first night of bow season I shot a 6 pt. early in the evening. I was just going to draw on him to see if I could do it. The shot was a little far. I had a 4 on a side restricted tag left. A while later a 7 pt. walked past me at about 10 yards 3 times. I kept saying he was too small to shoot and use up my last buck tag opening day. On past 4 I thought it would be fun to draw on him for practice. I was hunting does the rest of the year. Only time I ever shot two bucks in one day with no nerves on or before either shot. Plenty after the arrow was gone.
After missing a lot when I first started years ago I break into a concentration on the shot you would not believe. Its like I almost get mad are something. It works.
also I have slowed my shot down a bit and really focus on shooting controlled shots when I practice.RC
For me there is excitement when animals are 'around me' but once they get into shooting range I seem to switch over mentally and everything is calm and calculated until after the shot. I would say that emotion almost completely leaves me during that key phase...
This was not the case prior to active service with the Army... One of the few 'gifts' that I retain from that period that I actually appreciate. Lol
My worst case was 15 years ago. It was the 5th day of hunting, I had had deer close every day, no problem. Then a little basket raked deer appeared with only his head showing at 15 yards. I fell apart. Shook so bad the leaves on the tree shook. If I looked away I'd stop instantly, look back at the deer and it would start again. I'm sure that the shaking tree scared the deer away.
I freak out. Haven't found a way around it yet.
The other day I was still-hunting in the rain and nearly ran straight into two does who were lumbering through the woods. We both looked up and saw each other at the same time but they didn't spook right away, just stood there and even came closer trying to figure out what I was. While I tried to stay still and play 'tree' I was shaking so bad I thought I was going to fall over. They were not convinced and ran for it.
Maybe I should try convincing myself that I don't want to shoot them...lol.
Great stuff...I think overcoming the shakes is one of the biggest challenges to hunting.
I can't tell you how many deer I have missed due to the excitement.
Hoping to find out this evening how well I can control it now.
I don't know?? :dunno:
Sometimes it hits me after the shot. This year for instance, I was like some robotic archer of death until my bull fell on his side. Then I melted down.
Other times it is all I can do to hold still. Deep, slow breaths through my nose helps.
im really strange (many who know me would substantiate), but I don't get buck fever when hunting. I almost always feel reasonably calm and cool. when I get it is at 3d shoots. and I get it bad. shake uncontrollably. not accurate, and on down the line. I think maybe im too worried about impressing my buddies.
the funny part, if im shooting with all compound guys, I still get it just as bad. don't know why...
Best cure is to just be put in the situation enough times. I rarely get the fever anymore. My best cure was when I hunted an area that required you to take a doe before you could take a buck. I was there at the heat of the rut and was covered up all day with booner bucks. Do you think I could get a doe to come by and stand still long enough! In the mean time I had bucks bedding down next to me, fighting, grunting - you name it. Went on like that most of the week. I finally bagged a doe the second to last day, by then I was pretty use to having big bucks close by.
QuoteOriginally posted by Steve in Canton:
I get more excited when I can hear a deer then when I finally see them. When I do finally see one I make up my mind if I am going to shot or not and if I decide to shoot I am so concentrated on making the shot I do not get nervous
Same here Steve. Most times I only vaguely remember the shot, but I remember their last few steps leading up to it very well.
Just "shake" through it, hopefully!
I'm usually dead calm until after the shot, then the adrenalin dumps and all hell breaks loose.
Like huntnmuleys I'm worse at 3D shoots.
I LOVE IT!!!!! The day I stop shakeing, is the day I'll stop hunting!!! :archer:
X2 What Bisch described earlier in this thread.
The next time you sense the buck fever coming on try this. Get control of your breathing by "belly breathing". Pull air into your lungs from below your diaphram. You are hyperventilating by rapidly chest breathing but you are excited and don't realize it. The first step is to understand this and change your breathing pattern. A few minutes of belly breathing will begin to calm you. I read alot of posts talking about "self talk" or talking yourself through it. This combined with belly breathing will solve your problem with practice. What do say to yourself? The first thing you say is to confront the buck fever and say "I'm having buck fever". It may sound crazy but calling it out and identifying it will stop it dead in its tracks. Then proceed to call your moves or self talk what ever way you wish until you decide either to shoot or not.
I try to picture the buck naked.
I tell myself that it won't happen and the animal won't give me a shot. Sometimes I try and talk myself into believing it's not big enough. Doesn't always work, but often enough to keep doing it!
Glenn
I was obviously joking in my above post but have a couple thoughts. First, for the past 14 years, have lived in a place with tons of deer. They are all around me and in my yard. I have gotten used to them. I have also noticed from my earliest years of hunting that if I see the deer a long way off, slowly coming my way I calm down. Obviously this is somewhat out of my control.
Fortunately, I don't usually get it until after the shot. It's pretty thick most places I set up to hunt and the deer are usually pretty close when I see them, and often times moving. Once I make a quick decision on if I'm going to shoot it I'm usually focused on picking out a spot where I want to stop the deer.
If I do happen to see one where I can watch it for a while before shooting, I TRY to only look at the rack once, then focus on his "sweet spot" while waiting for a shot.
Still shake sometimes after I shoot one, but that's all part of the excitement.
YB
I just had to learn to shoot shaking. :rolleyes: I fall all apart at times can't even draw my bow.