Buck Fever
It may be simpler to call it buck fever than to try and explain what happened. Many things can cause problems, flinching, target panic... Hunters make mistakes. We sometimes do amazing things; then mess-up on what appears to be easy. Focus is always important. The real fever may be when a hunter is so dazzled by a good buck that he looses his focus. He must focus on his task, not the deer, the rack... It's a little like trying to focus on the conversation when talking with a beautiful woman in a low cut dress. Not enough practice can cause problems. With a bow especially you need practice judging range. You need muscle memory, and some strength. You need hand eye coordination... You may need to shoot quickly, from a awkward position, and without thinking about it. Buck fever could be a miss because of flinching or jerking a hunting rifle trigger. Few shooters never flinch. Practice as much as possible with the deer hunting rifle you'll use. Some buy too much gun, it kicks and it roars, and they don't like to shoot it. A recipe for flinching problems. Target panic is not simple to explain. The best explanation may be: "Your trying too hard!" The words "target panic" are enough to scare archers who have had a severe case. Those shooting traditional bows can have an especially horrible experience. Some give-up completely! Good athletes practice their skills until instinct, muscle memory, judgment... come; seemingly without thinking. It's great when one is "in the zone" and preforming at a high level. But! Athletes also have "slumps" when they can't preform at their normal level. The brain can apparently overload and loose focus. The more the sport requires of the body, and the mind, the greater the risk of overload (target panic). A good stick-bow shooter makes it look easy, like he's not even trying. Like poetry in motion, the body, the mind, all in harmony... But! A stick-bow shooter with severe target panic may not be able reach full draw. His brain seems to freeze when it's time to release, and his timing is off. He's thinking too much, and he's trying too hard. The more he demands of himself, the worse it gets. He starts to panic! He tries desperately to regain his normal control! It feels awful! Soon he's missing the entire target! It's ridiculous, frustrating, embarrassing... The way most shooters "get back" is to return to the basics. Get really close (five yards) where you can't miss a big target. Forget the target, and focus on stance, form, a full draw, a smooth release, even close the eyes... Work on one thing at a time. Only shoot a few good arrows, not too many. A bunch of arrows is usually sloppy, bad practice, anyway. Gradually the grove, memory, zone, will begin to come back. Eventually shooting 'at' something again. Gradually moving back to a more normal range. The best teacher is experience. Those with more experience are less likely to get the buck fever, loose their focus, or to have target panic. Many love hunting and want all the experience they can get. Lucky are the hunters who only get a fever to go deer hunting. We have many more pages of information. Buck Fever to Bow Hunting Deer
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