Buck Fever

Many things can cause problems, flinching, target panic... We hunters simply make mistakes. We can sometimes do amazing things; then mess-up on what appears to be simple or easy.

A close-up opportunity at a great buck can be like trying to focus on intelligent conversation with a beautiful woman in a low cut dress.

With a bow it all has to come together. It often requires great focus, judgment, skill, and more than a little luck to get everything right.

A miss with a rifle could be from flinching or jerking the 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.

Buck fever can be similar to target panic and not easy to explain. The best explanation may be: "Your trying too hard!"

The words "target panic" alone are enough to scare archers who have had a severe case. Those shooting traditional bows can have an especially horrible experience. Some even give-up completely!

Good hunters, like good athletes, practice their skills until instinct, muscle memory, and judgment come seemingly without thinking. It's great when one is "in the zone" and preforming at a high level. But! Hunters are like other athletes and have "slumps" when they can't preform at their normal level.

A good stick-bow shooter can make it look easy, like he's not even trying. Like poetry in motion, the body, the mind, all in harmony... But! The more required of the body and the mind, the greater the risk of overload (target panic).

With severe buck fever (target panic) a hunter can freeze up. He may not be able raise his rifle to his shoulder, or to reach full draw with a bow.

The hunter may know how fleeting these moments are. The pressure to be perfect is great. He knows that the slightest mistake can end it all in disappointment. He may hesitate, even freeze when it's time to shoot, be too slow, too careful, and the opportunity be missed.

A hunt often goes the other way. Fearing a once in a lifetime opportunity will be lost a hunter may rush what he needs to do and make a mistake. Then his fear becomes reality.

Too slow or too fast his timing can be off. He misses an otherwise easy shot. He's thinking too much, he's trying too hard.

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. We love hunting and want the experience. Hopefully our only fever will be a fever to go deer hunting.

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