anyone else have stage 4 buck fever?

[Lloyd Smale]

Ive never had the problem but my favorite brother in law has it in spades. He loves to hunt and is even a fair shot when theres no pressure but chokes all the time on deer. He hunts with an 06 so its not power that causes this. About every deer hes shot has run off and needed tracking. He sits an a blind and his longest shot is probably a 100 yards. I didnt get to camp this year because i had surgery the day before season but got a call from dad last night. He said Jerry shot the biggest buck hes ever seen in the woods. But as typical the deer ran off. He and his son (a good hunter and shooter) spent half the night tracking it and only had sporatic blood spots. They gave up and were going back the next day to look again. I never did hear if they found it but if they would have my dad would have called me even in the middle of the night. Sure wish i was mobile enough to go out there because theres very few deer if hit that cant be found by someone that understands tracking. Dad said Jerry is just sick about it. Said hes done for this year if he cant find it. I feel sorry for the guy. 60 years old and has been hunting all his life and never got passed buck fever. I also HATE the fact a deer was shot and not recovered. I could see it if it had been a 300 yard shot but at the range he shot it you can about throw a rock and hit a deer. Anyone else suffer from stage 4 buck fever?

[Cosmic_Charlie]

I remember reading somewhere that you could watch for crows or ravens to help find a deer. Seems like the meat would be spoiled by then. We had a hunting friend who could not pull the trigger on a deer. We never pressured him, but it was curious. I have gotten so cold in my stand that I wondered if I could still shoot well enough.

[Joe504]

This is honest advice. Take a sedative. Or learn how to meditate.


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[contender1]

I've never heard it called "Stage 4" buck fever. Still,, it's a hard thing for some to overcome.

I've been hunting deer since I was 11,, and took my first buck at 16. I have over 4 decades of experience,, taken many, many deer,, and I still get excited when I see deer. Yet,, I learned to control myself,, by using mind control, (meditation in a form,) to make myself calm down to make my shots. And I shoot a lot,, so I'm not a trigger jerker,, and such.

Stuff like this is hard to teach.

[cwtebay]

That reminds me of my oldest son a few years ago. He had a nice whitetail buck at about 15 yards. He shot him right through the base of the neck patch, then the top of the chest, then low in the chest....all at less than 20 yards. He was using his new to him that year 300 Winchester Short Magnum. He grabbed his sister's 405 Winchester and hammered him at 35 yards.
On post mortem examination, those first shots weren't bad, but little to no bruising or hemorrhage with any of them - almost like he had drilled holes through him. (The cast 315 grain 405 left massive damage btw).
The ammunition he was using was some we had loaded for elk, Berger 168gr going right at 3,000fps. And there was the problem. Too close, too fast, too heavy a bullet for the situation. There was no way we would have found enough blood to track from those first shots.
Point is, a 30-06 is a fantastic round but make sure it's loaded for the situation.

And no, shaking like a dog passing broken glass doesn't help!!

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[bedbugbilly]

I used to hunt but don't anymore . . . but I freely admit I experienced "buck fever" so bad one time that you cold have sold tickets to the show!

When I was about 16, about the 5th day into the season (lower Michigan) I came home from school and hiked back to the woodlot on the back of the farm to sit until dusk. By the 5th day of season there had been plenty of banging going on and the deer were on the move. In those days, we were limited to slugs and I had an old N.R. Davis double barrel 16 gauge. I got back to the woods and sat down in the middle with a tree to my back and looked in the direction of of a long swamp with potholes that also had pasture where we usually ran the cows in the spring.

I was sitting quietly for maybe a half hour when I heard three spaced out shots on the next farm over. From the spacing of them,I figured someone had probably nailed a buck, but I position myself to look in that direction. It was between 5 and 10 minutes when I heard something coming into the woods and there was a gully between me and the next rise in the woods. Suddenly this huge buck come over that rise and stopped dead still at the top of it. Now when I say that whitetail buck was the largest I had ever seen, I'm not fibbing. It had rack on it that looked like an Elk! LOL I raised that old shotgun up and took careful aim . . . only problem was that I had so much adrenaline pumping through me and I was so exciting that when I cut loose with two shots, my "careful aim" was anything but! That buck just stared at me! I fumbled in my pocket for two more slugs, reloaded and took careful aim again! What the heck? It's still standing there staring at me. I reloaded again and the last shot I saw take bark off a tree about six feet form him! I'll note that there was nothing for a good half mile in any direction so the stray slugs weren't going to hit anything . . . but they sure as heck didn't hit that big buck either! Finally, the huge buck gave a snort, turned and trotted away.

It can make a fellow feel pretty foolish . . . but over the years, I have chuckled about it as I realize how foolish the whole thing was. I never could figure out why that buck just stood there and stared at me while I shot six shots . . . other than he knew that he was safe with me? LOL He was a majestic animal and I often think of how glad I am that I didn't hit him . . . . he had earned the right to venture of and lie another day.

That day did teach me a valuable lesson and that was to sit back a moment and take a deep breath, relax and whether you call it mind control or whatever . . access and react in a calm manner. . . . or at least try!

[JoeJames]

Had stage 1 of buck ague (what my great-grandfather called it, and he was born in 1849) once. Muzzleloading - fired first time, no problem beforehand, started to try to reload and my hand was shaking so bad I slung or dropped a slew of black powder. Only time it ever hit me. It was a dern fine buck which probably brought it on then.

[fastdadio]

Lloyd's favorite brother in law reminds me of those guys that takes their gun out to the range the week before opener, shoots 3 rounds and says 'yup, good enuf' Then puts it away and never shoots it again till next year.
on the subject of buck fever, when I was young and just started deer hunting I got it bad. Even the squirrels rustling leaves would get my heart pounding. Never missed a shot because of it though, I always waited until I got my heart rate settled down to make the shot.
As the years have gone by I got it less and less and now not at all.

[quilbilly]

I have an old family friend I used to hunt with and he had it in spades for deer and elk. I watched him miss a cow elk standing broadside at 50 yards in the open. The next year I congratulated him on a fine neck shot on a 5x5 bull and he admitted he was trying for a heart shot. It was still a fine shot because the bull fell 50 yards from the truck.

[M-Tecs]

I have seen it but never came remotely close to experiencing it myself.

Like most panic and anxiety disorders (other than drugs) desensitization is be my suggestion. Get him out where he is around deer in close proximity and see if that helps. Setting up to photograph deer at under 50 yards would be my recommendation.

[Hossfly]

I had it in my teens, with semi-auto and mags in my jacket pocket, probably shooting straight up in the air.
Went to bolt action, then single shot have settled quite a bit.

But if a big buck comes in the picture, i usually get the shakes after the kill.

[Gewehr-Guy]

I can watch deer in my sights for what seems like hours, and not get excited, but put a coyote in front of me, and thats when I'm likely to spoil the shot. To me shooting deer is about like pulling a carrot or digging a potato out of the garden. I suppose a trophy buck would excite me, but I don't hunt long enough to find one of them.

[redriverhunter]

I had some buck fever or fear that I would not get another chance at a good buck before season was over last year. I was shooting for a heart/lung shot the deer was about 100 yards he was walking slow and somehow got him high and back he lost use of his back two legs. In my case I mostly blame myself for a rushed shot. maybe he could try some timed shooting, maybe 5 seconds to get a shot off at the gun range. I do not know if it would help or not.

[dverna]

Must be performance anxiety. Like being with a beautiful woman and staying limp,

If someone has the problem, address the lack of confidence. Spend a lot of time shooting at reactive targets that give positive feedback. Shoot squirrels and varmints so killing is not a bugaboo. Make sure they sight the rifle in for the hunt so they know the rifle, scope, and ammunition are good.

A deer is just another target. If you can kill varmints at 50-75 yards, a deer is HUGE.

But I “waste” thousands of rounds a year so never worry about making the shot.

For the chronically afflicted, they should not hunt with a rifle, pistol or bow. Get a shotgun and buckshot.

I know one hunter who gets buck fever. I do not know any shooters that have the problem. But my sample size is limited.

[Ithaca Gunner]

I'm a shooter, not a hunter. I've shot deer, never giving it a thought other than it was just another shot, the first step in harvesting an animal for food. My younger brother, he's a hunter. He never stops thinking about it and has the deer fever year round. He's normally not a bad shot, but put a deer in front of him and you might as well watch a blind man with an itch shoot. He somehow gets em every year though. I watched him aim and shoot three times at a doe not 50 yards away in a field missing each time before yelling at me to shoot it for him. I told him to hand me his rifle, he argued and ask what was wrong with mine, I told him mine was clean, didn't want to get it dirty. Yeah, the doe just stood there, ''Boom-flop!'' it was over, he had his deer.

I think the highest fever he had was a luckless morning and we moved after lunch to another low prospect spot, but as luck would have it, we chanced upon a herd of about eight deer casually wandering across our view about 100 yards down in a holler. Daniel Boon jr. jumps right in front of me as I'm raising my rifle and fires off four rounds of .270 from a pre-64 Model 70 faster than bump-firing an M-1. I wasn't sure weather to kick him or not, but I did assure him the story would get around and if he didn't want to walk the 12 miles home, he better get to the truck and not try and make excuses. I don't bother with him from mid-Sept to mid-Dec. He gets Winchester fever at gun shows too. You been warned.

[brewer12345]

I am a hunter more than a shooter, although I do lots of the latter to prepare for the former. I get buck fever even for the smallest doe, just about every time. My solution is to slow down, don't move, and take the time to slow my breathing and heart rate before I make the shot. I practice enough so that the actual shot is largely automatic once I get myself under control.

The only time I did not get the shakes was last month in pronghorn season. I think I was so tired after hiking 20+ miles that day that when the herd came up the canyon to where I was standing I calmly raised the rifle and dropped the doe without a second thought. I think I was so flooded with post exercise endorphins that I was nice and cool.

[Lloyd Smale]

what i tried to tell him about 5 years ago was to slow down and count to ten. Dont worry about shooting fast. If the deer runs off so be it. Its not the end of the world and beats the hell out of wounding it. Then when you do shoot aim small. But i think by looking at the deer he kills he just wont wait for the perfect angle or he is just putting the crosshairs on the deer and when he sees brown he shoots. I think some tend to miss or make bad shots more often on close deer then deer out at 200 plus yards because when there out a ways they not only dont seem to get people as nervous and they consentrate a bit more on where they put there crosshairs.

[starnbar]

You can either make the shot or you can't it is just that simple.

[Shopdog]

I climbed,"out of" tree stands 30 or so years ago. Choosing ground blinds and still hunting,and one of my alltime favorites,sleeping,leaning against a tree.

Shot a spike buck this year @7 1/2 yards with a bow. And was as calculated as a brain surgeon. Yadayada.

Go to one of the boys houses,and whilst working there..... woohoo,do some bow hunting. But,I didn't want to be stinking up his place traipsing around so,climbed up in one of his tree stands.

A nice 6 pt comes in to mere feet of the stand,on the right,making it so I have to turn with my back towards the ladder. In other words,worst possible scenario. Yes,after killing a cpl dumptrucks worth of deer,I started getting ramped. By the time I was ready to draw, had gotten "in gear". This was simply a case of being in that dang tree stand. But,there was some "fever". I had an OK shot finally at just under 30 yards and let him walk.

[dverna]

what i tried to tell him about 5 years ago was to slow down and count to ten. Dont worry about shooting fast. If the deer runs off so be it. Its not the end of the world and beats the hell out of wounding it. Then when you do shoot aim small. But i think by looking at the deer he kills he just wont wait for the perfect angle or he is just putting the crosshairs on the deer and when he sees brown he shoots. I think some tend to miss or make bad shots more often on close deer then deer out at 200 plus yards because when there out a ways they not only dont seem to get people as nervous and they consentrate a bit more on where they put there crosshairs.

That is an excellent point. I have never shot a deer at less than 120 yards. I had plenty of time to check antlers
(our camp has an 8 pt antler restriction) or determine if it was a barren doe. So, there was no great urgency to make the shot.