I have been lucky enough to do a lot of hunting in a lot of places. I have noticed something that makes absolutely no sense to me at all.

If I am hunting dangerous game, I am so calm it is ridiculous. However, let me hold the rifle on sticks for 20 minutes waiting to get a shot at some plains game animals, I ultimately shake like a leaf. It makes no sense to me. One PH I hunt with recons that I am concentrating so totally in a DG hunt that nervousness can't come into play.

Even stranger to me are whitetails. If I go to TX, I do not get rattled at all when I go to shoot. However, let a buck walk out here in FL that is MUCH smaller than the TX bucks and I shake like a leaf.

Does any of this make any sense to you all? what do you do to control your excitement?

Makes sense to me. While hunting felons I would get a strange excited calm before breaking in a door or moving in for a takedown. Same thing while driving code to a call, just a strange excited calm. It is a feeling that I do miss.

Larry, there is no logic to it. I have found it a help to get ready and take aim at a number of game animals when I'm out hunting, even though I don't plan to take them. It seems to make me calmer at the "moment of truth" for some reason.

I have only ha dbuck fever once since i was a kid and that was on a waterbuck in uganda. after screwing up big time then I got the calm feeling too. but the calm was over after the critters where on the ground. ask Steve Robinson I nearly beat him to death with my hat a few time after i has some critteron the ground

I think the only thing I don't get the "fever" on is birds. Any other type of big game and I'm always shaking like a leaf!

I can certainly relate. I've blown some easy shots and been cool as a cucumber on others. In Zambia I missed a bushbuck at not over thirty yards, critter standing. Next day I put a buff down after stalking and chasing for hours. Front on heart shot. My only one shot buff.

If you have time to think, your nerves do all sorts of things.

If you don't have time to think, your mind goes to your learned behaviors, of shooting, etc. You just do...

I have made some great shots, when I didn't have time to think, one of the greatest was an off hand 150yard Texas heart shot on a pig in Texas that was running away. I don't know how I pulled it off. Everything just came together, and looking back on it years of competitive small bore probably helped.

About a year after that, 150 yard whitetail standing broadside open field. I watched him for proably 20 minutes before I took the shot. I Hit the deer high in the shoulder the first round. Missed 2nd and 3rd shot. And somehow hit him again 4th shot. Still needed one more in the neck to finish him on the ground after those 4.

Next spring shot 11 animals in RSA with 12 shots. Kudu took 2. Everthing else was DRT.

Go Figure.

You're a predator -- accept it. Big dogs don't get worked up about something there own size, but the ankle biters -- look out!

2 cents

Hangover.

My 2 cents, The waiting game causes anxiety a shot or two of adrenelin and the shakes start.

Mike

SB45:

I think you are right. This year I was deer hunting. I had gotten out of a tree looking for sign of a buck that I had shot. These does kept going off. It was annoying. I looked up and could clearly see one of the doe's head at about 185. I made a quick snap shot off hand. DRT right through the head.

How does one control the excitement when one does have time to think?

I think for most of us(at least me) we spend so much time thinking about, anticipating, planning, and practicing for those shots on the dangerous game that instinct takes over and we are focused on our muscle memmory and tasks at hand. Perhaps people don't put that much pre hunt focus on an impala they may take on an elephant or lion hunt?

I can remember getting buck fever over squirrels as a youth. Now I've calmly shot a cape buffalo, two moose, a dall sheep, and a bear without (pre shot) getting my blood pressure up. Post shot.......well that depends.....

Brett

The other guys beat me to it. I think that the more you have to think about it the more nerves can get in to the equation. And it may be amplified some with 6 other guys standing around watching and waiting for you to make the perect shot.

I am not a golfer per se, but I remember a tourney where the first group of guys off were all top flight guys and everybody was standing on the first tee watching. The first guy nails it 250 and the crowd ooohs. The second guy hits further and the crowd ahhs and applauds. The third guy makes a monster cut and tops it and the ball karooms off the grass and squirts way out of bounds going through the big crowd. The crowd is silent and then all through you hear this "Boooooooo...." . Man it was tough on him all day after that.

And you know sometimes you get off on the wrong foot. You make a perfect shot and the bullet flies right through and the animal runs off and then you are working to get him and you start worrying and questioning things. Then you can get tight for the next shots.

I did see on one of the shows the other day they were watching for a big trophy kudu bull to come out and had turned down some other really good ones waiting for this one to clear out of the bush. The Ph and hunter and camera guy were behind a big rock and this went on for a while. The hunter put the rifle down and pulled his cap over his eyes and put his back to rock resting or sleeping. When the Ph got him up he did get some excitment as it was the last day, but he made the shot. It may have been a good approach.

One thing I have done (as above) , and I had my son do as well, is to put the rifle on and settle his cross-hairs on some other animals that we did not elect to shoot. Just going through the shot being relaxed, controling breathing, etc and selecting when you were going to fire, touching the trigger (safety on or no round in chamber) and it helped as when the time came it is not your first look of the day.

On a long shot, 200, 300 or that kind of thing I want to look first, then have a good settle, then gauge the wind and think about where I am going to settle the scope, maybe check the card I have, and then bring the rifle to shooting position. Then when it is lined under the spot I breathe in and the scope rises,and I take on the trigger and as it settles and I have no breath, and it "feels" right and on the spot selected, then break the trigger. Most times it works LOL! Just like you do at the range.

Some guides here, and some Phs may have a little more excitement in their voice too which can hurry you. I know a guy who is always like that. Here, here, now NOW shoot shoot SHOOT. I like him but I dont want him in my ear. I will take the shot when it looks good to me is what I am going to do. I am sure most all Phs are pretty good about their set up though.

I may have more nerves after the shot sometimes too. I dont think I ever remember seeing the hit, and certainly I have never heard the hit. So when I get back in the rifle sometimes I have seen nothing. Some of those were dead right there and some I did see run a ways and then drop. If I dont see them drop I can get a little worried until I see that big blood pools.

Dear Larry

A few tip's I was shown in a past life.

The key is to take deep breaths as soon as you start to feel nervous.
I some time do it prior to it actually starting.

Go over the seen in your mind many times before it actually takes place.

If you really want to start getting to extreme then some foods will make it happen more than others.

But the best and safest method is to drink your self stupid the night before.
The last thing you want to do is be out hunting and just want to get it done and go and lay down and recover.
Give it a try it does work our coach got us to do it all the time.

Regards Mark

quote:

Originally posted by cameronaussie:
Dear Larry

A few tip's I was shown in a past life.

The key is to take deep breaths as soon as you start to feel nervous.
I some time do it prior to it actually starting.

Regards Mark

That can be quite funny too. Animals all giving themselves whiplash, trying to be the first to spot the train.

To control my excitement I would do some aerobic excercise to strengthen my heart and get in shape-not an easy thing to do all the time.

I am probablygoing to get flamed for this but other than a deer when I was a kid I don't get the nervousness or teh shakes.

Maybe it was all those years of competative shooting and sports as a kid? Maybe it is my high stress job makes the hunting field seem not so stressful? Maybe it is 20 years of refereeing and dealing with high stress situations?

Not really sure.

My first African trip was this year and I was honestly wondering if I was going to get buck fever. I just made the shots I needed to make.

I get nervous when I'm stalking or have seen the animal for the first time. When I prepare for a shot my concentration and focus take over and I have no other thought on my mind other than making the best shot I can.

In 2010 I hunted in Moz. and spent several hours standing in swamp grass glassing Buffalo. As the day wore on I finally saw a Buffalo I wanted to shoot. It was the most fun I had in a long time hunting and it felt like I had been standing there for just minutes. I guess the old saying applies "time fly's when your having fun". I felt mentally drained, but full of life!

Hence the design of the hip flask.

I used to shoot competitively - that is a lot more nerve racking than shooting any animal. Of course, if you shake, you don't shoot so well. So I taught myself to imagine missing and wanting a "do-over", knowing I could make the shot. I used that when I couldn't hold steady on a lion I shot over a flimsy rest (not a baiting situation). To my PH's credit, he didn't stand there hissing "shoot! shoot!" God that bugs me.

In shooting, you either learn to control the shaking or you don't win.

I also dry fire every single day, from the sitting position using a shooting sling. I imagine I aiming at my animal of choice. In real life, I often remind myself if I can hold the 20X crosshair on target not much bigger than the intersection of the crosshair, I can damn sure hold on an animal.

Simple rule: if the crosshair isn't where you want to hit (assuming you aren't holding for elevation or windage), don't pull the trigger. And if you can't hold it on the target consistently, don't think you will break the trigger at the right time; it rarely happens.

wetting your pants works well

I contemplate the rule against perpetuities.

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:
Hence the design of the hip flask.

Need one on the ammo belt?

Michael Robinson: Now THAT'S FUNNY!!!! By the way, I just try to remember that I am a cold, calculating killer!

I have got nervous while watching game and also in competition.

For both my solution or what is best for me is not to hold my breath too long. That's what used to get me.

I force myself to breath deeply, quietly and slowly through my mouth. That keeps the shakes away for me.