Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!doug.cae.wisc.edu!osnome!hunting
From: isgtec!robert@uunet.UU.NET ("Robert A. Osborne")
Newsgroups: rec.hunting
Subject: Buck Fever
Message-ID: <1991May9.070722.6605@doug.cae.wisc.edu>
Date: 9 May 91 12:07:21 GMT
Lines: 29
Approved: hunting@osnome.che.wisc.edu
Originator: rigg@osnome.che.wisc.edu

rigg@osnome.che.wisc.edu (Tim Rigg) writes
>Which brings up another point...  Last fall I read everything I could
>find and learned all about scat, scrapes, rubs, food, and the rest.
>However, NOTHING mentioned the panic of seeing your first deer within
>shooting range.  I have since learned a few techniques to reduce this
>factor.  Most center around ALWAYS using a set routine.

Buck Fever.  I haven't heard of anything that "cures" it.  Basically
you have to have your hunting skills so ingrained that you shoot
properly in spite of the fact that your brain is in neutral (thus your
idea of a set routine is exactly the right thing to do).

I would advise that nobody hunt bear or moose as their first "big game"
animal;  getting buck fever after calling in a bull moose in rut is a
BIG no-no.

My cousin took 7 shots at a deer that ran within 10 yards of him and
couldn't figure out why he missed... until my uncle pointed out that he
hadn't actually FIRED any of them,  he had just levered the unfired
cartridge unto the ground.

I'm one of three people in our entire hunt club (35-40 members) who
brought down the first deer they shot at (I don't remember aiming...
alright I didn't aim; must have been all the skeet shooting that let me
hit it :-).  I hit a small popular first then hit the doe in the rib
cage (just aft of the heart).  Made a fist sized hole going in and
didn't come out, so the first deer I gutted was a REAL mess.

Rob.