How bad is buck fever for you?

Take a Xanex before getting on the stand but be sure you wear a harness with a short lanyard.

Don't have to draw back with a crossbow

breathe. pick a spot. kill.

Your first with a bow, you will get it.

The culmination of all that effort, and work to get that deer 20-30 yds away and you have to deliver. My heart was beating through my chest. Enjoy it man, it's the reason we do this shite.

Sola, I was lucky in that my first buck/animal with a bow and first stud with my rifle took all of maybe 5 seconds from start to finish, I barely had time to act with both. Now after I let the arrow fly, saw the pink mist, then saw the deer tumble arse over elbows, I was done. It was everything I could do to get my climber down the tree and not fall/jump out of it. My 110" 8 point is on the wall next to my 152" and 157". He was my first animal with a bow, killed on St Catherine's Creek south of Natchez.

Easier on the nerves to draw on a big buck than to put one in the crosshairs

I think it comes with experience.

I still get pumped after shooting a doe, but I'm able to contain it until the shot


The physical act of having to pull 70 lbs I think lets out some nervous energy

My first and only experience with buck fever:

I used to be a duck hunting fool, going dam near every weekend during the season down in Venice. One of the guys I hunted with sometimes also had a lease up near Natchez for deer hunting, and every year I would make one trip with him to deer hunt. I went 4 or 5 years in a row,didn't see squat. Went with him the last time, and was in a tree stand that looked out over a path that met and crossed a creek. Sat there for a couple of hours in the freezing cold, misty rain weather. I thought I heard something and a few seconds later, a big buck with a nice rack, maybe 8 point or so, came around a little bend in the path and paused right before the path crossed the creek. He was broadside to me, looking in the opposite direction. I raised the gun and aimed, heart beating 200 beets a minute, temples pulsing. I had the perfect shot, but could not pull the trigger. It seemed like 10 or 15 seconds that I held my aim and couldn't pull the trigger. He turned his head and seemed to look right into my eyes and then took off.

I have relived this memory hundreds of time.

Call me a cuck, a pussy, whatever, but I just could not shoot and kill such a majestic looking animal. I don't have a problem with anyone else hunting deer, but I learned that I could not do it.

This is were having a pre-shot routine that you strictly go by comes into play. Focusing on that routine will help you get over the nerves. After the shot you're pretty much shite out of luck. First deer I ever killed with a bow was a big slickhead and I got so excited after the shot that I barely could climb down out of the stand. I called my dad before I climbed down and told him about it and I barely could talk I was shaking so bad. Only time I've ever been that nervous around a deer was sitting beside my oldest girl when she killed her first one. I was more nervous than she was bc I wanted everything to go right for her