Skip to main content
Help Center Community Shop

BUCK-FEVER...

fishkiller41
What is it, and who get's it?
From my very first deer kill,at the tender age of 12 years,I have never felt like i didn't want to shoot, or could not shoot an animal. After all the prep. set-up, waiting in silence,and hunting wile waiting for the right wind conditions and proper shooting light ETC.
After all of that, their is NO WAY i'm NOT gonna BLAST that sukker!

Jeff
0

Comments

8 comments

Date Votes
  • mongrel1776
    It's a rush of excitement and fear in which the ability to perform the most basic functions (i.e. raise the rifle, aim, squeeze the trigger) abruptly vanishes. In its place, I found myself thinking of a million things that would go wrong if I so much as blinked, let alone moved to shoot. Had an eight-pointer (four-pointer for you folks out west) standing broadside to me at no more than forty yards, not a care in the world -- and I literally couldn't move.

    I recently read, in an article on buck fever, that Ted Nugent to some extent still gets the fever, but years of practice and repetition have enabled him to perform in spite of it. I haven't had any trouble with the process of killing deer since that one time, but my heart still goes like a drumroll and I feel, literally, like I have a fever chill running down the back of my neck, every time I hear that very distinctive combination of "thump" and "crunch" that is something heavy moving over leafy ground.

    IMHO it has nothing to do with a desire to shoot, or the lack of desire -- it's a simple freezing-up process due to adrenaline and anticipation. As I mentioned in referencing Ted Nugent, time and practice enable one to work through it, but I think, for those who get buck fever at all, it never completely goes away. In my case -- I hope not.
    0
  • fishkiller41
    I NO-DOUBT get the "drum-roll pulse thing, but it has never gotten to the point of freezin me up.[;)]

    Jeff
    0
  • andersk
    I haven't had the feeze up thing (yet!) either, but everything in me is on high alert and the heart beat is racing and sometimes breathing is a bit strange. Somes times I just need to sit for a moment to get collected and then calmly ... fire-when-ready!
    0
  • Old-Colts
    The first deer (buck) I shot at was on our farm in the early 60's and I got what is termed buck fever. The nice buck ran in front of me and I shot at it 5 times with my Browning 16 gauge shotgun (slug, buckshot, slug, buckshot, slug). I never touched it and as far as I know that deer is still running.

    That was my first and only case of buck fever and the last time I used a shotgun for deer hunting.
    0
  • Azhunter
    For me it is a rush of adrenalin so intense that I find it very hard to sight properly. I start to shake and my heart beats so hard that I can't hold the rifle steady.[:0]
    0
  • divebomb
    I thought buck fever was when someone fires at the animal, and then in a panic fires multiple more rounds to ensure the kill.
    That is just what I thought, probably wrong.
    0
  • Knifecollector
    Old-Colts, if that deer is still running, I bet he's slowed down a mite, seeing how he'd be over 40 years old now.
    0
  • Old-Colts
    quote:Originally posted by knifeusercollections
    Old-Colts, if that deer is still running, I bet he's slowed down a mite, seeing how he'd be over 40 years old now.
    [:D]

    However, the deer was probably so shocked that anyone could miss him 5 times at that distance that it gave him new life!
    0

Please sign in to leave a comment.

Recent Activity