I was sitting here today thinking about all the folks who have one kind or another starting to shake as the target approaches or getting the shakes after making the kill of a lifetime. You look and here comes the biggest buck you have ever seen right toward you, your heart starts to pound you can feel it beating in your chest, you start to breath faster and your hands start to shake yep you’ve got it “Target Panic” aka “Buck Fever” aka “The Shakes” While I was writing this I started to think, have I been missing something all these years that others enjoy during their hunting experience? If so should I try to change what I have learned and worked on most of my life. The more I thought about it the clearer it became that I should leave things alone because of all the what ifs, what if I hesitate when I should have fired, what if my emotions get to me and my aim suffers for it, or God forbid what if I am called upon through circumstance to make a shot to save a life and, I think about the shot and mess it up. Some folks on other forums know I don’t get this at any point. I have been told by some of those folks both on-line and in my “off-line” life that I am a robot when it comes to shooting and, I might as well be sitting in my easy chair at home or I should have been a mercenary and so on. Maybe they are right but, I fill my freezer, I enjoy being out in the great outdoors and, to be able to lock down on the target and make my shot true is good enough for me.

I have heard that true target panic cannot go away I have to disagree, there have been literally thousands of men and women who have overcome "true target panic" and they did it with technique and practice. Like me the people I am talking about wear the uniforms of this great country and, get shot back at. A hunter has all the benefit of using the same training without the threat of being shot at, oh and yes it works with bows also. The idea is to equate the same importance to the paper target as to a living target (not to say that they carry the same weight) shooting paper verses taking a life but, preparing yourself for the shot every time as if it is your one and only chance to stay alive. Some people think no big deal I am shooting at a piece of paper so their hits don't need to be as tight as they would say if they were shooting at a person trying to kill them. I know this first hand as I have been on a pistol range with people who think that way. At the time I hadn't shot a handgun since the Army which was about 10 years before that, I was shooting next to a young lady whose groups were all over the paper a 10 yards when we were done firing she asked me how I such shot tight groups did I shoot a lot? I said no I don’t shoot a lot. Let me ask you a question I asked her what it was she was shooting at. She replied the same as you a piece of paper with a silhouette on it. I replied that is why my groups are tighter than yours, I am shooting at a person who is trying to kill me, every time I draw a pistol or raise one of my other weapons shotgun, rifle or Bow it is to stop someone / something from killing me. Then I told her to try that mind set and see if her shooting didn't improve to make an already long story short her shooting greatly improved. Having said all that if you bought your weapon as a paper puncher then you have no reason to even consider what I am saying however, if you bought it to protect you and/or your family changing your mind set may not only get you a little tighter group but also make the shot easier if God forbid you have to shoot someone and improve your shot when it is time to take that Buck of a lifetime.
Lastly when it comes to target panic, not to blow my own horn but my targets don’t generally live long enough…. to…. panic….lol.
Written by BigJohnH