In my limited experience, the "shakes" and heartbeat that's so loud you'd swear the deer are going to hear it both come before the shot ever presents itself. Once the deer is in range everything calms down for me and I'm on auto-pilot. One thing I started doing last year worked really well for me. As soon as I saw a deer I would start mentally quoting something or even mentally humming the theme song to a TV show. What began as a desperate attempt to focus a part of my mind on something besides the fact that there was a deer on the way became a normal thing for me. When I found that it worked, I stuck to it. The first time I tried it I used the theme song to "Bonanza" (it seemed appropriate.) I've used a short children's book I used to read to my kids and I've also used Mark Antony's speech from Julius Cesear (I still remember that from High School.) Anyway, it works for me since it gives me something else to focus my mind on. Hey, you asked how we dealt with the pressure.
