All great stories
great thread Dave

I call buck fever an adrenalin dump. I have learned to control it but it comesonstronger when I am bowhunting. This is likely because my confidence level is lower with a bow and the deer are much closer.

That's exactly what it is, and it's an entirely different kind of dump from the one Cayugad was referring to earlier in the thread.

I have to admit, reading the different stories posted here is excellent reading... And I can relate to a lot of them.

Today I was walking the woods and at the top of a little hill, there at the bottom on the edge of the marsh was seven turkeys browsing in the foliage. So I sat down and just watched them for ten minutes. And I was kind of surprised that I got such a thrill out of sitting there watching them.

They are pretty close to where my deer stand is, so at least if the deer are not around, I can have something to watch... I wish I had remembered my camera.

Know just how you feel. Once in a tree stand next to a small stream I got to watch a mink working the banks for food for about a half hour. It went upstream along one bank poking its head into every nook and cranny. Then crossed over and did the same thing on the other bankgoing downstream.

I almost go sane when I see a buck while hunting.

I think the key word with Underclocked is almost.. hope you see lots of bucks this year. May the monster of the woods walk up and cause you to shake like leaves on the trees..

My goodness...I have a bunch of them...but the funniest may have been just last year bowhunting.

I get off work and rush to the woods with the stand to hunt an hour or two before dark on a Friday eve. Well I hadnt even got my bow pulled up yet and here comes this doe trotting in like no big deal and behind her comes a huge 8 point. Well to make a long story short...I ended up missing this guy 3 times....lost all 3 arrows and the quiver only holds 3. Low and behold the buck is still there! By this time I have went from shakey to just downright disgusted and mad so seeing that I was out of business for the eve I threw my grunt call at him. It came closer than the arrows to making a hit. When I first seen this buck I was shaking so bad the arrow was rattling in the rest..lol. Most days that would be the end of the story...

However after a quick trip to the other end of the county for another pack of broadheads that night (lost all 3 arrows)and 2 uneventful days of hunting out of the same tree I once again returned Monday eve. Sure enough here comes the same doe....guess whos right behind her? LOL This times theres no buck fever..just a lot of wind and cold. They spotted me about 75 yards out at around 300pm. The doe finally decided she wasnt really impressed by me and started to work on by at a range of prob 40 yards the buck follows and does a circle around me or prob 50 yards so no chance of a shot. Keep in mind I had taken off my shooting hand glove and was standing at red alert ready to draw in the stand.

Well an hour and 15 minutes later Im still standing there afraid to hardly even breathe and by this time my release finger was numb as a brick..lol. The whole time the doe had been feeding around like nothing was wrong and the buck had been keeping a good distance of me. Finally he comes into decent shot range and just as I draw back heres a button buck charging in and scares both deer off....so by now Im fuming..lol. As fate would have it though the doe came back in about 30 minutes an the buck followed as usual and this time at 520 pm with me so cold I am seriously shivering and numb he steps into shot range....this time everything went perfect..I squeezed off the release with my numb finger and watched the arrow go behind the front should and then watched him crash 20 yards later.


That8 pointturned out to be 4.5 years old and scored 133. I always tell people to never get discouraged or give up and this story is just more proof. Deer always show up when you least expect it or when you are least prepared. The absolute best part of hunting though is just knowing that the worst trip ever can turn into the best trip ever on the last second of the last day.


I did manage to shoot a doe a few years back that interrupted the call of nature..lol. Thankfully reaching the gun didnt require much movement..lmao.


When I quit getting the shakes is when I quit. I never had anyone to hunt with so I had to learn all this deer stuff through trial and error so I could tell a few funny ones.

Id give anything to tape record some of the conversations Ive had with myself while hunting....

When I was younger (read teens), I had issues with buck fever during shots, I don't think I ever missed one because of it but it was a problem. I remember particularly, I was bowhunting once when I was about 13-14. I'd been sitting for about 20min after school, the whole time hearding what I thought was squirrels down in the woods from me (I was sitting on the ground on a field edge). Finally, I see movement and turn in and ready my bow. All I see is antlers, spread way out, coming right toward me up the trail. The adrenaline surged and I drew the 70 lb compound back like it was 5 lb. I'm holding as the deer closes to within 30 yds. It's the huge local buck people have been talking about -- about 16 typical points and 250lb, unheard of in that area. The whole neighborhood had been after him for at least 5 years, and here I am the only person to ever lay eyes on him in season during legal hunting hours. The nice 8-pt behind him looks like a baby. He turns sideways, and I search frantically for a place to thread my arrow through. However a 2-3 inch diameter branch cuts right across his vitals. No clean shot! I know he's about to turn off the trail and leave, and thoughts of taking a marginal shot and hoping to track him cross my mind but reason prevails and I hope against hope that he turns back and walks around that branch. He doesn't, leaves, and eventually dies of old age as he was never seen by anyone again after the following season.

By my 20s I no longer had issues with buck fever. I see a nice deer and I go into a sort of Caveman Killer mode, focusing cooly on executing a good shot and putting the animal down. Ruthless focus to the point where I often don't remember half of what I did during that time. Of course, as soon as the shot is made there's the old adrenaline rush and shakes if it was something big.