Avoid tunnel vision

 

This is a perfect quartering-away shot. Aim to put the arrow into the off-side shoulder. Hold halfway between belly and back.

 

Tunnel vision occurs when a person is in a high-stress situation. The buck is approaching, and ever so slowly it moves your way and you want to shoot that buck. You have a strong desire to take the animal with a clean shot.

It stops, rubs a tree briefly with its antlers, then stands back to admire his handiwork, hits another lick on the bark, checks it out again, and continues your way. He stops, and can't smell you or any danger, but he is in no rush.

The anxiety level builds after the third or fourth stop to putter around doing big-buck things, and then he moved forward again. He is now 50 yards away and will soon have a date with destiny. Your breath is labored and ragged, and you feel a bit light headed as your heart thunders in your ears and chest.

Total concentration is needed to shoot a big buck.

 

His antlers are big, possibly the largest whitetail buck you've seen in the wild. He stands, out of bow range, and surveys the area. He doesn't smell or see any danger, but he didn't grow a rack with 10 good long points and a 20-inch inside spread by being dumb.

He stands, motionless, head up and looking around. He's not spooky, just careful.

Satisfied, he moves to within 40 yards. The rack seems to grow even larger the closer he gets. Now you are sucking air, and begging for a 20-yard broadside side. The thought of shooting this buck makes you dizzy with excitement, and your heart is racing.

A full load of adrenalin is streaming through your system, and the buck closes to 35 yards and then to 30, where he stands behind a thin screen of brush. Jolt after jolt of adrenalin has you as wired as drinking 10 cans of Mountain Dew.

He offers a brief 25-yard shot but your eyes are riveted on that rack, and you don't want to make a mistake. He's coming, just let him move into the 20-yard range and then wait for a broadside or quartering-away shot at this huge buck.

It’s an easy shot, you think. It’s time to refine your aiming point.

 

Finally, he steps into range, turns to offer a quartering-away shot at 20 yards. The buck stares off toward other deer 100 yards away in the field, and you raise your bow, stare at the antlers again, come to full draw, aim and turn loose an arrow.

There is a large whack noise, and the buck races off while the arrow and broadhead sail off into the brush. Excited, knowing you made a killing shot, you climb down and follow the Game Tracker string to the arrow. There isn't a drop of blood anywhere on the arrow and none on the ground.
Tunnel vision had set in and when the hunter aimed and shot. He aimed at the major focal point on that buck -- the antlers. He forgot to force himself to pick a spot behind the front shoulder. His continuous focus on the buck and his majestic rack was his undoing because that is where he aimed.

Total concentration is paramount during the aiming process. Once I know a buck has antlers, and decide to shoot him, I never look at the antlers again. I focus on the heart-lung area, shoot and the deer dies.

Take time to relive your shot. Study it, and learn what went wrong.

 

A buddy of mine went on a wild boar hunt down to Tennessee, and I warned him against studying the length of the boar's tushes. These big curved teeth are fascinating, and my friend looked at the tusks, aimed and hit the boar in the top of the head. It wasn't an immediate killing shot. Realizing his mistake, he shot at the heart-lung area. The boar died a quick death.

Tunnel vision doesn't just happen to police officers in a fire-fight with some criminal. It happens to hunters all the time, and most often to sportsmen with very little hunting experience.

It can ruin a hunt, but there is no need for it. The trick is to determine whether the buck has antlers, and if it is what you want. Once that has been determined, forget about them, and intently focus on the vital area.

Once you draw back the arrow, and aim, do not look at the antlers. Pick a tiny spot, concentrate on that spot, make a smooth release, and do not drop your bow until the arrow makes contact with the deer.

Big bucks come often to the television hunters, but for most bow hunters like you and me, it can be a once-in-a-lifetime deal. The timing is too important to waste time missing an easy shot.

Concentration, and not tunnel vision, is the key to hunting success.