Ever had a confidence Issue?

[Schultzy]

Thanks everyone for your reply's. Some Interesting story's out there. Some I can relate to. While out this evening I felt like I was on top of the world If a good buck were to walk with In 20 yards of me. Not sure why the change of heart though. It might be for the fact that I got this off of my chest by venting to you all. If so thanks to you all for listening to me whine. Who knows I guess. Maybe the next time out I'll get that crappy confidence feeling again. No Stump, I need the shrink. Think we can get a deal If we both go together?

[JV NC]

Stretch it out, Steve. 21yds is a chip shot!

[JoeRE]

I feel your pain. I have had two seasons where my confidence completely dissolved after one or more blown opportunity/shots. Both seasons I ended up not shooting a deer. Yes, the easiest way to get back on the horse is to smoke a deer I think. Not sure what to say since you get only one tag. I know one thing that helps me with confidence in general is visualizing successful shots while I am sitting in stand, imagining deer coming in from every possible angle and thinking of exactly what I need to do to think the arrow through the deer.

[Stump]

Thanks everyone for your reply's. Some Interesting story's out there. Some I can relate to. While out this evening I felt like I was on top of the world If a good buck were to walk with In 20 yards of me. Not sure why the change of heart though. It might be for the fact that I got this off of my chest by venting to you all. If so thanks to you all for listening to me whine. Who knows I guess. Maybe the next time out I'll get that crappy confidence feeling again. No Stump, I need the shrink. Think we can get a deal If we both go together?

I bet if we looked around, we could find a 2 for 1 deal for sure! Black Friday deal.

[Schultzy]

Thanks everyone for your reply's. Some Interesting story's out there. Some I can relate to. While out this evening I felt like I was on top of the world If a good buck were to walk with In 20 yards of me. Not sure why the change of heart though. It might be for the fact that I got this off of my chest by venting to you all. If so thanks to you all for listening to me whine. Who knows I guess. Maybe the next time out I'll get that crappy confidence feeling again. No Stump, I need the shrink. Think we can get a deal If we both go together?

I bet if we looked around, we could find a 2 for 1 deal for sure! Black Friday deal.

LMAO!! Keep me posted.

[Stump]

Thanks everyone for your reply's. Some Interesting story's out there. Some I can relate to. While out this evening I felt like I was on top of the world If a good buck were to walk with In 20 yards of me. Not sure why the change of heart though. It might be for the fact that I got this off of my chest by venting to you all. If so thanks to you all for listening to me whine. Who knows I guess. Maybe the next time out I'll get that crappy confidence feeling again. No Stump, I need the shrink. Think we can get a deal If we both go together?

I bet if we looked around, we could find a 2 for 1 deal for sure! Black Friday deal.

LMAO!! Keep me posted.

I bottle of captain for me, a bottle of your favorite booze and I bet we could get one of our buddies to play the part of a shrink for next to nothing. LOL!!

[backstraps]

I often have confidence issues. However mine mostly stems from the areas I have to hunt. I hunt hard. I try to be my very best I can be at whatever I do. Bowhunting is no exception! If I dont understand something I research it, test it, research more. more.... ask my fellow BEAST a thousand questions and then test and research more, until I understand it.

I struggle with the fact of the caliber of deer I want to kill are very very few and far between for me to find locally. I can drive out of state 5-6 hours (which is hard for me to get a weekend or so free to do so) and find the size of deer I want to harvest. I have set a goal of 135"+ I feel like thats a realistic goal, but one that will require lots of work. I passed on two bucks last year (in Ohio) that I thought would fall short of 135 and the fact they were both 3.5 year olds. Both were killed by friends of mine that I let my loose lips lead them to. One was a 138 and the other was 132... LOL but they were both buddys biggest deer to date. so it was all good.

Back to my lack of confidence....
The typical "good" deer around here is a 100-115 inch deer. If someone kills a 125 deer around me then pics get sent like wildfire via email and text. Now there have been much bigger deer killed within my surrounding counties... but you only hear of 3-4 the entire deer season.

So my confidence level in shooting a 3.5+ and/or 135"+ sometimes gets beat up pretty bad. However I will not give up, and have to snap myself back into the chase.

Hunting is more to me than mature bucks and inches though. I find so much stress relief from day to day, peace in the trees, one on one time with the Lord, enjoying nature and all of the things in it. So, dont get me wrong thinking I am all about inches. Just they are goals that I have set for myself.

Sometimes I still go out "deer" hunting. Love feeling the freezer, and keeping the Muzzys feed!

[Zap]

I am usually very confident!

[whitetailassasin]

I often have confidence issues. However mine mostly stems from the areas I have to hunt. I hunt hard. I try to be my very best I can be at whatever I do. Bowhunting is no exception! If I dont understand something I research it, test it, research more. more.... ask my fellow BEAST a thousand questions and then test and research more, until I understand it.

I struggle with the fact of the caliber of deer I want to kill are very very few and far between for me to find locally. I can drive out of state 5-6 hours (which is hard for me to get a weekend or so free to do so) and find the size of deer I want to harvest. I have set a goal of 135"+ I feel like thats a realistic goal, but one that will require lots of work. I passed on two bucks last year (in Ohio) that I thought would fall short of 135 and the fact they were both 3.5 year olds. Both were killed by friends of mine that I let my loose lips lead them to. One was a 138 and the other was 132... LOL but they were both buddys biggest deer to date. so it was all good.

Back to my lack of confidence....
The typical "good" deer around here is a 100-115 inch deer. If someone kills a 125 deer around me then pics get sent like wildfire via email and text. Now there have been much bigger deer killed within my surrounding counties... but you only hear of 3-4 the entire deer season.

So my confidence level in shooting a 3.5+ and/or 135"+ sometimes gets beat up pretty bad. However I will not give up, and have to snap myself back into the chase.


I take my
Hunting is more to me than mature bucks and inches though. I find so much stress relief from day to day, peace in the trees, one on one time with the Lord, enjoying nature and all of the things in it. So, dont get me wrong thinking I am all about inches. Just they are goals that I have set for myself.

Sometimes I still go out "deer" hunting. Love feeling the freezer, and keeping the Muzzys feed!

135 is a great deer anywhere, and those are great goals to have. But sometimes we put goals so high they are unobtainable. Some guys can do this because of many different factors. Alot of us will do alot better, and im sure alot of guys on here do this, if that buck gets your blood pumping, whether the score is 150 or 100 you should shoot it. In my neck of the woods I rarely see a deer over 100 inches, I have "encounters" maybe 5 times a season and one of those maybe a shot involved. Public and state land hunters IMO are the true pro's of Bowhunting because all the odds are against us. I used to watch the "Drury Outdoors" dvd's and they made me feel it was possible. But they don't hunt like we do. They hunt unpressured or lightly pressured deer on HUGE chunks of land that goes undisturbed. Give any of us those oppurtunities and money and we can do the very same thing. Maybe even better because of the skills we all have acquired. If we all could we would own huge tracks of land, huge food plots, etc. But reality is we have to hunt our asses off to get a CRACK at a "shooter" to us. I never pass a deer that makes my heart race buck or doe. We all have put pressure on ourselves.

[matt1336]

I have next to zero confidence right now. I killed a 9 pointer a couple weeks ago, he wa s a young deer. i shot him because I told myself that that I needed to kill more deer rather than passing on most of the deer that I see...To build confidence. I messed up on three other deer during early archery,making dumb mistakes, mostly drawing at the wrong times. I also missed a buck on opening morning. I shot at him as he was moving instead of trying to stop him. I've been bow hunting for 12 years and gun hunting for deer for over 20. I'm making mistakes that I haven't made for years. I'm very frustrated. I don't want to whine or get "buck envy" but it's getting hard not to voice my frustration to others. So I'm doing it now.....thanks for letting me vent. Back at it tomorrow, who knows a season can turn around in a matter of seconds.

a[ Post made via iPad ]

Glad you got to do some venting. Getting stuff out sometimes makes a guy feel good. I can honestly say It has me feeling a tad bit better since I made this thread. Best of luck Matt!

Thanks Shultzy. I shot a deer in the catails yesterday...maybe I should complain more....no thanks. I can't stand whiners.

[ Post made via iPad ]

[Schultzy]

I have next to zero confidence right now. I killed a 9 pointer a couple weeks ago, he wa s a young deer. i shot him because I told myself that that I needed to kill more deer rather than passing on most of the deer that I see...To build confidence. I messed up on three other deer during early archery,making dumb mistakes, mostly drawing at the wrong times. I also missed a buck on opening morning. I shot at him as he was moving instead of trying to stop him. I've been bow hunting for 12 years and gun hunting for deer for over 20. I'm making mistakes that I haven't made for years. I'm very frustrated. I don't want to whine or get "buck envy" but it's getting hard not to voice my frustration to others. So I'm doing it now.....thanks for letting me vent. Back at it tomorrow, who knows a season can turn around in a matter of seconds.

a[ Post made via iPad ]

Glad you got to do some venting. Getting stuff out sometimes makes a guy feel good. I can honestly say It has me feeling a tad bit better since I made this thread. Best of luck Matt!

Thanks Shultzy. I shot a deer in the catails yesterday...maybe I should complain more....no thanks. I can't stand whiners.

[ Post made via iPad ]

Sweet!! Congratulation's!!

[PK_]

Losing a deer hurts me very deeply, but it does not come close to my confidence. At least not anymore.

I shoot enough to be confident in my equipment and I have killed enough to be confident in my ability. If you learn from any mistake you may have made to end up losing a deer, it should only build your confidence for the next moment of truth.

If you hunt enough and kill enough deer, you will lose some. That is the reality.

[dv1]

Once in a while I will rush a shot because I fear the deer is going to pass through the opening or going to spook before I get the shot off. That is the form of target panic I occassionally get. The two things I do to control that are:

1) Realistic practice. By that I mean that I draw and hold my pin steady on any deer that comes within shooting range while hunting, does, small bucks, medium bucks, etc. Go through every motion like you are going to shoot the deer, just don't release the arrow. This not only builds confidence in your shot, but also in the process of drawing without alerting your target, or other deer. It also helps you develop your skills at drawing on your target deer with other deer around, and not spooking them.

2) The other thing I do is sometimes when practicing on targets, I draw, anchor and move my pin to my spot, stop and release immediately...as soon as my pin hits my spot I'm pulling the trigger. This is practice for those quick shots and has served me very well with tight or quick shots, and if you are prone to target panic that results in shooting at your target without actually settling in on it, this helps you make those shots count.

Word of casution with number 1, make sure you don't go into auto-pilot while holding on a deer. That has happend to me before, luckily we get plenty of tags in NJ and I like venison.