Double Naught Spy
Sus Venator
This is an excerpt from my accounting of the first hog that I shot.
I have found that the absolute worst thing to happen to cause my adrenaline to flow is for there to be a tension buildup. I had sat in the stand on and off for 6 months before I finally got a crack at this hog. He was very bit and he made lots of noise and made noise in the woods around me for the better part of an hour. When the crunching of leaves sound would get louder as he approached, the tension would build and my adrenaline would flow. It was already coursing through my system in volume at the time in my story of the above quote. Apparently I had so much flowing through me, combined with the excitement of the situation, that I totally lost control of my breathing.
I find that on occasions where there is no preceding buildup of tension, the adrenaline does not flow or isn't noticed until after I have shot. So when hogs have just "appeared" out in front of me, no tension buildup, I have usually gotten the rifle up and fired fairly quickly without the adrenaline affecting my shooting.
It won't help with your excitement level, but it will help with your aiming - try to use some sort of rest, bipod, etc. That will alleviate a significant amount of heartbeat muzzle bounce as compared to sighting offhanded.
I also frequently tell myself that regardless of what comes out of the woods while I am in the stand, I don't have to take a shot. The animals will be back sooner or later. As much as I would like to bag another hog or 50, I would prefer not to scare the off with a blown shot and I surely don't want to torture the animals with a poor shot.
At that point, I had no idea what creature it was, but knew it was big based on footsteps I heard (deer maybe?). Then the noise started anew and the animal continued on around to my front left, still in the woods and out of sight, but making noise. Then the noise stopped again and I spied a shadow crossing the meadow in front of me. It was a half moon that was lighting the meadow. So the animal was out of the woods now. I took out my night vision scope and saw that this was indeed a hog and I promptly hyperventilated.
I have found that the absolute worst thing to happen to cause my adrenaline to flow is for there to be a tension buildup. I had sat in the stand on and off for 6 months before I finally got a crack at this hog. He was very bit and he made lots of noise and made noise in the woods around me for the better part of an hour. When the crunching of leaves sound would get louder as he approached, the tension would build and my adrenaline would flow. It was already coursing through my system in volume at the time in my story of the above quote. Apparently I had so much flowing through me, combined with the excitement of the situation, that I totally lost control of my breathing.
I find that on occasions where there is no preceding buildup of tension, the adrenaline does not flow or isn't noticed until after I have shot. So when hogs have just "appeared" out in front of me, no tension buildup, I have usually gotten the rifle up and fired fairly quickly without the adrenaline affecting my shooting.
I do this now and I usually try to take a deep slow 'cleansing' breath while lining up my shot and usually want to fire as my sights settle on the target and the end of the cycle. Sometimes the animal has moved and I don't have a shot at that moment. The cleansing breath will still give me a good 20 seconds of time for a shot before I need to repeat the process. Only a couple of times have I needed to repeat.Take a breath and mentally tell yourself to slow down.
It won't help with your excitement level, but it will help with your aiming - try to use some sort of rest, bipod, etc. That will alleviate a significant amount of heartbeat muzzle bounce as compared to sighting offhanded.
I also frequently tell myself that regardless of what comes out of the woods while I am in the stand, I don't have to take a shot. The animals will be back sooner or later. As much as I would like to bag another hog or 50, I would prefer not to scare the off with a blown shot and I surely don't want to torture the animals with a poor shot.