Once in a great while, hunters will complain about the HunterShooter format and its use of timers. Well, the novice shooters purchasing hunting licenses sometimes do when justifying their non-participation.

The complaint using goes along the lines about how hunting is not timed, there’s no timer in the woods, animals don’t carry clocks, and the like. Just as defensive shooters wrongly complaining about timed exercises, the point is that time can be a factor and can be a stressor. Learning how to perform under time pressure is a good way to learn how to handle this.

Broken down, buck fever is largely influenced by time pressure, either real or perceived. Knowing there is but one chance to do the correct thing and that it needs to get done before the animal is spooked or flees is a stressor pressed largely by time. If a hunter could somehow guarantee the animal wouldn’t move or leave and knew he was free to take as much time as desired, buck fever would be mostly eliminated.

Beyond buck fever, sometimes there is a time limit and it might be strongly enforced by your quarry.

Anyone foolish enough to suggest this hunter didn’t feel pressed for time?

https://www.facebook.com/tim.ferguson.12/videos/10203691909217636/

A regular participant consistently producing good scores in HunterShooter events likely wouldn’t have had this problem. As in, not missing quickly with multiple shots in the first place.