Welcome to the wonderful world of bowhunting. If a doe tore you up that bad, wait til it's a rack buck.


Over time you will learn to control it somewhat. As suggested above, see if you can draw and shoot while seated. This will help a lot. Something else that seems to help me is those "surprise, there they are deer". If a deer just happens to show up within range and I have to make a shot quickly, the nerves won't bother me as much. Luckily the biggest buck I've ever taken with a bow showed up like that. About 10 years ago I was on a bowhunt at Tara Wildlife over in Mississippi. On the second evening I had 10 rack bucks come by my stand. Three of them were Pope & Young and I wasn't able to get a shot at any of them. Two of them stayed just out of range and one came in right at dark and got within 15 yards of me. I came to full draw on him but couldn't get a clear shot. I was so tore up afterwards I barely managed to climb down out of the stand. The head guide, Hank Hearns, got a good laugh at me when I got back to the lodge.