John- As usual thanks for another great article in Deer and Deer Hunting. I have been disappointed with some of the articles in the magazine lately, but if you have one in the issue it is always the first that I turn to.
I wanted to add something that came to my mind when you used the term "Auto Pilot". There is no better practice than shooting deer, any deer. When I got out of grad school and started hunting a lot again, I wounded 2 bucks in as many years that I did not recover. I was the definition of buck fever when I had a bow in my hand. Sure, I had shot a bunch of deer with my muzzleloader and shotgun, but at that point I had probably only shot (correction, killed) 3 deer with my bow. When a buck came into my sights, I would react and shoot, but if you asked me 5 minutes later what happened, everything was a blur. Ever since then, on top of everything else that you discussed in the article, I have been shooting 3-4 deer a year with my bow. This has made a huge impact on my proficiency during crunch time. Not only do I have the confidence that when I go into auto-pilot the arrow is going to go where I aim it, but as simple and funny as this sounds, I now can remember every detail about my shot from the release to its impact on the deer. That memory comes up big when it comes to making the recovery!
I know that you know all of this but hopefully this can help someone who has a similar problem to me!
I wanted to add something that came to my mind when you used the term "Auto Pilot". There is no better practice than shooting deer, any deer. When I got out of grad school and started hunting a lot again, I wounded 2 bucks in as many years that I did not recover. I was the definition of buck fever when I had a bow in my hand. Sure, I had shot a bunch of deer with my muzzleloader and shotgun, but at that point I had probably only shot (correction, killed) 3 deer with my bow. When a buck came into my sights, I would react and shoot, but if you asked me 5 minutes later what happened, everything was a blur. Ever since then, on top of everything else that you discussed in the article, I have been shooting 3-4 deer a year with my bow. This has made a huge impact on my proficiency during crunch time. Not only do I have the confidence that when I go into auto-pilot the arrow is going to go where I aim it, but as simple and funny as this sounds, I now can remember every detail about my shot from the release to its impact on the deer. That memory comes up big when it comes to making the recovery!
I know that you know all of this but hopefully this can help someone who has a similar problem to me!