question about nerves

[bman73]

I like this quote. I can relate.

Congrats on the first elk hunt!! Can be hard to suppress the nerves for sure! And a camera, should be exciting!

I have shot in many pressured situations including instructing a class, competition, and trophy hunting. Often, with camera rolling.

Couple of things help. The biggest factor for me is confidence. I am practiced and familiar with my gear. I Know I am a skilled shooter. This removes most of the anxiety. When it's time to shoot, my focus is on the task at hand. The camera and "background noise" are simply gone. It's just business as usuall.

Feeling like you are among friends is very helpful. Shake hands, visit a little, find out a little personal information. Discuss the cameramans needs so you understand how to work together and communicate effectively when the pressure is on. You are a group of friends working together to share the hunting experience. The camera is just something "Bob" brought along.

Be yourself and don't stress over making mistakes. Hunting is real. Mistakes add to the story. Your first time excitement add to the tape. Pressure gets to all of us sometimes. That's okay too!

You might ask the guys to do a dry run or two and have 'em film you hunt a couple rocks to work through the jitters.

Good luck, have fun! Where ya headed?

Im headed to a place called Pouce Coupe, pretty much on the B.C./Alberta border. It is a cow elk hunt on private land. Been putting in for that draw for 5 years now and finnaly got it. Im hoping that the fact its a cow and not a nice big bull will help with some of the jitters. I have been hunting most of my life but been moose, deer and bear before so I am used to putting lead into annimals, just have never tried doing it from this far away before or had someone filming it. It is the camera part that I'm worried about, anytime I have been filmed before it was under a helmet and on my bike drag racing where I was never really the focus of attention. Guess I'm just going to have to use a bunch of the advise given on here and just ignore it and stick to my roitine, pretend the camera isn't even there. Thanks to all for the advice and I will let everyone know how it turns out

 

[paphil]

Agree with the dry fire and also you can go live on some distant rocks before the actual hunt with the cameras rolling. If they are filming the entire hunt, by the time you get to the real shot, you won't even notice the cameramen are there. Your worst problem will be forgeting they are there and blurting out some explicitive that can't be aired when you do make the shot(or miss it). Good luck!

 

[Shumba]

There is a lot of great advice here from guys that have obviously competeted in various sports or athletic events and it is all good stuff to listen to. I recently retired from the sport of Professional rodeo (PRCA) where I competed for 18 years and had a fortuitous career. I was fortunate to have won a gold medal in the 02' Olympics in a special US VS Canada rodeo event and have won many of the sports most prestigious events including the NFR (National Finals Rodeo) and the reserve Championship of the World. I give motavational speeches to highschool and college kids wanting to succeed in rodeo and I will share with you the basis of what I tell them in this situation.

With years of competetion and having to function at the best level under the preassure of national TV and simply the preassure of wanting to be the best in the world and win aginst the best in the world....(which I can honestly say didnt always happen...lol) I can say that the statement about Carlos Hathcock's saying is true. When you focus on the goal at hand you should never acknowledge distractions and once in the "zone" and your subconscious takes over you wont.

Dont see the fact that you are being filmed as a possible opportunity to mess up on TV or in front of people......Ebrace the added level of preassure and take the film crew and see at it as an opportunity to succeed and do something great in front of people and have it captured for more to see, then believe to your core! Thats the most important part. You put in the practice and if it is correct and it serves its purpose to build your confidience at being able to obtain your goal, in this case reading the conditions, formulating the soloution, making the first shot land where you want, then you have the tools and this practice should solidify confidence into your core, nothing changes that. Take what you have proved to yorself and use it, it still workd regardless of the preassure to make it work.

This all sounds a little cheesey and overkill because it is just a shot at an animal but this is something important to you and that makes it as important as anyting else. Not to mention no one wants to wound an animal so....it is important.

And the dry firing if possible cant hurt either!

Best luck man!