More nerve-racking to watch?

[YZF_88]

Wondering if anybody else thinks it is more nerve-racking to watch a buddy during his final spot'n stalk approach than actually doing it yourself?

The last couple years I've been a train wreck watching my buddy but when it's my turn and I'm in control, I don't get as unnerved...until I've missed!

 

[kawboy]

I have taken some close friends out a lot lately on their LE hunts. I will never draw. I have decided its more of a challenge to take someone out and help them get a trophy than it would be for me to just go shoot one. Its a new kind of rush all in itself.

I dont know how guides do it. Especially when they get an idiot hunter, that dont know whats going on.


I'll tell you who it was . . . it was that D@MN Sasquatch!

 

[BrowningRage]

It's interesting you bring this up. I 100% agree. Helping my bro-in-law harvest a deer with his bow was definitely a "nerve-racking" experience because you think you have everything planned out, then the deer do something funny, and you don't know if your bud is going to compensate efficiently enough to get 'em...

I'll be taggin along on my father's Book Cliffs hunt this year. I know I'll get all worked up on the hunt trying to get him a good one...


"Therefore, wo be unto him that is at ease in Zion!" 2 Ne. 28: 24

 

[Zeke]

I agree too. It's even worse when I have my kids out hunting even though my youngest is 21 and my oldest is 33.
I still get excite for my hunts but I almost fall apart under the added pressure of a tight-spot with the kids!
Interesting stuff.
Zeke

 

[fly4fish]

LAST EDITED ON May-27-11 AT 11:17AM (MST)[p]I am in total agreement with that statement. Last year, I put my brother on a 165 inch whitetail, in Mule Deer country, and he stalked through a wheat field to within archery range. The bigger buck (nicknamed Hannity) had lost his velvet, so I could not see him once he bedded down, where as the bigger framed but less scoring buck (Colmes)that he was with was still in full velvet and I could clearly see his rack. I hoped my brother would see Hannity and not take a shot at Colmes (who was a shooter too).

As the time came near, my heart was beating so hard as I filmed and watched through my spotting scope. I did not have to keep my cool, so it was much harder. It was very intense. It was my brother's first trophy archery kill. He was pumped.

You can watch the video at the link below. The stock took longer than I anticipated and it got awfully dark and a long ways away, so by the time the shot happened, silhouettes are about all you can see. You can still get an idea about what is going on though.

http://www.youtube.com/user/shawndomj

Make sure you change the resolution to 720p

 

[antlerrick]

I about pulled my hair out while helping my dad with his buffalo hunt. I had taken a great bull years ago and knew what I was looking at. On day two, we caught a herd walking right up the road across a canyon where the road doubled back. I was so excited that we could kill one on the road and save all the packing. I found the bull and told him which one it was and ranged it at 160 yards.. I waited, and waited, and waited, and they finally walked up to where the road turned and went over the hill. I asked him what the #$(# he was doing and he said he just couldn't be sure it was a bull... I about screamed!
By the time we got up to where they crossed, they had disappeared. The next morning, we caught them again but this time over that ridge and out in a chained area just off the road, another prime location to drop a big buff. We had the guy camped next to us with us, and we got out into the chaining and I had them sit down and get ready to shoot. I stood right behind them glassing and finally located the bull about 100 yards away standing broadshide in front of a large cedar. I showed them where it was and told them to shoot....nothing... it finally got nervous and started off and then they all busted down the canyon. The guy with us chased them down and across the bottom into never, never land. When he got back he said "Wow, that was a big bull with them".
I said "no CHIT Sherlock"...
He ended up killing on the last day but I wasn't there..couldn't take it anymore...lol..

 

[littlebighorn]

You've gotta love a sport that can chase your heart rate up to a zillion beats a minute and you are only a non-participating spectator!
Ditto to everything that has been said!

 

[marley]

I had my 9 yr. old son in my lap waiting for a tom to get within range. At 20 yards I was whispering for him to take his head off but from his lower view point he was still out of sight over a little knoll. I about came unglued. I've never been more worked up than I was then. He finally saw his head when the tom was at 6 yards and he literally took his head off. I've never been so excited on any hunt in my life, all over a freakin turkey.

 

[sagebrush]

I've guided my wife on eight successful hunts and she says the shakiness in my breath is the hardest thing for her to overcome when she's settling in for the shot. This year I will be helping a friend on an archery mule deer hunt in CO. It will be the first time we've hunted together when he has a tag and I don't. He's been with me on five hunts when I had a tag. I hope I can keep it together for him and get some good video. Pretty cool too be able to enjoy a sport to that level without a tag.

 

[HiMtnHntr]

LAST EDITED ON May-27-11 AT 07:46PM (MST)[p]Yes! I've been in on several that I can remember being quite nerve-racking! One hunt in particular found my bro across a drainage stalking a hicountry muley. I was watching on edge through the spotter thinking he was screwing the whole thing up, only to see the deer jump, then hear the bark of his muzz a few seconds later. He had gotten within 50 yards . . . I think it has to do with depending on only yourself for the outcome, as well as being in that "zone" of truley hunting that makes it not as nerve-racking when the weapon is in your hands.

 

[marley]

Last year on the Henry's I had my buck pegged near the top of a mountain and figured that if we blew the stalk he would head over the top. So I had my two brothers with 2 spotting scopes drive around the backside of the mountain to watch for him if he came over the top. They said it was the most nerve racking thing they've ever done. They spent 6 hours sitting behind their spotters watching the top of a barren mountain side just to watch for something they hoped they would never see. That's love right there. They were so far away that they heard me celebrating the kill over the radio and then heard the shot about 8 seconds later. They thought that was pretty cool.