Science has repeatedly shown that humans have a clear negativity bias. Our brains process negative emotions differently, and we tend to remember bad experiences more vividly than positive ones. The death of a loved one. The end of a relationship. Moments of extreme physical pain. Financial blunders. Trying setbacks. Abject failures. All are recalled more clearly, and longer, than happy moments or successes.
Perhaps this explains why, crouched behind a rolling hill in northeastern New Mexico, I was still hung up on a bad shot I’d made on a pronghorn buck two years prior in Wyoming. That had been my first pronghorn hunt and my first time hunting big game in vast, wide-open terrain. I’d stalked a decent buck for some time, even crawling on hands and knees the last 50 yards to get a shot. The buck, mixed within a herd of other antelope, separated from the group briefly and stopped, giving me an opportunity just past 200 yards. Then two things happened simultaneously: The buck lurched forward to start trotting again, and I jerked my trigger press. The bullet struck the hindquarters, immobilizing the antelope but failing to kill it. A second shot dispatched the pronghorn for good.
Although I know misses and bad shots are an unfortunate reality of hunting, the memory of that poor hit became a fixture in my mind, a familiar ghoul endeavoring to erode confidence. It revisited me often in the weeks leading up to my hunt in New Mexico.
