There's a very big difference between excitement "fever", and stupidity/lack of ethics/ignorance/lack of character/unpreparedness. No excuse at all for "flock shooting".
I'll confess to getting caribou fever once. I had a very hard time controlling the adrenaline shakes in order to make a killing shot, at only about 150 yards. I had to lead the crosshair waver.... and made the shot.
I'd not been hunting in two years, so that's my excuse. It was my 23rd caribou.... a heck of a time to be getting "buck fever" - there have been more than 50 caribou since, with no re-occurrence of the malady. Terrible affliction!
A cow I took 3 years ago had been hit by a couple clowns blazing away at probably 700 yards or more with 8 or 10 shots. Whether immaturity, stupidity, excitement, or chitty range guessing I can't say. I am myself a crappy eyeballer over water, tundra, or alpine conditions, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. When she (limping) and several others came back by me (I'd passed on them earlier at 200 yards), I took her out at @ 300 yards (lazered 294, but she moved on a bit before the shot).
She had a chipped hoof. No regret - it was a 2 animal season. the next day I took an orphaned calf for my second permit. it's chance of survival was small. Got all of maybe 20 lbs of meat off that one, but we had 4 more permits to use, of which we took one more cow.
I figure the more mental and physical preparation I do, the more stone cold I can aspire to, lessening the chances of "the fever" getting in the way. Hunting the same spots annually has advantages.
. I now know how far that clump of brush she was passing by is , and I've ranged other landmarks there. The following year - 2 ago- I took the biggest bull I've ever taken, from the same shooting location, at about 340, using my pre-ranged markers. He was well out there, and leaving Dodge.... no time for ranging. No fuss, no muss.
In another location up the ridge where the caribou like to cross, but I've yet to shoot from, I've made cairns of white quartz rock at various hundred yard distances from where I would be shooting from. Sometimes there just is not time enough to use the range finder I carry.
