At a time when fever and illness seem to be running rampant across the country side, the entire nation seems to be doing everything possible to avoid it. Everyone except me and hundreds of thousands of hunters.

When it comes to the fever, I say bring it on. Of course I'm referring to "Buck Fever," and after several decades of hunting I'm proud to say this cherished affliction still causes recurring bouts of uncontrollable shaking, skyrocketing blood pressure, a pulse that goes through the roof and abnormal breathing patterns, to name just a few of the symptoms that happily taunt me every fall and winter.

Those few cherished moments when all your hard work comes together and your quarry steps into range are like the sweet nectar of hunting. While the thrill of taking the shot is not the sole reason I choose to hunt whitetail deer and other big game, you've got to admit that when the moment of truth arrives your body experiences some amazingly cool changes.

Let's face it. If hunting didn't provide a few adrenaline-filled, heart-pounding moments of excitement, we might just as well stay home and watch HGTV or Lifetime Networks with our significant others. While I may hunt for the meat, the camaraderie of being with fellow outdoorsmen, or for a multitude of other reasons, it wouldn't be the same without a bout of "Buck Fever."

Susan Haapaniemi of William Beaumont Hospital in Michigan once did a study where heart monitors were placed on 25 men to record what happened during hunting situations.

For some of the study participants, the adrenaline surge occasioned merely by seeing a deer pushed their heart rate to very high levels. One hunter's heart rate soared from 78 beats per minute to a whopping 168 - while sitting in his tree stand.

This is pretty interesting considering a similar study done in Germany and published by the American Medical Association investigated another activity which made participant's heart rates quickly accelerate to over 150 beats per minute and even spurred dangerous changes to the heart's rhythm in some participants. The activity ... a roller coaster.

Now I don't consider myself to be an adrenaline junkie or thrill seeker but on a recent vacation to Disney World, I was coerced into riding both the "Tower of Terror" and one of their newest attractions, Aerosmith's Rock and Roller Coaster.

During both rides, I literally felt like my heart was going to explode right out of my chest. After being dropped from a height of around 190 feet then experiencing the same acceleration of an F-14 fighter while going inverted three times, I made a key decision.

I jumped right back into line grinning from ear to ear to ride them both again.

While thrill rides in amusement parks and hunting big game arguably don't have anything else in common, they both provoke a similar response in the human body and whether it's "politically correct" or not, it's a feeling that many Americans crave.

If you go online and type in "Buck Fever" you'll see it defined in several places as "the nervous excitement of an inexperienced hunter." I disagree. Any hunter, whether a beginner or veteran, who takes aim at a game animal, especially big game like whitetails, nearly always suffers at least an inkling of buck fever.

The day the sight of a majestic whitetail stepping into a shooting lane on a cool fall morning, or a big old gobbler strutting into a set of decoys, doesn't make my pulse quicken and bring on the fever, then that's the day I give it up altogether.