BY JOHN KASUN MAKING SHOTS COUNT C HOOSING OUR SHOTS to ensure accurate hits and quick, clean kills is important in all hunting situations, but particularly when hunting with archery gear. Arrows and bolts deliver no shocking power when they strike large game. It's the uncontrolled bleeding caused by razor-sharp broadheads that makes them effective. What's on an arrow's business end is important. Bowhunters should buy the best broadheads they can afford and - always - hunt with a new head or one that has been sharpened to a razor's edge. A dull broadhead will kill, but provides a weaker blood trail - a result no hunter wants. But at least one hunting broadhead needs to be sacrificed so the bow or crossbow can be sighted-in since broadheads often fly differently than field tips, even if the weights are identical. While shot placement is the key to success, accuracy only is achieved through equipment that is properly matched and tuned, and practice helps ensure we make the shots we take. While becoming accurate with a crossbow requires less practice commitment than it does with a vertical bow, there's still a big difference between shooting at a target and a deer. Failing to become a truly competent shooter is, by far, the most common mistake made by bowhunters. Standing at a known distance on level ground wearing a T-shirt on a warm fall day and putting four out of six arrows in the bull's-eye doesn't PLACEMENT IS KEY TO SUCCESS DECEMBER 2018 55