Waiting on stand for hours at a time, for days at a time, would test the mettle of the most steely human. Let’s face it, in most hunting situations, ours is not a high odds game. Odds are we may not see an animal within range on an average day afield, and odds are an animal in range may not offer a suitable shot opportunity. It’s the nature of the beast, and enough, after many fruitless hours, to tempt any hunter to consider that a potential shot might look better than it really is. A lot of judgement goes into any shot at game.

That’s why practice is such an important part of our bowhunting ritual, not just to shoot better, but also to develop the ability to identify good shots and bad when we see them.

Practice gives us a frame of reference we couldn’t otherwise attain. For instance, when that game animal pauses momentarily in a clearing, a well-practiced archer knows immediately if the animal is inside his or her effective range; whether there is room for the arrow to get through the opening, whether the angle to the vitals is good one. Making a good shot is first about shot selection, second about shot execution.

Practice also breeds familiarity with our equipment, and at the moment of truth, nothing can be more calming than not having to over think our mechanics, our execution. Calm, confident shooters make better shots, so does a familiarity with a particular bow setup make the entire shot sequence routine, or second nature.

Yep, our capabilities have as much to do with the proper opportunity as opportunity itself. Yet, it’s not uncommon to hear horror stories of shots gone awry, often the result of poor judgement (shot selection) and overestimated ability, not to mention pure greed.

You’ve heard the saying, “just enough knowledge to be dangerous”. Well, there’s also just enough ability to be dangerous. I was on a moose hunt this past fall in which the guide described a client in an earlier camp who was shooting a chap stick cap at 60 yards, yet the same guy shot a trophy moose in the hump (above the spine) at a range much closer. I’m guessing the guy saw a lot of brown through his peep and just let fly. If he was truly familiar with his setup, he likely would have been better off at that range looking over the arrow and shooting instinctively, but long range plinking doesn’t teach you much about that. It’s a situation where the ability to do one thing well doesn’t translate well into every hunting scenario.

Then there’s the guy who, despite (or perhaps because) having many trophy whitetails to his credit, took the dreaded quartering toward shot at a monster Illinois buck this year (well within range). The results weren’t good for the buck, and, no, he didn’t recover it, but no doubt the coyotes did.

Perhaps the upside of today’s modern compound bow setup is that it allows shooters with average skill to practice minimally and still perform moderately well, but that can also be its downside, because there is a huge difference between putting an arrow into something and taking it cleanly. It’s all about having skill and the good judgement to go with it. Nobody’s perfect, stuff happens and even Tiger Woods flubs a golf shot now and then. But if you watch Tiger enough you’ll notice, he rarely gambles with shot selection. That’s a Phil Mickelson thing. When it works for Phil, the results are outstanding, but when it doesn’t, disaster follows. That’s why Tiger’s number one.