Many archery hunters change the way they shoot when drawing down on a live animal. They aim differently or they rush the shot. Don't reinvent your shooting form just because a buck or bull is near. Strive to make the same shot you typically make on the practice range.

Most targets don't move while you're aiming at them, so the feel and the pressure of target shooting is different from shooting at live game. Many archery hunters change the way they shoot when they are drawing down on a live animal. They aim differently or they rush the shot. In this column, I'll take a closer look at the differences between shooting in the backyard and shooting at game and offer some insight into improving your accuracy when shooting at the real deal.

The Problem Of Rushing
If you're like me, when you draw down on a buck, you sense the ticking clock. At any moment, you expect the deer to explode into flight and disappear. You're not necessarily wrong to expect this, because there are no sure things in bowhunting. Shot opportunities are finite moments; they all end at some point. However, the odds of taking any buck improve if you don't panic and if you don't rush the shot. To avoid this reaction at the moment of truth, you have to learn how to respond to the uncertainty and the adrenaline.

The overwhelming temptation to rush the shot has accounted for some incredibly bad decisions that, in hindsight, seemed so simple. It seemed that my brain cells stopped talking to each other when a big buck or bull was standing 20 yards away. I needed a well thought out strategy to see me through those tough times.

The Right Strategy
Mental approach: It starts with the knowledge that you will destroy your odds by rushing the shot. Occasionally an animal will take an unexpected step behind a bush just before you shoot and be gone forever. Accept those losses as part of archery hunting. You'll miss a lot more opportunities by rushing and making bad decisions than you will by having the occasional animal walk away before you shoot.

Pick the right aiming point: Deciding where to aim is very important business and a step that you will often overlook when rushing. As the animal's body angle or the height of your tree stand changes, you must adjust your aiming point. With broadside shots on deer from a tree stand, cut the animal in half lengthwise and then aim for the center of the bottom half, several inches behind the front leg.

On quartering away shots from a tree stand, pick an aiming point that will cause the arrow to hit the offside front leg (not the offside front shoulder-- that's too high).