Know what you want your bullet to do, and then do your homework. Pick a bullet that hits with sufficient energy, expands reliably at the ranges you expect to be shooting at, and penetrates deeply enough while retaining sufficient weight to do the job cleanly.

In years past, this was trickier than you might imagine. Some superbly accurate bullets didn't perform all that reliably on game, while some of the old faithful deer-killers left much to be desired in the accuracy department.

Today's premium bullets largely solve this problem. It's hard to go wrong with the likes of the Barnes Triple Shock, Winchester XP3, Nosler Accubond or Federal Fusion, to name a few. The deer hasn't been born that can survive a hit in the boiler room from these bullets in adequate calibers at normal ranges.

As important as your choice of ammo is, it's even more vital that you understand its flight path so that when necessary you can compensate for elevation and windage.

Here's a trick that can greatly simplify your life.

Many old timers sight-in their rifles to hit 3 inches high at 100 yards. With most high-powered centerfire rifles, a gun thus zeroed will place its bullet not much lower than 3 to 5 inches at 300 yards. This allows you to hold dead-on from the muzzle out to 300 yards, with little concern. All but a very few hunters have little business shooting at an animal at any distance greater than that.

Windage can be trickier, because it's difficult to accurately judge wind speed. You can memorize wind drift tables, but that won't help if you can't gauge wind speed.

Assuming you're not shooting at a deer at 500 yards in a hurricane, here's another trick that can save your bacon. Always "hold on hair" for the first shot. Holding well off the animal requires an act of faith, lots of experience and an accurate computation of the ballistics involved. When in doubt, hold on the edge of an animal's chest and let the wind drift the bullet into the vital zone.

KNOW THE RANGE
This is easier today than ever before. Laser rangefinders are now small, cheap and reliable enough that anyone who expects to shoot at game beyond 100 yards should pack one. The good ones weigh practically nothing and are superbly accurate.

Combined with newer riflescopes with reticles that have calibrated hold points for different distances, the average hunter can now make long shots with confidence. For example, my .300 Winchester Short Mag wears a Burris Fullfield II 3x9 scope with a Ballistic Plex reticle. Zeroed at 100 yards with a 180-grain bullet, the calibrated aim points match up at 200, 300, 400 and 500 yards, give or take a couple of inches at each stop. Similarly, my .257 Weatherby Mag sports a Leupold Vari-X II 3x9 scope with the LR (long range) Duplex reticle. Zeroed 3 inches high at 100 yards with 120-grain bullets, the calibrated aim points correspond to 400, 500 and 600 yards.

For the aim points to correspond accurately, the scope has to be dialed up to maximum or near-maximum magnification for each shot. You also need to practice with the ammunition you plan to hunt with to verify where the bullets strike at given ranges, relative to the aim points. There can be an inch or 3 of variation with different ammunition, but once you have things dialed in, these newer scopes are remarkably accurate.