There’s something I do every year just before the hunting season. It’s not a visit to the sweat lodge or a call to FTD to send my wife a bouquet. (Although that might not be a bad idea.) Rather, I have a system that I use going into every season that produces the required number of perfect hunting arrows.

If you haven’t gone to extremes to prepare your ammo, you’ll be surprised by how much variation there can be in a dozen broadhead tipped arrows. You’ll also be surprised by how much better you’ll shoot when you do take some time to fine tune your arrows.

Rather than try to test each component of every arrow separately, I test the entire finished product as a whole, arrow-by-arrow. Here’s how you can be sure your quiver is filled with perfect arrows.

NUMBER YOUR ARROWS

Start with at least a dozen arrows. Ideally, they will be brand new, but if you can’t afford to buy a fresh dozen, at least spring for six new shafts. First we need to find out which ones are the team players and which ones are the rebels. You do this by numbering each arrow so you can determine which ones are fit to hunt with and which ones should stay home.

Start with a clean target and shoot all of your arrows (with field tips installed) at what you consider to be your maximum accurate range. Don’t pay any attention to the numbers on the arrows before you shoot them. In fact, make a conscious effort not to look at them so you won’t unintentionally bias the test. When you go to pull the arrows, write the corresponding number next to each hole.

Shoot every arrow at least six times and then take a look at the target to see what patterns are forming. You will likely have several arrows that are consistently flying wide of the mark to the same side each time.

TURN YOUR NOCKS

Take the arrows that were not grouping well and work on the nocks. If any show signs of damage from arrow impact replace them. As mentioned, nocks can also be misaligned when installed. Turn the nocks on all your rogue arrows 1/3 around (assuming you use a 3 fletch pattern) to re-seat and hopefully re-align them more perfectly with the shaft.

Go back and shoot these arrows again. Use a clean target and record the numbers next to each hole. After shooting each arrow six more times you should be able to determine which arrows are acting better and which ones are destined for detention.

ALIGN YOUR BROADHEADS

The culling isn’t finished yet. All your arrows will have to make it past another cut before they are good enough for your quiver.

If a broadhead does not line up perfectly with the shaft it will steer the arrow off-line. This causes frustration because the degree of variation between otherwise identical shafts can sometimes be very dramatic. By first making sure every head is properly aligned you won’t have to face this problem on the range.

Install broadheads on each arrow and spin-test them with the point resting on your palm. The perfect arrow will produce absolutely no vibration in your hand – not even the smallest amount. You can get away with a little vibration (and the accompanying misalignment that it indicates) when shooting at ranges out to 20 yards, but even slight vibration will cause poor accuracy on longer shots.

There are four things you can do to better align crooked heads. First, try two or three different broadheads on that arrow. If it acts the same with all of them you can rule out the head. Next, heat the insert and turn it slowly two or three revolutions before the hot melt glue begins setting up. Third, you can remove your inserts and replace them with another. And finally, you can fine-tune the way the head centers inside the insert. Some center very well, while others need to be tweaked to assure that they seat square and straight.

SHOOT YOUR BROADHEADS

It’s finally time to shoot all your best hunting arrows with broadheads installed. Again, rely on the numbers to determine which arrows are the best. Keep only those that hit close to the center of the group – which by now should be nearly all of them.

Don’t worry if the center of your broadhead group is slightly off from the center of your field point group. That’s a small point. The important thing is whether or not the arrows group together. If they do, and your bow is pretty well tuned, simply move your sight to bring the group to the center. You’re ready for action.

Starting with a dozen shafts, by this point you have probably whittled your supply down to 9 or 10 that are perfect. Put your best arrow in the handiest slot in the quiver - that’s the one you want to grab first. You will know when you draw it back that it will go exactly where it’s aimed – and that, my friends, makes all the work worthwhile.