wvu,
If everyone waited until they could consistantly shoot 1" for every 10 yards and no one hunted until they did, not very many people would go out and hunt. There are some guys, many that post here, that are obviously great bowmen and they practice very hard. For that they should be commended.
Your question specifically asks "before attempting to go hunting". IMO, take a 5" pie plate and begin shooting at that plate at 10'. Go back 2 yards at a time and see how you do. Whenever you get to the point where you dont put all 6 in that plate then the previous point is your maximim distance.
Keep practicing and hopefully that yardage will increase. When the opener comes use the yardage that you were able to hit that plate every time.
This season it may be 15 yards. Go out and set that limit. Maybe next year it will be 20, then 30 and so on...

Look, i'm fairly inexperienced at bowhunting but i'm going out there too. I don't miss the plate out to 26 yards and that is going to be my limit. Do I continue to practice to try and achieve the 1" per 10 yard rule? Yes, I practice 2-3 times a week for 3 months before opener.
You didn't say if you were shooting a compound, recurve, longbow or stick and string. But in reality that doesn't matter. Just because you shoot a longbow doesnt mean that the vitals on a deer get bigger.