Hood pin & cable kits ..questions

I put a dab of silicone on the tops of the pins, then touched the hood down on them to mark the spots and drilled from the underside, but that was after I spent quite a bit of time getting the pins installed where they wanted to be.
(don't have pins on my current car)

I have also installed the pins and then used the palm of my hand to press down on the hood to "ding" where I needed to drill.

Both ways worked just fine.