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I've seen more deer with poorly located bullet wounds than screwed up archery shots arond here, but I have seen the latter on occasion too. I'll be blunt about either method, if you don't know where your bullet is going to hit at a certain range, in groups or where your arrow is going to hit at a specified range, you have no business taking a shot by any means. It's the people that say 'eff it, I'll get by or lucky that do this and cause most of these wounded deer. Mind you, no one is perfect and accidents happen, once in 20 years for me, long range rifle shot, never with archery though. You have to be a disciplined hunter and marksman, this is a must, so many people don't take seriously. It does not take much to establish a known range around ones stand, or be disciplined enough to reasonably judge a short distance when away from the stand. I placed a marker at 20 yards by my stand, and within or at that 20 yards, a shot can be placed that will be effective, after testing accuracy directly from my stand By practicing, and knowing that your arrow will strike where you aim, within or at the range you practice, archery is just as effective, I've seen deer run quite a distance, more than once when the bullet hit the heart. I prefer rifle myself, however, I do archery as well, and when the opportunity presents itself I'll take one, which does not happen often during archery season, too small, too far, wind etc., although I watched a good friend stalk and take a decent buck on a knoll in the field, wind, noise was in his favor, he got within 30 yards and placed a lethal shot, it went 100 yards and dropped. He'll never get one like that again, rare occurance, all I kept thinking was that I hoped his archery skills were sharp, they were, we've both practiced at accuracy, here's where it paid off, watching the arrow released and seeing where it hit, but the whole time I had my fingers crossed when he decided to go after it in the middle of a field that afternoon. I don't like the people that don't practice and use their bow or rifle enough to be proficient at placing a shot when hunting, yet it happens every year, found a nice 8pt buck last year well over our property line, 1 day into rifle season, gut shot, and they never tracked the obvious blood trail in good weather conditions.
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