Tazman

Rather than confirming the "gun hunter's" belief that gut-shot and unrecovered deer is a result of unethical and bad bowhunters by telling him that you are an ethical hunter and practice "a lot," you should be telling him that such hits can occur (even) when shot by the best of shooters, and that unrecovered deer does not factually indicate that the shooter did not give his or her best to try and find the deer.

If he is truly an avid gun hunter, than he knows and is ignoring that there are many gun hunters who make bad shots, who shoot deer just for the hell of it, who make long shots when he or she, or the shooting gear, is not qualified to do so, and also do not recover the deer.

Taz, imo, you have compromised yourself. You have presented the person a guarantee that your shot will be precise and you will recover the deer. Although I have been hunting for many years and I consider myself to be a very good bow shooter, I cannot and will not guarantee that my hits will always be precise and that I will always find the deer. I am a good tracker, but over the years I have been unable to recover 3 deer after days of tracking.

After all, it is deer hunting with a bow we are talking about.