Time of flight for an arrow moving at 250 fps which I would consider average for modern set ups is around half a second for a 50 yard shot. That is not a lot of time, especially for a relaxed deer. And at 30 yards its a hair under 4 seconds. I don't think a few 10ths of a second is going to make a huge difference in a deers reaction time.

And for the record I don't "wing" arrows at 40 and 50 yards and am rather offended at being told that. As unbelievable as it is to some there are quite a few people that practice a lot at ranges that far and beyond and are actually quite good at it. And for anyone that is willing to go out with a recurve and shoot without sights at 20 yards and tell me shooting with a modern compound with sights is unethical is a hypocrite.

And I honestly get tired of people throwing the "jumping the string" thing around. I have never seen a deer jump the string. And I have ran video for a buddy that shoots a bow that sounds like a 2x4 hitting an old screen door. I'm not saying it never happens, but I bet 9 out of 10 times the person just missed, period. I have seen studies on deer jumping the string and done some of the calculations myself and came to the same conclusion. For most deer to have the reaction time and be able to move enough to duck an arrow out of a modern bow they would have defy the laws of physics to do it.

I think in most cases someone miss judges the yardage, forgets to bend at the waste or screws the shot up at the last second. They see the deer jump as the arrow hits them (in a bad spot usually) and just assume the deer ducked the shot. Mostly because they don't want to believe they messed up.

My opinions anyway.

Paul