ORIGINAL: zrexpilot

I bow hunt and rifle hunt. I can say the recovery rate ratio is much lower with the bow. I had my worst year ever this year, 3 out of 4 with a bow, that absolutley sucks. I shot a nice 8 pointer that seemed like a bit low but not that bad. Gave him an hour, we found a pool of blood (pink) foaming and even lung chunks, we must have pushed him because we followed a descent blood trail for 600 yds through several properties, never found him.
I am lucky to say 30 years with a rifle I have never lost one.
I use to think that if you lung them their dead and more than likely are but at what point. The lungs have lots of blood vessels some small and some large, it seem you can hit lung but not the major arteries and the deer go for a long time. It seems a little low a little high or a little far back and the deer go a long way. Put it dead center near thecrease of the shoulderandthey dont last long. Right there it will clip the major arteries of the heart and lungs. Just my observation.