I only know a handful of guys that bow hunt and all of them shoot several deer each year and are lucky if they find one or two of them. All of them have lots of stories each year about how they hit a deer and found blood but no deer. If they want to bow hunt I have no problem with it but I hear all of them talk about how many deer they have shot and hardly ever do I hear of them saying they were able to find it.
Sounds like your buddies are idiots. Ifthey are hitting several deer a year & only recovering 1-2,they aren't putting the arrows thru the vitals, orthey can't track for anything. In either casethey should quit hunting, or remedy the situation before taking any more shots.
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.
Again, you must not be hitting them where you think, or you aren't a very good tracker. Other than the statistical abnormality, a double lunged deer is dead. And nearly all of the time very quickly. I know on the rare occasion they can cover quite a bit of distance, but that is no excuse for not finding one...or 3.