Brushbustin,
I hope you know you asked for all of the flak you're getting but I will say this, bowhunting definitely has less margin than rifle hunting. This is due to the fact that an arrow relies on killing an animal by cutting major organs and bloodvessels causing massive bloodloss where a bullet kills by shock (and to a lesser extent bloodloss). When you make a bad shot with a bow, if you don't hit any major organs or blood vessels, an animal will usually live (or die much later by a secondary infection). Also, you usually don't have a quick followup shot on a wounded animal with a bow (although not always). With a rifle, even if you make a poor shot and wound an animal, you usually knock them down allowing for a quick second or third shot. However, if care is taken and a hunter properly prepares (i.e. lot's of practice, a properly tuned bow and sharpened broadheads) and ONLY takes shots that are well within his/her range (which is within 20-25 yards for most hunters) with either a broadside or quartering away shot THEN a bow is just as effective as killing a deer as a rifle. From my own experience, the only time I've almost lost an animal was with a rifle and it was when I first started deer hunting. I took a shot at a running button buck and I gut shot him as he was running by at 25 yards. I watched him bed down about 100 yards away and I was so excited I started chasing him immediately and he took off into some deep timber. If my uncle's friend wasn't such a good tracker, I would have never found him. The 2 deer I've taken with a bow never went farther than 30 yards because I only took standing broadside shots at less than 20 yards and I hit the deer in the vitals (double lung and double lung/spine). I also have a well tuned bow and I sharpened all of my broadheads before taking them into the field. I hope you reconsider bowhunting as it's more challenging and (IMO) much more enjoyable than rifle hunting. I get more of a sense of accomplishment when I take the animal and even a yearling doe is a trophy.