While cptleo1 makes some good points, I'd like to respond to a few of his comments.
Originally Posted by
cptleo1
That 70% harvest rate someone mentioned sounded pretty good till I ran the numbers - If you hit 150 deer in your career - 45 would have hobbled off wounded, to die later
There is very little research on the mortality rates of unrecovered archery-wounded deer. Two published studies do report that
most hit-but-not-recovered (HBNR)
do survive wounding. The AR crowd claims that all HBNR deer die from their wounds - this is simply not true. We (bowhunters) need to be aware of this.
Originally Posted by
cptleo1
I have read many of the wounding reports - new and old - and I believe the spread goes from 15 - 85% - This spread alone leads me to believe that they are not statistically viable.
I too have read either the wounding reports or their summaries, and I disagree with your assessment. There are 19 wounding studies/reports published between 1963 and 1989 that report wounding rates from 7% to 68% (average for all reports is 55%).
Here are wounding rates for the 4 most recent studies:
Publishing Date---- Wounding Rate ----------Remarks
1999 -------------------------17% -----------(IBEP, proficiency testing)
2002------------------------- 14% -----------(IBEP, proficiency testing)
2002------------------------- 13%----------- (Very high hunter density)
2008------------------------- 18%----------- (IBEP, proficiency testing)
These recent studies do show some statistical consistency, imho. The requirements for education (International Bowhunter Education Program) and proficiency testing may have some bearing.
-fsh