The point I was trying to make, is that, the for average bowhunter, 35 yds. is, at best, a marginal shot. This problem is fueled by some of the hunting shows, with 50 yd. shots at deer, and a lot of the advertisements today. People see these and think that's the way it should be.
Just look at some of the recent posts to this forum. People with a new bow that don't know how to split pins (20-30 yd.) for a 25 yd. shot worried about their 40 yd. pin.
With my 3-D and target bows I can still shoot sub 6" groups at 60+ yds. Does this mean I should shoot deer at this range? Certainly not.
If memory serves me correctly, I believe the average bow kill distance is around 18 yds. You're talking about twice that distance. Since I shot my first deer, in Dec. of 1960, my longest shot, at a deer, was somewhere around 22 yd. and I've passed on hundreds in the 30-50 yd range. Could I have hit some of them? Probably but, probably, in my opinion, isn't good enough.
I meant no offence to you, personally, but I see too many people who, flippantly, say "that's bowhunting" or "it happens to everyone" when, in reality, they just didn't do their part. If you think about it, you probably know some of the people I'm talking about. The guys who think that if they can keep all their arrows on a bale of straw, they're ready to hunt or the ones with 60 yd. pins on their hunting bows that don't shoot during the off season.
(Ref. RGT Bekah) If you ask the 99% of the people you talked to, (and they respond honestly) I think you'll find this to be true, in most cases. I don't profess to be perfect and have hit a couple of deer a little far back leading to a long miserable tracking job (one took me three days to find). I do know that if I had hit a deer through "at least one lung" I'd still be out there looking for it instead of just saying "it happens to everyone".