Look, when they are close the noise of the release is more disturbing, they flinch, duck, jump or whatever you want to call it. It is a natural reaction and not all deer react the same.

There are a lot of factors that come into play:

Are they nervous. Is your setup quiet. String slapping your sleeve. Weather conditions, rut, age and experience of deer. etc.

Get past 20 yds and the noise isn't as much of a factor, all else being equal..

Some supposed expert happened to write an article on this in this months Peterson's Bowhunting. It was bulldung.

OH yeah, if you want to get nit pickey you might miss by 1 inch instead of two, but it is still a miss and a duck.


Arrow speed adds little to the equation your success/failure. You'd be better off working on the quietness of your rig and the placement of your shots.