Originally Posted by Big Uncle

I just came back into the house for a cup of coffee and a snack. I can not find even one more single drop of blood on the leaves after another three hours or so of attempted tracking. My current opinion is that the deer finally quit bleeding and hopefully will make a recovery. I backtracked and can not find the arrow or anywhere the deer bedded or stood for a while. He just a made a steady walk from near the site of the shot and is apparently headed to another zip code.

It is hard to see exactly where the shooter and target initially were as the area is all tracked up by now but my guess is that the shot distance was somewhere in the neighborhood of 50+ yards. I think the father, daughter, and a couple more helpers are going to spend the afternoon looking for the deer or more sign, but I am done with this. I hope this does not turn the young lady off to hunting in the future, but I also hope she learns something from this.

Originally Posted by archeryrob

Crossbow is still a bow. I get pissed every time I see Ravin or some other company promote long shooting. You can't keep 50 - 100 yard lanes clear and even shooting in a field sound is three times faster than the Ravin's bolt.

I shoot my crossbow plenty and do not feel comfortable shooting at deer at 50 yards. Too much can still go wrong and distance triples it.