I said this last year....

[Doc]

There is another factor that was mentioned earlier but bears repeating. Bows kill with cutting, and guns kill with areas of flesh destruction. What no one is really equipped to say is just how many of those deer claimed to be archery wounds really turn out to be fatal or survivable. No one really knows if they can't recover the animal. It is possible and even likely that the reason for lack of recovery is that the deer survived. Deer have been butchered and sections of arrow shaft recovered inside. Broadheads buried in bone and healed over have been discovered while butchering. On the other hand, I witnessed a deer with its lower jaw dangling from its head. That one I can confidently say didn't recover unless he learned to chew with one jaw. I'll guarantee that wasn't done with a bow. Exploded bone and muscle does not heal very well, so a gun wound likely will give way to complications eventually.

Edited September 17, 2017 by Doc