A study conducted by the Oklahoma Fish and Wildlife Agencies found that approximately 50% of deer that were shot were never recovered. Some deer survived for up to 5–7 days before succumbing to their wounds.

Arrow Lethality A Summary of Research on Wounding Rates by Bowhunters. Wounded, but not recovered rates of 50% are common. "All the researchers agreed that it was happening, a higher percentage of animals were being hit and lost as more bowhunters took to the field ..." [page 3] ...

Wounding Rates of White-tailed Deer with Modern Archery Equipment [PDF], 2008 Proc. Annu. Conf. SEAFWA, Quality Deer Management Research. Use this link or click on the QDMA Wounding pdf link at the bottom of this page

... . Based on our estimates, qualified bowhunters were able to recover 1 deer for every 1.4 shots using modern archery equipment. (29% wounding rate) ...

Dealing with wounded deer November 7, 2014 Maine, Lewiston Sun Journal

... nationally studies of wounding loss from archery and firearms are more in line with 50% and 25% of the legal harvest, respectively, could we be underestimating this source of mortality? For wildlife biologists, it's important to know just how many animals are wounded and lost during the hunting season...

Wounding Rates of White-tailed Deer with Traditional Archery Equipment

Stephen S. Ditchkoff, Edgar R. Welch, Robert L. Lochmiller, Ronald E. Masters, William R. Starry, William C. Dinkines, N. Lincoln

ABSTRACT We captured and affixed radio collars to 80 male white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) during 1995-1997 to ascertain the wounding rate and propor- tion of deer that die from hunter-inflicted wounds. Our study population was hunted only with traditional archery equipment (recurve and longbows). Of the 22 deer shot by archers, 11 were recovered by the hunter, resulting in a 50% wounding rate (deer shot but not recovered). Only 3 (14%) of the 22 deer shot by hunters died and were not re- covered. Based upon demographic and harvest statistics, these estimates indicate that approximately 4% of adult males in the population die from archery related wounds annually and are never recovered. Proc. Annu. Conf. Southeast. Assoc. Fish and Wildl. Agencies 52:244-248

Mentor, Deer Management Opposers Display Disdain Through Literature June 30, 2013 Ohio, Patch.com

... the literature reads. "Twenty-two published scientific surveys and studies (many conducted by state wildlife agencies) show that the average wounding rate for bow hunting is 50 percent. Mentor residents have reported seeing wounded deer, blood pools, and dead deer on their property ...

Duke Forest, On The War On Deer February 27, 2013 North Carolina, Chapelboro.com

... a column by Karin Yates ... she suggests that Duke Forest would be an ideal spot for deer contraception research, rather than continuing its present employment of bow hunters ... I checked with a former bow-hunter who gave up the sport because of the large number of injuries it inflicts, and he estimates that 50% is a conservative figure. He still hunts but only with guns, and for this reason...

Not every shot is a good one December 14, 2013 Virginia, Roanoke.com

... researchers studied results of managed archery hunts at the Naval Support Facility Indian Head in Maryland. From 1989 through 2006, bowhunters shot 908 deer with bows and crossbows. Of those, 162 were not recovered ... a study at Minnesota’s Camp Ripley found a non-recovery rate of 13 percent...

de Bore: Waste in the Woods, Wisconsin Conservation Bulletin #22, 1957 – 7% wounding rate for bowhunted whitetails.

Stormer, et al: Hunter Inflicted Wounding on White Tailed Deer, Wildlife Society Bulletin #7 (1), 1979; 17%- 32% wounding rate 32% wounding rate for bowhunted deer over a four year study period in Indiana.

R. W. Aho - Michigan Dept. of Natural Resources: 1.4 wounded deer for each deer killed.

Horace Gore - Whitetail Project Director, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department: One deer wounded for each deer killed.

Survey by Deer & Deer Hunting Magazine: (N = 2,103): 1.13 deer wounded for each deer killed.

Gayle Wescott - Michigan State University: Observed one deer wounded for each deer killed (N=51 wounded, N=51 Killed).

"Wounded Deer Behavior", Deer & Deer Hunting, August, 1990: - "This 1:1 ratio for wounded deer to deer killed continues to surface in the hunting literature".

Shooting a more humane way to cull CNY deer July 29, 2015 New York, Syracuse Post-Standard

... proposed deer culling programs in some Syracuse suburbs... I am not anti-hunting and have been an avid deer hunter for over 30 years. I am writing to explain why using archers to cull deer herds is not the most effective and certainly not the most humane way to control deer populations in these communities. Hitting a deer with an arrow is simply not an efficient way to kill the animal. Archers rely on the deer bleeding to death. Even when a deer is hit well in a vital area, very few deer simply drop where they are hit. Most of the time the deer takes a while to expire and can travel long distances before it dies...

Cody, Poacher of town deer sentenced January 30, 2017 Wyoming, Cody Enterprise

... shot a mule deer buck with a crossbow ... attention drawn to the incident when the deer fled through downtown streets leaving a trail of blood ...

There's a reason why I don't bow hunt October 15, 2014 Tennessee, Lebanon Democrat

... I gave up bow hunting in the mid-1960's after I shot a little buck, it ran off and died, and I couldn't find it. I made an apparent perfect shot at about 20 paces, burying the arrow up to the feathers behind the deer's shoulder. But the triple-bladed broadhead didn't kill the deer... About a week later another hunter in the area found the dead buck by following circling buzzards...

Tracking dogs recover deer October 7, 2021 Oklahoma, Sequoyah County Times

... if you have hunted long enough, you or someone you know has failed to recover a deer. Oklahoma Blood Trackers can aid your efforts to find the animal. ...“I have been on 38 tracks and fortunate to have found 12 so far this season with about a month and a half left to go, so my recovery rate is right at 31 percent,” ...

Avon Lake deer culling program is ineffective, mayor says December 12, 2014 Ohio, Cleveland Plain Dealer

... "We only had two people come forward and get the permits to shoot the deer (with bows and arrows) this year," Zilka said. "Each person killed one deer and one might have wounded another, though we are not sure. We had hoped for more public participation." ...One of the city's most famous deer was found dead recently. A mostly white piebald deer nicknamed "Whitey" ...

Deer and Deer Hunting: The Serious Hunter's Guide By Robert Wegner

In a 756-acre enclosure at Albany Georgia, Robert L. Downing of the Virginia Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife reported in 1971 that archers failed to recover 50 percent of the legal harvest... data for bow hunters at the Radford Arsenal in Virginia indicated very nearly as high a loss in the area. "Of the 138 deer killed by archers, 43 (31 percent) were not recovered ...

Bow Hunting Wikpedia

Despite widespread practice by bowhunters and their usual pride in their personal accuracy, "71% to 82% of all shots taken" miss the target [25] and "shot placement is, for all practical purposes, random".[26]

Factors associated with hunter retrieval of deer hit by arrows and shotgun slugs Edward E. Langenau Jr, Leisure Sciences - LEISURE SCI 01/1986; 8(4):417-438. DOI:10.1080/01490408609513083

... Hunter retrieval of wounded deer was used as a case study to examine applications and limitations of leisure research for the management of recreational behavior. All hunters receiving permits to hunt in the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge during November 1–20, 1983, were sent mail questionnaires. A total of 457 (93 percent) of the archery and 143 (95 percent) of the firearm permittees responded after 3 mailings. Archery deer hunters were estimated to have retrieved 29 (43 percent) of the 68 different deer hit by arrows. Shotgun hunters were estimated to have retrieved 42 (81 percent) of 52 different deer hit...

PETA Loses Suit To Halt County's Bowhunting Deer Kill August 26, 2016 Maryland, BethesdaMagazine.com

... the county’s deer population with bowhunting does not violate Maryland’s cruelty code ... last year, the hunt injured at least 91 deer. “Twelve were young animals, three were lactating mothers, and seven were wounded but never found and likely experienced lingering and painful deaths,” ...

Granite Shoals deer management program OK'd for second year March 30, 2017 Texas, DailyTrib.com

... During the initial program, which ran Oct. 4, 2016-Jan. 12, 2017, the chosen hunters harvested 75 does with only four arrows and eight deer that went unrecovered...

Archers taking good number of deer, bears in state October 13, 2014 New York, Poughkeepsie Journal

... Based on the steady number of calls for help coming in on the Deer Search dispatch line, there are good number of deer and bears being taken so far this season ...

Missouri hunters passionate about proposed regulations March 17, 2015 Columbia Missourian

... A regulation that would allow the use of crossbows during archery deer ... Hunters against the proposed regulation agreed that crossbows were too accurate and had an advantage over traditional bows ...

Man shoots 8-point buck in Muskegon's Kruse Park, cited by police and DNR October 13, 2014 Michigan, MLive

... The man shot his bow within 450 feet of a home, which is a safety zone violation, Patten said... a police officer and the man who shot the deer attempted to track the animal, but couldn't locate the deer...

Nonreporting, Success, and Wounding by South Dakota Deer Bowhunters-1981

Author(s): Kelly B. McPhillips, Raymond L. Linder and W. Alan Wentz

Source: Wildlife Society Bulletin, Vol. 13, No. 4 (Winter, 1985), pp. 395-398

... On the U.S. Naval Ammunition Depot, Crane, Indiana, wounding rate was 58%

(Stormer et al. 1979), and Croft (1963) re- ported a wounding rate of 44% in Georgia.

We found that 1.7 deer were reported HBNR/ 100 hunter-days, and 1 deer HBNR/15 shots taken in South Dakota. Stormer et al. (1979) ...

References

STORMER, F. A., C. M. KIRKPATRICK, AND T. W. HOEKSTRA. 1979. Hunter inflicted wounding of white-tailed deer. Wildl. Soc. Bull. 7:10-16.

CROFT, R. L. 1963. A survey of Georgia bowhunters. Proc. Assoc. Game and Fish Comm. 17:155-16

Electronic device helps find deer that have been shot November 7, 2015 Washington, The Spokesman-Review

... When big whitetails are shot with an arrow, they seldom fall dead in their tracks. They run ... The Game Vector system relies on a miniature transmitter housed in an aerodynamic module that attaches to the arrow...

Hunter tracked deer for 4 days after deflected arrow wounds it at Lake Springfield November 6, 2015 Missouri, The Springfield News-Leader

... "I crept up to the deer in my kayak and saw its tail wagging a lot," he recalled. "When it got up it was really limping, and that's when I saw it had an arrow stuck in its hip." The wounded deer moved away, but not before Cunningham snapped two photos and got a short video of the animal...

Hound & deer tracking: Illinois deer hunting November 18, 2015 Chicago Sun Times

... “I got into because I got tired of losing my own deer,” Erickson said. ... “I got into because I got tired of losing my own deer,” ... This is primarily for finding trophies. His basic rate is $300 to go out and $200 if found...

Keep deer hunting away from kids September 20, 2013 New Jersey, New Jersey Hills

Mendham Township’s decision to permit bow hunters in tree stands does not belong near children and companion animals... The hunting magazine “Fins and Feathers” states regarding the wounding rate of deer that “we should wait 30 to 45 minutes on heart and lung hits, an hour or more on a suspected liver hit, eight to 12 hours on paunch hits and that we should follow up immediately on hindquarter and other muscle hits, to keep the wound open and bleeding.” Is this what the residents and children of Mendham Township want 150 feet from their back doors?

Trumansburg has killed 81 deer using archers within village limits -- with more to come February 21, 2015 New York, Syracuse.com

... according to a report on the village's website... According to Blossey's recent report, 32 deer were taken in September; 16 in October; 11 in November; one in December and 18 in January. He noted deer traveled an average of 50 yards after initially getting struck by an arrow. The shooting took place on weekends and with the exception of one, only during the evenings. He added that 17 deer were hit, but not initially recovered...

Electronic device helps find deer that have been shot November 7, 2015 Washington, The Spokesman-Review

... When big whitetails are shot with an arrow, they seldom fall dead in their tracks. They run ... The Game Vector system relies on a miniature transmitter housed in an aerodynamic module that attaches to the arrow...