I know that you are correct about tracking failures. I have personally failed to track at least three successful bow hunting kills and only realized this days, or weeks, after the hunt. In each case I found the carcass during subsequent hunts and am reasonably certain that they were mine. I can blame internal bleeding, autumn leaves falling like heavy snow, and a running shot at a big buck just as a violent rainstorm hit but it does not change the facts. I have also found the carcasses you described in Archery only areas that were never tracked successfully by other hunters. I do not believe that this is relevant to the discussion however because most archers will find their kill simply because they are more skilled. I can honestly say that I have never lost a muzzleloading deer. In my opinion, muzzleloading with iron sights, at muzzle loading ranges, is highly productive. traditional iron sights are the equivalent of sighting down the barrel and a .45 Cal ball has a tremendous killing power. An experienced shooter is focused on the front sight and everything else falls into place with practice. At traditional ranges, you only have to worry about bullet drop and that is not usually much. As to wounded game, it is likely that without a scope, there will be fewer wounding shots on game that always looks closer on a scope.
I don't know how you can state that bow hunters are "more skilled". Everyone starts at zero and few hunters no matter their weapon of choice will make the kind of commitment required to truly masker all the skills necessary and particularly tracking skills.
I spent over 20 years in the business meeting hunters from all over the world and only a handful had the skillset necessary to be a true all around outdoorsman. I don't fault them for it, it's not an insult but they simply lack the time in the field to develop that skillset fully.
I have a great friend who is a true sportsman and a wonderful guy, who hunts with every legal weapon possible to maximize his opportunities.
A few years ago on an Elk ML hunt he took a shot at a huge bull but of course completely lost track of him due to the smoke. Neither he nor his partner could even tell if the bull had been hit and when they looked the eventually found nothing but a few blood drops.
After several hours being the true sportsman he is he got some help and shortly literally stumbled over the downed bull totally hidden in a low spot by low regrowth pines.
We need every advantage we can get to ensure that the greatest percentage possible of these animals are recovered and banning scopes is only going to make that harder.
What is best for the health of the species? It isn't taking those advantages away. People will be even more inclined to take more and more marginal shots which can only lead to more wounded animals and more that are not recovered.
Unlike Africa or Europe hunters in the US are not all accompanies by a PH or Warden who enforces the "one drop rule", meaning if even one drop of blood is found your hunt is over and while we here like to think we're better than the average at least half of the hunters out there are below average and will likely shoot another animal if they can even if they know they hit but failed to recover an animal.
I also have a serious issue with how that punishes and puts at an even greater disadvantage folks like myself who can't see a set of irons even with glasses and still get a clear picture of the target without expensive bifocal lenses.
The more impediments we put in place that prevent hunters from succeeding eventuates in more wounded and lost game and eventually fewer hunters fighting for our gun and hunting rights.
Scopes have been used on ML's for over a hundred years so it's not like we're taking advantage of some sort of new advanced technology giving the hunter an unfair advantage that wasn't available a century ago.
People can and will make all sorts of arguments to support the opposite position but in the end this is just one more move that will cause more harm than good.
nmwildlife.org
), seems hypocritical or at least ridiculous to get a special season for using "old" tech that can make hits easily at 300 yards and even further.
