Well the definition of a "well placed shot" for many folks is heart/lung..., and some bullets do not rupture the lungs fast enough to cause the animal to drop in less distance than when the same area is hit by a broadhead, or large caliber patched round ball or minnie ball. My father and his friends regularly tracked deer about 50 to 100 yards when using their .30-30 and .35 Remington rifles after shots at 100 yards or less, and the shots were properly placed. Today, though rifles have been prohibited from where they used to hunt.
I have never had to do that with my flintlock, with the farthest track being 55 yards in the past ten years. The archery instructor for my local hunter safety teaching team has not had a deer fall farther than fifty yards as well.
Some folks though are very good shots, and a head or spine/neck shot from a rifle or slug drops the deer literally where they are standing.
Some folks too, have hit upon an excellent bullet choice, and do not have long tracking problems. BUT, as I pointed out above, there are lots of hunters who have experienced shorter tracking distances when using a bow instead of a rifle.
It's a myth that in "modern gun/rifle season" that bow hunters are at a disadvantage, all other things being equal. Now in the beginning, the bow season put less hunters into the woods, and it was the first open deer season (in most states) so it gave the bow hunters an advantage, especially on public lands. However, on the different pieces of private property where I hunt, bow hunters continue through the regular season to harvest deer. In fact the ones that have property that borders public land do better, for the public lands are overhunted, and force deer to the bowhunters on the private lands.
I shoot BP flintlock during regular season, and have no disadvantage. I don't normally hunt deer with a modern firearm.
LD
