Stinkman and Blue runner

[Mac_Attack]

Willy that is a beautiful bow. My son and brother in law are getting into bow hunting and have compounds. They talk of arrow speed. Tell me about hunting with a recurve or long bow, I think that's what they're called. I still have the one I got as a kid. Billy Mac

[willy]

Mac for about ten years I owned and ran a traditional archery shoppe called Renaissance Archery. It has been a great love of mine since I was 12 years old and my father bought me a fiberglass longbow to strengthen my broken arm.
Most of my customers were gents who shot compounds but felt something missing. They never looked back.
There is nothing wrong with compounds, I have owned one for two and a half years. I had a major surgery on my neck and have a titanium plate running across three verterbrae. I could not hunt with my son shooting my beloved bows and for the first time in my life I shot one and used it the last two seasons but am now trying(forcing) myself to shoot my longbows and recurves again.
With a compound since literally the first time at the targets I was shooting fist size groups at 20 yards and farther.
With a compound I feel like a sniper in the woods, they are fast and accurate and easy for someone who does not want to really practice and become an archer to pick it up a week before the season and be shooting decent.
But you are holding a metal machine with highly developed pulleys, sights, weights to balance them and it feels like, like a machine.
When you pick up a longbow or a sweet recurve they are things of beauty, they are alive, they weigh mere ounces, they feel like a fine fly rod in your hand.
To be good you need to shoot fairly regularly, practice and develop a good archers form, and you shoot instinctively just like you would shoot a basket or throw a baseball.
In the end after you shoot for awhile that is how it becomes, instinctive, natural, and a joy to behold when you see the arc of the arrow strike what you are shooting at.
It is a connection back with men thru the earliest of times, it is romantic in that sense but also very practical and extremely deadly.
Recurves are a little easier to shoot well, due to their mass weight, slight pistol grips, larger cut sight window and they are generally a little faster with a normal weight arrow.
Longbows, well longbows are light weight in the hand, this requires you as an archer to develop good form, especially with the steadiness of your bow arm. Most are not cut past center on the shelf so they are a little more sensitive to arrow spine but in reality not really in most cases. They generally not as fast shooting as a recurve but are more forgiveing of shooting from different positions and usually much quieter than any other bow. I have shot deer feeding in front of me from tree stands and from the ground still hunting that heard nothing and only reacted to something touching them(the arrow passing thru them) and go right back to feeding and within seconds lay down, put their head down and go to sleep. Longbows will also shoot very heavy arrows which other bows do not handle well.
They do require you to be an archer, to practice at least a little all year to keep a decent form and usually the guys you see hunt with them are men who have made that commitment to be a good archer.
Of course like all sports there are slobs in every endeavor but I have found very few at the archery butts and in the field who were tradtional archers.

If you have any specific questions give me a pm and we can talk about it

" And the Lord thy God said unto him, take thee thy bow and arrows and bring forth some game"

[Stinky_Hooker]

How does the 45# pull?? I have a 55#, old Pearson recurve that is sweet but pulling that as opposed to a 70# compound is a WORLD of difference. I bet the 45# would be just right.

[willy]

Stink I normally for most of my life shot 58-62 lbs, but years ago I shot 45-50 lbs. recurves and killed many a deer with them and was more accurate.
All thru the modern era of archery, late 50's thru the late 70's the most common bow weight was 45 lbs. and these guys took game of every size all over the world.
For many years due mostly to the influence of the greatest archer that ever lived, Howard Hill and then one of the most popular Fred Bear, who both shot 65-75 lbs. bows a lot of fellows over bowed themselves and paid the price in lost accuracy and various ailments of shoulder, back and neck etc.
If I did not have a neck problem I would be shooting 50-55 lbs. bows at my draw length and any critter walking the planet would fall to my shot.
Don't forget that the bows are marked at AMO standards of 28" draw length.
If you draw above or below you will lose or gain 2.5 to 3.5 lbs. per inch for the length you draw.
The difference is in bow design, some shorter bow gain at faster weights where you feel like you hit a wall.
When I was a few years youger and shooting a lot more than I do now I had an old Damon Howatt Hunter that was 40 @ 28, I drew 29.5 so I was actually shooting about 45 lbs. I shot at a big doe at 25 yards and hit the back of the shoulder blade, went thru and cut a rib on the other side as it passed thru and buried in the ground. She went about thirty yards and dropped.
Arrows are not like bullets. They do not kill with shock trauma to tissue, they kill by hemmorage. When they enter a vital area ( heart and lungs) they cause massive bleeding. Picture a cut by a razor, you dont even feel it, but it bleeds like crazy.
Because of that accuracy and broadhead design are far more important than weight of bow.
The average weigh of the eastern American Indians white ash or hickory self bow was around 40 lbs. and they were far worse performers than our modern fiberglass backed bows. They killed everything including each other with those bows.
Stink shoot that bow, draw and come to a good anchor holding only for a it second as you focus on your target, keep your bow arm solid and pointing at the target thru your release, practice 20 FEET away until you can pick a small spot and hit it consistently then move back five feet, etc.etc.
Then start changing up your distance all inside 20 yards until you start getting real consistent.
Later when you become more comfortable we will talk and I will tell you how to become real good.

[willy]

Well Stink did you fire up that recurve