Hello all - I have recently caught the archery bug and have been shooting a Jennings Qasar EL compound for about a month now, several times a week at the house and am looking at some nearby ranges as well. My eventual goal is to get into bowhunting, so I'm looking at starting with small game (most likely rabbit) and developing from there. I like the compound but there's something very alluring about traditional that my head's gotten wrapped around. I have not yet gotten to shoot a traditional bow but came across the option to lay my hands on a Fred Bear Super Kodiak recurve with a 45# draw weight for a very good price. Being new to the bow, I'm half tempted to get the recurve now to work with it and see if I like it, but the other part of me feels I should stick with the compound for now. If I start with small game though, I've heard a recurve is much better for that than a compound. I just wanted to get a more experienced look into it to see if this would be a good choice for a beginner.
personally i would stick with a compound bow but i dont like recurve bows and if you shoot one you will prolly feel the some way they are difficult to shoot and you dont have the accuracy that you will with a compound but thats just my two cents
Tell that to Byron Ferguson after he shoots an aspirin out of the air. As for recurve and compound, go shoot a recurve. The learning curve on a recurve is a lot longer and the shooting seems very much instinctive. I personally just can not do it. Hats off to the guys that do. You'll just have to try it or stick to a compound and try it later.
I may be splitting hairs here, but Byron shoots a long bow. I saw him perform at a hunting expo and someone asked him why he doesn't shoot a recurve. He answered, because I want to hit what I'm shooting at.
If you're going after small game, a recurve is awesome. Instinctive shooting is not hard but it does require a lot of practice.
I'm a traditional bow hunter. Take this from me go and get a few kills under your belt via compound and then make the switch over if you still want to.
I'd say compound all the way unless you really have that much time to kill try to kill small game at close range. I think people that can hunt ethically with recurves or D bows are few and far between. Seems like a lot of people like the challenge but don't have the time to practice enough to really get efficient at it. He11, compounds are tough enough and need practice time as well. Good luck.
Thanks for the input everyone. I think sticking with a compound for now seems sensible as I'm still developing. I'm just one of those guys that likes simple stuff (e.g. I prefer hand tools over power tools) hence why the traditional bows seem appealing to me. I'm going to do my time with the compound though and go from there. Thanks again all.
Cool. Then you may be a trad guy at heart but just be realistic about the difficulty in trad bows before you start using live animals for your target practice. Not that you would put we all know guys that do. Trad and compound for that matter
Just as an update gents - I ended up hooking up with a friend from church who is big into trad and got to shoot some of his longbows and recurves. Needless to say, I fell in love with them and now own a 64" Ben Pearson Cougar, 45# @ 28". I apologize for going against my word, but the minute I shot a trad bow I knew I could never go back to a compound. It just sits right with me and is far more enjoyable in my opinion. I will be practicing quite a while though before I go hunting with it, as I'd prefer to keep my kills ethical and not unnecessarily cause an animal pain. I'm the patient type, and I just really enjoy shooting it right now so that's okay with me. I practice almost every day, sometimes twice a day, so hopefully in time I'll be able to confidently and ethically hunt with it. My friend is a good teacher (hunting over 30 years and actually makes his own bows) and with his help I'm shooting fairly tight groups at 8 yards so far with the recurve. Knock on wood, but I think I'm actually picking up the recurve faster than I did the compound. Hopefully we can do some stump shooting soon as well. All I know is I think my addiction is now full blown and there is no recovering from it.
I would go with a compound because there is more personalization a that you can put on it to aid you in accuracy and power.
I just made the opposite jump. I've been recreationally shooting longbow and recurve all my life, and just got to the point where I wanted a new challenge, so I'm starting to bow hunt, and decided to try compound. Overall, I prefer shooting traditional bows, but like the advantages of compounds for hunting purposes. I may try hunting recurve at some point, though...
