I don’t like anything longer than 60″…seems I bang into everything in the woods w/ longer bows…but not very consistent with anything much shorter, either.

I have one lost Creek that is 56″… and I can shoot it ok… but not a whole round of 3D I can’t! 28.75″ draw!

Most of my hunting bows have been 62″, although I’ve taken deer with longbows as long as 70″. My present hunting recurves are 62″ and 67″.

56″ – 60″ is my usual ‘sweet spot’ for bow length. But it depends a lot on the bow.

When I was into recurves I liked 60 to 64. However I’m going a bit shorter with my longbow choices,…..go figure that one out, I sure can’t! But my current longbow (actually a flatbow if yah want to get all technical!) is 60 and the longbow/flatbow I’m having built will be 58.

62″ seems good for me. Longbow makes a great leaning post at that length.

Length is a bonus in some aspects of life (or so I hear), but not in bowhunting. My first real bow, with which I killed my first two deer as a teen, was a 48″ recurve. For several years now I’ve been shooting 54″ reflex/deflex longbows. For a while I had a 52″ (now owned by ColMike) and it too was a sweatheart. I have lost shot ops with longer bows due to their inherent clumsiness. With the short-bow design technology introduced by Ron LeClair and Gregg Coffey and others in recent years, most or all of the advantages to longer bows–smoother draw, less hand shock, forgiveness of imperfect releases, string noise–have been neutralized. I’ve never shot a more user-friendly bow in my life than the series of Shrew Classic Hunters and now Java Man Elkhearts I have owned. That said, I hunted last season and will again this year with a 62″ Osage selfbow, simply because it’s on my bucket list to kill an elk with a selfbow. After that it’s back to the shorties.

Couldn’t agree more with what Dave says. I actually have both a 52″ and 54″ classic hunter and they are a pleasure to shoot and crawl through thick cover with.

To bad it’s not turkey season as a big ole gobbler went strutting past me and the hammock seat yesterday, range about 5 yards:shock: Never knew I was there. Oh yeah didn’t see one deer:evil:

Mike

48″ recurve

I’ve mostly had 56 and 58 inch recurves. My Super Shrew is 58 inch. Other longbows and self bows are 64 to 66 inch. Have not tried any of the shorter recurves.

my osage self bow is 52″ and shoots where your looking – my longbows are 56″ I to would like to kill an elk with my self also

My Kanatis are 56″ and 58″ and neither stacks nor pinches in the slightest at my draw length – 27-1/2″

I also have a 64″ Robertson Quick Styk, and it’s a beautiful longbow and a joy to shoot, but the truth is that I have no need for a bow that long, and it offers no advantage for hunting over a shorter bow at all.

Both of the longbows I hunt with are 68″(Elk River and Robertson “purist”)and I have no trouble with stacking or finger pinch.:roll:

The Elk River is 52# and the Robertson is 58#,so there’s a little bit of a transition from one to the other.

Told my bowyer I was thinking 58″for my first trad bow, and he talked me into 64″. Said he’s never had someone say they wished they went shorter, but the opposite often. 64″ of recurved beauty is all I know.

I like 62″ in a mild D/R longbow and 58 in a hybrid or recurve. I’m going to be field testing a new 52″ recurve so I’ll see if things change.

My favorite recurve bow is 62″. Have been using a 58″ and tried a 56″ but the finger pinch is making my release suffer and I’m inconsistant. Haven’t given up on the 56″ yet, but I sure question my decision not to when I go back to either of the longer recurves.