Longbow vs Recurve

[Ronald Schoening]

#142977

If longbows are so forgiving and easy to shoot why don’t more people shoot them? Curious, they are just as accurate.

[Ronald Schoening]

#142978

Just to add to my question, if you want a bow that tunes easily, a longbow will shoot a bunch of different spines . Recurves seem to be more finicky about what arrow you use ,i guess they are not as cool looking? For some people.

[Raymond Coffman]

#143011

Ronald

I own and shoot longbows, recurves and R/D (my current go to bows )- love them all. I have always thought the longbow a little more difficult to learn to shoot than the recurve, with R/D somewhere in the middle. I have found tuning to be easy or difficult dependent on the individual bow, rather than type. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I have always thought recurves to be more  exotic / artistic in their design style variations – imho.

Scout aka Ray

[Ronald Schoening]

#143019

That’s all i own is longbows, I do agree with you about longbows, my opinion is as this, I think people find the recurve to be easier to become a better shot sooner I guess, I myself find the longbow to be more simplified design. Not much to go wrong other than the shooter . Use to shoot recurve years ago did well with it ,but enjoy the longbow more. Like you said beauty is in the hand of the  bow holder.

[richard roop]

#143039

“Beauty is in the hand of the bow holder”

We could carve that into stone !!!!

I tend to lean toward the classic recurves. Damon Howatt Super Diablos, Bear Super Kodiak, Groves Spitfire Magnum and a Ben Pearson Mercury Hunter.  All of my bows are 60#s and all are set up for hunting and used for tournaments.  I own one Damon Howatt longbow but have just never warmed up to it.  Good looking stick, too.

What I AM seeing at tournaments lately is something of a blurring between longbows that have more curves than my last girlfriend and recurves that cost more than my first pick-up truck. I see people holding longbows at full draw while they aim and others snap-shooting recurves.  I also see that the top scores between long-bow and recurve are usually very close.

Mayhap it ain’t the bow ………. it’s the Indian ????

[Ronald Schoening]

#143040

I hear you, I hold my draw for a bit to get a good  anchor ,I only shoot  around 55# I just started shooting traditional again back in August, I remember why I like it so much now. I haven’t shot for about 15 to 20 years now ,but just in the past 3years i have been, a compound. But I got rid of it because of the constant tinkering with it, probably just me. Lol I really enjoy the longbow I have a Wes Wallace ,and ordered another one. Can’t have to many right.

[David Coulter]

#143148

When I started shooting again several years ago it was with my Browning Wasp at #45. Then I got my Stewart Slammer #46 and have been shooting that since. For me the longbow is easier but that could easily be because just when I was getting the knack of the recurve I switched and the Slammer gets all the credit. Howard Hill and Byron Ferguson used longbows and all olympians and now barebow shooters use recurves. Somebody other than me has the answer. Dwc

[Ralph]

#143151

The way I see it is to shoot one or the other or both. Either will perform as well as the shooter.

[Ronald Schoening]

#143152

That’s the way I look at it, there is always different arrows to shoot ,alot of different spines,  I think that it is probably the best benefit a shooter has . Having the right arrow will make the most difference.

[David Coulter]

#143729

Ron, I believe you hit the mark. We live our bows but the performance is in the arrow. I’m not not bad mouthing the value of a good bow, but I bet a cheap bow with good arrow tuning will out shoot a great bow without attention paid to the arrow. Oh yeah, then there’s that form thing…..

[Stephen Graf]

#143742

… And that’s why Byron Ferguson named his book “Become the Arrow.”

[Author]

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