Phil — My first longbow, many years ago now, was a top-name custom straight “Hill style” stick, 64″. I couldn’t hit anything with it, and the length caused me endless clearance problems when hunting. So I sold it and returned to recurves for a few more years. Then hybrid longbows showed up, aka reflex-deflex (correctly, deflex-reflex) and all was changed. Basically this design spreads the advantages of recurved tips through the length of the limbs so you get most of the same advantages yet the looks and feel of a longbow and more slender riser and grip than on most recurves. My personal favorite is a 54″ Shrew Classic Hunter, but there are many good ones out there. So my first advice is to get a hybrid, not a Hill for starters, and the shorter you can shoot well, the better for hunting. Second bit of advice is to forget buying a cheap factory longbow for starters and look around, in our classifieds here, eBay and elsewhere, as there’s a constant abundance of great deals on great used custom bows. In that draw weight you should find plenty to choose from. Good luck, Dave
