Don’t beat yourself up about it. It doesn’t help. The way I look at it is that if I met all my goals the first time, then traditional archery would be just as boring as compound shooting.
Save it, and enjoy the idea of finally learning to shoot the straight bow well, for next year, or the year after…
As others have said, it sounds to me like maybe the arrows are not matched to the bow, or some other technical problem.
I have several “hill style” longbows with about 1 inch of string follow. I learned to shoot these bows in a summer. They are accurate easy bows to shoot, once you figure out how to grip them, and have good arrows. I found that if the arrows are not PERFECTLY spined for the bow, it won’t shoot consistently. But once you get PERFECTLY spined arrows, the bow will shoot great.
Shoot some bare shafts. They will tell the tale.
In the mean time, get a nice deer with the recurve, and have fun.
I’m shuttin down the computer and toting my take down recurve in the suitcase to the airport now. Going to Colorado. Maybe I’ll get lucky on some poor confused 3 legged, 1 eye’d , deaf elk.
