Choosing between a compound, recurve or crossbow

[NorthernRaider]

(16 October 2012, 23:00)Hrusai Wrote: way i see it NR your perfect bow your describing, is a slingshot

Naa the perfect bow would be a Charter Arms .22lR carbine or a Ruger 10-22

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(17 October 2012, 06:57)IB1 Wrote: TH

Am I right in assuming that say a 60lb Compound Bow still requires you to draw 60lb but that it is just the last part of the draw that the cams reduce the weight so you can hold longer etc ?

For anyone not used to archery drawing even a 40lb Bow a few times gets bloody hard work after a very short while as i found out when i tried out a friends Bow. After a very short time accuracy really started to tail off, not that there was much accuracy to start with . It was a suprise because my only other experience was at one of those "have a go" days at a country fair where it seemed very easy. My mate pointed out that the bows i was using were probably between 15 and 20lb at the fair.

Defintely not a bit of kit that you can use a couple of times to check it works and then stash away until tshtf, constant practice is required I think.

I would have more chance at killing Flopsie or Bambie with a soggy tomato than hitting it with an arrow after 5 minutes on my mates Bow

With a recurve4 of say 60 pound draw you have to pull and hold that 60 pounds til you shoot, and even after a few seconds that is hard work esp if your patroling not just aiming at a deer. With a compound of the same weight you still have to pull the 60 pounds initially but when you get to the full draw the pullys reduce the draw weight needed to hold the bow at full draw to lin some case as little as 6 pounds (10%) draw weight. Which means you can stay on target ot track a target for minutes rather than seconds, which is great if the deer keeps moving or you are sweeping through your home looking for an intruder. And as i pointed out before the Compound is always strung and ready to use, recurves have to be unstrung. Recurves had the beauty of simplicity and reliability we like but they are generally just two big. There are now recoil free parallel compounds coming out only 28 inches long and are still full power bows.

Both types have a place in our kits but my EDC choice is a budget compound, TH goes equally rightly for a quality recurve cos that works well for him.