Choosing between a compound, recurve or crossbow

[Wildman]

Mongolian recurve bow £450 60lb power(more than enough with a skillfull shot) traditionally made and absolutely beautiful. Well worth it IMO

[bigpaul]

(16 October 2012, 17:00)Wildman Wrote: Mongolian recurve bow £450 60lb power(more than enough with a skillfull shot) traditionally made and absolutely beautiful. Well worth it IMO

some people on this site are also on a budget!

[Tartar Horde]

(16 October 2012, 17:00)Wildman Wrote: Mongolian recurve bow £450 60lb power(more than enough with a skillfull shot) traditionally made and absolutely beautiful. Well worth it IMO

That's my baby
I can see you appreciate a fine bow Sir,

I hear ya Big Paul money doesn't grow on trees mate and they are expensive

[bigpaul]

(16 October 2012, 17:40)Tartar Horde Wrote:

(16 October 2012, 17:00)Wildman Wrote: Mongolian recurve bow £450 60lb power(more than enough with a skillfull shot) traditionally made and absolutely beautiful. Well worth it IMO

That's my baby
I can see you appreciate a fine bow Sir,

I hear ya Big Paul money doesn't grow on trees mate and they are expensive

my Slazenger long bow(60 inch) cost £25 in Cheddar Sunday Market, my blue Jacques bow(56 inch) cost £2 in a car boot, i might JUST have been in the right place at the right time but it shows it dosent have to cost an arm and a leg .

[Wildman]

If I was on a budget I would go for the cheap £25 80lb power pistol crossbow. Small enought to fit in any pack and more practical. On the Mongolian bow I must admit I'm a one purchase kinda bloke. Bought so much cheap stuff and realised that i'de actually save money by buying the better of the choices.

[Hrusai]

that mongolian bow is what im aiming for, just gonna take me a while to get funds together in the meantime ill just play with my knackered old crossbow and watch out for any bargains

[NorthernRaider]

(16 October 2012, 17:00)Wildman Wrote: Mongolian recurve bow £450 60lb power(more than enough with a skillfull shot) traditionally made and absolutely beautiful. Well worth it IMO

SMK Cobra 3102 compound bow £79.95 45 to 60 lb draw

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(16 October 2012, 19:11)NorthernRaider Wrote:

(16 October 2012, 17:00)Wildman Wrote: Mongolian recurve bow £450 60lb power(more than enough with a skillfull shot) traditionally made and absolutely beautiful. Well worth it IMO

SMK Cobra 3102 compound bow £79.95 45 to 60 lb draw

So I could but two or three for the price on the mongolian bow and still have plenty left for arrows ?

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(16 October 2012, 16:51)Tartar Horde Wrote: The horse IS my bug out bag, permanent four wheel drive go anywhere runs on grass. £100 for a decent recurve!! I wish lol, more like £300-400, I think we are coming to this from different ends of the archery spectrum NR, buying a few cheap bows and using them for spare parts etc as and when they break down seems to me as false economy, the old adage "you buy cheap, you buy twice" rings true, buy quality and you only buy once. But any bow you can afford, be it from the lower quality end or high is better than none isn't it. Tibbs735 if you really want to get a compound look at the composition of the limbs as this really affects the shooting characteristics. Glass fibre limbs are sluggish and don't store energy as efficiently as carbon composite ones, If you buy a bow where the limbs can be changed for more efficient ones you can upgrade your bow at a later date. On some compounds you can change the profile of the cams allowing different "let off" weights this is useful as you can fine tune the bow for your shooting style. Don't forget folks, you can have the best bow in the world, but it is only as good as the arrows you are shooting, Arrows are the REAl key to archery, but that's a whole different can of worms

No mate you are coming at it from the approach as an archer, I'm coming at it as a prepper most folks I know could not afford to spend many hundreds of pounds on one bow, and as I pointed out the long length of most recurves greatly reduces their practicality for survivalists. 99.9 % of people need a basic reliable affordable and functional utility tool, they need something that can have 90% of its length or more hidden in a rucksack, a tool they can patrol through their home or heavy thicketed woodland with, something they can fire from within a vehicle. something they can hold at full draw for minutes as they sweep a building.

You break your £500 bow and your in a real pickle, I break a £100 compound and just put it back into my store for repair and pick up another from my cache

You are of course 100% correct with your advice for selecting a bow for archery , I cannot fault your decision making process or advice for someone falling wisely in love with the skill of archery. But I'm coming at it from the view point of preppers just wanting an affordable, easy to maintain or replace, compact, easy to use utility tool that can bag two and four legged critters.

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Mind you I reckon that after about ten to fifteen years we will all be making bows from anything we can salvage

[Tartar Horde]

I am an archer and a prepper NR, and I don't agree with your logic but I respect it. There is nothing you can do with a small compound that I can't do with my traditional Mongol bow, when strung it is only 53 inches and it is designed to be small and pointable. I can't see the point of having 90% of your weapon hidden it just makes it harder to get to when you need it, if everything has gone to SHTF why do you need to hide it?
I use mine in woodland all the time and have never had a problem at all. As a prepper I take the long view that if civilization goes tits up you need tools that will last a lifetime, my bow will be handed down to my son, I still maintain that after decades of living post SHTF that you will run out of parts for a compound due to wear and tear no matter how many you have. Breaking a bow is a very real possibility, but this is countered by buying the best style you can afford, this is why BMW cars are better than Fiats because they are built better to last, but shit can happen that's why I have a number of bows.
The bottom line for me is that traditional bows are way more reliable than compounds due to the fact that there is little that can go wrong with them, I don't need to take a tool kit to fix my bow in the field, just a spare string which I can change in seconds. Try changing a compound bow string in the field and you will see what I mean. If you are hunting and a compound string breaks that's it your hunting is over. If you have to rely on a compound bow for defence and the same thing happens, I can't see your attackers politely waiting till you set up your bow press etc to fix it, reliability is safety
Whatever bows we all use the golden rule is practise practise practise
vive la difference brothers

[NorthernRaider]

I forgot to mention that in many cases the family have to choose only one bow, and that bow has to be able to be used by mum, dad and kids if neccessary, few girls can erasily string, never mind use a full sized 60 pound bow, the same applies to most teens, but compounds like the Vortex can be adjusted simply without tools from 25 pounds to 40 pounds, this the compound wins on flexability as well as size.

Like I often point out a major requirement for many preppers is home security so a compound can be left indefinately strung ready to use, most recurves and long bows cannot cos they take a set if left strung. And of course a bow only 30 inches tip to tip is far more manouverable in a house or vehicle than a full sized recurve which tend to start at 54 inches.

Trad bows I agree are more reliable than compounds but their use is greatly restricted by their size and the fact they have to be strung before use or unstrung when not in use. If I only needed a bow for outdoor hunting I would probably go the same route as yourself, but i need a bow for applications that an ordinary bow just cannot do.
Vive La difference

[Skean Dhude]

That is why we discuss things here.

each person is different, that limits their choices, they may have limited funds, they may need to cater for other users, they have limited storage, they need to carry in a small pack, they may not be practical and need to have a built unit.

This makes us unique and so all we can do is point out our choices, why we made them and let others make up their minds.

What is good for one may be useless to someone else. We need to remember that.