I'll tell a bit of my story and what has worked & let you decide what (if anything) to do with it. At age 14 I got my first bow -- a compound but pretty much shot with my fingers. I worked up to about 67# and by the time I was 16, I was putting 6/6 arrows on a 3x5 card & hitting pie plates at 80 yards -- not bad for shooting fingers, I think. But I hated how fragile everything was. One hiccup and the system fails. And since 99.999% of hunting is just walking around in the woods, I wanted something lighter and simpler. So I picked up a used 53# Browning recurve & tried my hardest to shoot traditional. Never could get the hang of it and that recurve was a beast to hold at full draw. At the time, I weighed about 160 lb and could bench 275 lb so I wasn't a scrawny kid. Then college happened and that pretty much ended archery for me.
Fast forward 20+ years & I've learned a few things. Form first. I bought a Samick Sage so I could scale the limbs up and down as my strength and skills progress. I started with 30# and even that was a challenge. For perspective, the years have been kind to me so far and although I don't think I could bench 275 right now, I'm in better shape today than I was back then. 30# was a good starting place to work on form. I also got a clicker. Once I could group consistently at 20 yards with that 30# & kid arrow setup, I went up to 45# limbs. That was a big jump & took some practice before I got my form back. I probably should have done only 40#. I now have a set of 50# limbs but pretty much only use my 45# limbs to hunt with. By the way, I draw about 27" so we're about the same there.
For me, it helps to forget about what I think I'll want or need 5 years from now and focus on what I need to work on today. With dedicated practice, it will take a couple months to get your form down and scale up to the next level. At about $75 for each limb set, it's worth scaling up slow. A Samick Sage isn't something to brag about but it gets the job done just fine -- much like a used Ford will get you from point A to B just as well as a new Mercedes (European Ford). Whether it's a PSE, Ragim or some other brand doesn't matter too much at this point. Focus on form & technique. Pro athletes aren't good because of their equipment -- they're good because they've practiced a ton. So a light bow (max 35#) will help you get the skills you need to be a good archer so that you can actually do something with that 50# bow when you finally get it. I may upgrade to something nicer at some point but for now, it works. Besides, I've started enjoying selfbows (I'm not the best bowyer) so maybe I'm regressing.
One last thing -- I wanted to learn instinctive but never could get the consistency I wanted. Granted, I can't reliably hit anything with a thrown rock either so maybe that's my problem. Gapping has worked well for me so far. It isn't nearly as sexy as instinctive shooting. But it's darned reliable. Try all the methods & find what works. Top-down methods (I like this therefore I will make this work) are always less reliable than trial and error (I use this because I've found it to work better for me). Who knows, you may find yourself face walking with a horsebow and thumb ring many years from now. It doesn't really matter. Enjoy the journey!
Topic: Switching from compound to recurve. (Read 1651 times)
