Making the Transition Using a Transition???

[BigCountryOK]

Hey All,
   I grew up shotting recurve and in my youth went to a wheel bow. Now I'm wanting to transtion back to trad gear and hope to be ready for deer season next year.  (gona stick with the wheel bow for this year)

   I have two bows a recurve and a long bow.  The recurve is 45# @ 28in and the longbow is 60# @ 28in. They are all I have.  I thought I would try to start with the recurve since it's lighter and once I master it, move to the longbow.

   My question is how difficult is it to transition from a recurve to a longbow and would it cause issues for someone who has been out of the trad game for 20 years?

[House]

Can't answer the transition from recurve to longbow question, I'll leave that for someone else, although I feel it is always dependant upon the individual.  However you have definately made the right choice in going with the 45 pound bow to begin with.  When I first came to trad eight years ago I was shooting 70+ pounds with wheels and to be perfectly honest struggled with a 52 pound longbow for the first month or so!

Good luck and keep at it!

Travis

[Stinger]

Brian,

I'm guessing there are a lot of us here that have followed a similar path back to trad.  In making that journey myself I found that it depends on the longbow.  I started out with a recurve and then have been trying different longbows for about 2 years.  For me, I found that the straight D style longbows with a straight riser are difficult to shoot as well as a recurve, but I have not had a problem with those that have a locator type grip.  My problem with the grip may be exacerbated by the fact that I have a fused joint at the base of my thumb.  Also the reflex - deflex longbows seem to shoot closer to a recurve for me.  Your experience may vary depending on what type of longbow you have.  MY favorite longbow so far has been the Leon Stewart Slammer.  It is smooth and quiet.

BTW, it is smart that you are starting out with the lighter draw weight bow.

[BigCountryOK]

I have an old bamboo backed reflex/deflex longbow.  It may be close enough to the recurve so that it won't be an issue. Never tried to change like that so I don't really know.

[amar911]

I have been shooting recurves for the last 53 years but only started shooting longbows about 3 years ago. I now have a bunch of longbows, although each of them has at least a little reflex/deflex, and some have a lot. Shooting the longbows took a little bit of adjustment, but I think most of that was getting used to lower, smaller grips than the recurves I had used over the years. When I tried longbows with grips similar to my recurves, like Morrisons, there was not really any big difference in the feel. Now that I have 40+ bows that are both recurves and longbows, I switch from one kind to the other without even think about it. I'm sure if I shot only one bow I would be a better shooter; however, I now find there is just as much difference in feel between some recurves (or longbows) as there is between a recurve and a longbow.

Allan

[zetabow]

My personal view is that it's a little harder to learn good form with Longbow so I would suggest learning the basics with the Recurve and then start to shoot both and then decide what you enjoy shooting the most.

I found using the Recurve during winter months was a good idea as I would ruin my woodies shooting longbow into frozen targets during our cold winters (-15 to -34C) so the Recurve\\Carbons was easier for me and arrows, then in the spring I would switch back to the Longbow\\woodies, the upside to this choice was that it really helped develop my form for the Longbow.

I've enjoyed the Recurve so much that this winter I decided to keep shooting the Recurve all of next year.