Quilly -
My experience ? You pay $500 for a good compound and the accessories (release, peep, good rest/sights), get it tuned right and shooting the right arrows and in 3-5 days you'll be good enough to go deer hunting, maybe sooner. Your accuracy will probabaly be hitting a 4" place quite often, 6-8" almost all the time. As you progress and shoot more, your groups will tighten even more. 20 yards you'll be hitting what you want to.
A longbow/recurve - different ball game. It took me a year of shooting to get confident enough to take my longbow into the woods. I haven't shot at a deer yet (I did miss an elk thanks to a limb), so I don't know how I'll react. Its such a huge change.
Some people are natural instinctive shooters. I'm cross dominant in so its probabaly a bit more difficult for me to shoot. Some people swear recurves are easier to shoot, I think longbows are. I think most people are overbowed.
In short, my opinion is this - if you want instant success, go with a compound. Its a great challenge from a rifle. If you want a much more difficult challenge, try a longbow/recurve. The Ultimate challenge ? Self bows. You could combine them, by getting a nice compound setup and an EBAY recurve/longbow to play with. Either way, PLEASE make sure your bow fits your draw and you, and that its tuned. I would venture to say that most bows made now can be dang god bows, tuning them is critical.
Any more ?? - just ask - this site is filled with some VERY knowledgeable folks.
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