Around here, you don't have to mess with whether you're shooting 'true tradtitional' or not. We're pretty open minded around here.Some of us might poke fun at jimmy for using a trigger though...[8D]Really, unless you're going to shoot tournaments, don't worry about "The Rules."

If youuse a straight but unlocked elbow when shootingwith a compound, you will drop 1-2" on your draw length when going from a compound to a recurve. If you use anoticeable bend in the elbow when shooting a compound, then you might not see any reduction at all, becausethe lack of letoff with therecurve pretty much forces you shoot with a straight elbow.

The old rule of thumb for figuring out how much poundage you gain or lose per inch is, take the draw weight marked on the bow and divide by 20. That will tell you how many pounds that bow should vary per inch from it's marked length. A 40 pounder would be 2 pounds per inch. A 60 would be 3 pounds per inch. That holds prettymuch true until you hit the point where the bow begins stacking, meaning the point where the weight jumps up more than an extra pound per inch.

Unless you go to a very short bow, most bows won't begin stacking until they get to 30" or over so stack is something someone with a long draw lengthlike me has to consider.You won't need to worry much about stack.

To be on the safe side, I'd say get a 45 pounder. That way, if you do wind up drawing 30", you'll still be around 50 but the bow will have enough oomph for hunting deer or black bear if you draw 28". With a takedown, you can just order another set of limbs in higher poundage if/when you feel like you need and can handlesome more horsepower.

About arrows, my bows don't like light carbons. They're noisy and have a lot of recoil with light arrows. I haven't figured out why (probably my draw length?), because even my carbons weigh out around8.5 grains per pound on the 50 pound bows I use. My bows seem to shoot best, quiet and no shock, when the arrows getaround 11 grains per pound.

These days, if I'm not shooting wood, I use Carbon Express Terminators. They're fiberglass/carbon composite so they have the weight I need with the small diameter of ICS carbons, and they're more durable and more consistent in spine and weight than ICS carbons in the same price range. Just something to think about.

On the other hand, it's been a long time (duringthe pre-carbon arrow era, actually)since I shot a metal riser recurve. The extra mass in the metal riser could very well eliminate most of what I don't like about light carbons.

I'd also suggest adding another book to your reading list. "Become the Arrow" by Byron Ferguson. Read everything, try out different techniques, but don't try to directly copy any of theirshooting styles.All things don't work for all people. Take theconcepts you like from each of them and incorporate those things into your shooting while you develop yourown shooting style.

Don't worry about asking a question here that's been asked before if you can't find the answer you need in the archives. There's nothing boring or repetitive about getting someone started with traditional.