I was around when compounds came out and I saw how quickly recurves went bye-bye.It was almost another 20 years before 'traditional' archery started making a solid comeback, much of that driven by people who were sick of the so-called 'advances' in compound technology.Now traditional is growing rapidly - and there may be morerecurve and longbow shootersnow thanever before -but still makes up only about 5% of all bowhunters. Not extinct but very smallcompared to the compoundjuggernaut.

You say you'd never switch to a crossbow. At the time, I said I'd never switch to a compound. Some 10 years later, I succumbed to pressure,picked up a compound to shoot tournaments and spent another 20 years doing that. I never hunted more than 4-5 times with a compound though. Today,I find myself wishingI'd ever soiled my hands with one.

Even if the compound doesn't go totally extinct, you have to consider that much of the research and development that is going towards compounds now will have to be focused on crossbows when the day comes. Instead of seeing hot new bows and new features every year, it'll be maybe a new wrinkle every 3-5 years. It'll be the crossbows that get the full treatment because that is where the hot end of the market will be.

I was talking to a guy at a shoot this past weekend who was telling me about his brother-in-law. The guy had never picked up a bow before. Last season, he bought a compound with all the gadgets, was shown the basics and was shooting 3" groups at 20 yards by that evening. He went and bagged a doe the next day.

Doesn't seem to be an isolated incident either.