What they said
Reallly. Weening (sp?) myself off compounds a few years ago; I found a local bowyer that had longbows and recurves that I shot. I ended up getting a longbow that shot where I was looking. Wasn' t paying any attentiong to the arrow. I just shot the longbow to humor the bowyer. My mind was made up that I wanted a recurve ' cause everybody said they were this, that, or the other.Boy was I happily surprised. (Hummingbird, by Ben Graham) I had Ben make me a longbow.
To me, this is a nice way to get help and buy a bow.
Maybe there' s a traditional shop or group that can help.
I' ve bought used off ebay and D. Farmer' s women-outdoors site. Sometimes you can get a deal on used. That might be later after you shoot some bows and have an idea what you want.
Mc/NC
Later, thought: Go with the 45# advice. Here in NC you must pull 45# for deer with longbow or recurve. Compound shooter can pull 35#. go figure.
I' ve got a Black Widow(used) coming in(I hope). It' s 49# @ 29" (my draw) I thougt this was perfect since BW states it might vary a couple of pounds either way. By the way; with compounds I shot 31" arrows. With longbow pull 29" and cut arrows 30 1/4" .