WELCOME Anautical45, Calling Dave at Wyvern is good advice. Reading the forum threads is also very informative as long as you pay attention to what folks LIKE about their bows. Recurve shooters love their bows and compound shooters love their bows. Some shoot both and love both. They both have advantages and disadvantages. It's true that recurves are pretty simple and easy maintenance but I haven't heard anyone grumbling about adjusting compounds. Once they are set, they are set, except normal wear and tear on strings. So there you have it! You still don't know which kind you want.

The top companies all have good bows and customer service. They want your business and want to keep it. Your responsibility is to shoot some bows or at least shoulder some to see what really feels comfortable to you. Some are balanced differently than others. Choose a bow that is going to be fitting the way YOU hunt. And if you like to target shoot alot (like me) you may not want a heavy draw bow because you may tire cocking it alot. Remember that it takes 25 to 41 lbs of KE for whitetail deer and the slower bows put out around 70. Anything from 150 lb draw and up is more than adequate to take most game. If you are into screaming speed, there are bows for that too and they are fun as heck to shoot (maybe a bit pricy). Look at Excalibur, TenPoint, Parker, Horton and some of the other top companies......and.......talk to Dave at Wyvern!!

Good luck, Shopping for it is part of the fun.