I've hunted with everything from a 72" longbow down to 58" recurves, 48" compounds down to 36" compounds. Been successful with each. My favorite stickbow length is 68", favorite compound length is 46-48". With my draw length, the longer sticks don't stack as bad. The longer compounds allow me to use multiple anchor points and let me get the peep close to my eye for better visibility. String angle is the key.

On both targets and game, I shoot much better, and much more consistently, with my old 48", 65% letoff, ProVantage Legacy than I do with my newer, shorter, high letoff compounds.

What works for me isn't the only way to go though. One of my friends has a 28" draw and was shooting lights out with an MQ32. He decided he wanted a longer bow for more consistency and got a Q2XL. The poor fella's shooting went straight down the tubes.

He just knew it was the bow. I shot it and even with my elbow bent at about a 45 degree angle (so I could get his 28" bow to anchor instead of my normal 32" draw), I stacked 5 arrows in a 1" circle at 20 yards. The last 3 arrows cut vanes and were all touching. It wasn't the bow. He and the bow were simply mismatched.

Even though there are exceptions to every rule of thumb, I am a firm believer that the length of your bow should be matched to your draw length.