I posted this under bowhunting, but this seems to be a better place.

I have been bow hunting (with a compound bow)for 11 years. I am taking a 120 class buck every year, so I decided to make it a little harder. I thought about buying a recurve. What shoud I look for in a recurve? With my compound I am shooting 70# and have a 29" pull. I have heard I need to drop some poundage when going to a recurve. What poundage should I use? Does the length of a recurve make a difference? I have seen 4 1/2 to 6 feet long recurves. I would perfer shorter, but do I lose accurace, speed, ??? I am thinking 50-55# 4 1/2-5 feet long, but that just sounds good, I have no reason to settle on those numbers.

Now for the arrows. I played around with making some cedar arrows about 7 years ago, but I didn't know what I was doing (I don't think). I think I was cutting them to about 29 1/2 inches and putting a 145 gr tip on it. It seems to weigh a ton. So how should I make them? How much longer than my draw lenght, what tip weight, Helical?, feathers I assume, etc. What overall weight am I looking for?

thanks for the help.

Hi stinkbelly. I'd recomend about 45-50 pound pull. Remember that you may have a 29 inch draw with the compound. But you will probably have around 27-27.5 inch with the recurve.

I just started shooting a recuve and my draw is 29" on a compound and 28" with the recurve.

Yup, sounds about right. Nothing to get too technical on.

As far as length of the bow, I don't think you will have a hard time with a bow stacking at your draw. For someone like me, if I were to buy a bow off the shelf with a 28" draw, I'd have get get a very long bow to avoid stacking and finger pinch.

One thing to keep in mind about bow length. A recurve's length is measured following the contour of the limbs. It's actual length when strung up will be around 4" less than it's AMO length. So they aren't really as long as the numbers make them seem.

Longer bows are more stable and easier to shoot accurately, for sure. I think a good length for a beginning bow for someone with your draw length would be between 58-60". Once you get your recurve shootin' form down and are getting pretty good, then you might start experimenting with shorter bows.

For someone who regularly shoots a 70 pound compound and is just starting with a recurve, I wouldn't recommend getting anything heavier than 50 pounds, and 45 pounds would be even better. The lighter you go in draw weight on a beginning bow, the shorter your learning curve will be. Once your muscles get used to the different way they are being used with the recurve vs the compound, you can start working your way up in draw weight.

About arrow weight, you've got some retraining to do. You can go super light on arrow weight with hard cam compounds because the bows generate enough energy to give those light arrows enough momentum for good penetration on game. Recurves don't give you a lot of energy unless you go way up in draw weight. So, you have to rely on arrow weight to give you the same penetration potential you get with your compound.

For instance, a 700 grain arrow at 150 fps has the exact same momentum as a 350 gn arrow at 300 fps. Even though the 700 gn arrow is only carrying 35 ft lbs, penetration potential will be very similar to the 350 gn arrow with it's 70 ft lbs of energy.

I think it's best to keep your arrow weight between 9-12 grains per pound of draw weight with a recurve. Your actual arrow weight will be much lighter. and a good deal faster, than the arrow in my example above.

Arrow length. Some guys like to cut their arrows so that the back of the broadhead blade will touch the index finger on their bow hand at full draw. They mount the broadhead vertically on the arrow and use it as a draw check, to make sure they're drawing to their anchor. I'm kinda skittish about getting a sharp blade that close to my finger[:-] so I like my arrows long enough to keep the blade 1/4" to 1/2" inch in front of that index finger. My personal preference.

The real deal though is to cut the arrows' length so that their spine matches your draw weight. With compounds, you tune the bow to the arrow. With recurves, you not only tune the bow but also tune the arrow to the bow.

Don't worry. It all sounds a lot more complicated than it really is.

I have an old 42# recurve I bought 10 years ago. It is still a shooter. I was thinking it was light for hunting. I can start with that. I need some arrows. How do I determine the correct spine for a 42 # bow at about 27.5 inch draw? I have some cedar shafts left over from 10 years ago. They have been in my studythe entire time. Should I use them? I don't know what they are except that 10 years ago I thought they were the correct ones.

It's hard to say exactly what arrows your bow will like, stinkbelly. A starting point would be to just buy some 40-45 spine cedars and see how they do. You might find out your bow likes 35-40's better. It might like 45-50's better. There's some wiggle factor involved, and it takes some experimenting to get everything just right.

The good thing about recurves is, once you get everything just right, you take note of your nock height, brace height, arrow spine and length and you can get everything set right back up in a matter of minutes. You never have to go back to square one unless you make a dramatic change, like switching from dacron string to fastflight, or go from wood arrows to aluminum, or something like that.

Check your state's regs to make sure your 42 pounder is legal. Some states have a minimum 45 pounds. As long as you stick to shots within 20 yards, have good, sharp, cut on contact heads and keep your arrow placement in the heart/lung area, you won't have any problem with that bow.

Check your state regs. For example, I believe minimum draw in our's is 45# somewhere in a 28" draw.

For the record, Arthur's post wasn't there when I started mine... Honest

What everyone else said. Your #42 bow might be legal if your draw length is a bit longer. When I switched bows, I went from a 31" draw on the compound to a 28" draw on the recurve. The longer bows are probably a bit more forgiving and the finger pinch may be noticable on the shorter bows. I know I sound like a broken record from other posts, but shooting before buying is always the best way to find the best bow for you. Have a blast with that recurve. Grab a buddy and go stump shooting, you'll be surprised at how much funner it is to shoot.