john nail

To me, it's really not about choice of equipment as much as it is an attitude: If you live in a fast-paced world and want success(however you measure it) right away, longbows aren't for you.
But.....
If you hunt to be hunting, love to be in nature, aren't in a hurry, and want to REALLY LEARN TO HUNT, then by all means, try longbows.
You will have a lot of "close calls" before you make a kill......who'd want it any other way?
I can afford to eat anything I want, I don't wrap my manhood around antlers, and if I never make another kill, I've made my share. It's just an entirely different experience with the ancestral weapon.
Good luck.

longbowman

Quilly, welcome! There's been a lot of good advice given here and I just want to add my two cents to it. I started hunting before compounds were legal anywhere so I come from a different place than most. I never went throught the compound phase and then tried traditional. Bowhunting to me has been and always will be hunting with a bow instead of a gun...period. The best advice I can give you is to get a bow that is as heavy as you can handle comfortably (your the only person that can determine that unless you have a very good traditional shop near by), practice as much as you can and never allow any compound shooter tell you that you can't expect to be very accurate because of the equipment you have choosen to use, you'll be hunting the same living deer as the compound guy so get good and have fun. That's what hunting is all about.