I had archery in junior high school with recurve bows.
 

I always thought if I hunted with a bow, it would be with a recurve bow. To me, that looks like the most elegant bow style there is. At school, we had recurve bows for PE. I like the traditional quiver over the back as well. I saw bow hunting features in OL magazines as a boy. I once asked my grandfather about what he thought of bow hunting and he told me to go on, kid, get out of here. He must have discouraged me from giving it any more thought. He wouldn't dare put a scope on his hunting rifles he was so old-fashioned. He thought scopes were cheating. I must confess that I have only hunted deer and squirrel with a scoped rifle to date going against my gramps' wishes in that regard.

But I digress. A recurve bow looks much more elegant than a compound bow. Certainly bow hunting deer is more challenging than gun hunting deer. A bow is not as long range as a rifle or even a slug gun. A bow is not as easy to shoot accurately as a long gun. Archery does, however, give deer hunters more seasonal opportunities.

Any recurve bow hunters here? If so, please share with this board any such recurve-bow hunting experiences.

Johnny you're correct in your assumption of the recurve being "more elegant". But technology has a way of stiffling that. Today's compound bows shoot an arrow almost twice as fast as a good recurve bow. And crossbows are even faster!
And to complicate things even further besides sacrificing speed is, especially if you shoot instinctively, is the amount of practice you need to stay proficient with the recurve (or longbow). Plus unlike a say 60# draw compound bow, when you come to full draw you're only holding back 14# @ 80% let off. With a recurve you're holding the full 60#. You'll be using muscles you've never used before. Believe me when I tell you "don't try and be Mr. Macho and shoot a 55# or more recurve." You be perfectly fine with a 40# - 45# draw.
Way back when I started bow hunting which is going on 60 years now all we had were longbows and recurves.(even before I was able to hunt at the legal age of 12 I was already shooting a recurve bow for about 5 or 6 years). I spend hundreds of hours behind my grandfather's house shooting at targets on hay bales.
I shot my first deer, a big fat doe when I was 12 with a Damion Howett Queen recurve that was taller than I was! My next harvest wasn't until I was 16 on a nice basket racked 8 pointer using a brand spanking new Bear Grizzly 40# draw. There were quite a few misses and blown opportunities in between but thankfully I never wounded one. I either hit and killed or missed completely. And I'm thankful for that.
If you plan on hunting with a recurve be sure you have the time to practice, set a limit on your effective range and stick to it. You owe it to the animal to make a quick kill.

Mr. Bronko:

In Oklahoma, the minimum draw weight required for archery deer is 40 pounds. I have heard one must get their anchor point, draw length and release method down pat.
I think with even a barebow, a "sight picture" is still possible. "Instinctive" shooting sounds like trying to hit a target with a blindfold on. Sighting furniture is attached to some trad bows, but the esthetics look tacky. From what I understand in barebow, the human firing eye is the rear sight while the arrow point is the front sight. The string position relative to the target comes into the sight picture too. Consistency in form is king to hitting something desirable. I think ethical range is point-blank range. This is the distance the arrow stays flat or within the kill zone (with deer in mind) without hold-over/under aim adjustments. Maybe 25 yards max for a 40 pound recurve barebow matched to the correct hunting arrow?

There is a hge difference between using a sight on a recurve bow and shooting instictively. With a sight the bow MUST be held vertically and your sight are set for various yardages. Shooting instinctively the shooter usually has the bow canted (top to the right for a right handed shooter). This is an advantage actually for hunting because you can shoot at various positions like standing, kneeling, even sitting. Shooting instinctively is like throwing a rock or baseball. You don't aim. You just haul back and throw. With practice you get better and better with your accuracy - same with the recurve. And maximum effective range is also personal. Again, look at a baseball player in the outfield. If he was limited to 25 yards he could never throw a perfect ball to the catcher covering home plate. That is why practice with a recurve (or longbow) is so important. And practice does not make perfect. PERFECT practice makes perfect.
My advice if you have it is to go to an archery pro shop that deals with traditional equipment and let them show you the proper form. A good read is "become the arrow" by Byron Ferguson.
What I can tell you is that your grip, anchor point and draw length must stay consistent for repetitive accuracy. Shoot at a 2" circle at 10' first. Only shoot maybe 6 - 10 arrows and do this for several days. Yes it sounds boring but it works. Then go back to 20 feet then 40, etc. With proper and regular practice your effective range will increase. If you can get it out to 30 yards you are good for almost all bow hunting in the woods as most shots are even less than that. Not sure what your terrain is in OK but if its more open country you may have to extend your effective range. That's a lot of practice but possible. Good luck

I found this series by Mr. Vogt.

https://www.youtube.com/c/VOGTLANDOUTDOORS/videos

He is talking about string walking and the Olympic style chin anchor point for barebow archery. This uses the point of the arrow as the front sight and the left edge of the string as the rear "peep" sight. He talks about getting the bow calibrated for various yardage. The draw hand position is lowered a certain distance below the arrow nock to get the correct elevation for the range.

Bronko, have you tried the chin anchor method as well as string walking? Is the instinctive method what you you use? Is mastering instinctive shooting still the recommended way to fly? Instinctive shooting or point shooting seems to work well for handgun combat when mastered.

As an army rifleman, I became so accustomed to weapons with formal adjustable sight systems. Mil-spec iron sights, front post/rear peep. Yes, sights are almost like a crutch. With a rifle, the importance of cheek weld was stressed. I figure the bowman's anchor to be something of an analogy to the cheek weld for the rifleman. As a rifle hunter, my experience has been with a scoped centerfire rifle. Yes, scopes for rifles and even pin sights for archery bows seem like training wheels on a bicycle. String walking and chin anchor seem to be introducing a formal no-guess sighting system into barebow shooting. Mr. Vogt on his You Tube channel doesn't seem to like the notion of mere guesswork (aiming at an imaginary point in space as he says) while trying to get the arrow onto its mark in barebow archery.


I guess I could talk to the folks at my local archery shop and ask questions as you have suggested ,sir.

I'm an experienced long gun hunter and was an expert rifleman in the army. The main kick about this notion of taking up barebow archery is to get into the deer archery seasons for extra opportunity to harvest a doe for the freezer. Like a plastic bullpup ugly black rifle, the compound bow adds no warmth to my heart. A pretty wooden riser recurve bow is like a pretty blue/wood/checkered Mauser-action bolt-action rifle to my eyes.

I had archery for PE in the 8th grade. Fall of 1977. Recurve bows. Barebows. I think I could get the arrows on the target maybe half of the time at about 25 feet at age 13. I can't remember precisely what aiming methods the teacher taught it was so long ago. I never stuck with archery after that short course.

I didn't watch that video but just looking at the image IMO that serves no purpose in hunting situations. Some of the best practice you can do for hunting with a recurve is called stump shooting. All that is is getting a bunch of arrows (blunt tips preferred) and take a walk through the woods picking out targets at varying ranges and shooting at them. Rotten stumps, grass clumps, mushrooms, anything sort of soft. This give your brain valuable information on judging distance and improves your hand/eye coordination with your bow. And if you do it with a buddy its a lot of fun.
As an afterthought I found my best anchor point is my middle finger in the corner of my mouth, bow at approx a 45* cant. I also don't put a "death grip" on my bow but hold it only with my thumb and index finger with the remaining fingers curled up. That works for me.

Mr. Vogt in his video claims to have killed deer while bow hunting and using his barebow recurve with his aiming methods. Of course, he's always demonstrating in a standing field archery position. Might his methods work in kneeling, sitting, tree stand or ground blind field positions, I don't know. I've seen a few other videos talking about instinctive aiming, gap aiming and string walk aiming. Different methods work best for different archers. No one way is a one-size-fits-all. Through trials and error, we will stumble upon what works best for us and out shooting situations over some time. I had one army sergeant during range practice insist that I squeeze the trigger of my M16 with just the tip of my trigger finger but I found that painful in my finger joints and uncomfortable. I like to curl my trigger finger around the trigger of a rifle, handgun, etc. for better leverage and comfort. During rifle (BRM) qual, I used my usual finger curl trigger method and scored expert.

I had a similar experience, but my husband and I started practising this hobby again. Do not give up if you really like this one because it's interesting. I gained experience in archery, you just need the right equipment, I can tell you where to get it if you are still interested.