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how do they compare?
Easternarcher:
I lost interest in compounds due to gadgets-weight-looks-feel and how they fit in with my interests...
I returned to Traditional archery for the same reasons minus the gadgets! ;) There's my comparison....
billmac:
I confess that I don't have a particular dislike for compounds. I also confess that what made me ask was when we shot our first selfbow yesterday. Turned out pretty well but quite a bit underweight and a little whip tillered. We moved our shop from the basement to an outside shop and it's been really damp so I think the stave soaked up quite a bit of moisture. Anyway it's around 35 lbs and we start shooting it. I haven't made any arrows yet so I just use some carbons and aluminums that I have for the compound. Well of course we aren't very accurate or consistent but we're doing ok and it's fun. So I get my compound out and fire off a few of the same arrows. Holy crap! At twenty yards the speed is nearly instantaneous. (of course I should know this but I haven't shot it in over a year) If this was just target archery I don't think I'd care at all, but I'm leery of deer jumping the string. Ah well, once we get a bow up to around 55lbs and get better at tillering I'm sure I'll be less concerned.
Easternarcher: I made my first string yesterday. Pretty easy once you know how. As soon as I figure out how to do the serving I'll send the video along. Thanks Chris.
Justin Snyder:
Don't worry about a deer jumping the string. People have been harvesting game with these bows for thousands of years. I shot a pronghorn at 20 yards and he hardly flinched. He didn't even run when the arrow hit. He trotted out about 45 yards and stopped and looked back before toppling over.
I don't have anything against compounds either. It lost a lot of its fun for me when all the gadgets came in to style, releases to be exact.
A couple of days before my first hunt with a longbow, I had a splinter rise. I fixed it and got out my compound. I shot the compound and I could hear something loose and vibrating. I took it to the bow shop and they said that nothing was wrong. I shot it some more and got used to it. When the sinew was dry on my longbow, I shot it then the compound. The compound sounded like a rattly old cattle truck driving down the road compared to the whisper of the longbow. Also at 170 fps the arrow covers the 20 yards in .35 seconds. I would be willing to bet you that 99.9% of the deer that people say jumped or ducked the arrow missed outright. The deer then reacted to the arrow that just passed. If I throw a baseball past your head you will duck even after the ball goes by, its the same thing. It just happened so fast and none of us wants to think we just missed so we believe the deer just heard the string and saw the arrow and moved. ;) If it did move before the arrow got there, it was reacting to your movement or you making noise, not the bow.
If you think your bow soaked up to much moisture, place it in a hot box until it dries out. If it hasn't already taken too much set, it should get a bunch of the weight back. Justin
Sorry Danna, i guess more fun would have been more appropriate. ;D
Pat B:
I was watching NC public TV last night and they were talking about "archery in the schools" program. The kids were shooting compounds but another thing that I noticed was that these kids(8or9 to 17yo) were shooting with fingers and without sights. They were competing with their peers and obviously enjoying themselves. I consider this archery. At this stage, the "tool" doesn't matter that much. A percentage of these kids will be introduced to traditional and/or primitive archery and go that route. It all depends on path that we, as individuals, want to take.
The world of compound bows, today(IMO), is more of a marketing program than it is a sportsman's or archery program. As a tool, the compound bow is incredible. If that is the way folks want to go, that's fine to me. I have chosen a different path to travel. There are more differences between compounds and self bows than comparisons(IMO). Pat
venisonburger:
Compounds give blistering speed and the feeling of invincibility, the idea that since you can punch through a shoulder, accuracy may not be as critical,a false comfort that, you don't have to wait until the animal gets close enough for a precise shot, being able to brag to your hunting buddies that you have the fastest jet speed arrow flinging machine on the planet for the year.
Primitive, traditional bows make us wait until we know the animal is in our comfort zone, that the training and discipline that we worked on for the past year will put that arrow in the kill zone since we don't have 325fps to break every bone in the animals body. It gives us the ability to brag to our hunting buddies that we have the most beautiful wood, or design, or that we made it ourselfs.
We all want the same result I think, an animal that is harvested ethically. We are all individuals, thats the beauty of being an american, we don't have to all do the same thing or not be able to do something at all. I still believe that we as Archers have to stick together, but there's nothing saying we can't try and convert some of the compound hunters over to the fun of primitive/traditional archery.
VB
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