Considering a compound bow

The indians were quite successful using bows against the calvary in self defense.
 
A bow and I mean any bow would have pretty limited self defense use. I could see if someone was breaking into your house and had a weapon and you had a bow from a distance or upstairs shooting down..... then maybe!

As Tgace mentioned before though a bow still has military applications in the right setting.


Recurve, compound, crossbow, hornbow I have shot them all for a long, long time. Recuve is clearly the easiest to use but..... not as accurate or efficient on average as a compound or crossbow but fun. A compound though as mentioned before does come with a lot of tackle that needs to be taken care of, fine tuned and maintained. However, when it comes to accuracy with a mechanical release they are far beyond anything but a crossbow with a scope. A horn bow is a whole different beast. Shot with the Asian draw (Mongolian draw) with a thumb ring they are really fun but incredibly challenging for anyone trained on the Mediterranean draw. (ie. three finger) Still they are amazing and when I trained on mine with a Korean expert it was a lot of fun and challenging! Yet for pure shooting pleasure I would pick a compound and or crossbow any day of the week! That is after about thirty some years of shooting. I can take a beginner on a compound bow built for them and that first day I can have them shooting some bulls eyes.
 
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The indians were quite successful using bows against the calvary in self defense.

You might want to crack open a history book and reconsider this statement.
And of course, soldiers vs soldiers has nothing whatsoever to do with self defense.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.
 
As many people have mentioned, a bow is not on the short list for self defense. Compound bows shoot great but require more tackle than a recurve. You might want to consider a take-down recurve for simplicity and ease of storage.
 
I started traditional and only briefly dabbled with compounds. In total, I've maybe two or three hours behind a modern compound, but I found it very helpful in improving my traditional shooting. For me, though, the compound didn't offer enough of an advantage of my longbow to justify keeping it. I didn't really like the high investment/cost, physical weight, or sight/release. After less than a month I sold it and simply started shooting my longbows like the compound- dropping down to a lighter draw weight, holding at full draw, standing up straighter, aiming, and exercising more control during the shot. My shooting has certainly improved.
 
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