Compound Bow VS Recurve Bow! Which is better

Hi guys, it's me, Lilly, and today I wanted to make a video about what's better, the recurve bow or the compound bow. Stay tuned. Archery is not only an Olympic discipline, but it also makes a lot of fun and more and more people are getting into archery now. It doesn't matter if you are young or older, you can still start shooting bow and arrows. So I myself have shot bows for 13 years now, mostly long bows and recurve bows, and recently I also got a compound bow here, but with this one I'm still a beginner. This video is dedicated for beginners, so if you haven't made up your mind yet, if you want to start recurve bow shooting or compound bow shooting, then stay tuned because today we are going to discuss the pros and cons of these bows. Let's talk about the first criteria which distinguishes the two bows from each other. The first criteria which is important is, of course, the price. In general, recurve bows are much cheaper than compound bows and it's pretty clear why because if you take a look at the compound bow, you have a lot of, you know, technical parts which cost a lot in manufacturing and which need a lot of time for assembling, and a recurve bow is much cheaper because it only has like two screws and one razor and two limbs and one sinew. So it's pretty clear that if you look at the price, that the recurve bow has an advantage. The next criteria that I wanted to talk about is the weight. The weight of a recurve bow is quite low as opposed to the weight of a compound bow. So this bow here is, I believe, more than double the weight of the recurve bow. Now why is the weight important? You can say, I don't care, I have a car and throw in the bow into my car and that's true. But let's say, for example, you want to make a camping trip and you already have a lot of stuff with you and your pack is already very heavy. So maybe the lighter recurve bow is a better choice. And also, when you're shooting with the compound bow, it's pretty heavy. This model here is pretty heavy. And yeah, after a time of shooting, I'm not shooting that well anymore because I'm starting to shake because it's so heavy. So you really have to train much more with the compound bow so that you build up your muscles and so that you don't shake anymore and shaking interferes with your accuracy. The next criteria that I want to talk about is the pack size. And this here, the recurve bow, is a takedown bow. So I can easily unscrew these two screws and then stick all of the parts into my rucksack and just go, you know. So not all of the recurve bows come as a takedown version. So yeah, my personal choice is I want to have takedown bows because then transportation is much easier. The pack size of the compound bow is pretty big and heavy and actually you can't really disassemble the bow for traveling because otherwise you would need a bow press to set it up again. So pack size of the compound bow is not so great. So when it comes to traveling on foot, maybe the recurve bow again is the better choice. Next I want to discuss the repairability. Let's say for example, you rip off the limb here or here. Well, if you rip off the limb, then there's nothing you can do anymore. Then the bow is destroyed. But ripping off or breaking a limb doesn't happen so often. So probably what's happening with a higher chance is that you maybe rip the sinew, the bowstring and maybe you cut it by accident or I don't know, maybe you slip and you fall onto a rock and you damage the bowstring. What also can happen is that you rip off the cables of the compound bow. Now let's say I rip off the bowstring of the recurve bow. What can I do? I can take some paracord and make an emergency bowstring. Of course paracord is not going to be as fast as this artificial bowstring here, but it will still do the job. Now the problem is with the compound bow, if you rip off anything here, you can't really repair it in the wilderness. And also you have many other parts which are very sensible. For example, if you break something at the camps here, how would you repair it in the wilderness? It's impossible. And even if you have a second cable with you, you would need a bow press so that you can string the cable onto the camps. So if you ever have a problem with your compound bow, it's very unlikely that you can repair it in the wilderness. So again, one more point goes to the recurve bow. The next criteria that I want to talk about is actually how fast you can learn to shoot with the bow. So my experience was that I've needed much, much longer to learn how to shoot the recurve bow than for example, the compound bow. Now why is that? Because if you take a look at the compound bow, you will see that you have sides. So you have this peep here and you have your side pins. Now basically with the compound bow, you can shoot like a firearm. So if you know how to shoot a firearm, it's not so much different anymore from the compound bow. And also, for example, with the recurve bow, you need to learn how to release and the release is very important. So if you don't do it the same all of the time, then you will shoot differently. And with the compound bow, you have this release here, which has a trigger. So basically every time you release the bowstring, the cable, you will release it the same way. So you don't need to practice your release as you would practice it here with the recurve bow. I've shot with this bow, I believe three or four times. And now I'm already shooting as good as with the recurve bow. So when it comes to learning improvements, the point goes to the compound bow. And if you want to get very good fast, then maybe the compound bow is the first choice. The next topic that I would like to talk about is accuracy. A compound bow is always going to be more precise than a recurve bow. You can't beat the compound bow. Now as you might have noticed, I'm shooting my arrows over the shelf and I don't use aim. But if you get some aim for your recurve bow, you can improve your shooting here as well. However, I have to say, still you're going to be much more accurate with the compound bow. And why is that? Well, as we have discussed before, you have a beep, which is a small hole that you're looking through and you have your sights. So basically it shoots like a rifle and it's very precise. The next thing we already have discussed is the release. So this here is a trigger release and you don't have to practice your release with the compound bow so much. And with this device here, the release is always going to be the same because you just have to press this trigger here. With the recurve bow, it often happens that you sometimes pull the string too much and then the arrow has too much of power and then it shoots higher and something like that. So the release is really one of the most critical things when it comes to accuracy with recurve bows. But here you don't have that problem really because the trigger release is so sensible. And the next thing why it's easier to shoot more accurate with the compound bow is actually because of the cam system. And if you pull the bow first, it's very hard, but then at the end it's very easy to hold and you won't shake a lot. Like for example, with the recurve bow, it's different. If you pull the bowstring, first of all, it's not very powerful, but the more you pull back, the more strength you have to put on the limbs, the more you have to pull and then you're starting to shake. And that's another reason why you are more accurate with the compound bow. So these were the main differences of compound bows and recurve bows. Maybe this video helped you with your buying decision or maybe now you know what you want to start to shoot, compound bow or recurve bow. I personally have to say my personal decision is that my heart is with the recurve bows. I just love shooting them. It makes so much fun. And compound bows are great as well, but for my taste, they are a little bit too technical. But still on the other hand, I have very technical rifles, so that's not really an argument. Let's put it this way. So here in Austria, bow hunting is actually illegal. So I can't bow hunt, and that's why I hunted all of my deer with the rifle so far. And for me, shooting recurve bow, I only do for target shooting and it makes a lot of fun. But if I lived in Canada, for example, in the wilderness, and let's say I would go hunting a lot, then I probably would go for a compound bow because it's much more accurate. I have a friend, he can shoot like into a circle like this at 50 meters with the compound bow, so that's unbeatable. He will never get as good with the recurve bow. So if I was a hunter and hunting regularly in Canada, I would definitely go for the compound bow. But if I just wanted to have some kind of backup for my bug out bag, or if I was just hunting for smaller game, like porcupine, you can easily take down a porcupine with this bow here because you can get very close. And also you can hunt squirrels with the recurve bow. And if you get close enough, like if you have, for example, camouflage clothing, then you can still take down game like bigger game, deer and stuff with the recurve bow. So it's no problem. You just have to practice a lot. Yeah, so this was it. I hope you like this video. Maybe you have some different opinion about the differences of these bows. Please let me know in the comment section because I would really like to know how other people see this topic. And yeah, maybe let me know if you chose to shoot the compound bow or the recurve bow, or maybe you're a longbow shooter, traditional longbow shooter. And yeah, let me know in the comments. And also if you want to see more of these archery videos, please make sure that you subscribe to my channel and hit the notification bell. Thank you for watching and stay tuned till next time.