Bill Skinner
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I like longbows over recurves, specifically flatbows. I am another who says start light, 25-30 is great to learn on. 40-45 pounds will handle all whitetails, most blackbear, most hogs and about 2/3s of the mule deer you will come across. 50 will handle everything in North America except the largest bears, moose and musk ox. The biggest things about bow hunting are shot placement and razor sharp points.
For hunting small game, a blunt or bludgon style point is preferred. You can use old broadheads, that gets real expensive, real quick, you tend to shoot lots at small game and lose lots of arrows. Do not use an unmodified target or field point, it kills by infection a week after you shoot something.
FWIW, I love to squirrel hunt with a bow. I have used up to 82 pounds, my normal hunting bows are 50-60, my flatbow is mid 40's, if I hit the squirrel in the head, the blunt kills it. If I hit it in the body, it stuns it, if I want squirrel for supper, I run up, grab it and finish it off, it is much easier to hit a squirrel if I am not fighting the bow. When shooting up at a very steep angle, you will probably have to move your anchor point to the corner of your jaw. And last, what goes up usually comes down, and after an arrow has hit 6 or 12 branches and deflected all over the place, I have had to duck my own arrow. Bill
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