Long bow or recurve?

[deerfly]

Like many I cut my teeth bowhunting with a recurve and shot them for decades sans a short compound stint in the early to mid 80's. I didn't try longbows until about 20 years ago. The quietness and simplicity is what grabbed me immediately. Bought a beautiful 62" Massie Longhorn, great shooter but could never get it quiet enough and sold it. I replaced it with an owl quiet 68" Hill cheetah. I shot that bow almost exclusively for about 8 years. Loved to shoot it but got tired of fighting the length in the tangled swamps and grunge I hunt in most often. Next I tried a 58" Great Norther critter gitter special and the Hill rarely came off the wall over the course of 4 years. Went on a recurve binge last year and got that out of my system. This year I wanted a t/d longbow and decided to try a 54" Toelke Pika and its now my go to rig for hunting. The Pika gives me all I need in a hunting bow, short, quiet, fast and very pack-able when I need to do that.

[bluemelonchitlin]

I started with recurves. After several years two HH longbows found their way in my arsenal. Spent weeks trying to shoot these bows. Never mastered them. Sold them and bought a recurve.  With that said go with a recurve for the simple matter that recurves are generally easier to shoot. But...
Recurves do tend to be noisier but are faster overall than longbows.
Now I own 14 recurves (52" and up) and 1 68" longbow. One of my recurves is a 64" Bill Stewart Signature. Fast and quiet. The longbow (which I finally tamed) is my tied with the Bill Stewart for my favorite.
My comments are probably not much help and I rambled so just take it like it is.
Just spend some time with as many different types of bows as you can.

[JD Page]

As a kid started with the longbow (Scouts) switched to a recurve for about thirty + years..now I'm a pretty solid fan / shooter of the longbow once again. I feel it's more of what I want in a hunting bow.

[dnovo]

I started with recurves growing up til I got a compound for 3 years. Sold the compound in 1980 and went to a HH longbow. I've been shooting a longbow of one brand or another ever since. I do shoot a recurve for bowfishing but prefer the clean simple lines of the longbow for everything else. I do have about 12-15 recurves, bu also have 12 longbows.

[Gooserbat]

For my entire life I thought I was a recurve man.  Then I traded for a longbow and I learned I wasn't a recurve man.  In other words try both, you might be surprised.

[Petrichor]

For my entire life I thought I was a recurve man.  Then I traded for a longbow and I learned I wasn't a recurve man.  In other words try both, you might be surprised.

Same thing happened to me.

[Joshua Grimshaw]

More longbows than recurves, but My go to hunting bow is a recurve with a longbow grip (Widow PSR).