several things to think about: less junk to haul around, your glove or tab isn't constantly getting in the way, no sights to get knocked out of alignment, and no cams to damage. I've also never found a compound as light as my Toelke Whip. These are the pluses. On the downside, takes a LOT more practice to get good, and because of the length, you can't just toss it on the back of your pack without hitting the limbs on something, either trying to sit on a log, or walking under low-hanging branches. Takedowns are heavier, and arrows-even basic supplies-are not readily available in most of the pro shops I've been in. I get my supplies from 3Rivers Archery simply because nobody between Wenatchee and Kalispell MT has a lot of supplies for trad guys.
I shoot both, but have had a longbow in my hands for over 60 years; there's nothing like the flight of an arrow released from a stick with a string, and a traditional archer (waxing "romantic" here) stands shoulder to shoulder with the archers of Crecy and Agincourt, the horse archers of the Great Khan, the Romans, Egyptians, the Asiatic peoples stretching back through time to Otzi and beyond. We are the People of the Bow (but we might use carbon arrows now.....)
