What makes a good hunting bow?

[jonsimoneau]

For whitetail hunting I like bows that are very heavy in mass weight. Habu, Black Widow etc. I prefer them to be 62" minimum and I only draw a touch over 27". Longer bows are more accurate and whitetails out of trees with bows with no sights can be small targets. I no longer care about speed. Quiet is important. I also am much better at tuning arrows than when I was younger so I now prefer less bow weight. 45 pounds is plenty for whitetails and I'm way more accurate with 45 pounds than 55.

[TaterHill Archer]

My answer is a mix of Terry's and Jon's.  First and foremost, it has to be a bow you shoot well.  I've had a few bows over the years that I thought would be the cat's meow and they turned out to be bows I couldn't shoot at all.  I sold the best shooting bow I ever had and wish I wouldn't have.  64" Habu Bushmaster.  It was a heavy bow and shot and smooth and quiet as any bow I ever shot. And I could shoot it well.  I just thought I needed something newer and better.  Oh well. The one issue I had with that 64" bow was hunting out of a ground blind.  I set my ground blind up to practice shooting out of it and the only way I could keep from hitting the blind with the bow was to cant until it was almost sideways.  Had to go to a shorter bow to hunt out of that blind. 

[Wudstix]

Over the last several years I have been favoring 60" D/R longbows, 63-67#.  However, I just recently acquired a Moosejaw Razorback 66" longbow at 61# that may be first to the dance.