Trad Gang
Main Boards => PowWow => Topic started by: VictoryHunter on September 27, 2013, 12:43:00 AM
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How did y'all get started with Traditional archery? I have been hunting for four years, three of which have been with traditional equipment. After my first season ended I picked up one of the big name hunting dvd's to pass some time during the off season and in it's special features section was none other than Fred Bear's Badlands Bucks video! Prior to watching that video I didn't even know who Fred Bear was let alone that people still hunted with traditional equipment. Needless to say, from that moment on I was obsessed. I went a bought a Bear Grizzly with all the trimmings, taught myself to shoot, and practiced all summer. I ended up making my first traditional kill that same year, it's the doe in my profile pic. I was just thinking about that today and how much that one little thing changed the way I view hunting, and the outdoors. It changed my life in a profound way. So, now I want to hear y'alls stories!
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I got started in 1958 when I was 14 years old. A friend I graduated with had a Bear bow, don't remember the model, that he let me use and that was it. Took me a couple of years to get my own bow. I think it was 1961 when I got my first bow. Started hunting big game in 1966.
I often think of the lad who got me going. He's dead now. Thanks Tom!
Hap
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I got started probably in about 1999 or so. I have always loved bows and archery, but had only had compound bows. I had only went hunting a few times and sold my bows. I hadn't had any bows for a couple years and one day I was at the store and saw a TRADITIONAL BOWHUNTER magazine. I thought it was awesome and devoured every single page. I bought the next issue and did the same. I knew I wanted a TRAD bow, a longbow.
I called around looking for prices and availability and such and the guy I was working for at the time saw me and he said he'd like to have one too. SO now I was looking for a place that had 2 bows in stock. I eventually came upon GREAT NORTHERN. After calling and talking to them I found they had a Critter Getter in my weight and a Bushbow in my bosses weight. After we talked about it a bit I ordered them. It wasn't long until they arrived and I thought the CG was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. We started shooting in the garage every day and it didn't take me long until I realized I was overbowed. I made the mistake of ordering a longbow in nearly the same weight as I was shooting a year before in my compound. Great Northern didn't have any others in stock so I had to find something else.
After a bit I was able to find a guy that was a collector/seller of Great Northern bows. I explained to him what happened and I ended up trading him my Critter Getter for a Ghost in my weight. The Ghost was a great bow too, really a looker. I loved the feel of it, the way it shot and the looks. I kept it for a year or so and since I wasn't hunting with anyone and no one was shooting with me, I got bored and ended up selling it. I wish I hadn't now, of course isn't that how it always happens?
I'd love to have a Ghost again sometime or at least a bow built like it. I think it is an awesome bow for hunting especially in closed in quarters.
So, that's how I got into TRAD shooting. Never looked back.
Nalajr
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1962 was when I started. No such thing as traditional archery then. It was all traditional. I was only 7. My father and my brother both shot bows. I got a lot of hand me downs. My equipment was pretty cruddy but I had fun. I have been shooting every year since then. I played around with compounds about ten years after they came out but got tired of them after a few years. I have always had a recurve. I find shooting relaxing. Sometimes I have more fun shooting stumps than I do hunting. I stump shoot a lot when hunting. Gary
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My initial introduction was when a friend & I got drawn for a trad only controlled hunt here in OK. Practiced a little & had fun. But that was about it.
Fast forward to a couple of years later, I had seen Byron Ferguson on Impossible Shots show me what a longbow was capable of, and really enjoyed watching Tred Barta on his show, and he showed me that hunting wasn't always going to result in meat in the freezer. That was cool, cuz I thought I was the only person who didn't kill a monster buck every time I hit the woods. It got me interested in doing things "the hard way." Then, I broke my ankle and had some extra time & money, so I bought a Martin longbow.
Between those guys, and TBM, and of course the thrill of connecting with my target with just a stick and a string, well I've been steadily becoming more and more engulfed in my addiction ever since. I just can't get enough now!
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I shot a compound for several years but lost my passion for it. One day I stopped by my neighbors to shoot the breeze and see how his huntin was going. He had a "Thunderstick" longbow and let me draw it, took me into his man cave and showed me his other recurves and longbows. Needless to say, I was impressed and hooked.
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As kids we always made bows out of maple saplings.
when I was around 12ish I bought a green fiberglass 30# Bear bow at our local hardware store and shot that for a long time.
Then HS sports began, soon college, then a career as a teacher and football coach took over my time for 30+ years.
I stopped coaching and was certified in the NASP program so we could teach it in our PE classes and interest started again.
I now shoot only traditional, never having owned a compound.
In fact my first day hunting will be Tuesday, as deer season here in NY opens on that day October 1st!
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I had an Indian archery bow as a kid. It was my constant companion. In the late seventies I decider I wanted to bow hunt and went to the only archery shop I knew about. After looking around at all the compounds I asked the owner if he had any recurves. He didn't and told me " bow hunting is hard enough with a compound, you don't want a recurve" he sold me a compound I hundred with them and shot 3d, really enjoyed them but always stayed with the basics, shot fingers and low let off bows, could not shoot the high let off short bows with fingers.
Then one day I saw a recurve in the newspaper classifieds that was around 1995 bought it and after shooting it on and off for a couple of years I decided. I was shooting it good enough to kill a deer with it. My plan was to kill one deer with a recurve that took me a couple of years to accomplish. But I never looked back and never have hunted with a compound since. Heck I have lost track of time, but it has been around 20 years or so.
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When I was a kid I was looking for a book on Indian lore, Camping, survival, etc. When my eyes fell on a book called "Hunting the Hard Way."
Ever since I read that book I became trad only!!!
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My Grandfather bought me a little yellow fiberglass bow when I was about 6 years old. That triggered my love of archery and hunting grew from that!
Thanks Pap! I still miss hunting with you every year.
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This is great stuff guys! Everyone thanks for sharing your stories so far. Let's keep em' comin!
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My parents gave me a Ben Pearson lemwood longbow, arrows, back quiver and paper target in 1955 for Christmas after I bugged them to death. I was 11. Many Robin Hood movies were out and also the movie Ivanhoe. I staked the target to the hill across the alley and shot through my yard, through the gate, across the alley into the target. The arrows would fall out of the quiver when you bent over and would rattle loudly when you put them back in, kind of a hollow sound. Probably why I never liked back quivers. After a while the arrows became unmatched, missing feathers, some shorter than others and some were unmatching replacements. Oh what fun in those days.
I've never been without a bow since then.
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My Cub Scout Den Mother's husband filled in for her at one meeting, strung a hickory selfbow up, made an arrow from a branch of some sort, and proceeded to ding a paint can. I was hooked. I knew my folks would never let me hunt with a gun (well, at least not for a couple of years, which was the same as never then!), but figured they couldn't stop me from making and shooting bows and arrows.
No hickory was safe on the farm for the next year or so. Finally, for my 10th birthday they bought me a red Bear fiberglass recurve kit at the local hardware store. Honest to goodness, I strung it backwards for a couple of months thinking it was a longbow (I eventually learned to read instructions).
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I've been hunting with a compound for the past 25 years. My buddy asked me to a Tradshoot last August and then the Florida State shoot in Feburary. He let me shoot his Treadway and then let me take it home and continue shooting. Well I've been bitten by the trad bug. Shoot pretty much everyday. Really looking forward to harvesting some game this year, or at least scaring them!!!
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I think I was 7 or 8 when my folks gave me a little lemonwood recurve bow. My grandson still shoots it, though it has taken quite a bit of set over the years. As a freshman in high school shop class, I built a fiberglass/maple laminated recurve bow. I used a piece of walnut my grandfather had cut and cured as the riser. I still have that one and it still shoots pretty well. It has that ugly light green fiberglass that some of the Bear bows had. I had taken the day off from school to help with field work at home (an excused absence back in the 60s) on the day the bow stuff arrived. When I got back the next day, the dark green and black glass had all been scooped up by others, so I was stuck. I think there were 10 or 12 bows made in that class, and to my knowledge mine is the only one that hasn't come apart! One broke the day we test fired them on the football field!
I always wanted a Bear bow. Several of my buddies had them, but I couldn't afford one at the time, so I bought a brand new Herter's Model Perfection 56" 50# recurve with the dark green glass and a dark wood riser (shedua or goncalo alves I think). My eldest son has that one now.
I kind of fell out of bow hunting and hunting altogether for several years due to knee problems. In 2002, I had a total knee replacement. Once I could walk without pain again, I got the itch to get back to bow hunting. I bought a compound at a garage sale, bought some carbon express arrows and a release. I shot it maybe a dozen times and hated it! I took it to my cousin, who had been trad to compound and back to trad. He said, "I know why you aren't comfortable with it. You are used to shooting traditional." He loaned me his Bear Grizzly and I was hooked all over again. I think that was 2005 or 2006. I bought a Mahaska longbow and killed my first deer with it that fall. Several deer and lots of bows later, I still love it. As long as I am able, I will be a traditional bow hunter.
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I think I was 7 or 8 when my folks gave me a little lemonwood recurve bow. My grandson still shoots it, though it has taken quite a bit of set over the years. As a freshman in high school shop class, I built a fiberglass/maple laminated recurve bow. I used a piece of walnut my grandfather had cut and cured as the riser. I still have that one and it still shoots pretty well. It has that ugly light green fiberglass that some of the Bear bows had. I had taken the day off from school to help with field work at home (an excused absence back in the 60s) on the day the bow stuff arrived. When I got back the next day, the dark green and black glass had all been scooped up by others, so I was stuck. I think there were 10 or 12 bows made in that class, and to my knowledge mine is the only one that hasn't come apart! One broke the day we test fired them on the football field!
I always wanted a Bear bow. Several of my buddies had them, but I couldn't afford one at the time, so I bought a brand new Herter's Model Perfection 56" 50# recurve with the dark green glass and a dark wood riser (shedua or goncalo alves I think). My eldest son has that one now.
I kind of fell out of bow hunting and hunting altogether for several years due to knee problems. In 2002, I had a total knee replacement. Once I could walk without pain again, I got the itch to get back to bow hunting. I bought a compound at a garage sale, bought some carbon express arrows and a release. I shot it maybe a dozen times and hated it! I took it to my cousin, who had been trad to compound and back to trad. He said, "I know why you aren't comfortable with it. You are used to shooting traditional." He loaned me his Bear Grizzly and I was hooked all over again. I think that was 2005 or 2006. I bought a Mahaska longbow and killed my first deer with it that fall. Several deer and lots of bows later, I still love it. As long as I am able, I will be a traditional bow hunter.
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Five years ago I moved back to Texas and got the itch to hunt again. Used my rifle to shoot a doe my first year back. While I enjoyed the meat, I did not enjoy the hunt. The following year I switched to a compound and had a blast and took a small buck. I am a gear junky and compounds have too many add-ons and gadgets for my wallet, so I switched to trad thinking I would save money. Wrong, now my money is in arrows. I decided to switch to solely trad and have not looked back. TG has provided me with the opportunity to meet some great mentors like Green and Bisch
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I had one of the best dads a kid could ask for! He never converted over to a compound like most of his friends, and so when I came along longbows and recurves were all I knew. I'm only 31 now and have been shooting with a stick and string for about 30 of those years. I grew up in SE Idaho so my dad and I spent a lot of time chasing elk and mule deer every September. I'm very fortunate to have a dad like I did and I will always take an opportunity to introduce kids to archery and the outdoors.
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My Dad was a chaplain in the National Guard. They trained in Grayling MI in the 60's. Part of his job was to work with local churches and do a little PR for the base with the local folks I suppose. Somewhere in there he met people who were employees at Bear Archery and he was hooked. He got me started with a Darton Ranger in the early 70's ( I still have it). I drifted to compounds for a while but it never had the feel of true acrhery to me, I'm back to nothing but trad now. I'm probably too old and contrary to change so guess I'm staying right here!
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I got a 45# fiberglass recurve for Christmas in high school. My buddy and I shot nearly every day with no instruction except what we'd seen on various hunting shows (and back then, there weren't many).
After a stint in the Detroit Police Dept, (where my day job and dating didn't leave any time for archery), then 10 years in the Army and another 20 years bouncing back and forth between Germany and the US as an engineer with Motorola, I retired back in Michigan.
I still had that old fiberglass bow, so I got a new string for it. That led to a new recurve and my first Trad buck. 5 years later, here I am with way too many bows and loving it :)
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After many years of hunting and 3D shooting with a compound I developed a very bad case of target panic. I couldn't pick my pin up on a target. I debated shooting without sights but decided if I was going to do that I might as well give trad a go.
That was about 7 years ago and I'm so glad it happened. :archer:
Rob
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:campfire:
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I got a red fiberglass recurve for Christmas when I was ten have been hooked ever since.......
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I got a red fiberglass recurve for Christmas when I was ten have been hooked ever since.......
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Been shooting bows since I was old enough to cut down and string a sapling. Around 13 I got my first wheel bow and shot them into my 20's. I became mystified by trad bows and picked one up and promptly missed a couple of critters and put it back down since I knew I wasn't ready. About five years ago a local guy mentioned he had an MA II that he could no longer shoot. After some practice and the constant doubt of my buddies, I carried it to the turkey woods on opening day the same year and arrowed my first bird after less than an hour. I've been hopelessly hooked ever since.
I have to add that the people I've met since then has just fueled the fire. I visited Selfbow19953 a week ago and realized I still have a long journey ahead. You don't find these kind of individuals doing anything else.
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My brother bought me a red, white, and blue recurve about 40yrs ago -- for my birthday or something. I think it was some sort of Bear with a metal riser and fiberglass limbs -- if anyone remembers those bows, I would be interested in knowing what it was. A few yrs later, at about 12yrs old, he took me hunting at Camp Gruber in Muskogee county. He took me in the woods to a side of a hill by a tree and said, "sit here"! He walked off and found his own place. That was my introduction!
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Started when I was 3 or 4 shooting my dad's discarded 45# grizzly stung backwards after being told if you can string it you can shoot it. 20 years later had recently gotten out of the Army and found the grizzly in an out-building and took it in the back yard shooting at a pepsi can, I didn't know it stacked or I torqued the bow or I was completely shooting the wrong arrow but it was fun and it did work sometimes, about the only thing I had right at the time was how the string was on. I have since lost my mind and have roughly a building full of bows and no explanation for how this stick-bow thing works but it still does and it's still fun.
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My brother carved out a bow from a hickory sapling and it had baling twine for a string. I was 5 years old and I have been shooting ever since. That was 1962. My uncle gave me a little red fiberglass bow when I was about 8. At 14 my mom bought me a Shakespeare Necedah. Look out squirrels and groundhogs. This was all when it was just archery. I was young and foolish and bought a pse compound in 1977 and sold it in 1980 to start with a Howard Hill longbow. I have been shooting a longbow since then. Archery and bow hunting are my life
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Errol Flynn - Robin Hood watched it every time as a kid. Tried to make my own bow and arrows out of anything I could, used to beg my Mom to buy my arrows and deer targets from the local HW store. I would drool over the recurves in the shop. It lit a fire that never went out.
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I got an Indian Archery bow for my birthday in 1955..all I remember for sure is it was red and my older brother broke it.
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Great thread!!!! Also great stories...love reading this stuff.
I bought a compound at a gun and knife show. 2 weeks later I killed a doe on the second day of deer season. I thought that was way to easy and wanted more of a challenge. So 2 weeks later I had my first trad bow a Martin mamba recurve. Never touched a compound again starting the day the recurve showed up at my door. That was over 20 years ago. Took me 3 years to connect on a deer with trad gear. But that recurve and its mistery, simplicity, and seduction had me hook, line and sinker from the second I shot it.
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My Grandpa used to make me bows when I was little & I would chase the rabbits around the yard & the small woods beside the house.
My 1st REAL bow, was a solid glass "Red Bear" I got for Christmas back in 1966 or '67..... I made my 1st "Traditional kill" with that bow & a WAY overspined Bear cedar arrow tipped with a Bear razorhead.
My friend and I were "hunting" one day... He had a BB gun & I had my bow. He shot a squirrel, and it ran and started climbing a tree. I flung an arrow at it & actualy managed to hit it... I pinned him right to the tree!!! I never had much use for BB guns, after that!!!
My Ma took alot of pictures of me & that squirrel. I wish I still had one.....
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Originally posted by JDunlap:
A few yrs later, at about 12yrs old, he took me hunting at Camp Gruber in Muskogee county. He took me in the woods to a side of a hill by a tree and said, "sit here"! He walked off and found his own place. That was my introduction!
That is one of my favorite places in the world! Seen a lot of cool stuff out there in a short hunting "career." Also the first place I started learning to hunt (with zero guidance, though).
Loving this thread. :campfire:
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As a child growing up in a big city, guns were pretty much out. But the neighbors kids had fiberglass bows and we used them a bunch.
My genetic father died before I was 5 and I really never knew him. Found out later that he used to deer (gun) hunt once in a while. My step-father never hunted and I had no father-like mentor at all, just my own need and desire to be out in the woods. Outdoor shows and Fred Bear had a lot to do with opening my eyes.
Been shooting since I was young, but bought myself a real (Damon Howatt Coronado) bow when I was 15 or 16. I loved that bow. Been shooting arrows and learning since then.
Once the family moved down-state, I met up with and became friends with a fella in my high school whose father hunted and fished constantly. I was "adopted" into that life style and I have used a bow for hunting ever since.
ChuckC
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My journey was a gradual one. I rifle hunted for 40+ years and then I shot a compound bow for about three years. Then about 5 years ago I was in Montana visiting and I stopped by Dan Toelke's shop and when I left I had placed an order for a Whip. Have not shot the compound since then.
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I started in early-mid 70's, use to watch the Fred Bear show on TV and that got me fired up. Dad had a Bear bow that I started with, cant remember what model. Finally turned old enough to hunt in 1977 and the third evening out shot a three pt. Hooked ever since.
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I developed an interest in archery as a kid when I got my first bow as a gift when I was six or seven. A little solid fiber glass bow like most kids had back in the 60's. When I got a little older I shoveled walks and mowed lawns to save money for my first "real" bow, a 30# Pearson recuve. Pretty little bow and probably around 25# at my draw length. I built a hunting weight recurve using Bingham supplies in High School wood shop, a very popular project back then. It came in at 45# when I was done but unfortunately it was stolen.
I was not a deer hunter back then even though I was involved in archery as a hobby. My Dad taught me how to hunt and was my hunting partner from before I could even shoot. Dad was not a deer hunter since he didn't like venison but he was crazy about hunting ducks and grouse...so that's what I grew up on. He used to carry me in a back pack when he went grouse hunting and even took me duck hunting when I was really little if the weather wasn't too harsh. I developed an interest in deer hunting as an adult so I am completely self taught, which probably explains a lot of my early (and present) mistakes...lol.
I have always had some kind of stickbow, I've come to know I'm a recurve guy but I have had several types of longbows and like them too. I also like compounds and have done a lot of shooting and hunting with them. Even though I rarely shoot a compound any more I still have one tuned up and hanging on the wall. I'm almost exclusively traditional these days for both hunting and target shooting. There is just something about the beauty and simplicity of a nice stickbow that is missing from compounds. That's been magnified over the last fifteen years or so as I have accumulated some of the premier bows like Blacktails, Silvertips, Dale Dye's...it's a long list. Comparing any of them to a compound, at least aesthetically, is like comparing a fine single malt scotch to a plastic jug of cheap hooch. That said, to me it's all archery. As long as it's vertical, you pulled it back and held it with your own muscles...we are brothers.
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When I was a kid in the early to md 70's, I remember going with my dad to his friends house. They were all deer hunters. I remember seeing a recurve hung up in the basement with arrows tucked here and there. It seemed like back then, guys bow hunted for the extra tag. I was fascinated by it. I can also remember looking at the magazines at the time; Bowhunter and Bow and Arrow mags....at that time, there were still a lot of guys who hadn't switched over to a compound yet.
We had archery in my school during Phys Ed. I thought it was the greatest thing!! Late 70's dad bought me a Jennings Compound. My dad didn't bowhunt, but his buddy had the archery shop in town. He set me up. About 90, I saw a hunting video "Whitetail Eye to Eye" with Alan Altizer. In one of his hunts, he killed a buck with a Black Widow. I thought that was the coolest thing. I knew a friend of mine had a Hoyt Huntmaster TD recurve. I traded him a Loggy Bayou Hang-on Lite tree stand for it. It was true love!!!!! I shot and hunted with both till the early 2000's then went all trad. I learned from trial and error. It was a great ride!!!
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I grew up in the city, but fortunately we had a cabin in the country that my grandfather built about an hour and a half away. All I wanted to do as kid was go down there, hunt and fish. Slingshot, BB gun, .22, shotgun, rifle was used to chase just about everything that could even remotely considered game. I had a longbow at one point and got to the point that I could hit a tin can at 10-15 yds. every once in a while but never really hunted with it. A couple of decades later I pick up a compound bow and got fairly accurate with it, but never manage to get out hunting with it.
I've hunted waterfowl most of my adult life. I always wanted to get into deer hunting, but just never seemed to get around to it. A couple of years ago a friend of mine and I horse packed into the Sierras and by blind circumstances a small Mule Deer buck wandered by camp on opening morning and I shot it. That got me all faired up for deer hunting and I broke out my old compound and started practicing so I could would have a longer season to deer hunt.
Whenever i get into something I'm interested in I get pretty intense about it. I started going on line and Goggling every subject I could related to archery hunting deer. I stumbled across some videos put out by Greyarcher, Byron Ferguson, Rick Welch and other who were instinct shooting and hitting what I thought were ridiculously small targets. I was intrigued by that and started shooting an old Indian Seneca recurve bow I had traded for some duck decoys years before. I began buying bows on Craigslist and the Internet and haven't shot a recurve since.
I haven't drawn blood on anything with a bow yet, but I have had the privilege of getting close to some real nice bucks.
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Like alot of others I started out with an old bear bow, as a kid. Didn't hunt much with it, but figured out a homemade bowfishing rig. Spool was a big tuna can, string was nylon cord, and modified fish arrows. Didn't kill a lot, but the fish in the farm pond were scared!
Gun hunted for deer in my youth. Then the archery bug got back in my blood. Shot a wheelie for several years. Had a room full of trophies and ribbons, from 3 D shoots. Several critters on the pole, but wasn't what I wanted.
A group of us hunted on the Tombigbee River for years. It was a bow only area. One day we all met up for dinner, then started roving and stump shooting. I was the only one in our camp with a wheelie. They were having so much fun, that I tried it with my bow. A few ruined arrows later, I knew I couldn't comepte with their sticks!
At the last hunt of that year, a friend suggested I get a stick. So I was hooked.
Sterling said he would build me a bow and I could practice and hunt with it the next season. Well things changed and he couldn't build me a bow. I sure was disapointed, until he came out of the Teepee with an Osage Selfbow, that belonged to him. Its name was "Horse". He put it in my hands and told me to learn! Everyone says that was the first time to see me without something to say. Been hooked ever since. Took my first trad deer with it that next season.
Sterling and Russ, another friend, provided me with an Osage stave, and a bunch of advice and mentoring, and I got my first Charcter/Spirit selfbow built. Now you won't see me without that ole crooked stick and a quiver full of river cane, when I head to the River.
I owe much to these two fellows for guidence and friendship over the years. They really lit the fire.
Johnny/JAG
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Back when I was a kid in the late 60's me and my neighbors all had these 25 or 30 lb. fiberglass bows. Let me tell ya the local carp population took a pounding. Then in the mid 70's I bought my first hunting bow. It was a 46# Browning Safari II. I went on my first deer hunt with that bow some time in the late 70's. But I didn't shoot my first deer until about 10 years later. I was using a 55# Hoyt Huntmaster at that time. I did shoot a compound for only 2 years back then.
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Grandpa Bobby would shoot his bow on the lawn every Sunday after dinner. We lined up to watch him. as a child, I thought every family did this on Sunday!
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I traded a gun I made for a longbow and haven't looked back. I traded my wheeled bow for a couple custom knives to match my longbow.
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Originally posted by Sean B:
When I was a kid in the early to md 70's, I remember going with my dad to his friends house. They were all deer hunters. I remember seeing a recurve hung up in the basement with arrows tucked here and there. It seemed like back then, guys bow hunted for the extra tag. I was fascinated by it. I can also remember looking at the magazines at the time; Bowhunter and Bow and Arrow mags....at that time, there were still a lot of guys who hadn't switched over to a compound yet.
We had archery in my school during Phys Ed. I thought it was the greatest thing!! Late 70's dad bought me a Jennings Compound. My dad didn't bowhunt, but his buddy had the archery shop in town. He set me up. About 90, I saw a hunting video "Whitetail Eye to Eye" with Alan Altizer. In one of his hunts, he killed a buck with a Black Widow. I thought that was the coolest thing. I knew a friend of mine had a Hoyt Huntmaster TD recurve. I traded him a Loggy Bayou Hang-on Lite tree stand for it. It was true love!!!!! I shot and hunted with both till the early 2000's then went all trad. I learned from trial and error. It was a great ride!!!
Sean,
That is a cool story ,
I am a Phys. Ed. Teacher by trade and I for one would like to say thank you for calling it Phys. Ed. and not "gym".
And two, we teach Archery in our classes and I hope to inspire some of my students the same as you were.
I had a couple of guys find me in class on the 27th to let me know they got a Doe that morning.
Pretty cool to see how excited they were ,
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Where I grew up in the 50's, we had lots of woods. We played cowboys and Indians pretty much everyday, and how can you be an Indian without a bow. We made bows out of any sapling we could cut down, even used bamboo. I "hunted" small game with my simple and string for several years. I even figured out how to use a single chicken feather for fletching (split the shaft and use string to tie it off to prevent splitting). My grandfather had the mounted head of a deer he had killed with a bow, with an arrow lying across the antlers. He gave his lemonwood longbow about 1960 and showed me how to shoot (I had always used the pinch grip like I saw on TV). While stringing it one day, it broke. He then gave me his recurve he'd had made in the late 40's. Been shooting longbows/recurves for 50 years now (except for a 2 or 3 year hiatus with wheelie bows).
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My parents gave my brother and I a Ben Pearson lemonwood longbow, a doz. Arrows and a back quiver made out of old blue jeans for Christmas in 1951. Living in the country and having 1000’s of acres to run it wasn’t long we were bringing rabbets and squirrels home for the skillet. We shot until we joined navy at age 18. After the navy I bought a person recurve and started over. In 1971 the compound caught my eye and I had to have one. In 1976 I won the state in door shoot. In late 1971 I lost interest in the wheel bow and took up the longbow. Everyone thought I was nuts, but I was having fun again. I now have 40 some longbows and recurves. At age 71 I’m not as mobile anymore but its still fun to get out and hunt stumps and critter’s.
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My dad was career military, and when I was 10, the guy that ran the base archery range lived just a few houses up from us. His son and my sister were friends, so when he invited her to try archery, they allowed me to go along also. We shot the old green Indian fiberglass recurves that so many kids in the 50's used. When Dad was transferred out, I lost my archery connection for several years but never lost the interest. While in college I bought a nifty little 45# Ben Pearson recurve. I killed my first deer ever with that bow and still have it. I shoot only long bows now, but if I had to get rid of all my bows but one, I would keep that little bow out of sentimentality. This is the 17th year that I have deer hunted solely with the bow.
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1960 with my dad. He was an avid bowhunter and such a great man. He bought me my first good hunting bow a Wing Thunderbird 54# when I was 14 years old. Dad was the local hero to all the kids around my our community as he helped a lot of people get into archery. There were very few deer in our area and he killed an 8 pt. buck in 1962, his first. There were only 2 deer killed in our county with a bow that year and his was the biggest killed in the state of West Virginia that year. I got my first in 1969, a 9 pt. that field dressed 182 lbs. Dad is gone now but leaves his legacy and memories forever.
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As someone else said, I also played cowboys and indians back in the late 40's and we made bows and arrows from saplings. I made my first bow from Lemonwood in wood shop when I was in high school in 1952. I remember that I started hunting deer around that time when I was old enough to drive a car. I didn't own any decent bows until sometime in the late 60's when I able to buy some Bear's, Hoyt, & Browning bows. I did go thru the compound thing for about 10 years or so, but was never happy with them. I ordered a Bighorn bow from Fred Asbell and have gone thru several others since. I'm still doing it all at 78.
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:campfire:
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I wish I knew what got me fired up about archery when I was a kid, probably Robin Hood TV series but I don't remember.
I always made bows out of saplings and kite string but when I was about 12 I got a fiberglass bow and I made many trips to the hardware store buying wood arrows and also making my own out of anything I could find.
Girls, graduation and the Military side stepped me for a few years but by accident when helping a girl move she gave me a Ben Pearson recurve and it was all over then.
Except for one or two seasons in the mid 70's when I played with a compound I have always been traditional and usually a longbow and lately even a few recurves.
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Got started when I met a fella that worked at our local archery shop(now closed)who shot traditional only. We got to talking about archery and I commented on one of his bows, (a Pronghorn which I own now). He asked if I wanted to shoot it and at first i declined. Being who he is he insisted. At the time i was used to shooting a compound. The bow flew out of my hand the first time I shot it. smh! Luckily, the bow landed on carpet and wasnt damaged. I apologized over and over. Joel said, 'It wont hurt it, shoot it again'! After that, I was pretty much hooked. I bought an old osage longbow that I found in an antique shop and began messing with it. Later on, a co worker sold me his Bear Kodiak, soon after that, Joel reluctantly sold me his Pronghorn. Now, I own quite a few nice longbows and recurves and have a rekindled love for archery that I havent experienced in years. I still have a toe or two in the modern compound side of shooting but its slowly moving its way over.
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decided to remove mine, the bow that broke story and shooting the pigeons might of offended someone so I removed to play it safe.
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I have always been interested in the Native American way of life and while digging up sod for a flower bed I found my first projectile point.
A few months later I was at a pow-wow and one of the venders had a book, "Bows and Arrows of the Native Americans" by Jim Hamm. I bought it, read it and had to try it.
I bought a cheap recurve to play with while I work on a selfbow. That's pretty much it.
The next challenge was to kill the animals that I eat, trying to take responsibility, and have real gratitude for the meat that I eat. I am a bowhunter.
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Ishi,has been woven into my family history in severall ways.When i was about 8 er so,i was attempting to make a bow like Ishis.My grandad came along n asked what i was doing.When i told him,he got a funny look on his face n walked away.I thought he was laughin at me,until he returned with a bow he made when he was younger n gave it to me with arrows n the works.
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Ishi,has been woven into my family history in severall ways.When i was about 8 er so,i was attempting to make a bow like Ishis.My grandad came along n asked what i was doing.When i told him,he got a funny look on his face n walked away.I thought he was laughin at me,until he returned with a bow he made when he was younger n gave it to me with arrows n the works.