When you took the leap.....Do you remember?

[obee]

I started bow hunting before firearmshunting in the late 70,s and started off with a hand me down iron riser recurve bow, acouple months later compound craze hit everywhere, 90.00 later i purchased a compound and hunted non traditional to 1996. A funnystory of what changed me back was  i  always hated each year the new gadgetry in the world of compounds, that i had to try but was the fact while walking one november day with my gadgeted space age bow I went to go around a huge fern tree when on the other side was a 12 pt beauty head down looking the other way. when i say close imean a broomstick with aknife tied to the end would have worked,in the sudden excitement i drew quick my arrow fell off the forked tm rest clanked on the metal shelf and in one single bound that deer was in the thicket and gone.the following month i called bob lee archery,ordered a bow and have never looked back,i know there are days when form and mental concentration arent there and you wish for that front and rear sight but simplicity for me is still key.

[ozy clint]

i grew up hunting with a rifle, then for about 5 years i hunted with a crossbow. (and i'm not ashamed of that) exactly a year ago this month i took up hunting with a recurve. so all my 'bowhunting' has been with a trad bow. so i've basicly gone from rifle hunter to trad bowhunter....big transition. the hardest part has been learning to shoot a bow.

[Bowhunter4life]

I started bowhunting in 1984, my father had shot his Bear 76'er for years but was going through a wheel bow phase when he introduced me to archery.  So I started with a wheel bow too, but always had a recurve around to shoot.  Hunted with the wheel bow almost exclusively till the mid 90's then mixed with tradbows till the turn of the century.  Been with trad bows exclusively every since.  

Funny thing, my father is still shooting his Bear 76'er to this day!  Would have saved me a lot of $'s if I would have taken that lesson from him!  

[unclewhit]

To make a long story short.
I started hunting with shotgun and rifle, wanted to spend more time in the woods hunting, so I bought a compound because it was "ALL THE RAGE". I got to the point where it became boring, now, I'm not trying to brag, but I was extremly proficent with it and it just got boring. I needed something more challenging, so in 1993 I bought my Bob Lee signiture series recurve and sold all of the compound gear. I have never regretted my decision. The harvest rate has dropped off, but that is NOT the point anymore.
I stalk slowly, I try to get as close to my quary as I possibly can, I focus on a spot, I draw, I anchor, I release. That, my friends, is a challenge that will NEVER get boring.

So much for a short story. Sorry.

[Brad Robins]

I started shooting a bow in early high school.  It was a Bear recurve.  Shot and shot and shot.  Didn't hunt until a year or two later.  Bought a Bear Whitetail II.  Still have it!

Took that bow to mule deer country, just east of Hebo    

I had a blast stalking those floppy ears in that wide open Deschutes River country.  Emptied a quiver full on two spikes that first year. Wow.  Hooked.  Of course, I never touched a hair!      
I did connect on a forked horn blacktail in college.

Shot four bulls in the 90's with my new PSE compounds.  

This last Christmas, I found my answer to the quest of getting traditional equipment.  I found two custom Saxon longbows and all their accessories for a steal.  

Again, I feel hooked.  It feels great on each release.  It's magic.

SticknString (Greg) helped a ton so far with info and inspiration!    

Brad

[Wary Buck]

Shot sticks as a kid, but shotgunning put archery on hold.  Then in college picked up a compound and enjoyed it a lot 81-87, but toward the end of that was thinking about trad bows.  In '87 I was hoping to use a stick for the first season but my bow limb delaminated and I was thus still using the compound that season.

My '87 buck convinced me in several ways.  First, it made P&Y which was a big goal at the time, and that having been achieved made it easier to try the trad challenge.  But more so was that the buck was killed at 10 yards but I used my 20 yard pin and spined him.  Lucky to get him really.  That convinced me I'd have probably killed that buck with a trad bow, perhaps making an even better shot.  [It should be noted that I didn't think it possible to miss a 10 yard shot with any bow; I've proved that wrong a couple times since then.     ].  

I also had a good friend and one of my brothers make the plunge at the same time, and there's really been no looking back since the '88 season.  Today, in MOST whitetail situations, I feel I am better off with a stick than a compound.  It is such freedom to not have to estimate distances!  It is so much more fun to shoot.  And it means so much more to me when I am successful using something that most can or will not do.  It's really the same reason many of us came from guns to bowhunting in the first place; traditional bows just takes it another level further.

[Col]

Shooting traditional felt like being a human-being.  Shooting wheels felt like being a human-doing.  The former felt like breathing, the latter like being on a ventilator.

I stuck with what felt good.  Like that favorite shirt or pair of trousers, worn and washed so many times they feel like wind on your skin and nothing else fits as good as they do.

[fireball31]

Easy jump for me.  I hunted with a compound before i joined the Marine Corps where I shot thousands of rounds of of my machineguns and my M4.  After i got out last april I didn't get a thrill out of shooting anything that had sites.  i started shooting my dad's holm longbow and a kodiak hunter and I was hooked.  Went to elm-hall and won a Great Northern Fireball in the raffle.  I just love it to much to leave it alone for more than a couple days.  I still get a warm fuzzy feeling everytime I step into the woods with it.

[T. Downing]

1991 was the year if I remember correctly. Started elk hunting with an old Bear compound device when I was 14. Than one time when I was hunting the Sandias in NM for mule deer, I looked up this ridge and saw a bowhunter carrying a recurve. Blew me away. I proclaimed to my father that someday I was going to hunt with traditional equipment. I think I was 15 or 16 at the time. The switch was very easy for me. Felt natural, like running in to an old friend and never missed a beat. I was very proud to be carrying that first recurve bow, I felt I had embraced something truly from the past. Good memories.

[Plumber]

I started in 2006 .I was getting bored taking game with my compound so I started checking into trad shooting. I was very lucky here where I live trad shooting an hunting is very strong lots of good advice hence alot of short cuts.the frist year Igot no harvest second year I got two third year I got two .I sold or gave away everything that had anything to do with compounds. I currently own two bows and waiting for two more to be built I dont know what it is about these bows that I want so many.but if I see something I like Iam getting it in responsable fashion of corse.I only ever own one compound at a time.

[Stinger]

I started hunting with a recurve in 1967 (Shakespeare Yukon).  There were no compounds back then.  I never did gun hunt for anything but birds. I took some time off from hunting during a major portion of my Navy career although I hunted with a compound off and on from 1981 until 1998.  I started seriously with the compound about 1999 and gave that up 2 years ago when it just wasn't challenging any more. I picked up a recurve my father had made for me about 35 years ago and refinished it last winter.  I took my first whitetail with it this past November.  Dad is still around and was really pleased.

[whitebuffalo]

easy for me,,JB

[slivrslingr]

Taking up trad was easy for me.  After a very successful but trying rifle season in 1997, I decided to hunt with my dads old Shakespeare recurve.  Been trad ever since, I've never even shot a string rifle!  The journey has had many ups, getting really close to game and spending time with friends and family in the woods, and downs, a deer and a coyote shot and not recovered and as of yet, nothing but tag soup, but I'll never put down my bow.  Maybe this year will be my year to notch a tag!

[Intuit]

As a kid in the 50's I was always "crafting" my own bows and arrows. A bent oak branch, strung and with a finish nail for a rest, hand split songbird feathers applied some "straight" twig any way I could( read really primitive) and I was shooting.

I hunted with an old Hoyt in the late 60's. Bought a Carroll compound about 73. By 76 I didn't want to hunt deer with anything but my bow, I knew this was hunting to me. I always have shot with my fingers as I just believe it is the right way to shoot a bow.

A lot of whitetails and other species fell to my arrows. Raising my daughter as a single parent took me away from hunting for about 5 years and when I looked to get back in I needed to make a choice, Trad for fingers or put up with a d**n release. The choice really was stated earlier, bows should be shot with fingers IMO.

Foolishly I thought I would have one bow and be intimate with it. 6 recurves and 3 longbows into this I may begin to realize that watching arrows fly and mastering a bow is just a sickness that needs to be fed.

I have not hunted with powder since 76, switched to Trad last year. Although I haven't taken a whitetail since switching it really doesn't matter. I have great company as my 2 sons, daughter-in-law, granddaughter and girlfriend all have taken up Trad and we all shoot together almos every Sunday.

[Homebru]

I watched a monster 8-point whitetail walk in behind me while hunting my in-laws farm.....he slowly made his way toward me.....I burned a hole into his side where I wanted the arrow to go....released at 6 yards and watched the arrow sail just over his back....I never looked at the sights on my compound bow, only looking where I wanted to shoot.  Decided then and there that I did not need sights and if I didn't need sights, I didn't need a heavy bow tapped for sights.....that was 1989 and I sold that bow a year later....I bought a nice recurve and haven't looked back....that was 1994.
homebru

[BTH]

Easy jump for me. I bowhunted with an Oneida Eagle for a couple of years. Put that down and just rifle hunted for a number of years after that. When I decided to bowhunt again I had always wanted to shoot a recurve or a longbow so that was an easy decision.

[BEN]

I hunted with a cross-bow since I was a kid in school until about 2003---about 15 years.Never bothered trying anything else. I am a lefty and had had shoulder surgery and just left well enough alone. Then, a buddy talked me into trying a compound bow---hunted for 2 years with it and harvested 2 deer with it.. Then, same sadistic buddy    :D   talked me into trying a Trad bow in early 2005---LOVED it!!!  

No going back!!!

Ben

[Roy Steele]

Have to say thats good shooten,hunting.It took me 23 years kill 39 bucks,6 with a recurve and 33 bucks,18 years with my selfbows.Need a new hunting buddy.

[broketooth]

i started with a wheelei bow like alot of others here in tg. think it was in 96 or 97. any how i missed dear at dusk due to i couldnt see the sight pin even though icould see the deer. on one hunt i slipped and started to fall and drooped the bow ... bent the hell outa the sight arpeture. well i gave up and sold it. gun hunted the rest of that season. then the following summer was watching american shooter on tnn... saw byron ferguson for the first time shooting cardbourd disks outa the air and i quote " thats what i want!"  then i went to the second annual cta in hickory nc .... ive been shootin trad ever since

[PICKNGRIN]

In 1980 I went to a 3D shoot in Eldora, Iowa.  Had a great time shooting my Jennings Arrowstar compound.  I had at this point taken 3 deer with the compound.  For the fun of it I went around the 3D course again.  This time I carried my inexpensive Bear Minuteman takedown bow.  I ended up shooting within 5 points of my earlier compound score, and had a whole lot more fun doing it!!  I have been shooting recurves and longbows ever since!!!