Attention Seasoned Trad Gangers!!Tell me your story

[lpcjon2]

For those seasoned Trad Gangers and the rest of us.

I would like to hear your story of how you came about in the Trad way, back then. And what part of all those years stood out in your mind.  Let the stories begin around the fire.

       

[Chris Shelton]

I'm not seasoned yet, so I'll just listen  

[lpcjon2]

Neither am I Chris,But I love to listen to the stories of Ron La Clair and the others.

[Chris Shelton]

Totally with ya!

[Don Stokes]

When I started bowhunting in the '60's "traditional" didn't exist- there were no compounds.

I shot kid bows from the dollar store throughout my childhood. My first hunting bow was a 40# Bear fiberglass longbow at age 14. My first deer kill was a spike taken with a Ben Pearson Sovereign recurve, aluminum arrows and Bear razorheads, when I was in my 20's. Deer were few and far between back then, totally different from the overpopulated herds we can hunt now. I hunted with that bow until compounds got popular in the late '70's, and bought an early Jennings which blew up on me when a wheel collapsed, replaced with another Jennings because that was practically the only brand available. I hunted with compounds when the limbs had metal brackets to hold the round wheels for about 10 years, until a house fire in '88 took all of my equipment.

I bought a longbow from Dan Quillian that year (still have it), and have stuck with longbows and recurves, mostly longbows, since then. I've taken a bull elk, numerous deer, and small game with my longbows since that first recurve kill, in addition to several deer and an elk with the compound.

I guess the most outstanding part of those years was the time I spent in the company of Dan, who taught me a tremendous amount about archery, and a lot of other stuff, too. That was when I was manufacturing the Superceder shafts and Dan was selling them. He was a giant of a man in many ways. I still miss the old man.

I'll be 62 Saturday, eligible for Social Security. If there's going to be any left after the gumment gets through raping it, that is.

[straitera]

Gun accident nearly ended me at 12. That's when the LB started. Perfected on the farm. Too much good hunting stuff happened since. Bottom line, I'm just plain lucky to hunt with a longbow. Not better...just luckier that I'm stout enough & took the time to learn.

I did kill a running javelina 2 weeks after I got my first heavy LB 33 years ago. Nothing but lb's since.

[lpcjon2]

TTT

[Cherokee Scout]

I am 62. I caddied all one summer to buy a solid fiberglass bow, sometime about 1958 or 59. I shot recurves and longbows until about 1972 when I switched to a compound for about one month, hated it. Switched back to Kodiak Mag and stayed there until went back to compounds and 3d competition around 1980. Shot both trad and compound until I gave up compounds about 2002.
The thing I remember most as a kid is trying to find magazines with hunting articles using recurve and longbows. Not many things written at first, then came Fred Bear and Doug Kittridge (spelling?)who wrote some good stuff. I knew of no place to go to learn about arrow spine, brace height etc, it was all learn on your own in the beginning. I remember making some broadheads out of tin! Cut them using my dad's tin snips. The best way I had to kill a rabbit was to remove the field point and sharpen the wood arrow with a knife, making is very long and pointy sharp. Killed more than one bunny doing that. Most hunting for my was rabbits and groundhogs. In mid years I used MA3 broadheads, thought they were great. No treestands then. Use to sit on limbs or cut a piece of plywood, drilled holes in each corner for a rope to tie to the tree trunk or limbs, very shakey but it worked.

[Cherokee Scout]

Also, that first bow had a sight! It consisted of a thick piece of cork glued on the riser, on the side facing the target. It came with a large hat pin that was the sight. You pushed the hat pin into the cork until you found the right position to hit near the target. Moving it up and down for elevation and pushing it further in or pulling it further out of the cork for windage adjustments. It worked fairly well. Hi tech!

[barredfeather]

Got my first bow when I was 8 years old in 1961.  Haven't been without one or two since.  No one in my family hunted, much less with a bow.  Would go to town once a week with the folks to get groceries and always wanted to go to the hardware store to look at bows (there weren't any sporting goods stores like today).  Bears, Wing, American.....they had 'em all.  Better than lookin' at toys.  Hunted mostly small game until the early 70's cause deer were scarce....if you saw fresh poo, that was a story in itself.  Like hunt'n deer, hogs and javelina, but small game with a bow is special.  Spent my teen years with my nose stuck in a Herters catalog and sitll have one of them too.....no one answers the number in the book....bummer.  Bow huntin' for me hasn't been a hobbie, it's been a way of life.  Made my own arrows for 40 years and still love it.  Best part today is visiting with folks at Compton and Cloverdale, and stump shoot'n with friends.  Nice to talk about days past and enjoy the present.

Jerry

Jerry

[Bowwild]

My first bow was my Dad's Christmas present in 1966-a Ben Pearson Cougar--RH, 62", 45#. We lived in a subdivision in Richmond, IN. Dad opened his bow, walked out on the porch, and shot a Cedar Arrow with a Deadhead broadhead straight up. We were shocked that it seemed to go out of sight and we went in the house. Dad gave me the bow. (He probably figured the Cops would soon arrive!)

I started shooting the way I saw folks on TV do it because I didn't know anyone who had a bow. I shot split finger at a huge refrigerator box in the backyard. I started at 10 yards until I almost never missed a paper plate and then moved back 5 more yards until I was back at the end of my yard -- 100'.

I hunted ground squirrels for three years until a cross-country teammate invited me to go to Brown County Indiana to hunt deer in 1969.  I had never seen a live deer or even a track. The first evening of opening day, my first deer hunt, I killed a 5-point buck that jumped over the state park fence and walked to within 15 yards of my tree.

I'd kill a deer every three years - usually getting just one shot per year. I moved from the Cougar to a 56" Grizzly and then a K-Mag B Handle.

As part of my job with DNR's in IN, KS, MO, and KY I designed and built archery ranges in Indiana, Kansas and Kentucky.

In 1981 I began getting target panic after joining an indoor league (shooting fingers, no sights). TP bothered me increasingly more until 1995 when I would have to give up bowhunting if I didn't fix it. My left eye is my dominant eye so quite by accident, after teaching a Becoming an Outdoor Woman archery class I found I could shoot a LH bow without difficulty. I switched to LH shooting in 1996 and TP was no longer an issue. Now I know what causes it and don't have to worry about "getting" it on the left side.

I moved to compounds in 1975 while attending Purdue University. Bought my first recurve again (Fox High Sierra) in 2001 but just played with it.  Ordered a BW PSAIII in 2004 on my way to a root canal December 31, 2003 -- the bow arrived 7 weeks later on my 50th birthday (Feb. 2004), quite a coincidence. I still didn't hunt with the recurve.

Then in 2008, after finished deer hunting in December I began shooting the recurve in earnest.  However, I injured my shoulder carrying lumber (DIY project) and had to rehab for 7 months. I stayed with the compound in 2009. I started the recurve practice again in Dec. 2009 and have shot most days since then in the basement range or outdoors. I killed my first traditional deer since 1974 on September 18th this season (21-yard pass-through on a nice doe).

I've learned a lot from this site, especially from folks that either never left traditional or have been back much longer than I.

My 31-year old son bowhunts with me. I've taken lots of white-tails, mulies, pronghorn, blackbears, and small game. I'm disappointed to have failed to take an elk on three hunts so far.
 
I believe the future of archery is stronger than it has been for 10 years.