Look Ma, no wheels!!!

[Inspector12]

I finally did it, after two years of practice and a foray in to bow making the compound is now retired.  It all started when I picked up a copy of Primitive Archer magazine in September of 2011.  After reading many articles and some intriguing advertisements I started wondering if I could be successful shooting traditional gear.  After all I have been a successful wheel guy for over25 years and I don’t know a soul that owns a traditional bow.   So off to the web I go… I started watching various youtube vids of trad hunts and bowyers how to bow builds.  I then stumbled upon the awesome “Trad Gang site”, I love the interaction and view points I read in the various posts.  I really thought long and hard about my hunting successes and failures.  I know what it takes to score a buck with flat shooting high tech wheel rig. Lets face it, compared to firearms bow hunting is hard.  However the last few critters seemed pretty easy to harvest so why would I go to a stick and a string.  Well it came down to why do I hunt in the first place?? At this point in my career it’s all about the experience, I don’t particularly hunt horns the way I used to.  I don’t get excited about the newest, fastest and most expensive brand out there.  I found I liked the thought of not only making all my gear, to can I cleanly harvest with this gear?  So this year I am all in.  I started making board bows several months back.  Which I found I have a bad habit of giving them away.  It’s just so much fun to do that.  Anyway I have successfully built a number of bows.  This year I am hunting with a red oak hybrid I named “Imperfection”.  This seems fitting as the bow like its builder is just that.  It is a serviceable bow pulling 44 # at 28”.  I am shooting Zwickey Black diamond two blades with home grown shafts.  They shoot and group well pretty well out to 25 yards.  When I walk through the timber and do some roving or shoot from the stand it just feels right.  I can already tell the remainder of this season will be very memorable whether I harvest or not.  Again its all about the experience.  
Enough about me, I would really like to hear other guys started down the traditional path as well as how many folks hunt with their own gear.  Any stories about your bow(s) or hunts I would love to hear.  Thanks to all for sharing and such a fabulous resource for the traditional sport I love.

Blessings
Inspector12

[Inspector12]

Originally posted by Inspector12:
I finally did it, after two years of practice and a foray in to bow making the compound is now retired.  It all started when I picked up a copy of Primitive Archer magazine in September of 2011.  After reading many articles and some intriguing advertisements I started wondering if I could be successful shooting traditional gear.  After all I have been a successful wheel guy for over25 years and I don’t know a soul that owns a traditional bow.   So off to the web I go… I started watching various youtube vids of trad hunts and bowyers how to bow builds.  I then stumbled upon the awesome “Trad Gang site”, I love the interaction and view points I read in the various posts.  I really thought long and hard about my hunting successes and failures.  I know what it takes to score a buck with flat shooting high tech wheel rig. Lets face it, compared to firearms bow hunting is hard.  However the last few critters seemed pretty easy to harvest so why would I go to a stick and a string.  Well it came down to why do I hunt in the first place?? At this point in my career it’s all about the experience, I don’t particularly hunt horns the way I used to.  I don’t get excited about the newest, fastest and most expensive brand out there.  I found I liked the thought of not only making all my gear, to can I cleanly harvest with this gear?  So this year I am all in.  I started making board bows several months back.  Which I found I have a bad habit of giving them away.  It’s just so much fun to do that.  Anyway I have successfully built a number of bows.  This year I am hunting with a red oak hybrid I named “Imperfection”.  This seems fitting as the bow like its builder is just that.  It is a serviceable bow pulling 44 # at 28”.  I am shooting Zwickey Black diamond two blades with home grown shafts.  They shoot and group well pretty well out to 25 yards.  When I walk through the timber and do some roving or shoot from the stand it just feels right.  I can already tell the remainder of this season will be very memorable whether I harvest or not.  Again its all about the experience.  
Enough about me, I would really like to hear other guys started down the traditional path as well as how many folks hunt with their own gear.  Any stories about your bow(s) or hunts I would love to hear.  Thanks to all for sharing and such a fabulous resource for the traditional sport I love.

Blessings
Inspector12

[Josh Perdue]

That's awesome. I was just about the same way. My last few compound kills didn't seem to mean much to me and I knew I needed something different. A local trad guy from this site loaned me some equipment and taught me how to tune a trad bow and I was hooked. Now every kill is "almost" as sweet as the first.

[VictoryHunter]

[rick7]

   

Good luck to you!

Bisch

[dtarbell]

Good for you your on your way to some great experiences,its great to have a bow you made that feels just right to you,memorable is a good word to use.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Enjoy!

[Bow Bum]

My first trek into trad archery was stumbling onto this site shortly after it started (lost my original username). I loved the stories and the mindset. I eventually bought an old bear K-hunter, but could not commit to hunt with it. I tried it 2 years ago and had a poor experience that I blamed on the bow (really was my fault) The wheels came out again until early this September when I was reading a wheel bow mag one night and all of a sudden became so sick of all the advertisement and go-fast super kill high tech-buy this stuff so you don't have to work as hard stuff. I knew what I just HAD to do. I went in the basement, strung up my old bear K-hunter and I'm off to the races once again with the trad bow...

I don't have much in the way of stories I'm one for 3 now with a trad bow, and once again am having some trouble on game, but I'm gonna stick it out a bit longer this time.

A mech bow just seems to constantly deteriorate as you shoot it, going out of time, drop away troubles etc...A trad bow, once set up seems to be a consistent thing, natural, made of wood, used in the woods. They don't hurt my shoulders, elbows, and wrists to shoot, its a natural, fluid motion. The list could go on and on.

B

B

[Gdpolk]

I traded a gun that I made for my first longbow.  I bought it just to play with and intended to hunt with my compound.  I got better with my longbow as my compound collected dust.  So, I traded my compound bow for a set of custom knives with cocobolo scales to match my longbow.  One is a bushcraft knife, the other is a hunter/skinner made to my design.  I still gun hunt one weekend a year for deer and a few times for small game, but this is my primary hunting setup now...
 

[LookMomNoSights]

[Richie]