Defining ideas

[MCNSC]

Was hunting this evening and got to thinking about some of the memories or events that helped to form me as an Bowhunters/outdoorsman.
One was the old Bear Archery catalogs. I remember looking through them as a kid and dreaming of the adventures that were portrayed in some of those pictures. Especially burned into my young mind was the pictures of Fred crossing that river on the tree bridge.
 Another was an article in some outdoor magazine about hunting Snowshoe hares in Alaska, heck I’d still like to go there just to hunt them.
 One other was my Grandfather, although not a bow hunter he loved to rabbit hunt with his old double barrel, I remember the last time he ever went hunting. Coming back he could only take a couple of steps and then would have to rest. Now days I think about that and hope to have that kind of drive and love of the outdoors as I get older.
 So, what are some of the things that helped to define who you are as a hunter?
 There are others but these 2 really just stand out

[hawkeye n pa]

"Hunting with the bow and arrow"  from school book club and the Wally Taber  shows.   Dad wasn't a bowhunter at the time but some of his friends took the time too take me out bow hunting,  Priceless and great memories!

[gordydog]

The mentoring my much older brothers did. Watching game cleaned in our basement and handed a duck to pluck or grouse or woodcock as a 5 year old  Marveling at their recurves and watching broadheads being sharpened. Hearing the hunting stories from my Dad and brothers. A deer hanging in our garage was a neighborhood attraction. Great way to grow up as the youngest of 6 brothers.

[NY Yankee]

I still vividly remember being at my grandparent's house as a small boy. Grandpa and 3 or 4 of my uncles getting ready for a deer hunt in shotgun season. Watching them dressing in Carhartt clothing and orange vests, slinging on their Ithaca Deerslayer shotguns and dumping shells into their pockets. I wanted to go with them and promised myself I would someday. Later as a 13 year old watching some older friends, all dressed in camo, getting their compounds and arrows ready to hunt and heading out their separate ways to cross the corn stubble and enter the farm woods. I said I would do that someday as soon as I could. Archery came first as I could go at a younger age and I got seriously into it. The firearms came along in time as age and finances would permit. I've had 40+ seasons since then and can remember those things like it was last week. That's all part of what makes me enjoy t so much.

[woodchucker]

Fred Bear was, and still is, my idol.....

From my 1st "real bow" a Red Bear glass recurve. I watched him on TV. Pretended I was him, while playing in the woods. Stalking rabbits and squirrels in the woods. Sitting in a blind, on the edge of my GrandDad's garden, waiting for the pesky woodchucks to come in range...

Years later, it was a 50# Bear Alaskan, with yellow and "mint green" glass.
It was with this bow, (despite it's color, LOL) that I took my first 2 deer with in 1976, '77

I shot that bow into the !980's when my friends all switched to compounds. I was the last one to switch.
A Bear "WhiteTail Hunter" and a few years later, a "WhiteTail II".... I tried the sight thing, but it never worked out for me. I would be shooting GREAT!! Then get sloppy, and flinging arrows everywhere, LMAO!!
It can't be me???? Then I'd start messing around with the sights, and be screwed up even worse!!!!
I'd end up taking them off, and throwing them away. Soon I'd be back on target, shooting the way I'd been all my life... Instinctively. I ditched the compound around 1990. I just got tired of the "latest & greatest" compound fad.

Back around 2000, I had a friend who was a compound bowhunter. He was constantly harassing me about getting back into bowhunting. I'd always tell him "Bob, if I ever bowhunt again, it will be with an old Bear recurve, and wood arrows" Enter.... Joe Skipp

Some of you older members, may remember Joe, who was a member here.
I was given Joe's phone number, by an Archery Shop owner who said, "If you want to know anything about recurves and wood arrows, call Joe Skipp".
Joe was a wealth of knowledge. He sold both new and used recurves and longbows, and he made and sold wood arrows. He told me he had a shop full of "Traditional" archery supplies, and could set me up with whatever I may need. I honestly had no idea, there was a "Traditional" community!!?? My first of many trips over to Joe's got me a 55# 1967 Kodiak Magnum, a dozen 55-60# beautiful cedar arrows, and a damascus shooting glove.

Joe and I became very good friends over the years, and he was the one who told me about TradGang, and convinced me to join, back in 2004. I have met many wonderful people here on TradGang, and the "Traditional" community in general. But, this is how it all began.....

I guess this, is what defines me

[Sam McMichael]

Mt dad was an avid fisherman, but he was not a hunter. He did read outdoor magazines, and one of his favorites was Sports Afield. Essentially, it was from this magazine that I learned to read. I was drawn to the hunting stories and soon developed a strong desire to hunt. When old enough, I did become an eager firearms hunter. When I decided to bowhunt seriously I already had some experience with the bow and considerable rifle experience. Eventually, I broadened my horizon and found several archery magazines and an archery club and really got into it. I have always been a Trad shooter, because when I first got started with the bow there was no such thing as a compound bow. For a long time I used both bow and rifle, but one year I was having so much fun with the bow, I decided to bow hunt into the rifle season. My thought was that I would go back to the rifle when I got tired of the bow. That was 27 years ago.