What does "traditional hunting" mean, to you?

[NightHawk]

What does a traditional look like?? Do they taste good? I've never hunted a traditional but I'm willing to give it a try. Are the tags expensive??      

[Toklat1]

Traditional archery to me, is the "Simplicity & nostalgia" of using the recurve or longbow with wooden arrows (tools) for shooting or hunting fish/game. Just my simplistic view on the subject!  

[Schultzy]

Traditional bowhunting (stick and string) to me Is respect to the people who do It whether they are successful or not!! It's not a walk In the park by a long shot!!!! Being successful Is more on you then It Is the equipment.

[BowHuntingFool]

I really enjoy the way it takes you back in time! Just walking in the woods with my Longbow in hand and it just gives you that "feeling" of being in tune! Its me, the bow, the arrow and the game I'm after! Nothing stands in between us! I also enjoy the way it challenges my woodsman ship skills, I need to put myself in a exact spot, not in an area so to speak! I need to be my bow, I need to be my arrow and I enjoy this very much! I also enjoy the simplicity of the bare bow! Too much fun!

[BTH]

Traditional hunting...I wanted to jump to a response from reading the first page but I decided I'd better read the thread...
The term Traditional is used (or over used) way out of context most times. I guess I'm in the camp that says it is a state of mind driven by your personal choices as a hunter other than by the specific equipment you choose or the title that you call yourself.

[Shakes.602]

Too Good To Miss this One!! TTT      

[Col]

To me, a barebow hunter, "traditional" means relying upon yourself first, and your equipment second.  The more your equipment does for you, the less you do for yourself, and the more folks you must (by rights) share your kill with.

I'm a 1 vs. 1 kind of guy.  The closer I can put myself to that scenario, the better I feel and the sweeter the meat tastes.

Call it a matter of pride...and that's one marinade you most definitely won't find at the grocery store.

I could kill the largest P&Y buck ever with a dead-sighted wheelie from a tree, with a rangefinder, but that success wouldn't hold a candle to the pride I took in the yearling I got with a barebow-onestringer while stalking.

The more I think about it, the more I believe 'traditional' is a personal mindset and ethic rather than the equipment used; we all have our handicaps.  Overcoming them by whatever means is what makes us human, and reveling in them is what makes us individuals.

[Yelloweye]

Like it’s equipment it’s a path you can not define. A personnel quest. Doing it with less.
I do like reading the posts for this question, I guess someone has to ask the question now and then.

[Brian Krebs]

I wonder how much of this question goes to the fact that most of us here; did not experience bowhunting before compounds hit the woods.

 I remember fall as a time when the leaves changed color; and bowhunters were not seen in any large groups; rarely more than a handful of them anywhere in any one spot.

 We hunted on the ground because the law said we had too; although 'Native Americans' had built stands over trails for thousands of years.

 But we were virtually unseen by each other and certainly by the public.

 Most gun hunters let their guns collect dust; until it was time to sight them in; and get ready for the opener. They didn't walk the woods before hunting season. They did in Michigan cause nearly 300 miles of solid cars on the freeway just before the opener.

 I can remember sitting in my blind; with gun in hand on opening day - waiting for the 500th shot heard. It was not a good year of hunting unless you heard that many shots by noon.

 Contrast that to when I started hunting for deer with a bow and when I shot my first deer. The guy I was with didn't believe I had killed the deer. Oh there was ample evidence; my arrow in a dead deer - but he just doubted it. He called me a couple years later; he had finally figured out why he thought I had not killed that deer. He had not heard a gun shot! The two ( a dead deer and a gun shot) were always associated with each other.

 Then as time went on; and compound bows made the bow hunt easier; the woods began to fill up with bowhunters.

 Fred Bear espoused "be a two season hunter". If you stepped into the world of bowhunting at that time - well you missed the quiet woods; the serenity; the gentleness of bowhunting upon our psyche.  

 I see now arguments about how its a law in places and just a common courtesy to remove a tree stand from the woods; as not to step on another bowhunters shoes.

 Well - don't blame it on 'traditional' bowhunters - we just don't have the numbers alone to create that atmosphere.

 So - to try and think what traditional bowhunting is now; living now; seeing what is going on now - on television shows and in the marketing of archery; on inclusions of crossbows; and you just don't get the picture of what some of us have in our minds of what 'traditional bowhunting' was; and is.

 Take a step back further. Go back to 1959. What was bowhunting then ? Go back to 1949 - what was it like then... go much further back; and there were no established bow hunting seasons.

 But go back 9000 years; and the bow you used then; well 99.9% of us here that love traditional bowhunting - could pick that bow up; pick the arrows up and go hunting just like we do now.

 Tradition. I had a neighbor that laughed at my traditional bowhunting and said I reminded her of 'fiddler on the roof'. Well tradition is more than a song; or prayers; or a love for what things used to be like. It is an action though that does try and keep the 'old ways' alive.

 It is indeed like stepping back in time. Yes we have fiberglass; and modern glues; and modern string materials and arrows made of carbon and aluminum etc; but if we were restricted to wood arrows; what percentage of us would 'drop out' of traditional bowhunting ? I bet a very small percentage.

 Native Americans took months and months to make a bow; they put laminations on bows with glue made from fish skins and other things; what we shoot now; as I said; is not that removed from what they shot ( take a look at the 9000 + Holmegard[sp] bow).

 The tradition of traditional bowhunting is seen here in all its glory. We talk about our bows; our arrows; our sons and our daughters; and their sons and daughters. We talk about it in such romantic terms - that we are criticized for it.

 When we see that deer we want approach; we have to wait until its close enough; or get close enough; and ~then~ we have to draw back the bow and shoot; which is traditional.

 Whereas seeing the animal coming; and drawing back the bow and holding it at full draw for minutes until the animal presents a shot- well that is rifle hunting with a bow. Its not traditional.

 We here post pictures of any deer we shoot; big or small; most of us drool over Paul DeHues' buck. Thats because we can see in his smile and his attitude his happiness over getting a buck with a bow.

 That is traditional bowhunting.

Others you see - they would wonder if it was an 8 point -- or a 9 and if it was a 'cull buck' or why did he shoot that buck before it matured?

 Pictures of a little girl pulling back a 5 pound bow shooting what looks like a knitting needle are closer to what traditional bowhunting is; than Chuck Adams with a 180 plus whitetail.

 And I like it that way. Its tradition being passed on; in a smile; in an accomplishment that is centuries old.

 Traditional bowhunting to me is practicing and practicing and then missing the target by a mile; and looking at myself for what went wrong; not the bow. It is submitting myself to what others would consider a handicap; to hunt without sights; or cams or wheels; or a hand held release; and 80% let off. I don't do it to spite those that do; I hunt with traditional equipment because a long time ago I saw what it was; and knew it was for me.

 I remember when compounds came out; and I hunting with one. But I watched Fred Bear shoot a grizzly bear with his bow; and I distinctly remember thinking - if I ever get to that point where I get to hunt a grizzly- what bow do I want in my hand?

 I put down the compound and have not looked back.

Instead I look forward to each years challenges and opportunities and feeling the string pressing into my fingers -as that animal I am hunting- gives me the chance too.

 Thats what traditional bowhunting is to me.

[Gray Buffalo]

I started hunting at age 10 with a bow and arrow back in the 50’s and after a while the rabbits were falling to my lemon wood longbow. In the early 60’s I saved enough money to buy a Person recurve and over the next 10 years I acquired 2 more bows. A Hoyt pro-hunter and a bear take down. In the 70’s I like many others went to the wheels. Just didn’t feel right in the woods. In the 80’s I went back to where I started with a martin long bow. Since then I’ve hunted with self bows, longbows, and recurves. I hunt from the ground not because I want to but because my legs wont allow me to climb a tree. I can still get back in the woods a good ways but I have to start earlier. The most important thing is I’m still having fun.  

[Col]

The most important thing is I’m still having fun.

Yep.  That's it in a nutshell.        

Anything getting folks closer to the woodlands is a pursuit worthwhile.  Wheels, stands, or none of the above.  

There isn't an 'us & them' until we define, or create, a "them" and "us".  We're bowhunters.  All of us.  

So what, if for me, more mechanizations diminish my satisfaction?  So what, if for others, those same things I eschew grant another the ability to pursue their passion?

...and then some day we meet.  I'll wager the coffee will be just as fine as if I'd brewed it myself.  And I'm a badass when it comes to my coffee.

Yes, I love the feel of the string on my fingers.
Yes, I love feeling the arrow fly and knowing it's true.  To me this is the epitome of "living in the present".  Is it, should it, be any different for anyone else?


Took a groundhog at 30+ yards this morning, in my own style.  Do I feel good?  Not really, but I feel successful...and that's a way better feeling than I get from my 9-to-5.