WHO?????

[Doug in MN]

My Dad, he bought me my first bow when I was 11 that was 46 years ago.

[Nate N]

Adam Howard got me started last year about this time just by taking the time to shoot with me and show me how much fun this can be.

[Warberg]

My apartment manger. Know to most as the Bowdoc. He and friends were always shooting in the basement, were we lived. So other than wishing and dreaming as a youngster. I owe all my knowledge in archery to the St Charles family and 'the real bowdoc'. Thanks,

[Mojo Rising]

My father. His love of old Bear recurves and  the simplicity of the stick and string turned me away from my compound friends early in my teens, Thanks Dad!

[Craig Schoneberg]

When I was 8 years old,(1956) a family friend, Clyde Mead, gave me a light weight lemonwood longbow.  He was a target archer and kept me supplied with cedar arrows - whenever he would break an arrow, he would just cut it down and replace the point.  I terrorized our chickens daily and also had a heavy cardboard 'charging' lion in our hayloft - and went on many pretend safaris.  A couple years later my dad picked up a couple recurves at a pawn shop or farm sale.  (I still have the one recurve - 48 inch Black Hawk.)  I ordered a 42# Bear Grizzly in 1966, the year I had my first deer permit.

Clyde passed away a couple years ago - I'll be forever grateful for the introduction to traditional archery.  (Of course back then - that's all there was.)

Thanks for starting this post - it brought back many great memories.
Craig

[Old York]

I grew up shooting a K-Mag, MicroFlites, Bear Razor heads, wore WWII camo, face net, drank Pete Rickard's "Indian Buck Lure" for full effect    OMG so in a sense, I've always been 'trad'...then the compound days came upon me and after some time, it was Mr. Allen Wrench and his cousins (S.A.E. and Metric) that did it in for me. Never could find the right one, just a pain in the arse with all the gadgets and constant fiddling with screws and E-clips and wheel timing. We won't mention squeaky launcher rests that cost me any number of deer, nor the busted glasses from the mechanical release cock-up, nope.

[Ia Hawkeye]

When I started that's all we had, recurves and longbows.(1949) Tried the compound thing for a few years back in the 70's, but went back to trad and still shoot trad.

[Gary Logsdon]

That's an easy one, the guy holding the arrow in the photo.  I still have it and the Kodiak bow he gave me.

(Note: Hit F5 on your keyboard to refresh the page if the photo fails to download.)

 

[barredfeather]

Not to bowhunting cause I was already there....but to the outdoors in the 60's.....
"Hello, I'm Curt Gowdy and welcome to the American Sportsman".  Can still hear those words from long ago.

Jerry

[NorthernCaliforniaHunter]

That would be my good buddy Toby Rey, a.k.a. BTH.

Thanks bro!    

[J-dog]

This is good - good stories and alot of shared memories. Thanks to everyone! It is really neat to hear from everyone but especially the older cats - I get closer to the top of the mountain but not seeing over the top just yet. I think I have seen the evolution of compounds in my days -but what is neat is when there was nothing else but trad!

I will tell one more story of my first mmmmmmmissssss on a deer with a curve. This would be after I had felt proficient enough to hunt a living breathing critter. I was really dying to arra a deer with the silvertip as I had seen in the videos! all instinctive!

I was in Roxboro NC and invited to hunt with a friend. Well when I shoed up at his house I thought we would take my truck to one of the many huge farms. Nope he lived on the edge of town and had a perfect funnel at the end of his street. I just took my stuff and walked down to the end of the road through a yard and into a little creek bottom.
I expected the deer to come down the bottom, I was ground pounding, hid out good. Then I see movement in the yard! here come two does right to me on the same trail I dropped into the bottom on. I was excited and had the lead one skinned already in my mind. They came in 12 yrds stopped broadside sniffing some vanila killa (yeah I used it!LOL) and I proceeded to send an arrow right under the lead does chest. They were gone and I was dejected.
Went home and taped a piece of tape onto the upper backside of my riser that evening - "PIC A SPOT! Stupid" I did the classic aim at the whole deer.

been awhile ago -

J

[ChuckC]

when I started they didn't call it trad. . .  just bowhunting.  I had no mentor, it was just in my blood.
ChuckC

[Gary Logsdon]

Back in my younger days I would send a few bucks to the Fred Bear Sports Club in Grayling MI to rent one of Fred's 16mm films.  The films were free to members so you basically only had to pay for shipping. Titles like "The Oldest Game" or "Kodiak Country" would arrive on a big reel that I could only view by checking out a projector at the local library.  It was great inspiration and served to fill in the gaps between occasional bowhunting segments broadcast on ABC's American Sportsman. Fred's adventures were THE reason I wanted to take up the bow.  A few years later I finally met the man and we became friends, sharing stories and trading out personal possessions each time we met until a year before his passing. Mrs. Bear was very interested in "anything antique" and would write carefully handwritten letters to me asking about art and photos she they had received.  Very nice folks.

[hitman]

I started out with my dad with a recurve before there was compounds, then looking for something better we went the route of wheelies. One of my mistakes in life, but after dad went to a better place I went back to a better way of hunting; traditional. Loving every minute of it.  

[Hot Hap]

I got started in 1958 when a friend I graduated high school with let me shoot his bow. I think it was a Bear, not sure. He's dead now, but think of him often when I'm shooting. About a year after I started shooting he had a wood arrow break and ran it through his forearm and out his wrist. Not pretty-I'm glad I wasn't there. Hap

[J-dog]

Mentor might not be the correct term, but along the lines who showed you a trad bow. Yes this really applies to folks who came in the wheel days. But also folks who may have shown you a bow and caught your interest.

[J-dog]

OWE! Hap - that had to a been painful at least after the adrenaline wore off!

J

[Gray Buffalo]

When I started that's all we had, recurves and longbows.(1949) Tried the compound thing for a few years back in the 70's, but went back to trad and still shoot trad.

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