why and who

[soy]

For all you bowyers out there(wood or glass) what and or who got you started? for me the what is a need to simplify the wheeled aspect of Archery. Here's my story... 1 day I'm reading 1 of my many magazines about the wheel archery and here is a man with a bandana tillering a bamboo backd Hickory bow and I thought to myself I cannot do that so I go to my local Cabelas to buy a longbow and a Salesman points me too a local Bowyer( a member on here that goes by the name of primitive sniper 66) where I got my first longbow. not only did I get 1 from him he amongst many others on trad gang and primitive Archer guide me in my pursuit of crafting the bow... thank you curt and countless others... what are your stories???

[zipper bowss]

The why was pretty simple. I wanted to shoot and did not have any money to buy a bow. What we did have is a lot of Osage on some local farms.

I talked to an old timer who had built a couple of bows.He gave me some pointers and sent me on my way.I built my first bow as a school project.That one broke within the first 10 shots. It took 3 more bows before I had one that held together long enough to shoot for a couple of months.

I still have that fist self bow. Its a mess!!! I pulled it out a couple of years ago with the idea to finally kill a deer with it. After only two shots I let go of that idea.WOW it is bad!
Bill

[wingnut]

My story is a little different and I blame it on Jason (my son).  I bought him a copy of "Hunting with Bow and Arrow" when he was about 12 and he became interested in building his own bow.  

That fall while hunting the high country in Idaho, my hunting partner pointed out some yew trees that I'd never seen before.  I decided to find one that looked like it had a bow in it and take it back to Jason.  It sat in the garage until we moved to Texas a few years later.

We were invited by a gentleman to hunt deer on his place that fall and while there we talked about Jason's bow build desire.  He told us about an internet friend in Ft. Worth that built selfbows.  His name was Rusty Craine.  We started going to Rusty's every other weekend and building selfbows.  After a couple of trys Jason and I both had servicable bows and decided to hunt that fall for deer.  We both took deer the first weekend and never looked back.

Mike

[lt-m-grow]

Boy I hope this thread continues... these are already great stories...looking forward to more.

[Gen273]

[archer66]

My first four or five bows were fiberglass recurves...got my first one when I was seven and a new one every few years until I was 14.  I shot birds, rabbits, boxes, and rotten tomatoes with those bows.  Then when I was 14 I started shooting my dad's old Bear Kodiak Mag.  Never took it deer hunting but I had a heckuva good time target shooting with it and terrorizing the local rabbits and squirrels every fall.  I got my first wheelie bow in when I was 26 and hunted with it until just last year when I finally got the urge to get back into traditional.  I purchased a 66 Bear Kodiak Mag (my birth year) and now lets just say I'm slowly making the transition....

Many years ago I had a long phone conversation with Earl Ulrich.  I had a first print copy of Saxton Pope's book, it mentioned male yew. John Sculz was still with Hill and a nice lady there said she would ask him about the male yew. I ordered a heavy reverse Tembo. John suggested that i get a yew 55@66" and shorten my draw length to match my size. Like an idiot, I did not listen and stayed with the original order. then after the bow arrived, while I was strong enough to shoot the heavy bow, I understood what he meant by the need for me to draw shorter and wanted that yew bow he mentioned, but did not have enough money at the time.  Earl's name and phone number was supplied and I called him.  Earl asked  for my address so he could send me some material. I got the material, instructions for tillering yew, and it included the yew.  Oh boy, did that bow shoot nice. When I had more funds I bought a glued up blank from Earl that one turned out nice as well. From my messing around, I learned that there is a fine line between magic wand and club. I currnetly own four bows that I have not adjusted, three Robertsons and one Schulz, I am on the hunt for a perfect piece of male yew.

[Stumpkiller]

I'm thinking it had to be my Aunt Lois in the 60's.  She was the family "Tom Boy" and lived with my Mother's parents on what we would nowadays call a hobby farm.  Being from a 20 ft x 60 ft city lot it was a farm to me when we went to visit on weekends.  Grandpa was a retired stationmaster from the railroad and had some acreage, large garden, small apple orchard along the headwaters of the Susquehanna River.  His propery bordered a mile of pastureland for a neighbor's cows.

I recall a couple "don't touch" wood longbows and an umbrella stand with several solid fiberglass bows. The pump .22 LRs we could only use under adult supervision, but I could take a bow out and wander.

Even back at home I had a little bamboo souvernier bow (said "Niagra Falls" on the belly) complete with rubber tipped fletchless arrows.

In college I shot single-pin sight target recurves.  

It wasn't till after I got married in 1980 I considered hunting.  Had no success and much frustration with a compound and aluminum arrows and went back to wood arrows and picked up a longbow.

Then, while out sailing in the mid 80's, I got to talking archery with a fellow sailor and he turned out to be a heck of a bowhunter and State Champion  traditional archer (before it was "traditional").  He became my mentor and a great friend.  Boy, I miss him.  

On what was to become an annual canoe-in hunting trip we would seperate and hunt and then meet back for lunch (he had already had one heart-attack by then and his wife insisted that was a non-negotable arrangement).  After lunch we'd do some roving to keep limber.  He got to kidding me that hunting was interfering with my stump shooting.  After one particularly good shot on a distant stump which I hit and he missed (rare occurance) he said: "C'mon, Stumpkiller, lets go hunting"   That became my camp name thereafter.

[Scott357]

My friend messes around with recurves here and there but hunts with wheelie bows. I was absolutely sick and tired of wheelie bows for some reason. I didnt even like to shoot them to practice. I decided to get a recurve to play with after shooting one of his. That simple bow reignited a fascination with archery that I havent felt since I was a teenager with my first ugly wheelie bow.

[Jason Kendall]

Back in 1994 I moved to northern IA from Des Moines. There isn't a lot to do in this small town so I started reading about bow building, in March of 1995 my girlfriend (now wife) bought me a Binghams kit for my 25th birthday. If she knew then what she knows now she probably wouldnt have bought it. I became addicted and probably built 50 bows that 1st year. It's been a crazy ride ever since and I am still learning more with every bow.

I built a self bow in 1996 and I still have it, I built it and 2 self arrows with stone points because I always wanted get a deer with primitive gear, I shot a big doe that fall with it and it's been on the rack ever since. I just like my glass bows better      :D

[soy]

Cool stories ...     ... can't wait to hear some more  

[jsweka]

I'm not a professional bowyer or anything and have just made bows for myself and a few family and friends and the annual TG bow swap.  I built my first bow in 2006.  I had been shooting the same Great Plains recurve fpr 10 years and simply wanted another bow.  I couldn't decide what I wanted and I'd always been intrigued by the adds by Bingham's in Traditional Bowhunter, so I figured why not.  Ordered the stuff and made a straight limbed longbow.  Now that first longbow wasn't anything to look at, but it shot and I was proud of it.  Since then, I've built a bunch more straight limbed longbows, a couple r/d longbows, one take down recurve, and finished a BBO blank I got from wingnut a few years ago.  One nice thing about building your own bows is that you don't have to wait on another bowyer.  If I get the urge to have a new bow, I buy some laminations and glass and within two weeks, I've got a new bow.

[Al Natural]

You can build any type of traditional bow you desire. Depends on your ability.
Al

[7 Lakes]

As a juvenile (almost) deliquent I read and reread every book I could find on Medival weapontry.  We had several 1000 acres of woods behind my house where the owner tried raising cattle.  I made lances out of young popular trees, rode the cows with my lance trying to break it on trees. I built slings and imagined myself a slinger in a Roman army, I built sling shots, mostly because I couldn't hit anything with the sling but my leg.  Somewhere around this time I developed a boomerang.  (The cows hated me by now and became difficult to sneak up on).  

I took the boning knife out of the kitchen drawer and built a Hickory sword from a lightening struck tree.  From the same tree I built atlatl's. The atlatl darts reminded me of Robin's bow so a little more work with the "missing" boning knife and a length of binders twine and my first bow was born.

I never did get tired of building bows and still do so today.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I wish i knew the two guys names that got me going on traditional gear so i could thank them... I looked for these guys later on that year and never found them... now i'm afraid I'd never recognized them...

I was at a 3D shoot in January by myself down in Lebanon Oregon. Wapiti Archery club puts on a great shoot that i try and take in at least once or twice a year.... i was shooting a top of the line compound bow at the time, and It was a brand new set up, and i was still trying to get used to it.... But...i just wasn't really up for it for some reason, i almost bagged it and stayed home, but i needed practice to keep my edge going.

i joined up with a couple young wanna be IBO champs that were hitting the targets well. but these kids were so serious they'd each take 5 minutes to take a shot, then take forever writing their score down and making notes on yardage... very typical high tech competitors.... been there done that... i was just wanting to get some shooting in myself....

i'm standing there waiting again while these guys are doing their Zen breathing exercises at full draw bored out of my gord, when i hear these guys roaring with laughter behind us... of course this ruins Joe IBO's concentration and he lets down for the 4th time.... Oh brother....

Then these two guys come hoofing it up the trail towards us packing long bows and back quivers stuffed full of arrows. With big smiles on their faces they asked kindly if they could shoot through.... of course we said sure. hell these kids were going to take 10 more minutes to shoot 2 arrows anyway....  So i watch as these two guys step up side by side on the side of the hill and proceed to each take a couple shots at this deer target 45 yards out. they laughed at each others arrows falling short and moved on down the trail.

So things quiet back down and these kids are trying to get back in the groove again, when we hear more laughter echoing through the woods and the sound of wooden arrows bouncing off trees....

Joe IBO let down for the 5th time, and that ripped it.   :mad:   .. i told the kids to have a nice day and i hot footed it down the trail to catch up with the guys having fun.

I asked these guys if i could join them. i just want to fling some arrows, not train for competition. They said "Sure... You ever shoot a long bow before?  Here, try mine out..."

With out doing a play by play,and sum this up. i ended up shooting both those guys bows more than i shot mine the rest of the day, and i had a blast!..... Wow! i had know idea traditional archery could be so fun. one of these guys i was shooting with had built both of these bows... i was impressed.

Time to cut to the chase now.... i had so much fun that day, i sold my fancy compound bow, and bought a band saw with the proceeds. i knew absolutely no one who shot a single string bow, so i got on line and found an archery forum. next i bought every plan Bingham's Projects had and did some studying while i built my first two bows.... i hunted with that first long bow the following year, and have never looked back.

I've been doing advanced wood working since the late 60's, Got my masters degree in the late 80's building boats and spiral stair cases out of exotic hardwoods.... but even so i was bored stiff with construction work... And was humbled and amazed how much detail goes into building these bows.... and i still am.... My grandpa used to say to me "Son, it ain't rocket science here. It's just a little math, and getting the right angles is all."

Well building bows has more rocket science to it than anything else I've ever built....What are we doing with these things?  Launching rockets...

Yup.... we are building rocket launchers here!  WhaaaaaHoooo!

[soy]

That is awesome! I noticed myself That'd brought the Joy and laughter back in archery ( Even though I can't hit the broadside of a barn)