How did you get started?

[doubleo]

Back when I was a kid in the late 60's me and my neighbors all had these 25 or 30 lb. fiberglass bows. Let me tell ya the local carp population took a pounding. Then in the mid 70's I bought my first hunting bow. It was a 46# Browning Safari II. I went on my first deer hunt with that bow some time in the late 70's. But I didn't shoot my first deer until about 10 years later. I was using a 55# Hoyt Huntmaster at that time. I did shoot a compound for only 2 years back then.

[Shifting Shadow]

Grandpa Bobby would shoot his bow on the lawn every Sunday after dinner. We lined up to watch him. as a child, I thought every family did this on Sunday!

[Gdpolk]

I traded a gun I made for a longbow and haven't looked back.  I traded my wheeled bow for a couple custom knives to match my longbow.

[Wolfshead]

Originally posted by Sean B:
When I was a kid in the early to md 70's, I remember going with my dad to his friends house.  They were all deer hunters.  I remember seeing a recurve hung up in the basement with arrows tucked here and there.  It seemed like back then, guys bow hunted for the extra tag.  I was fascinated by it.  I can also remember looking at the magazines at the time; Bowhunter and Bow and Arrow mags....at that time, there were still a lot of guys who hadn't switched over to a compound yet.

We had archery in my school during Phys Ed.  I thought it was the greatest thing!!  Late 70's dad bought me a Jennings Compound.  My dad didn't bowhunt, but his buddy had the archery shop in town.  He set me up.  About 90, I saw a hunting video "Whitetail Eye to Eye" with Alan Altizer.  In one of his hunts, he killed a buck with a Black Widow.  I thought that was the coolest thing. I knew a friend of mine had a Hoyt Huntmaster TD recurve.  I traded him a Loggy Bayou Hang-on Lite tree stand for it. It was true love!!!!! I shot and hunted with both till the early 2000's then went all trad.   I learned from trial and error.  It was a great ride!!!

Sean,
That is a cool story ,
I am a Phys. Ed. Teacher by trade and I for one would like to say thank you for calling it Phys. Ed. and not "gym".
And two, we teach Archery in our classes and I hope to inspire some of my students the same as you were.
I had a couple of guys find me in class on the 27th to let me know they got a Doe that morning.
Pretty cool to see how excited they were ,

[SELFBOW19953]

Where I grew up in the 50's, we had lots of woods.  We played cowboys and Indians pretty much everyday, and how can you be an Indian without a bow.  We made bows out of any sapling we could cut down, even used bamboo.  I "hunted" small game with my simple and string for several years.  I even figured out how to use a single chicken feather for fletching (split the shaft and use string to tie it off to prevent splitting).  My grandfather had the mounted head of a deer he had killed with a bow, with an arrow lying across the antlers.  He gave his lemonwood longbow about 1960 and showed me how to shoot (I had always used the pinch grip like I saw on TV).  While stringing it one day, it broke.  He then gave me his recurve he'd had made in the late 40's.  Been shooting longbows/recurves for 50 years now (except for a 2 or 3 year hiatus with wheelie bows).

[Gray Buffalo]

My parents gave my brother and I a Ben Pearson lemonwood longbow, a doz. Arrows and a back quiver made out of old blue jeans for Christmas in 1951. Living in the country and having 1000’s of acres to run it wasn’t long we were bringing rabbets and squirrels home for the skillet. We shot until we joined navy at age 18. After the navy I bought a person recurve and started over. In 1971 the compound caught my eye and I had to have one. In 1976 I won the state in door shoot. In late 1971 I lost interest in the wheel bow and took up the longbow. Everyone thought I was nuts, but I was having fun again.  I now have 40 some longbows and recurves. At age 71 I’m not as mobile anymore but its still fun to get out and hunt stumps and critter’s.

[Sam McMichael]

My dad was career military, and when I was 10, the guy that ran the base archery range lived just a few houses up from us. His son and my sister were friends, so when he invited her to try archery, they allowed me to go along also. We shot the old green Indian fiberglass recurves that so many kids in the 50's used. When Dad was transferred out, I lost my archery connection for several years but never lost the interest. While in college I bought a nifty little 45# Ben Pearson recurve. I killed my first deer ever with that bow and still have it. I shoot only long bows now, but if I had to get rid of all my bows but one, I would keep that little bow out of sentimentality. This is the 17th year that I have deer hunted solely with the bow.

[hitman]

1960 with my dad. He was an avid bowhunter and such a great man. He bought me my first good hunting bow a Wing Thunderbird 54# when I was 14 years old. Dad was the local hero to all the kids around my our community as he helped a lot of people get into archery. There were very few deer in our area and he killed an 8 pt. buck in 1962, his first. There were only 2 deer killed in our county with a bow that year and his was the biggest killed in the state of West Virginia that year. I got my first in 1969, a 9 pt. that field dressed 182 lbs. Dad is gone now but leaves his legacy and memories forever.

[Bighornangler]

As someone else said, I also played cowboys and indians back in the late 40's and we made bows and arrows from saplings. I made my first bow from Lemonwood in wood shop when I was in high school in 1952. I remember that I started hunting deer around that time when I was old enough to drive a car. I didn't own any decent bows until sometime in the late 60's when I able to buy some Bear's, Hoyt, & Browning bows. I did go thru the compound thing for about 10 years or so, but was never happy with them. I ordered a Bighorn bow from Fred Asbell and have gone thru several others since. I'm still doing it all at 78.

[VictoryHunter]

[frankwright]

I wish I knew what got me fired up about archery when I was a kid, probably Robin Hood TV series but I don't remember.
I always made bows out of saplings and kite string but when I was about 12 I got a fiberglass bow and I made many trips to the hardware store buying wood arrows and also making my own out of anything I could find.
Girls, graduation and the Military side stepped me for a few years but by accident when helping a girl move she gave me a Ben Pearson recurve and it was all over then.
Except for one or two seasons in the mid 70's when I played with a compound I have always been traditional and usually a longbow and lately even a few recurves.

[David Smith]

Got started when I met a fella that worked at our local archery shop(now closed)who shot traditional only. We got to talking about archery and I commented on one of his bows, (a Pronghorn which I own now). He asked if I wanted to shoot it and at first i declined. Being who he is he insisted. At the time i was used to shooting a compound. The bow flew out of my hand the first time I shot it. smh! Luckily, the bow landed on carpet and wasnt damaged. I apologized over and over. Joel said, 'It wont hurt it, shoot it again'! After that, I was pretty much hooked. I bought an old osage longbow that I found in an antique shop and began messing with it. Later on, a co worker sold me his Bear Kodiak, soon after that, Joel reluctantly sold me his Pronghorn. Now, I own quite a few nice longbows and recurves and have a rekindled love for archery that I havent experienced in years. I still have a toe or two in the modern compound side of shooting but its slowly moving its way over.

[Tajue17]

decided to remove mine, the bow that broke story  and shooting the pigeons might of offended someone so I removed to play it safe.

[b.glass]

I have always been interested in the Native American way of life and while digging up sod for a flower bed I found my first projectile point.

A few months later I was at a pow-wow and one of the venders had a book, "Bows and Arrows of the Native Americans" by Jim Hamm. I bought it, read it and had to try it.

I bought a cheap recurve to play with while I work on a selfbow. That's pretty much it.

The next challenge was to kill the animals that I eat, trying to take responsibility, and have real gratitude for the meat that I eat. I am a bowhunter.

[Traxx]

Ishi,has been woven into my family history in severall ways.When i was about 8 er so,i was attempting to make a bow like Ishis.My grandad came along n asked what i was doing.When i told him,he got a funny look on his face n walked away.I thought he was laughin at me,until he returned with a bow he made when he was younger n gave it to me with arrows n the works.

[Traxx]

Ishi,has been woven into my family history in severall ways.When i was about 8 er so,i was attempting to make a bow like Ishis.My grandad came along n asked what i was doing.When i told him,he got a funny look on his face n walked away.I thought he was laughin at me,until he returned with a bow he made when he was younger n gave it to me with arrows n the works.