Why did you go trad

[bucknut]

I really just got bored with bow hunting. I was just going thru the steps and killing like a machine. Shot Trad in the early/mid 90's and had 1 really bad day and decided to quit and go wheels. Picked my old curve up 3-4 years ago and killed a deer with it on the first day I hunted with it and got plumb ate up with it again. Now I have a whole room full of trad bows and shoot religiously every day. You've got to love the flight of a perfect Port Orford viewed from the sight window of your bow.

[dbd870]

Shot Bear recurves when I was a teen (early/mid 70's) and got out of it for a while when I went off to college; when I jumped back in I thought I should try those slick wheel bows. About 4 years ago I found myself loosing interest. 3 years ago I decided something had to change and I picked up an early 70's Grizzly and I remembered why I used to shoot almost every day after school. The compound has no soul and I would say I enjoyed my rifles and handguns more than it. Now if I'm going to walk out the door and shoot it's almost always a recurve.

[MCNSC]

It just feels right. And inside my 20 yard max range, I feel a trad bow is superior as a hunting tool.

[Msturm]

simplicity. and lets be honest, it looks way more badass than a compound.

[Pointer]

I enjoy it more. I learned on a trad bow as a kid and tried compound for a couple of years in my teens but went back to trad after the arrow rest on my compound broke. Just more fun to shoot trad bows for me.

[huntingarcher]

Started with a compound at age 15 in the late 70's because I thought bowhunting would be really cool.Missed 3 deer that season but man was that exciting.I found out my high school metal shop teacher was a big time bowhunter.He took me under his wing and the next season I killed two deer with his help.At the age of 17 I went to a local 3D shoot and there where a couple guys there shooting HH type longbows.I was so interested in their bows and wood arrows that I had to shoot with them and see what these longbows where about.One target had a 10' ladder stand you shot from,after one of the longbow guys took his shot he just pitched his bow down into a bush.That was it for me!Had to have one,the rest is history been shooting longbows and recurves ever since.

Msturm you are correct,I have been asked many times "You hunt with that" and I say sure do.Their reply is almost always That's Badass!  

[SC Bowhunter]

When I was shooting a compound practice just seemed like practice. No enjoyment just a necessary act.
Practicing with my recurve and longbow are pure enjoyment every shot.
Not to mention the fun in making your own wooden arrows.
And best of all, you just seem to meet a nicer brand of people when shooting trad!

It was a challenge at first. Then once I started shooting, I started to realize how much fun it is, then once I shot my first trad critter I realized how much more rewarding trad is because it is soooooooooo much harder to get good at!

Bisch

[Stumpkiller]

When I was a kid I had an old Ben Pearson solid fiberglass recurve and "barrel arrows" and shot everything that held still.  Then in college I shot a target recurve (single-pin sight . . . you know how college age kids experiment with bad things).

Then I got married and decided venison would be nice, and I listened to the local experts and got a compound (a Martin Cougar II).  Shot arrows like lazer beams!  But they were destroyed on anything but straw targets.  And it sounded like a violin followed by a M-80 in a garbage can.  I made more mistakes and spooked more deer, picked the wrong pins, just a disaster.  I sold it after two years and gun hunted.

After a few years I tried a longbow.  Now this was fun again!  I could shoot stumps and reuse the arrows!  Wood arrows even!  Still, I missed several nice deer.  Harumph.  I tried and tried (still-hunting) and had five years of soooooo close.  Then I saw an ad. for a Martin Dreamcatcher that was just introduced and bought one of the first.  Wow!  And I killed a deer! (See my Avatar).  Have been a recurve bowhunter since.  For whatever reason I shoot a recurve better than a Hill style longbow - though the reflex/deflex "longbows" with recurve style grips I shoot just as well.

[Drewster]

I started with a stick and string when I was ten.  Shot compounds for a while in the late 70s and 80s.  Fifty years later, went back to trad forever......more fun, cheaper and more challenge......keeping the tradition alive.

[Gordon Jabben]

I'm kind of a history nut and I think I just wanted to hunt more like the Indians did.

[Captain*Kirk]

I started as a kid with a Pearson green glass Super Jet and shot it clear through high school. Taught my kids to shoot with it. Then, in the '90s got caught up in the wheelie hype, went from round wheels and fingers to a single cam with release. I saw how it was going in the bowhunting mags...every couple years you 'had to' upgrade or you were behind the times. I got sick of the race. I watched Fred Bear in a You Tube video nail a grizzly with a recurve, and that lit the fire again. I haven't shot either of my compounds in several years now. No urge to. I love a simple recurve and not being shackled to a set of sight pins, release, and all that other garbage like pair of leg irons. Trad to me, well...to quote William Wallace; "FREEDOM!"

[9 Shocks]

Trad was a challenge and really made me re-think stand placement.  You get more out of hunting with a stickbow.  You become a better hunter and woodsman.  It is just the way to hunt now.  I love the journey that traditional bowhunting has provided me!

[CoachBGriff]

Because I always had the desire... I used to think, "how cool would it be to harvest a deer with a recurve?"

Once I realized it was a completely realistic objective, I was hooked.  

I enjoy the shooting way more too!  With my compound I practiced to get better... with my trad bows, I practice because it's fun to shoot!

[M60gunner]

Started with stick bow in 1957. But at that time it filled a need when I could not use a gun. Then in 71 I decided to bow hunt. Got my Bear SK in 72. Wheel bows were just starting to show up. But being young and wanting to be like the big guys I entered my wheel bow era. That was about 8 years and three bows lus all the stuff. One day I realized I really did not shoot that much better with the wheel bow. I went back to my SK until a deal came up on a brand new BW MA greybark. Never looked back, those wheel bows are hanging in the work room. That was in early 80's.

[paul87250]

I started off with firearms in the UK as bow hunting is still ileagal, then when I moved to France I took up archery, dabbled on the dark side but found no challenge. Traditional bow hunting with a recurve gives me a real sense of achievement and belonging to a passionate group of friends. Not the same with other forms of hunting.

[achigan]

My brother and I shot the 3-D at Blanford IN several times back in the 80s. I'd see a few, very few guys with trad gear and always thought "Some day". I got away from bow hunting for a while then started thinking about it again with help from John McCreary. I picked up a Timberhawk at Cloverdale a while back and never looked back.

[J-dog]

They started making drop away arrow rests and wheelie bows so short finger shooting was almost impossible. I never have used a release, nothing against them just like finger shooting.

The compounds just got way too technical.

Saw a man on video named Barry Wensel shooting a Schafer silvertip and thought THAT looked really cool! I had remembered such bows from when I was a kid starting out. Bought a Schafer silvertip recurve and havent looked back - way more fun.

J

[highlow]

I was hunting pigs at True South Adventures a few years ago with Jim and Irv. Was going to use my wheels but just in case brought my KwykStyk as a backup. I had dabbled in trad a couple of years earlier but didn't continue as, I now realize, I was way overbowed. Had two HHs but way too heavy and had bought the Kempf from a fellow trad shooter at Sawmill. It too was a little heavy for me so back to the wheels. Anyway, when I found out how far the shots would be at the pigs from the stands, decided to take the KS instead of the wheels. For some reason, just the feel of that bow was all I needed. Vowed then and there to keep at trad for good. Haven't shot a wheel bow since and don't intend to. For me, it's the need to practice to stay sharp that I find so addictive. Plus, having to get really close to whatever I might be hunting at any given time. There are other factors involved but those are the core elements. Love to watch an arrow fly and hit where it's supposed to.

[Pat Ct]

I had never even seen a compound bow when I "built" my first longbow out of a white ash board that used to be part of my bed as a kid. After that I didn't even consider looking for one either. I wouldn't even know how to shoot anything other than recurves or longbows and I'm fine with that