Bear with me here as my story begins years ago to express my appreciation to the great bunch of users on tradgang. My journey into traditional archery started by playing around with my fathers old 1971 or 72? red wing slimline pro about ten years ago. I hunted mostly with a compound during that time but slowly mixed the recurve into my hunts . 4 years ago I finally took a doe with the old red wing (the first deer that bow killed nearly 40 years after it was made)! The sense of accomplishment and joy I felt from a doe was overwhelming. Slowly the compound stayed home and after a few more doe, I became obsessed . Last year I hunted only with the recurve and was rewarded with its first buck, a beautiful little 8 pt.
This is when tradgang joins the story. I wanted to get a longbow and research led me here . I began reading about form and realized how bad mine actually was . I was shooting alright but knew I could get better . I worked on back tension and release throughout the summer and soon found my draw was 1.5" longer and I could easily handle more than the 45# the red wing offered.
I ordered an unfinished 50# omega imperial and was immediately back on tradgang to answer all my questions on finishing the bow and tuning it in. Again, without ever starting a post, I read and learned a wealth of knowledge. It didn't take long before I was shooting better than ever. By the first week of October I eagerly and confidently headed out with a new bow and a quiver full of new arrows.
This all leads to last Friday, Nov. 4. I passed up a beautiful 8 pt with a double throat patch on Tuesday. I knew he was shy of making it on the wall, and he deserved to be. So hopefully we meet again next year, or he makes a wonderful memory for another hunter.
I wanted my new imperial's first arrow to be special, and I was rewarded with my biggest archery buck that Friday evening.
The sun was still high and I was watching a fox trying his best to control the squirrel population, with no success. A little busted up 5pt worked his way through and it was still only 15:30. Most deer I see from this stand follow the same routine, coming from my front left, making a semi-circle past some greenbrier and a scrape, and exiting to my front right. Everytime I imagined a big buck coming through, I pictured him coming from behind me to the left, even though I have yet to see a deer domthat.
Topic: Jersey ten......thanks tradgang! (Read 1422 times)
