Are You Any Good?

[BWallace10327]

Please participate, any and all. Just as the topic implores, would you consider yourself a good shot?  In addition to voting, please post the number of years that you've been at this traditional archery business.  Thanks in advance.

[BAK]

Started with a small yellow fiberglass bow when I was about 6 or 7, around 1956.

[Paul/KS]

Got my first bow around the age of 10 so 53 years, ish...

[Keith Zimmerman]

35 yrs trad.

[slowbowjoe]

I guess around 10-12 years of shooting. A 10 year gap in there somewhere. Never had much guidance at all... books early on, then learning a whole lot in the years I've been aroung this site.
All in all, I consider my shooting "OK" at this point, so I chose the good days/bad days option, which is largely how it goes (more good days than bad days, these days!)

[nineworlds9]

A couple years in my tweens, then didn't come back to it until about 7 years ago.  Been at it full time since then.  Shoot almost daily.

[bucknut]

I have my days. It's about like golf! Going to 3D shoots and seeing others shoot. I would say I'm just a bit over average. Started with  a Darton wheel bow in 82. Bought my first Trad bow in 95 hunted with it a few years then took a big compound hiatus. Took the old bow out about 4 years ago and killed a deer with it. Been back into it full bore ever since. Now I have a whole room full of recurves and longbows.

[Sam McMichael]

I consider myself a pretty fair shot on a good day. Less so on a bad day. I generally have more O.K. days, though. One way I describe myself is that on some days I am an archer, but on other days, I am just a clown with a bow in his hand.

I started archery in 1959 (age 10) but did not shoot seriously ubtil I was a teenager. Even then, I spent more time with the rifle than the bow. In the 1980's, I became much more serious with the bow, and by 1990, when I tried a longbow, was really into bow hunting. 22 years ago I stopped deer hunting with a rifle altogether, with the exception of taking one deer with black powder.

All of my bowhunting has been with traditional gear. When I got started, there was no such thing as a compound bow, and I never saw any reason to get one. Yes, I was greatly influenced by the adventures of Howard Hill, which may explain my attraction to Hill style longbows. Essentially, that's all I shoot now.

I am not afraid to say it, I work damn hard. My practice sessions go for 2 or more hours, sometimes several sessions a day.  I need to be a good shot, my favored game is fast, small, and quite often not sitting around waiting for me to get off a second shot. To hit a sitting dove one needs to be a good shot.  To hit a flying dove, one needs a miracle.

[ksbowman]

I'm like Pavan, I shoot everyday and work hard at it. I feel that we as hunters owe that to our quarry. I have hit the same place twice every now and then. Even took a couple apart because I needed the arrows. Been at it 45 yrs                                                                

[Rough Run]

Just over a year for me.  My answer is NO, not a good shot.  Some days are pretty good, some I'm all over the place.  To me, that means not good.  So I just keep practicing, 4-5 days a week.

[grouseshooter002]

My dad started me shooting after I watched him shoot. I was five or six years old and that would have been in 1951 or 52. So that means that I have been shooting for many years, but you have to exclude the years for college because I was both working and going to school full time.

Regards,
Grouse

[crazynate]

j just have fun shooting my bow. I have for the past 18 years

[Pine]

I started in the summer of 1963 .
Been shootin' every sense .    

[jerry womble]

Been shooting the bow for 72 of my 78 years. Don't plan on quitting
any time soon.

[Trenton G.]

I started four years ago and shoot every day for at least 20 minutes. I have my on and off days.

[newhouse114]

I think I was eight when I got my first bow, went to the dark side when I was eighteen and didn't come back to the light until mid 40's. Been trad for about 12 years now.

[Matty]

Bout 12 years Trad only, for me. Had been shooting compound since a kid, about 25 years. I shoot pretty often. It's addictive.

[Shadowhnter]

Any good???? Lol, that's kinda subjective isnt it? If my shooting is meant for elephant, I wouldn't have to be near as tight of a shooter as pavan and his doves....but it would be good for elephants.. Compared to Hill, I stink royally! Been shooting for almost 30 years traditionally.

[redfish]

Almost 50 years since starting, minus about 20 years in the middle when I was too busy with kids and work.