Common Sense Traditional Bowhunting

[Rob DiStefano]

Is getting back to basics concerned with over analyzing tackle?

[katman]

Originally posted by Charlie Lamb:
Archery/bowhunting is ageless. And the cool thing is that it's whatever you want it to be. Nobody sets the rules.

Oh so true.

Rob, unless your harvesting the wood and scratching out a bow with hand tools, fashioning wood arrows with what is in your area, gathering feathers and napping points your are making compromises. How far you take it away from the basics is a personal choice. The essence of traditional archery is not just equipment to me.  

[TaterHill Archer]

Originally posted by Tooner:
 

Originally posted by Rob DiStefano:


Where I'm coming from is back to the basics, the real basics that most of us, Charlie included, started out with, back when.  What did it take then to become a successful bowhunter?  How does that apply to the here and now?  Think on that a bit.

"Basics" is a relative term and it's never static.  What was considered the basics for Charlie's era was likely more advanced than the era that preceded it.  What is considered the basics for today is more advanced than what it was when Charlie started.  Even what is considered a successful bow hunter has changed. Time marches on. [/b]

I agree with Tooner here.  Every "generation" of trad bowhunter has tried to use the best that generation has to offer.  Some go back to self-bows and making your own bow out of a stick with a sinew string is probably as "basic" as it gets.  I started with a Black Widow recurve and I wish I had it back.  I've gone through long bows and different recurves and I recently picked up an ILF bow that I like a lot.  Right now, that ILF is my basic trad bow.

[Draven]

What are the true, basic essentials one needs in order to be on the righteous road to being a successful traditional bowhunter?  Indeed, what does it even mean to be a "successful traditional bowhunter"?

What are the true, basic essentials one needs in order to succeed in anything martial related art? I consider archery a martial art - you can use it to compete in a harmless way, but its main reason to exist was, is and will be to kill something. To become competent and successful in it you need these things in my opinion:
- to have the call for it in you (to be attracted by it).
- to have someone or something to guide you with the fundamentals
- to always want to be today better than yesterday and tomorrow better than today
- to find your way of shooting - nothing beats what comes natural to you once the fundamentals are ingrained in you
- be responsible - shoot just what you can kill.
- last but not the least: love and respect life.

[mec lineman]

I would like to chime in here. I am addicted to this site, I got to be cause I am constantly reading posts through out most days. I have gotten some useful information from here,but I have not changed the way I bow hunt due to reading posts or great hunting stories. I shoot a simple set up and I am confident in my shooting abilities at my hunting ranges. I personally don't get into all the shooting styles, I just use the one that seems to work for me. I love the SIMPLICITY of trad hunting why complicate it.

[Terry Green]

Fundamentals/Basics... the method in which you sharpen a Broadhead may change but, the fact that you should use a sharp Broadhead remains so.

Just one of countless examples of fundamentals/basics. These types of fundamentals make sure the foundation remains solid and it doesn't become watered down slideing off into quicksand.

[elkhunter45]

Whatever gives you the confidence to make a killing shot and not wound a game animal with your traditional bow is what I am for. For some that may include what some of us would consider over analyzing all of the things mentioned in the opening query. I must admit that I have picked up some ideas from that crowd that have helped me. An example being that I shot too stiff of arrows for 35 years until I experimented with tuning this past year (brought about by some carbon arrow tuning threads posted on here). I find myself somewhere in the middle I guess. I shoot a 42 year old vintage Bear recurve with a dacron string (old school) and perfectly tuned modern carbon arrows (new school). The deep hook and double anchor is another thing that I incorporated this past year from this site. These two things have helped me to shoot better. At the end of the day that is all that matters to me. Keep it simple and keep it fun.

[Rob DiStefano]

Originally posted by katman:

Rob, unless your harvesting the wood and scratching out a bow with hand tools, fashioning wood arrows with what is in your area, gathering feathers and napping points your are making compromises. How far you take it away from the basics is a personal choice. The essence of traditional archery is not just equipment to me.      

none of the above is what i'm alluding to, not even close.  it's in the simple example that terry just posted, but in this fast food day and age, goes way beyond that ....

[Terry Green]

And as a frequent reminder Tradgang is not about traditional archery ....it's about traditional bowhunting.

[Rough Run]

Originally posted by Terry Green:
And as a frequent reminder Tradgang is not about traditional archery ....it's about traditional bowhunting.

Now I'm confused - I understand being able to separate bowhunting from archery.  But how do you separate traditional archery from traditional bowhunting?

[catman1]

It's just a stick and string and you got to figure it out on your own with what you have to work with, the IDN's did..

Originally posted by Rob DiStefano:
Is getting back to basics concerned with over analyzing tackle?

In my opinion, yes.  Every generation of hunters overanalyzed their tackle.  That is how incremental improvements have been made over decades and centuries.

There is nothing more "basic" than trying to improve.  It's in our DNA.

[Draven]

Originally posted by Rob DiStefano:
Yes, without a doubt and as always, Charlie is spot on ...

"Archery/bowhunting is ageless. And the cool thing is that it's whatever you want it to be. Nobody sets the rules."

Where I'm coming from is back to the basics, the real basics that most of us, Charlie included, started out with, back when.  What did it take then to become a successful bowhunter?  How does that apply to the here and now?  Think on that a bit.

Not quite long ago there was one rule : Do what you have to do to feed your family using a bow and arrow. That was the definition of a successful bowhunter in my opinion.
Today things are blurry. There is not that urgency from the past for most of bowhunters. That's why, maybe, there are as many opinions as people expressing them regarding what a "successful bowhunter" is and how he becomes that. Shooting the bow with a sharp broadhead is one of the things that defines a successful bowhunter - but is not the entire story behind. Learning to track the animal, getting close to it and knowing when to shot and when not are as important as sticking an arrow in it.

[tomsm44]

A sharp broadhead is what kills an animal.  Everything else is just a delivery system.  Properly tuning your setup and developing good form help to ensure accurate delivery, but there are quite a few methods of doing those things that all yield good results.  

My dad has been a bowhunter since I was a small child, but has always been a compound guy.  When he started out, he got some help and guidance from an older guy that had hunted with both recurves and compounds.  His first piece of advice was this:  "the key to bowhunting is getting them close".  In spite of what his equipment is "capable" of, my dad has limited over 90% of his shots to 15 yards or less.  He passed that advice on to me, and in all the years that I hunted with a compound, I only shot once at an animal over 15 yards.  When I took up trad, that philosophy fit perfectly with this style of hunting.  

To answer the original post, in my opinion, the most important things to being a traditional bowhunter are getting them close, and having a good quality sharp broadhead that you can deliver accurately within that close range. .

[katman]

Originally posted by Rob DiStefano:
 

Originally posted by katman:

Rob, unless your harvesting the wood and scratching out a bow with hand tools, fashioning wood arrows with what is in your area, gathering feathers and napping points your are making compromises. How far you take it away from the basics is a personal choice. The essence of traditional archery is not just equipment to me.      

none of the above is what i'm alluding to, not even close.  it's in the simple example that terry just posted, but in this fast food day and age, goes way beyond that .... [/b]

I apologize Rob for misinterpreting your comment. So should we limit our conversations on trad gang to the fundamentals only?

[Jon Stewart]

I was blessed to be born into archery. My dad owned an archery shop back in the 50's and 60's called Bear Archery of Muskegon. I worked there as a young kid learning how to fletch arrows and make strings. We got Bear arrows in a box by the gross and Bear razorheads in boxes by the gross. When hunting season came we were cutting arrows  and gluing heads on them from the time we opened until the time we closed .  It was pretty basic back then. I think the modern traditional archer is over thinking the sport with too many "what ifs". Almost everything has changed from what the bows are made out of, arrows are made of and the many types of string making materials.

I just keep shooting my 69 Bear Kodiak Hunter with my B-50 string and my cedar arrows tipped with Black diamonds and just plug along.

AND then my entry into the primitive archery world happened. There is no greater experience than hunting with a self bow, arrow shaft and stone point that you made using feathers from a turkey that you harvested. Harvesting game is secondary to me.

[Rob DiStefano]

Think of "common sense traditional bowhunting" as just that - getting back to the fundamentals, the roots, in terms of both tackle and shooting.

I know, I hear some of ya ... I'm dancing around what I'd really like to post ....  

[Terry Green]

The fundamentals of traditional bowhunting go Way Beyond sharpening a Broadhead ... there's a multitude of cornerstones and those cornerstones are Paramount to a solid foundation ....

There's a lot more than just sharpening a broadhead and getting them close.

No Kat.... we're just making sure we don't run off and leave the fundamentals and the foundation remains sure and not promote fake news.

And I some of y'all do not understand it or haven't seen it but Rob and I are here all the time....

 So we see a lot more than most... we see patterns, trends and all sorts of people trying to beat the system cracking... attempts at cracking into database, advertising, Schilling, behind-the-scenes third-party Shilling, you name it we deal with it.....all to bring you the best and the truth in bowhunting.

Originally posted by Rob DiStefano:
Think of "common sense traditional bowhunting" as just that - getting back to the fundamentals, the roots, in terms of both tackle and shooting.

I know, I hear some of ya ... I'm dancing around what I'd really like to post ....      

I get what you are saying, I just don't agree that you can ever define the "roots."  To Nels Grumley, Fred Bear crossed the line...yet many hold Fred Bear up as the ultimate traditional bowhunting icon.  Fred Bear WAS the obsessive radical of his time.  

Every era has had it's minimalists as well as those that obsessed about every little detail.  Things we consider basic, were at one time thought to be radical and obsessive.  Think about the dude that first thought about matching arrow spines to draw weight.  Or how about the guy that first thought of tapering arrow shafts, attaching chunks of animal fur to their strings in order to quiet them down, making arrows out of metal tubes or attaching a quiver to their bows.

The point is, obsession to details IS traditional, it IS as basic and fundamental as anything else we do...it's human nature.

[Draven]

Originally posted by Tooner:
   

Originally posted by Rob DiStefano:
Think of "common sense traditional bowhunting" as just that - getting back to the fundamentals, the roots, in terms of both tackle and shooting.

I know, I hear some of ya ... I'm dancing around what I'd really like to post ....          

I get what you are saying, I just don't agree that you can ever define the "roots."  To Nels Grumley, Fred Bear crossed the line...yet many hold Fred Bear up as the ultimate traditional bowhunting icon.  Fred Bear WAS the obsessive radical of his time.  

Every era has had it's minimalists as well as those that obsessed about every little detail.  Things we consider basic, were at one time thought to be radical and obsessive.  Think about the dude that first thought about matching arrow spines to draw weight.  Or how about the guy that first thought of tapering arrow shafts, attaching chunks of animal fur to their strings in order to quiet them down, making arrows out of metal tubes or attaching a quiver to their bows.

The point is, obsession to details IS traditional, it IS as basic and fundamental as anything else we do...it's human nature. [/b]

Traditional is "doing what was demonstrated through experiments/history that works". The obsession for detail comes just if you understood that part with "what works" why it works and how can I make it better for me.