What was your first bow?

[Possum Head]

Like David I bought the green and brown 76er new from an old hardware store that's no longer in business. I had a springarm quiver as well. They will make you appreciate a quiet quiver! My folks did buy my brother and I the 15# red and white Pearsons fiberglass models and we slayed all the bunnies in a neighborhood briar thicket    Good thread by the way it's nice to take a trip back in time.

[BWallace10327]

I was given a red fiberglass Indian brand bow with a black rubber handle when I was 7 years old.  I shot targets and pop cans for hours and hours.
My favorite was hunting cactus, and skinning/eating the ones I hit.

[ronp]

My first bow was also a yellow fiberglass recurve.  Santa (my Mom) got it for me for Christmas about 47 years ago.  I'm not sure why, I had no idea about archery back then.  Of course I strung it up backwards and shot it a lot!  Then an older cousin strung it up correctly and man did that shoot faster.  I still have a yellow fiberglass bow that my grand kids shoot, but I'm not sure if it's the same one.  I have no idea where I got it from.    

My first hunting weight bow was a Quinn Stallion.

[kevsuperg]

My first trad bow was a 1969 bear alaskan 50@28 from my father in law at his passing in 1990.  Looked much like your black bear but yellow glass back n belly.
 Hunted with it many years, taking a few deer with it.
 I've since passed it on to my adult son to keep it in the family.
 No mostly shooting my HH longbow.

[Sirius Black]

Martin X200

[myshootinstinks]

Hand made flatbow by my Great Grandad, also hand whittled cedar arrows. First "store bought" bow was an Indian, orange glass and maple riser.

50# Bear Kodiak Hunter

Bisch

[Blackstick]

My first bow was a solid fiberglass "Colt Captain" 30# static tip and dual shelf. It's still being used by Grand kids today. My first hunting weight recurve was a 67 1/2 Super Kodiak. I hunted with it this past year.

 

[Phillip Fields]

First store bought bow was a Shakespeare all fiberglass bow my parents gave me about 1959. I still have it. My second store bought bow was a 50# Kodiak Magnum I bought new in 1971. I also still have it.

[Tim Finley]

My first bow was a Shakespeare fiberglass Comet it says 25# but it is 40#. I even shot a deer with it . Second bow was a 45# Bear cub a 1962 year . I still have both and occasionally shoot them . I went on **** and doubled up on the Comet and a friend , Brandon Barringer gave me a Bear cub Identical to the one I have .

[Friend]

Still have my first recurve...acquired in 1969...a Little Bear

[San Juan Slim]

In 1984, fresh out of college, I bought the prettiest compound I could find--the Bear Archery Brown Bear.  It looked nothing like today's arrow launching machines.
 
 

The reason I bought this compound was due to its traditional look.  I didn't think you could hunt big game without a compound.  Then in about 1987 I met some local bowhunters shooting longbows and recurves in SW Colorado where I lived.  They took me under their wing and soon after doing some shooting and finally hunting antelope with them one fall, I realized I could miss as well with my compound as I could with a recurve and, in 1989, I ordered a Martin Howatt Hunter.
 
   


I never looked back.  The next year I started shooting a Martin ML10 Mountaineer longbow and shortly thereafter ordered a "custom" Wapiti Spike longbow.  I now own several racks full of "traditional" bows.  I shot one antelope with that compound and have killed many, many game animals since in several states with my longbows and that Martin recurve.

I am now shooting an old Bear Kodiak and an Eskimo that are the same age as me-give or take a year.

I sold that Brown Bear Compound about as fast as I could back then.  Now I wish I still had it hanging on the wall for posterity's sake.  For a compound, it was really quite beautiful!

Mike

[degabe]

My first bow was a native American horse bow from the Cherokee nation  It was made for my Dad when he was a kid. plenty of small critters died in front of it including a few stray cats, rabbits and one partridge. I still have it but it has not been strung in probably 40 years.

[Keefer]

My first was my Dad's Ben Pearson Colt that he bought back around late 60's and I started using it sometime around 1979 !
  I still have it in my shop and he had some of those "Hilbre" heads and a borrowed back quiver.  

[DarrinG]

My first was a Browning Nomad, wood riser compound, back in about 1985. My first traditional bow was a Blue Ridge Hunter takedown made by a local bowyer, back in about 1991.

[nineworlds9]

First bow, kids peewee wheelie bow from Service Merchandise when I was around 10, it still had enough penetration to shoot through a bag of kitty litter LOL

First TRAD bow, a Bear Tigercat when I was around 11 or 12.

[dringge]

My first bow was given to me by my dad. It was a '59 Bear Kodiak 64" 45 lbs. Yes I do still have it

[hunting badger]

My first bow was a Ben Pearson lemonwood longbow bow I got it for Christmas when I was 6 because I asked for a bow. I still have it but hasn't been strung in years. My brothers who were 9, 10 and 11 years younger than me used it when I went away to college. I got it back a few years ago from my folks house, lots of memories in that old bow!

[Jon Stewart]

A Glenn Wilson recurve made in Michigan. Dad bought it for me in the early 60's.

[Tajue17]

there was a few when I wasn't sure which direction in archery I was going  but the bow that made me decide to go traditional was a Genesis bamboo backed osage flatbow by Joe Don Jones