The trad bug has bitten me. I'm new here to the forum and new to traditional archery, I thought I would share my story before diving into the forum. I started shooting around the first of December this year. I've been bowhunting since I was about 10 years old, always compound. When I was in highschool, with out any warning my grandfather went out and purchased me a Bear Grizzly 50#, just like the one he roamed these KY hills with as a young man. That bow was played around with for a summer, unstrung and hung up. Im now closing in on 30, a wonderful wife, 3 wild boys 3 years and younger. Ive scored on numerous whitetail with my Hoyt Carbon Element in the past couple years with a few really nice bucks.
I don't know if it was this season being slow and loosing a 170 class bucks early in september, or what triggered me. I was in my basement and just happened to look up at the recurve that had been neglected since 2008. I grabbed it off the wall and strung it up. I slung some goldtips meant for my Hoyt around the yard that day, didnt hit much, but it felt good. Some days after I got some cheap aluminums uncut with vanes and i shot that bow every day, the rest was falling off the shelf from the vanes and poor knowledge of proper knocking point height. About 3 weeks in after getting off 3rd shift I decided I wanted to take a doe ( already calling it quits with my compound for the year). I saw alot of deer for 2 mornings straight , but it just felt different, I wasnt frustrated, or bored in the stand like I had to be there as if it was a job. Day 3 I had one of the smallest does if ever even gave a thought of shooting make her way towards me. 15 yards quartering to me, all the while pounding in my head "Pick a spot, dont draw short, anchor, Pick a spot, release". I watched that arrow blow through her at the exact spot I was burning a hole through, tore down wouldn't touch the emotion and feeling I had as she ran 40 yards and dropped.
At the moment that scrawny yearling dropped, I realized what I had accomplished, and why my grandfather bought me that bow. It was unlike anything I had felt, Better than watching that 170 walk into bow range, better than back to back 151" and 152" whitetails with a compound previous years. This little yearling topped my charts as the best dear I had ever harvested. Her meat didn't last long, but the phone call to my grandfather made it all worth while. He cant hunt and barely walk around anymore, but after sharing my story with him, he sounded like a young man again, and he was proud.
Fast forward a couple more weeks, I've spent hours reading and shooting. New cedar arrows I cut, fletched, glued, and tuned my self. It was a rewarding experience practicing with arrows meant for that bow, and its only driven me to shoot and learn more. Today I was fortunate to get out of the house and harvest my 2nd and 3rd tradbow kill on 2 KY cottontails, 1 at 11 yards and the other at about 5, but I came home grinning from ear to ear, and it tickled my wife to see me that excited. So needless to say, i've been bitten and theres no turning back. Although ill keep my compound, I really cant see my going back to it, the reward and satisfaction of the recurve will just be too hard to beat. And as long as i've still got my grandfather here, I want to visit and call him with as much success/ and failure stories as I can. I hope to learn alot more from you guys and gals, and maybe if lucky, post some more success stories.
Topic: I've been bitten (Read 985 times)
