Where Has All The Fun Gone?

[NDTerminator]

I personally get just as much enjoyment out of experimenting, tuning, and finding what's right for me, as I do shooting the sucker once I get a tune.  Can't help it, I'm an obsessive-compulsive problem solver.

Hey, it's all shooting, and it's all good...

[Three Arrows]

Me too NDTerminator... no cure for us.

[Diamond Paul]

I do love to mess with stuff, but it's always in the interest of shooting better.  I'm personally glad that forums like this exist, cause lot's of people don't have access to knowledge that can help them shoot better.  I do think everyone is too worried about whether this or that setup will kill something.  The latest "high foc" info has got people scurrying around in a panic; now they aren't sure if an arrow with only 10%foc will actually kill a deer.  Kind of like going to church: take what you need, and leave the rest there.  Paul.

[akbowbender]

Ditto NDTerminator's post.

[R.W.]

String'em, and fling'em!

Just watching arrows fly is fun. And right you are, it is too easy to "complicate" everything to death.

[jacobsladder]

im with terry.....lets go hunting!

[Jeff Roberts]

I set my bow up to hunt with and I try to hunt hogs or something at least twice a week, most times more. I guess you could say I am a bowhunter and not so much an archer or a tinkler with equipment as once my bow is set up like I want it( I haven't changed my set up in years) I hunt. I practice and I hunt. Don't have time or desire to tinker with my setup. Terry us south Ga boys get together quite often. I'll give you a heads up on the next one.

[Jason R. Wesbrock]

I think there's a fine line between "string it and fling it" and needing a Mossy Oak slide rule.

Ignoring proper tuning and correct arrow flight is how we end up with people who are perplexed as to why their broadheads wind plane, or the fact that they can't shoot through a deer with a 60# recurve.

On the other hand, there's no reason to take things to extremes either. I don't need a setup capable of shooting through Tembo in order to hunt deer, elk, or even moose for that matter.

[NDTerminator]

A bow tuned to shoot through an elephant...  Cool idea....  :D

[Jedimaster]

I've been banging my head over this issue for some time.  I just kept thinking "it's the simplicity that got me into traditional archery".  I want to be well tuned so I get good accurate flight.  A numb-skull can figure 9-10 grains per pound, but all the mental calasthenics that goes into some arguments make my eyes bleed!  I can read along and follow the physics well enough, but I don't want to.  I been around long enough to know that the current thoughts  will evolve again soon enough.  If folks are lucky it won't change much before October and they won't have to feel guilty shooting their current set-ups. LOL.  I get much more pleasure reading about hunting and craftsmanship and friends and camps.

But... after that lengthy diatribe I will give credit where it is due.  These things are good for some to know and teach.  Everybody gets there jollies somewhere and that keeps this site fun for everyone.  

[steadman]

Agreed Mitch! Now when are we going to make you a new bow?  

[Hackbow]

It's been said on here a thousand different times and a thousand different ways over the years, but why let anyone else have a say in what brings you joy? If you are interested in performance issues then the "techy" threads will flip your switch. If not, don't read 'em. If you know your set-up will be adequate for your intended quarry, then why let ANYone's opinion influence your confidence? That's just giving somebody else power over you. It's bad enough to let someone you know do it, but to let somebody you've never met steal your joy via an internet forum is ludicrous.

I love this place for the vast array of information, but there are forums I've never even felt the least bit compelled to peruse and I open very few threads. The choices are great and serve me.....I won't serve them.

I am currently enjoying the discussions on arrow weight and FOC issues although I've never posted to a single thread on those topics. When I shot a compound I used the heaviest arrows I could find, put the big Snuffers on the end, never used a release or sights and always had the slowest arrows (~185 ft/sec) and shot the lowest 3D scores of all my friends. Yet I managed to kill deer when my friends didn't. Nowadays I shoot similar set-ups with about 11gpp, FOC of about 32% and not a necessarily fast bow. It amazes me that all this happened while the conventional wisdom (friends and mfrs' marketing) were telling me something else. But I never let the detractors take any of my fun away and now I feel a little vindicated by some of the testing. BUT.....if you like the lighter, faster set-ups, shoot 'em because YOU want to not because someone else said you could.  

[IB]

This is some good stuff right here. It's much like where the rubber meets the road issues. The heart of why we do this silly stuff.

Back in the 50s when I really started my adventure with this stuff, I found something that I could embrace that seemed to be less competitive than High School sports. Most likely because there were much fewer involved, most were playing sports. The few of us that did do Archery formed a very close brotherhood.

All of our journeys with Bow in hand turned into mythical adventures. Where Robin Hood, Fred Bear, Saxton Pope and Art Young's adventures could be lived out in real time and real life.

My High School years we spent many hours in the same areas that Chester Stevenson was writing and reminiscing about. As we wandered those haunts it was ever present, that we could be walking the very path that Chet and Grover had walked, we could be smelling the same smells that they too smelled.....What a rush for a young budding archer. That was the beginning for me.

That was my VERY first Relationship, I formed a bond with an old Bear hand me down bow that I cherish today.
A relationship that I endeavor to preserve to this day with every bow that I take a field.
I learned that I may not be perceived as being as good a shot as Howard Hill. But in my relationship with my Archery Equipment and within myself, I could do everything he did. Then as now that was, and is all that really matters. I am totally happy with what I can do, confident that we can and will get any thing we attempt done.
With My bow in hand I have a PERSONAL relationship with it. it has come from many hours of time spent together. My bows have names those names have been formed from this relationship.  I know these bows as well as I know my family and better than I know some of my friends. Like Robin Hood, Bear, Pope and Young, Bows to them had a soul. So BooBear has a sole to me.

For those of us who have had the fortune to have in our hands a piece of the OLD ARCHERS history, or to walk the pine covered paths of the old ones, gaze across a valley that Pope and Young once gazed across you'll know exactly of what I speak.
For those of you that are still dreaming of those Special Flavors....Enjoy archery and press on with your Personal Relationship, the FUTURE is NOW

[Brian Krebs]

Before I started really chasing deer; I shot a 45 pound Ben Pearson; and I would shoot arrows and mark the arrows that hit the target best. The arrow that hit the best I inked #1 on and such until I needed to replace the 'good arrows'. I was shooting groundhogs on a regular basis and having fun doing it.
 It can be that simple...
I do though like to have my whole quiver full now: with '#1' arrows.
  Fun is still there !
But yep; the best way to ruin the soup- is to add to much stuff to it: trying to make it better.
 
   

     

[tradtusker]

some interesting thoughts here.

you can defiantly over complicate things trying to find better more efficient ways of doing things, but that is natural to humans and is why we are the top of the food chain. however everything we come up with is often as destructive to us and our surroundings as it is beneficial.

i like to tinker with my hunting set-up and make sure i have the best set-up for whatever im hunting.

I look at the great Archers of old how they where always testing and trying new things to improved there bows, arrows, broadheads etc..

i would love to see more hunting threads and adventures posted.

as with everything you get the "Do"ers and the "Dreamers"

[adirondack46r]

Originally posted by MW:

I just wanted to post to let all those out there who like me are/ were drowning in the gear talk about what is right to not worry about it and just have fun shooting...
Mitch

I hear ya Mitch, but to be honest, the better I shoot the more fun I have. And I think if I hadn't started following the threads on this board 3 years ago I would still be shooting like I was 3 years ago - and it wasn't pretty. ;-)

[6X5]

Last Sat at my club I watched a guy have fits trying to make his compound machine shoot. At first it was funny but then it got down right sad. I went out and shot our 3D course twice and went back to the  clubhouse. He was still trying to make it shoot. I remember the 2 years I spent in the compound ranks and this guys situation brought back into focus the reason I came back to trad. Sure I tune my bow and arrow set up, but it doesn't take long and once its done its all shooting and fun from then on.These poor guys are constantly tuning, I kinda feel sorry for them and sure as hell will never go back.

[JC]

You can get as technical or not as you choose to. There is enough room in traditional bowhunting for everyone.

To me, the most fun is hitting something with a longbow/recurve. I ain't no Howard Hill and found that if I pay attention a few of the technical aspects, my shooting is markedly better than when I don't...if I do my part. Some guys can hit whatever they want with any old stick and string...I just ain't one of them.

All the tuning, fiddling, preping goes away when I'm at a shoot (stumping or otherwise) and certainly for a hunt. I have utmost confidence in my gear and that relaxes me even more....allowing me to have more fun. You don't necessarily have to do that to have fun, but it can be fun in itself. I consider the tinkering, testing, and trying something new part of the fun of this lifestyle.

I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Westbrook: To me, the key is, not to take either extreme (tech or not) too seriously, plenty of folk have wonderful success with both. Folks may just have differnt definitions of "fun" (watchin golf on TV is my idea of torture). Your mileage may vary.

Andy, I would love to be able to tell more hunting tales as I'm sure the majority of the guys on here would...but a 50-60 hour work week and taking care of a farm, my boys sports etc., it doesn't leave much time for hunting. Course, I don't think I would ever have enough time hunting no matter how much free time I had.  

[DeerSpotter]

Hey,

Part of the fun is setting up your new bow.  You want to get the right string, the right nock setting for your arrow, you want to get a new quiver for it, and what's more fun than setting up brand-new arrows, down to make them yourself.  That's what I'm doing with my new "Whip"

Haven't you ever heard the expression?


"Fun is a choice !  Make lots of choices, have lots of fun"

Especially when it comes to traditional archery, just decide your going to put some fun back into your stuff, you're the only one that can enjoy it, and you are the only one that can take the joy from it.  Don't let others mess with your stuff, especially your attitude !

Life is a choice, live it !


There is only one phrase I can't figure out???


"  Misery is optional  "

And the man that said it live in Iowa !!!!


Pastor Carl

[Gary Kellar]

Ignorance can sometime be a blessing! Since Curtis ("Littlefeather") handed be a bow and said; "go shoot this" and I did, I've enjoyed every opportunity I had to get out and shoot.

As for the ignorance; I don't know much other than the arrow goes on the rest and in front of the string and you pull-er-back and let-er-fly. What could be more fun than that. Sometimes I hit something but most times I don't, but it doesn't concern me a great deal.

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