So few trad hunters in California. Why?

[Doug Treat]

Last weekend I showed up to watch the very end (shoot offs) of the Western Classic- the largest marked distance 3D shoot in the world. I've lived in Redding, Ca for 5 years but this is my first time checking out the event. I saw just a few tricked out recurves (Olympic style) and I asked quite a few shooters about traditional shooters at the event. Several didn't know what a traditional archer was. Everyone except kids shot from the same place. More than half the shots were beyond 30 yards and the longest shot was 101 yards. (I wonder why they don't get more hunting trad setups  . ). The shoot offs to break tie scores were all done from 88 yards. I talked to one (hunter?) there who said he loved to hunt pronghorn because you could get lots of long range shots (100 plus yards) and if you wound them, they can't hide on the prairie and you can usually get another shot. If they do get away, that's ok, there's always more that you can chase. He said it's not unusual to shoot 10 times for each antelope which he thought was great practice.
Even at a traditional only 3D shoot I went to here, we were shooting really long shots and it wasn't unusual for only 25% of the shots from our group to connect with foam. Everyone seemed fine with that and most of those trad guys I talked to didn't hunt because they didn't feel like they were consistent enough. Sorry for the rant but my question is: Are there any 3-D shoots north of San Fransisco that are set up for reasonable hunting distances (less than 30 yards) for traditional archers?

[Doug Treat]

Here they are shooting to break ties at 88 yards. Even with super-fast confound setups, it would take more than a second for the arrows to hit. Pretty impressive but a very different and foreign kind of archery. These guys were shooting distances that I would shoot a rifle with iron sights.

[Doug Treat]

If you zoom up on the picture, you can just make out the dot placed over one of the fighting bull's guts that they were shooting at 

[Shane H]

 I wish I had an answer for you, I moved back here in 2000 and found the same thing. I've quit going due to lack of reasonable shots. And yes the orange dot over the guts is ridiculous. There are a couple good ones. Roseville has a good one in november. There is a good one in Petaluma in September and actually there use to be a good one in paradise in July, not trad only but unmarked and decent ranges. I would love to go to more as well.

[McDave]

There's not a big group of trad shooters in Northern California.  I would guess less than 50 who I see regularly at 3D tournaments, and an unknown number who shoot in their backyards and may or may not hunt without ever shooting in tournaments.  Besides the tournaments mentioned, there is a great trad only tournament in the foothills near Fresno in November.  Lodi Bowmen occasionally puts on a trad only tournament.  There is a trad only tournament in Pacifica, near San Francisco, that I would like to attend but haven't gotten around to yet.  There are mixed trad/compound tournaments with separate trad shooting stakes at my club in El Dorado Hills, Davis, Nevada County, Spenceville, Cougar Mountain, West Point, Mt Diablo, Briones, and probably others I have missed.  I won't shoot at a shoot where there are no trad stakes that are at a maximum of 50 yards.  Not many trad shooters are interested in shooting at the big Redding shoot because we don't like waiting 30 minutes or so between shots.

[reddogge]

The answer is to join the club and put in more than your fair share of the work. Maybe then they will allow you to put in traditional stakes that are more to your liking. Clubs always need help and providing it is the fastest way to get things done. If they don't move on.

[luvnlongbow]

The Bill Sullivan is a Trad shoot that Yahi Bowman put on every year. It's a very good shoot. The range is at Modesto Reservoir and they have it every year. May 20th this year. San Francisco Archers Pacifica is another Trad shoot that is very good. As said before, Maya in Roseville is another good one.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

I would sign up for the elk gut shoot and send one over the backstop into the chevy.

[yeager]

You said you talked to one hunter who hunts antelope......as you described what he said, I would not consider him a hunter. In fact, he should be banned from our sport. His unethical behavior is totally unacceptable!!!! I cannot believe that wounding an animal is NO BIG DEAL to him, because to me, it’s one of the worst feelings in the world.

[beachbowhunter]

Plenty of us in SoCal...

[old_goat2]

I live a stones throw from rmsgear, we have a thriving trad bow community because of it and we still only have a handful of competitors show up at the local archery ranges tournaments. Some of the slightly more distant clubs have a better showing butt I think trad guys just don't compete much!

[McDave]

Plenty of us in SoCal...

Yes, that’s my perception too.  Not sure why, because the terrain and weather in NoCal seem much more amenable to trad shooting to me, but even in Howard Hill’s days, most of the CA trad activity seemed to be down south.  Wonder why that is?

[Cory Mattson]

there are not a lot of real traditional bowhunters anywhere. There are areas that are better for sure.
I know hundreds - maybe thousands of traditional bowhunters and I do not know a single one that shoots 3D.

This thread opener and the following picture have NOTHING to do with traditional bowhunting

[Doug Treat]

Thanks for the thoughts, guys. I moved from Colorado where the club I was in had more trad than compound shooters and nearly everyone who shot trad hunted with trad. Just a different mindset here I guess.

[Roadkill]

A few of us from Reno go over to shoots in CA. There are a few stikbow shooters but the open terrain here often make folks choose compounds. The open terrain and dry conditions-archery season here is hot=90 degree days reaching to 100 and corn flake walking.  Still there are guys successful year after year.

[Maddog20/20]

Last weekend I showed up to watch the very end (shoot offs) of the Western Classic- the largest marked distance 3D shoot in the world. I've lived in Redding, Ca for 5 years but this is my first time checking out the event. I saw just a few tricked out recurves (Olympic style) and I asked quite a few shooters about traditional shooters at the event. Several didn't know what a traditional archer was. Everyone except kids shot from the same place. More than half the shots were beyond 30 yards and the longest shot was 101 yards. (I wonder why they don't get more hunting trad setups  . ). The shoot offs to break tie scores were all done from 88 yards. I talked to one (hunter?) there who said he loved to hunt pronghorn because you could get lots of long range shots (100 plus yards) and if you wound them, they can't hide on the prairie and you can usually get another shot. If they do get away, that's ok, there's always more that you can chase. He said it's not unusual to shoot 10 times for each antelope which he thought was great practice.
Even at a traditional only 3D shoot I went to here, we were shooting really long shots and it wasn't unusual for only 25% of the shots from our group to connect with foam. Everyone seemed fine with that and most of those trad guys I talked to didn't hunt because they didn't feel like they were consistent enough. Sorry for the rant but my question is: Are there any 3-D shoots north of San Fransisco that are set up for reasonable hunting distances (less than 30 yards) for traditional archers?

That antelope “hunter” sounds like a real douchebag.  The kind of guy that makes bow hunters look terrible.  I deal with some of that here in TX where the many rifle hunters hate bow hunters because we “always just wound the game and let it run away to suffer.”

Guys like that are WHY there’s that misconception.  Shooting 10 times before hitting one and even if you get a bad shot, it’s no big deal??  I’m pretty sure that’s not how they hunt.  When I was antelope hunting in WY, we made ground blinds and took 20-30yd shots.


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[tom cunningham]

I can highly recommend the Chamberlin Ranch Trad Shoot each year in April.  We had 430 shooters and vendors last month with a handful coming from Oregon and other western states.  They have a website and flyer to check.......

[Lonehowl]

 There is a bunch of us in Central and SoCal.  I dont do shoots or anything, but know guys that do...and they are always talking about 1 or 2 guys showing up with trad gear, then eventually more show up, then all of a sudden lots of compound guys are buying trad gear and converting. Lots of guys shoot both. Then, they setup a 3d course for trad, and it goes from there.

 I have seen the grumbelings from compound guys when trad guys show up, but most times it all works out and the 2 groups join together and have great fun....and thats what its all about.

 Mark
 
 

[Roadkill]

I have wheel shooters say trad guys are always looking for arrows, but they spend an inordinate time glassing, ranging, setting sights and then finally shooting.  Some then looking for arrows waaay beyond the butts.  I just go along to get along.  Those who have never shot any kind of stikbow are sometimes amazed at the speed and accuracy those bows generate.    Still, the terrain lends itself to longer shots-in general. 

[John Havard]

While I'm not a native Californian I live in Marin County now (just north of SF).  Most of the really intelligent, handsome, and humble trad bowhunters that I know live here.  Of course, I'm the only one I know who lives here.