Is Metal taking over

[Aaron Proffitt 2]

It all goes in cycles and locations. Over the years Ive seen short bows hot for a while, ILFs have been for a few years now for those that like to constantly play with limbs weight/length/brands/cores. Widows,Palmers,ACSs etc, will get popular in an area if one person gets one and shoots well, others follow. You will have one group that leans vintage Bear,Pearson, whatever. The self bow guys. Old English or horsebow group. And some like me that find bows we like and shoot well and keep for 10 yrs or more. Its all good...…………...

Same thoughts I was having.

[Friend]

Started shooting in winter of 69. My bow was the only bow in the club that wasn't a metal riser. I recall only seeing one wooden riser that whole winter.

[Rob DiStefano]

"traditional" archery implies wooden stick and a string and complimentary wooden arrows.  do bow and arrow materials really matter?  to say that true traditional archery/bowhunting requires selfbows, hemp strings and woodies would mean that 10% of trad bowhunters are traditional and the rest are not. 

let's face it ....

1.  most of us like WOOD bows, but they're not all wood and at the very least incorporate space age components such as glass, glues and resin finishes (yeah, there ARE all wood selfbows, but they are in the strict minority)

2.  the vast majority of bowstrings are made with HMPE, which is a total "space age" material

3. arrows - do i need to say more?

so literally, threads like this are counterproductive and attempt to make objective out of something that's totally subjective.  there is NO need to argue over "what's traditional archery/bowhunting?" because it's always about a .....

STICK and STRING.  that's all that matters.  pick wood, pick metal (yuk! ) or have a bow made of some unobtanioum "space age" material, whatever - as long as it's a stick and string longbow, recurve, or some combination of those two styles.

[Rob DiStefano]

I admit this will likely cause some to stir but is traditional archery getting more like technical traditional archery. I don't mean this as a negative in any way. We all have our shooting choices and no matter what they are, it's all good. But it seems that more shoots I go to, the more likely I'll see more ILF/Metal riser bows and more advanced shooting methods than I have seen in previous years. I agree we all look for that edge, whether it's a new performance enhanced bow or carbon arrows or whatever we think is going to make us more successful. And I guess my point is are we losing our passion for the simpler bow, the wood arrows and the acceptance of our limitations of our equipment. I'll say it again more power to you if you are using every available advantage to make you better either on the line or in a tree. But for me as I sit and look over a classic bow of mine that is not made anymore and I wonder, will a day come where the simple pleasure of traditional archery will be lost. I certainly hope not. And yes I realize that everyone has their own definition of what that means. I guess I'm getting old.   

in a word to all you've posted - NO

yer making argumentative statements that have no validity in the world that most of us are steeped in - traditional stick and string bows.

the MATERIALS used to make these bows and arrows are SUBJECTIVE and will only satisfy YOUR taste.  not mine or anyone else.

but yes, i prefer a bow who's core material is wood and not cold metal. 

so what?     

[SteveB]

Agree Rob - 100%

[Rob DiStefano]

are metal riser stickbows on the rise?  i don't know or care.

is there a reason to be concerned about metal riser stickbows as opposed to wood composite bows?  not from my perspective. 

do some folks think that metal riser stickbows are in some manner a "heresy" to the sport of traditional bowhunting?  probably, but so what? 

do i like metal riser stickbows?  not at all, and that's just personal preference.   

do i think lesser of trad bowhunters who use metal riser stickbows?  hell no!   

can we all sit by the campfire, get along and sing "kumbaya"?    

 



 

[Jon Stewart]

Metal has been around a very long time.

[Zwickey-Fever]

I put down bows with metal risers, (wheelie bows), over 25 years ago and with no regrets. For me, metal risers lack character and soul. Take any wooden bow, even though it may be the same model, they all are different due to the wood grain. There is a huge difference when you grab a wooden riser verses a metal riser on a frosty morning.

[GCook]

My compound doesn't have a metal riser.
I think maybe a part of his question was geared towards competitive shooting as in does they give better performance thus an edge with all else being equal.  Do they provide a consistency from shot to shot that wood cannot?
Like groups not allowing string walking or crawling as an aiming method. 
Personally wood just "feels" better to me in the hand and in the soul.

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[jonsimoneau]

I’m shooting a metal riser right now and I hunted with it this past season. I’m still shooting it off the shelf like my wood bows. I went metal simply because I wanted to try and ILF bow simply for the availability of good limbs at an inexpensive price. It’s nice to be able to call Lancaster and have a set of limbs in a matter of days. This allowed me to get multiple sets of limbs in multiple weights. Light limbs for working on form and heavier sets to hunt with. I could have had a wood ILF riser built and I probably will but the metal ones are more inexpensive in comparison and I wasn’t sure if I’d really like the ILF setup. The advantages I’ve perceived with the metal riser is as follows: 1. Weight. I like heavy mass weight bows. The heavier the better. I’m shooting a WF19 riser and it weighs like 3.6 pounds riser alone. 2. Grip. I can shoot with a medium wrist grip that I have altered and it is fantastic. Also because of the strength of metal the grip can be thinner which helps me a bit for accuracy. 3 is just simply durability. I can spray paint it. I can drag it across screw steps, throw it out of the tree when I miss, etc. and I can’t hurt it. As far as shooting, I shoot it exactly the same as I shoot my wood bows so not much difference there. The metal riser bows are probably more accurate due to how stiff they are but I doubt it’s much more than your average bowhunter would notice. John Demmer can shoot a score with his Timberpoint longbow that can leave your jaw on the floor! The ability to shoot different grips on the metal riser has allowed me to find out what the perfect grip is for me. In fact, I am sending my favorite wood recurve in to a bowyer to have him reshape the grip to these specs.

[JohnV]

So who is going to decide what is traditional and what is not?  Do we get to vote?

Personally, I don't see a lot more metal riser bows at archery shoots or in the woods.  Certainly no more than back in the 1970's when Bear Archery, Ben Pearson, and many other major companies offered metal riser bows.  What I see is that traditional archers today have many more choices to pick from.  There is also a lot more information online regarding equipment choices and shooting technique.  Seems to me that Bear Archery and every other archery company for that matter was constantly looking to improve their bows and equipment.  Do you really think that ole Fred would want nothing to do with carbon limbs, supercurve limbs, and carbon arrow shafting? 

[Rob DiStefano]

So who is going to decide what is traditional and what is not?  Do we get to vote?

....

if it's a stick and string i'll call it "traditional"  .... or maybe "modern traditional" as opposed to "1950's traditional" as opposed to "1873 traditional" as opposed to "medieval traditional" as opposed to "before recorded history traditional".

this is all pretty silly stuff.   

[Todd Cook]

I don't think they're taking over, but I'm certainly seeing more and more of them being used. I'm not a fan of the looks of them, but to me they're no doubt easier to shoot well. Heavier mass weight and so easy to tune translates into tighter groups.

We're a widely varied group of folks in this sport. Some of us are more attracted to the nostalgia of the old ways, some are more tech oriented. I still shoot wood arrows exclusively, yet I know the advantages to carbon. I just like them better. At the ranges I hunt wood works just fine. I like selfbows too, but I usually hunt with a glass longbow because I shoot it better.

I think the variety of bows and shooters is a good thing. Gives us lots to talk about. 

[Yooper-traveler]

So who is going to decide what is traditional and what is not?  Do we get to vote?

....

if it's a stick and string i'll call it "traditional"  .... or maybe "modern traditional" as opposed to "1950's traditional" as opposed to "1873 traditional" as opposed to "medieval traditional" as opposed to "before recorded history traditional".

this is all pretty silly stuff.   

Rob I prefer the post civil war/pre-industrial revolution era traditional bow hunting myself.

What I see?  a huge influx of IPA drinkers vs a "traditional" larger drinker either after a shoot or around the campfire!  IPA drinkers are taking over!!

[Rob DiStefano]

i think the main thing is to not splinter up traditional bowhunting into factions. 

as time and progressive political cultures move forward with their radical agendas of change, we need to be one traditional bowhunting family to fight for our traditional bowhunting rights.

stick to yer subjective idea of what "traditional archery/bowhunting" is and be tolerant and respectful of other folks who may differ, as long as it's all a stick 'n' string.

 

[Macatawa]

So who is going to decide what is traditional and what is not?  Do we get to vote?

....

if it's a stick and string i'll call it "traditional"  .... or maybe "modern traditional" as opposed to "1950's traditional" as opposed to "1873 traditional" as opposed to "medieval traditional" as opposed to "before recorded history traditional".

this is all pretty silly stuff.   

....LOL!!
I have been amused with this topic since 8AM....still laughin!!!

 

ok...lets get serious....(I'll try but I'm still laughin...)

If yer bow riser contains more than 73.6 percent non-man made materials then..sorry but you don't qualify as a bonaified  traditional bowhunter...

[reddogge]

I hunt with a wood riser bow, a Wes Wallace Mentor, a pretty thing but it's 47# so for 3-D I shoot a Titan riser ILF with BF Extreme limbs. It's about 42# and I can shoot it all day without strain. And to be perfectly honest, if someone were to hold a gun to my head and tell me to pick the bow to make the shot or else, I'd pick the Titan any day.

[Roy from Pa]

At 70+ years old, one thing I have learned and compel myself to do, is not judge others who may use different equipment than I do.

And therefore I'd appreciate the same courtesy out of others I may meet along my path.

I knew this thread was going to cause controversy as soon as I read the first post.

Any bow with just a string fits my compliance just fine, as do other weapons another person may decide to shoot, but not I myself.

[TIM B]

Yeah I can tell it's still not bow season
Tim B

[cwegga]

Traditional archery is just a shorthand way to say shooting single string bows of various types. People have always upgraded equipment whenever new things became available and metal, sights and various aiming methods have been around for a long time.

Really the wood everything crowd are just bow hipsters... They "liked it before it was cool," wear plaid shirts, have beards, rave about their latest artisinally crafted toy, etc. 



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