How did you get started in Traditional Archery?

[Pine]

I was wondering, what got you into Traditional Archery?

As for me, I wanted to shoot a bow and arrow at a very early age and when I was 6 years old my dad got me a 25# bow and taught me how to shoot. And buy the way, there were no mechanical bows back then, so I guess it wasn’t traditional at the time.

But the years went by and the Wheelies came on the scene and I tried a couple but I didn’t like them and stuck with “Traditional”.

Funny thing, back then it was called “A stick bow”, took a few more years before I heard the term Traditional Archery. 

So how about your calling to shoot Traditional?

Would love to hear how you got interested and or started. 

[Pat B]

Got tired hauling around the heavy, magnesium wheeled contraption just to be able to hunt the early season. I read everything I could find(Trad Bowhunter, etc) about hunting with trad bows and realized it was a viable option. Soon after I got my first bought glass recurve(Jeffrey's) I started thinking about selfbows. Thanks Jay Massey!!! 

[Pete McMiller]

Got my first bow for Christmas about 65 years ago, close to 20 years before wheel bows were available.   That first bow was likely a straight limbed bow and the arrows had rubber suction cup "points".  Played cowboys vs Indians in the house a lot those years.  Gradually graduated to heavier bows but still "just bows".  Still have an old fiberglass 45# bow though my 55# Bear Kodiak Mag is long gone (thankfully).  Due primarily to that K Mag I switched to wheels as soon as they arrived (1975?).  Finally got bored with compounds and went back to my roots in 2009 - haven't pulled anything but a "trad" bow ever since.  Archery is fun again!

[Bowguy67]

My father made me a bow 50 years ago now. Was nothing fancy but he made the arrows too. I eventually got a glass recurve, than a wood longbow.
Shot some compounds starting the 80s though I never stopped w the styks.
I’m an accomplishment type guy and styks def add to the accomplishment.

[Wudstix]

Started with a SEARS green fiberglas bow 25# my brothers was 15# and yellow.  Probably 7-8 years old.  Moved to a 45#@28" at 15 drawing 25-26".  Grew into that bow.  As with many here it was just called archery back them.
 

[A Lex]

Made kids type longbows as far back as I can remember (I'm almost 60 now)

Willow branch's for the bow and butcher's twine for the string. Old fence pailings split and smoothed for arrows, and chicken feathers tied on with fishing line for fletching. Cut up an old chrome bumper bar from an old Ford car for points.

My Dad bought me my first "real" bow when I was 7 or 8, a red fiberglass longbow with a 15lb pull, thought I had it made 

Had it for years, but bought other trad bows along the way, didn't know they were called Trad back then. Played with wheels for a short stint, but found them cold heartless and too blazing fernickerty. Bought a real nice recurve somewhere around 20 years ago but for some unknown reason was really drawn to longbows nearly 10 years ago, and have used them ever since with not one single regret.

It's been a fantastic journey. I've really enjoyed the last 20 odd years with my trad bows, and God willing, I'm really looking forward to the next 20 

"Journey" is actually the name of my 75lb Blackwidow longbow.

About to go and start making up a new batch of wood arrows right now actually.........

Best
Lex

[wood carver 2]

I always had an interest in archery, but I never had an opportunity to learn. When I began hunting, I bought a crossbow. I didn’t like it, so I bought a different one. I wasn’t crazy about that one either, so I bought a wheel bow. I quickly got fed up with fiddling around with that contraption too. I gave up on archery then for about 10 years, when I moved to Cambridge and met a guy who also hunts. He invited me to hunt with him a few times and we became friends. One day he invited me to join a moose camp. The guys hunt the bows only season so I had to get something quickly. My buddy suggested a crossbow as there was little time to prepare. This time I bought a good one and I took it to moose camp two years in a row. Now my buddy is a trad archer and I mentioned that I had an interest in it. The next spring, he invited me to turkey hunt with him in Ohio where he introduced me to more of his friends, who also shot trad bows. I came home with a borrowed longbow that I was to practice with. Finally, I was shooting a bow that I enjoyed.
Shortly after, I discovered Trad Gang and it wasn’t long before I began learning how to build my own bows. Now I have a rack with a dozen longbows and recurves hanging from it and I’m adding bows now and then.
Dave.

[Wudstix]

Never got bite by the bow making bug, but do assemble my own woodies.  Just got back two dozen footed shafts, I sent cut down tapered shafts and had them footed.  Looking forward to making up a few arrows to try out.
 

[Sam McMichael]

While my dad was in the Air Force, we were stationed at Columbus AFB in Mississippi when I was 10 years old. The sergeant who lived up the street from us ran the base archery range. My older sister and his son were friends. Mike asked my sister if she would like to try archery. She agreed and they asked me if I was interested. We shot regularly until my dad got transferred. Although it was several years before I could get back to it, the archery seed had been planted. Eventually, when I was a teenager, I bought a Ben Pearson recurve. Over time I used the rifle less and the bow more. For 31 years now, I have only hunted with the bow. Granted, I don't kill much, but I am a better hunter. I have had over 40 deer within 10 yards that I did not drop the string. That was partly due to having Alpha Gal syndrome, so I couldn't eat the meat anyway.

[Mike Malvaini]

https://backwoodsgrind.com/podcasts/ep-20-back-to-the-basics-traditional-archery-with-terry-green-of-tradgang/

9:30 - 18:00

Not only that, but the St Jude stories were unbelievable. Too bad the 'woke' are committing suicide. Horrible that they don't want to associate with Tradgang.

[Terry Green]

Yes sir, the St Jude stories are worth the price of admission.... never mind my stuff. 

[dnovo]

I started with a crude hickory bow my brother carved out when I was 5.  Sling twine for a string. Couple years later my uncle gave me one of the little red fiberglass bows. It’s been a continuous journey since then. When I was about 20 I succumbed to peer pressure and got a compound. 3 years later in 1980 I sold it and got a Howard Hill longbow and have been shooting a longbow ever since.

[doubleo]

Got started in my early teens with my neighborhood buddies shooting our 25# or 30# fiberglass bows. The rabbits and carp took a pounding close to home. Bought my first real hunting bow a few years later. It was a very nice used Browning Safari 2. Finally started hunting deer with that bow in my early twenties. I tried a compound for a year didn't like it. Switched back to traditional bows and its been a fun ride ever since!

[Captain*Kirk]

Started with a glass Ben Pearson recurve at 9 years old. Wheelie bows were a Flash Gordon fantasy back then...
Eventually I got into the gear game, getting several compounds and moving into Easton aluminum arrows and releases, and all the gadgets that go with it. It got to be too much, playing keeping up with the Joneses. I thought "There has to be a better way...a simpler way". And then I watched a video with Barry Wensel whacking a running whitetail on the fly with no sights, no releases, no super carbon arrows...just smooth, lightning fast perfection and said..."Eureka!" That was what I'd been looking for all along! And it all came back to roost like a long-lost friend. And I've never looked back.

[MnFn]

My dad traded a home-made duck boat for a 56 lb recurve, and the idea of using a bow for deer hunting got me fired up. So, my folks bought a 40 lb Shakespeare Wonder bow for my 13th birthday. That was about 50+ years ago. I had some great times bowhunting with my dad, uncle, brother and brother-in-law. I shot my first buck in 1972, about a month before I enlisted in the Army.

[Wilderlife]

My dad made me a bow out of an old tree branch somewhere between 25-30 years ago when all I wanted to do was be in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, or, Dances With Wolves. I would have been about 7 or 8 at the time.

It took me well into adulthood and hunting with a rifle to even entertain the idea of hunting with a bow. I had a compound and killed a few animals and had fun but I never warmed to the bow itself.

Around that time I started paying more attention to bowhunting online and stumbled on Aron Snyder content. That's what really made me aware that people take recurves/longbows out hunting and can be very successful.

A friend of mine very generously helped me along my way into traditional archery and gifted me a Black Widow PCH. My first ever trad bow. I haven't looked back since.

Well, I do still rifle hunt an awful lot but I'm well and truly in love with archery.

[PrimitivePete]

I was a kid that grew up in the city without any means to get my hands on a real bow, but every visit to the local hardware store I would beg my mom to buy me arrows and a target. I used to make bows out of yardsticks and tree branches. Finally one year while on vacation a man had a Black Widow recurve that he let all of us kids shoot at a stump. It forever lit the flame.

[Terry Green]

These are some great stories guys!!!!  Keep em coming! 

[McDave]

In the mid ‘80’s, when my kids were young, I was looking for something new to do with them.  There was an archery shop down the street from where I worked, so I walked in one day during my noon break, and asked the guy behind the counter how to get started in archery.  He grabbed a bow and some arrows and took me back to their practice range, where he showed me how to hold the bow and shoot it.  It was a compound bow, but without sights or release aid. I asked him how I was supposed to hit anything with it, and he said not to worry about that, just focus on the target and shoot. Without knowing anything about what I was doing, the first three arrows went in the bullseye, so I was hooked.

We played around with compounds for a year or so, and then I read an article about traditional archery that fascinated me.  I bought a Brackenbury recurve, which I loved, and never looked back.  The kids stayed with their compounds for a while, and then moved on to other activities, although they both kept their bows, and my younger son still shoots with me from time to time.  Interestingly, I taught his wife to shoot a traditional recurve, which she loves, and has no desire to shoot a compound bow. I lost one of my recurves in the process, but gained a new trad shooter, so it was worth it.

[Terry Green]

Good stuff McDave!