As I prepare for another bow season I can’t help but to reflect back on my 42 year journey. Although my dad was a gun hunter, I became interested in bowhunting at a very young age. I remember reading friends of my dads Archery World and Bowhunter magazines. This was the early 70s and there was still a lot of recurves and longbow articles. The fire was lit. I got a compound for Christmas in the late 70s and hunted that way until I found a copy of the very first Traditional Bowhunter magazine. That changed everything!! I swapped a Loggy Bayou hang on stand for my buddies TD Hoyt recurve. I was hooked. This was 1989/90. There was no internet, no social media, I had to figure it all out on my own. It wasn’t difficult as compounds back then were a whole lot simpler than they are today. I shot them with fingers so it wasn’t a huge transition. In about ‘92/93 I bought a Bear TD Hunter from Cabelas. I killed my first traditional deer with it and I was hooked!! I hunted with that for a few years and killed a few deer with it and then I figured that I was ready for the big leagues…I was ready for a custom recurve!! I really didn’t know which one. I had never attended a 3D shoot let alone a trad shoot so there was nothing to try. I saw different bows in TBM and couldn’t decide. Then I rewatched Alan Altizer’s video “Whitetail Eye to Eye” when he killed that buck with a recurve. I said to myself “THATS IT!!” so I called Black Widow and spoke to Ken Beck and came up with a bow for me. I hunted with my SA II for 15 years. I sold it to get my buddy and fellow Tradganger Tony Z into traditional bowhunting. I bought a PCH to replace it in 2010. That was about the same time as I discovered the internet!! According to Tradgang, I joined in Dec’09. Woodchucker reached out to me right away as we lived only a few minutes from each other. We drove up to the JLMBH (Joan Leonard Memorial Bunny Hunt) together. I had never been surrounded by so many traditional bowhunters in my life!! Since then I’ve met so many great people and made some awesome friends. I’ve joined Compton’s and the PBS. I’ve had the opportunity to hunt places that I’ve never dreamed of, like Alaska, Florida, Montana, Wyoming and Canada. I’ve met many of my “hero’s” of my youth and “well known names” in the traditional bowhunting community. I also became friends with a few!! My journey has no destination and has been filled with a lot of great memories, and friendships. I’ve also managed to take a few animals as well.
Topic: What an incredible journey!! (Read 2353 times)
