My 43-Year Old Son Asked why Traditional

[Bowwild]

My son lives just 1/2 mile from me across the gulley and through the woods. He and I have been hunting together since he could walk. He's hunted with a compound since he was 13. He added a recurve to his line-up a few years ago. (Gee whiz I can't believe it was 25 years ago when he graduated High School when I gifted him a Black Widow!). He killed a deer with the recurve last season and is dabbling with it some this year too.

Yesterday we were driving to Lowes for some lumber for me to make a wedding arbor for his son, my grandson's upcoming outdoor wedding.  He asked me why one uses a recurve instead of a compound. He said he doesn't buy the "pretty wood" reason. He knows I have nothing against anyone or whatever they choose to use as long as it is legal and they are competent and make good decisions.

I told him two reasons why I prefer the recurve:

1. Nostalgia. Recurves are what I started with.  Hunting with recurves reminds me of those magical first hunts and my first one was indeed magical. I reminded him, because I started him with compounds and I was shooting those with him for years, he probably couldn't relate. But he said he gets the nostalgia reason.
2. I feel more involved and in tune with the shot. There is no mechanical advantage with the recurve, only the energy I put into the shot being reflected in the release.

If I'm being honest, I have to admit a deep down ego issue. I feel better when taking an animal with the recurve than the compound.  I'm NOT suggesting this as a good reason and in fact consider that ego thing a fault. The ego thing, in my mind, has to do more with how others will perceive my accomplishment rather than my own satisfaction (or not). 

It is difficult to remove perception value from the "story telling". In other woods, did I kill the "big buck" with a rifle, crossbow, compound, or recurve. Those methods are all fine, personal decisions, but, whether good or bad, my "value" of the accomplishment increases as one progresses through that list.

[mgf]

I hunt with "traditional" just because it's what I like. If I were to use a different weapon to increase odds of filling the freezer during bow season, I'd skip the compound and go right to a crossbow. I've been tempted to do it but ONLY for the meat. It wouldn't have anything to do with having fun.

There just isn't anything about a compound that I enjoy...I don't like to look at them, carry them or shoot them. Since I don't own a compound it's easy to decide which to hunt with. LOL

I think other should hunt with what they enjoy hunting with.

[Stringwacker]

Its often been said that the more you put into something....the more you get out of it. It seems particularly true with stickbow hunting.

In the end; its simplicity is very intoxicating.

[Mark R]

I like the challenge of Traditional, I can shoot a compound just about as well as a crossbow, If I ever have to kill I'll use one of my firearms, thank God I don't have to, if I'm hungry I can always go to the Grocery Store. Traditional is so much more fun for me, I here people talk about it's simplicity I agree on the Bow as a weapon but not at getting proficient with it or the making of a fine Bow, that takes alot of skill, practice, and experience and is what I like most, I'm always fascinated with the different processes and challenge of it all, I never get bored with it and the Trad community is great.

[McDave]

There just isn't anything about a compound that I enjoy...I don't like to look at them, carry them or shoot them. Since I don't own a compound it's easy to decide which to hunt with. LOL

mgf’s comment just about sums it up for me too.

The main reason I took up archery back in the ‘80’s was to have something new to do with my two boys.  Personally, I had just finished reading “Zen in the Art of Archery,” and thought archery might help me to de-stress from my job.  We started out with compound bows, and there was nothing about compounds that helped me to relax, or that I could relate to the experiences of the author of that book.  I can’t imagine anyone ever writing a book called “Zen in the Art of Shooting Compound Bows”.  While I am not a practitioner of Zen, shooting a traditional bow is a peaceful experience for me and helps me to keep things in perspective.

[Sam McMichael]

I also shoot traditional simply because I like it. I have shot compounds but never wanted to own one. I used to use the rifle, but there was not much challenge in it since the areas I hunted were heavily wooded and long shots very rare. After getting my first longbow, I used the gun in gun season and the bow in archery season. One year as bow season drew to a close, I decided I was having so much fun I would stay with the bow into rifle season. That was over 30 years ago, and during that time I have only used the bow. Simply for the enjoyment. I haven't killed a lot of deer, but I don't care. I could wax long and eloquently about being closer to nature, feeling as one with the animals I hunt, etc. But, why bother, you guys already know about all that. As the Beach Boys might say, it's been "fun, fun, fun since I took the rifle away".

[trad_bowhunter1965]

I shot a stickbow before I ever seen a compound bow when I was 16 I bought my first compound. The reason why I switch back to my roots is I was a shooter not a hunter I shot several Muledeer at 50 plus yards and a bunch of Jackrabbits 60 plus yards I wanted more I switch to back to Trad bow fell in love with everything about it found Trad Gang and the rest is history.

[Brianlocal3]

Mine started out cost…
Archery and fishing have been my hobbies my whole life. I like to hunt, haven’t in a long time with family obligations but ARCHERY is what I love.
I started with a compound, idolized the Fitzgeralds, so naturally I shot fingers with no sights. My best friends always beat me at 3D, so I put sights on and eventually a release, still LOVED shooting as much as possible.
Then went back to fingers , no sights, string eventually broke.
$120 for new string and for it to be put on.

I bought a Herters International Match hunter and 6 arrows off eBay for $35, learned to make my own strings and viola!!!! I’m Trad.

I still love bow hunter class compound , I don’t like watching Olympic recurve or long stabilizing compound but anything hunting class, bare bow style I’m in.

That’s why I shoot Trad

[BAK]

About 10 years ago my brother asked me to go shotgun hunting with him.   I seldom gun hunt anymore but I went.  We were standing on a trail when a very nice 10 point came running our way.  I let it get to about 50 yards and I shot it.

As we were standing there looking at this fine deer all that I could think of was what a great kill that would have been with my longbow.   I felt absolutely no sense of pride or accomplishment having killed it with the gun.  I felt the same way when I shot a deer with a compound, and that was over 30 years ago.   

[Bisch]

Here’s the way I reason it:

It is much harder to get and stay proficient with a trad bow with no letoff or sights than it is to be proficient with a compound with sights or a scoped rifle. For me, that difficulty makes the successes way more rewarding because of how much harder I had to work to make it happen!

Bisch

[Orion]

There's no doubt that a traditional bow is more challenging, which in turn increases the satisfaction, as others have noted.  That's the main reason I've been doing it this way for more than 65 years. 

[MnFn]

I started out with a recurve, bowhunting in 1965 with a “Wonderbow”. A gift from my parents. I just love shooting traditional. I have been shifting over to the longbow side lately, but do have my old Wonderbow and a Black Widow recurve also.

One of my nephews suggested to my son that he should try a compound.  My son replied “What? And get cut out of the will?  He knows.😏

[dnovo]

I started out with a recurve before compounds. I did buy a compound in 1977 when I was 21 and impressionable. I sold it in 1980 and went to a Howard Hill longbow. I’ve been shooting a longbow ever since. Part of it is the added challenge of getting close and also shooting enough to maintain accuracy. But when you like to shoot that’s a plus. Plus the longbow and wood arrows is just so simple and easy. No reason not to.
Plus I think I look cool with a longbow and back quiver. 

[woodchucker]

Back in the 1970's... Fred Bear instituted a program, "Be a Two Season Hunter" to promote BowHunting.

I started bow hunting in 1976. I was the LAST of my friends, to switch to a compound.
I only bought a compound, because I couldn't find a badly needed string, for my old Bear recurve.
2 compounds later, I was tired of the "latest & greatest" buy a new bow every year mentality....
I quit bow hunting. I started again about 2000, with a used Kodiak Magnum and cedar arrows.
It was 1976 all over again!!!

That being said... I have ALWAYS been a gun hunter, and always will be...
Every year, Opening Day of rifle season, is a family tradition at our cabin at the base of the mountain.
NY's big game laws, allow all unused tags to be used as antler-less tags, during the late Muzzle-Loading season.
This, is when we fill the freezer..... A scoped In-Line, gets the job done!!

Bottom line... I'm a HUNTER!!! It's all about the meat....

[Captain*Kirk]

All the reasons above, plus the fact that the whole time I was hunting compounds, I was shackled to 'the gear'...sights, rests, releases, pulleys, wheels, cables, sliders...what I needed was none of that. No release, off the shelf, no sights, no gapping. And I found it in a trad bow that was built in Grayling when I was in junior high. light as a feather; I could walk to my stand with the string lightly dancing across my fingertips. The warmth of wood versus a frigid cold magnesium riser on a frosty morning. Nothing to drop, lose, or break. And the power of a secret past of who knows how many hunts, how many big bucks trapped inside that bow just itching to get out.
And above all, a 50 year old bow that is as current and relevant as it was 50 years ago.

[Tactical Draftsman]

For me, they are just a heck of a lot more fun to shoot than compounds. You can actually see your arrow in flight and if you miss, there is usually less damage to your arrow. Plus compounds became similar to having a bicycle up in the tree; too heavy, with too many gadgets. I never really wanted to shoot a compound year round, but I shoot traditional gear at least four or five days a week.

[George Tsoukalas]

It's personal preference. I never owned a compound. I shoot the all wooden (selfbows) that I make for me and mine.  I started shooting around 1956.

My oldest daughter shoots the osage self bow I made for her...one of many. I  once asked if she feels like she should shoot a store bought bow. She laughed.

My younger brother (of eternal memory) shot selfbows I made for him.  I sure do miss him. We hunted and shot together.

My best archery times have been those spent with family and friends.

I shoot selfbows because I enjoy it.

Jawge

[Bowwild]

Many of our reasons are identical to very close to the same.  I'm thinking our reasons are as uncomplicated as the equipment we enjoy.

My son had heard me proclaim the joys of hunting with recurves over and over for years.  When he asked this question a few days ago he wanted to know why I "like" them.  I had to dig a bit deeper to figure that out and provide the answers I listed above.

[LookMomNoSights]

Its often been said that the more you put into something....the more you get out of it. It seems particularly true with stickbow hunting.

In the end; its simplicity is very intoxicating.

I 100% agree with this ........

[blacktailbob]

The nostalgia thing yes.
Kind of like tooling around town in a 63 Corvette convertible that you also enjoy working on verses stylin in 2022 Corvette that requires a college course just to figure out the whistles and bells and surely you can't mess with anything under the hood. But they are faster!