What really is traditional?

[Brad_Gentry]

It's funny, but I have actually been thinking about this issue lately. In fact, I just re-read Dick Robertson's TBM article from a few months ago, and agree with most of it.

There have been a lot of good points made here, and I guess I would fall in with several when talking only about the equipment issue... to me it's simply some type of longbow or recurve, shot barebow.

In my opinion, the attitude component is the biggest issue, and I think it was a big part of what Mr. Robertson was talking about.

My idea of traditional archery has always centered around  accepting limits , in both your equipment and your means of hunting.

This flies right in the face of  the great American/human condition of always trying to improve and simplify everything, which is what brought the compound into existence in the firt place.

When one is constantly trying to get more out of their equipment, such as speed... the ever important few more feet per second, to flatten trajectory; their accuracy...  sights that makes you a better  instinctive shot; the mechanics of their shooting... using plungers/elevated rests and whatnot so as to provide easier tuning and less susceptability to poor releases; and so on and so forth... sooner or later you'll end up with something that has no resemblance to what you started with in the first place.

[Grizz 53]

PS: Bravo Dick in Seattle, you hit the nail on the head. That should have put this subject to bed but not untill everone has had their say.LOL

[Grizz 53]

PS: Bravo Dick in Seattle, you hit the nail on the head. That should have put this subject to bed but not untill everone has had their say.LOL

[Caddo]

I have no idea what traditional is, not real sure I want to. I'm a BAWSLAR!    

(Bowhunting Archer Who Shoots Longbows And Recurves)

LD

[Jaeger]

Kingstaken, the DAS is a great bow. But it is just that. A bow. Nothing more. If it had some "magical" qualities I'd be in the next Olympics instead of shooting neck and neck with my best friend who shoots a Fedora Xtreme off the shelf.
A good bow will assist you in attaining YOUR highest level of skill. The skill is still yours to develop and attain. If you have to focus your own shortcomings as an archer (Not making an accusation or an attack. Just a generalization) on someone elses equipment then you are in a sad place and I feel sorry for you.

[Biff]

Jeff- of coarse you have the right to your opinion, but possibly you havn't been "through " the ropes. I'm 65, started shooting at 10 (tournaments at 12). In the 50's we had wood arrows, alum. arrows, glass arrows. Ww watched our arrows gracefully arc through the air at field archery targets, from 15 to 80 yds away. Most of us tried compounds when they first came out, but the romance was lost. All the high tech stuff was not what the original archers wanted. To most of us, traditional is longbows and recurves, reguardless of materials used. There is room for diehards, shooting primitive, or guys and girls just flinging arrows from a recurve or longbow. But doing it the "old way" is what makes it "TRADITIONAL" for us.

[Ia Hawkeye]

If it hasn't got wheels, cams , cables, or let-off, to me, it's traditional.
Agree with Dick !!

[Ray Hammond]

this is an argument begun on a false premise.

They had carbon 1000 years ago- sheep, ibex, or gemsbok horn. Native Americans used it, Persians used it. What does biodegradable have to do with traditional? Stone implements don't biodegrade, aren't they traditional?

You aren't a caveman- you use a computer, you drive a car, you probably have a cell phone and use a safety belt when you climb a tree.

We are hunters, limiting ourselves by equipment choice to stick and string. It seems to me you should be worrying about whether what you are doing makes you happy, and if it does, why worry about what OTHERS think about what you are doing?

[Adirondack Bowman]

"Traditional"- old Indian word, means 'NO COMPOUNDS'!

[Orion]

Traditional as it is applied to archery/bowhunting is a relatively new use of the term.  When I started bowhunting, it was just called archery or bowhunting.  The word traditional wasn't used until the compound was invented, actually not until a few years later when they actually began to be popular, and then the word traditional was used initially to distinguish stickbows of one sort of another from compounds.  If you weren't shooting a compound, you were shooting "traditional."  Of course, there is an attitude and philosophy, even a way of life that have since become part of the definition of traditional.  As already noted, the definition of traditional also has an historical element to it, something that happened in the past.  Our supposed disagreements regarding what is traditional are a reflection of the fact that we can't agree on  where to draw the historical line.

[WestTnMan]

To me, Traditional is learning to master shooting a bow in it's basic form. It is not accepting the "assistance" of added things to improve your shooting but improving your shooting by practice and working on it. It's accepting the fact that when you miss, it's your fault because there isn't any equipment to blame it on. It's building arm guards and arrows because you "enjoy doing it yourself". Mabey that is what traditional is : "Choosing to do it yourself,unaided, because you like to".

[kiiwosewinini]

In a way... the fact that we hunt, spend time in the woods (instead of in the house), and prefer to play with sticks and strings (regardless of their composition) makes us "traditional".  

I stick to traditional is what you make of it.  The bottom lines is to get out and do it. Do it they way you like, when you like, but none-the-less DO IT.

[Dick in Seattle]

Trying to regulate "things", i.e. equipment, rather than attitudes is, for me, a losing proposition.  It's a dark trail that leads to more and more regulation and it entices folks to push further and further against the edges of the more and more regulations, and so on.   As an approach, it didn't work for prohibition, won't work for gun control, and will inevitably lead to more judges and less shooting in sports. This happens in every activity, like it was part of human nature.  

Here’s a little parable.   Once upon a time, there was a guy named Charlie and a guy named Bill. They both had big lawns and bought riding lawnmowers.  They got to talking about their mowers and decided to get together in a vacant field and race them, just for fun.  A few other guys joined them.   Getting together to race lawnmowers... now there's a silly activity that should be purely fun.    They started out getting together on Saturdays with their own machines, with which they actually mowed their lawns.  However, inevitably, someone built a special "racing lawnmower", and from there it went, until they ended up with classes, factory sponsored teams, mechanics who can pull a lawnmower apart and rebuild it for maximum performance with the ever burgeoning regulations governing exactly what is "stock".  Soon, it was a huge activity with businesses involved, etc.    Meantime, Charlie and Bill got kind of overwhelmed, shook their heads and dropped their memberships in the Official Lawnmower Racers Governing and Ruling Organization.  If you want to talk to Charlie or Bill about their experience and feeling about it, you can still catch them on Saturday mornings down at that vacant field… just the two of them and their lawnmowers… after they finish mowing their lawns.   Meantime, all the other guys are attending more and more meetings of the OLRGRO to refine the more and more regulations defining the more and more classes of lawnmowers and what is and isn’t permissible.

This has been fun, guys, and it's let me get some ideas off my head.  Helped me through a real bad night, too, but there’s a new thread on workshops that looks like it’ll be interesting…

Dick

[vermonster13]

Dick just told the story of NASCAR

[southernarcher]

Traditional is a state of mind to me.

I shoot modern longbows,but I would shoot selfbows if I could make them.I shoot carbon,wood,and cane arrows from my bow.I shoot them with my fingers,without any let-off,and no sights.label me how you will!LOL

Now lets talk about the hunting seasons not being long enough!LOL

[WESTBROOK]

Traditional archery is to me,

No wheels, no letoff, no mech release, no sights.

Actually it should be defined as Archery and Mechanical archery.

Eric

[-Achilles-]

westbrook..."Actually it should be defined as Archery and Mechanical archery."...exactly

[ChuckC]

Not even reading the earlier posts.  

In my mind, traditional simply means...not compound..... that's all.  

Stick and string, no matter the chemical make up of the parts.  No matter whether you use sights, or not.  No matter at all in fact.  make it mean whatever you want.
ChuckC

[Roger Norris]

"Doesn't the use of modern materials make this nothing short of a wheelbow?"

Thats just about the silliest sentence I have ever read on this subject.