Why trad...

[Slasher]

After reading Craig warren's frustration with a potential cutomer... It made me realize that trad isn;t like the rest of the bowhunting industry... Thank God!!!

The main reason I decided to drop the hitech whiz bang 80% let off bow was.... that once you found a way to tune and keep your equipment tuned, the fun and joy was gone! Now there are the folks who buy at least one new bow and accessories for it a year, so I see its a hoarding game of getting the latest greatest toy that makes them better than the rest... But, I hated the equipment part of the game and the statussness of what you shot...

I was sick of the PROHUNTER WHO thanked the manufacturer of each piece of sponsored equipment he shot each episode... Man I bowhunted in for the challenge... I actually got into trad by picking up an ole bear recurve to just perfect my form... well It worked, my form got good and the wheelie bow got boring!!!

Now I try to take as lil into the woods as I can each hunt and the enjoyment is 50x greater. There's no chip on the shoulder and nothing to prove... just me and the deer.. they win 95% of the time, but I actually am the REAL winner as I have grown as a hunter, a person, and have realized that I am not in control of 90% that happens in the hunt, but if I give less than 90% to my hunt I will fail... But no matter what I have learned to appreciate and take 110% of the hunt back with... and folks I am a better man for it!!!!

Now, i have an urge to take a season to go primitive and hunt only with stuff I have built or bartered for... why? to grow through voluntary restraint...  

[Soilarch]

I could have written your second paragraph myself.  Yet, even in the mist of re-learning how to shoot, I find myself wanting this bow...or that bow...or that other bow.   (This is my only disappointment in trad so far, and it's my fault, not "trads"!)  I also like the plain simplicity.  Bow? Arrows?  Good.   With compound it's Bow?  Sight? Rest? Quiver on tight? Stabilizer? Release...easier to forget than you think! Arrows? Peep alignment? Now you're good.

I'm also a compulsive tinker-er.  As silly as that sounds it was the major decision maker in my last compound (a bow that required no press...finally I could do ALL my own work/tune/repair).  I thought I'd miss that part of it, but I'm finding trad it as good a place as any for the tinker-er.  Arrows always need built, and tweaked.  Making my own strings is becoming a possibility...and I get to tinker with my form again!!!!! Endless possibilities/frustrations right there!!

EDIT:  I want to add...THE PEOPLE...there alone is enough reason to switch if I had to do it all over again.

[ozy clint]

yes, thats trad for you. now that i've experiened it i can't see myself hunting any other way.  

[**DONOTDELETE**]

"to grow through voluntary restraint... "

Good words, I like that.

[Boomerang]

Thats one of the nice things about traditional archery. The stick bow you buy today will be just as good as the one you buy 20 years from now.  :D

[Biggie Hoffman]

I can't know some of your frustrations cause I started out with a longbow in the early 60's and never saw a need to go to a compound device.

I can imagine how those of you who've tried both can see the differences more clearly.

[SoNevada Archer]

I came to trad because of an elbow problem caused by my release aid from my compound days.

Now I'm building my own bows and enjoying archery on a much deeper level.
 Trad came along just at the right time for me. My kids are converting and I now have the chance to convert my brother and his son and my grandkids which are starting to come as well!

[DEAN]

WHY NOT????????

[D. Key]

I started shooting a Shakespear recurve in 1966.  Never hunted with it but loved to shoot.  Started bowhunting in 1980 with a PSE Compound and enjoyed that for a while.  Like most I became bored with it because the compound did not present a lot of challenge.  Challenge is what hunting is all about, is it not???  In 1992 I bought my firt "real" custom bow, a Black Widow recurve and have never looked back.  Since then, I have probably bought and sold 75+ bows and loved most of 'em.

One thing about trad shooting...I've never been bored.  Challenged yes, but never bored.

Good shoot'in.

[Scotch]

Good post.  
"Personal Satisfaction"
It's why I do most everything nowadays.

[Kingstaken]

Started archery with wheels and eventually became bored. I mean how many time are you suppose to shoot at pieces of paper the size of your fingernail...       No challenge.
Us Aries gotta be challenged all the time. Probably why even now I usually stop shooting for a few months or so every year otherwise would have to start shooting rubberbands with paper clips. Wait I did do that as a child.  

[blind one]

I was one for all the gadgets until a couple of months ago. I had to get them extra fps. I kept getting different sights until I had enough pins to shoot 60 yards and 70 if I used the bubble on my sight. What got me was all the bickering about who had the most sponsors and free stuff. I'm on a pro staff now ,but wont be next year. The people who shoot trad are in a league of their own. Just look at the christmas giveaway the Vermonster started, people helping people..It doesnt get any better than that...

[MikeW]

Now there are the folks who buy at least one new bow and accessories for it a year, so I see its a hoarding game of getting the latest greatest toy that makes them better than the rest... But, I hated the equipment part of the game and the statuettes of what you shot...

That about sums it up for me.

I started with recurves in the early 70's and soon had to have a compound. I shot wheelies for about 10 years or so and really just got tired of keeping up with the latest greatest gadget. Plus I felt it wasn't why I took up bow hunting in the first place.
The challenge wasn't there any more and it was too complicated. It took all the fun & joy out of it. I enjoy shooting just a stick,string & arrow.

[Witherstick]

For me, I would add two things.

One, when I want to use sights and a trigger, I just hunt with a gun that year.  In fact, I did this year, but with my Hawken of course.  I took a very nice buck, but it was still more shooting than hunting.

And that is my second point.  I would rather that I make the shot.  Buying the latest gadgets doesn't make a person a better hunter or shot.  It simply made his gear better so that he can pretend to be better. When in fact, the manufacturer and designers of those gadgets are the one who are better - at their jobs.  When I take a deer with my longbow, I know that more of me went into that hunt and shot then is possible by any other legal and ethical means of hunting!

[BowHuntingFool]

Ya know, I was a Compound shooter for 10+ years and always wanted to try a shoot a Longbow. I jumped in this past Jan. and found out that this was for me. I really, really enjoy archery! I shot my bow just about EVERY day to get ready for the season. Then I realized I was shooting because I wanted to, like I said I really enjoyed it! I then found out how real the Trad community is, top notch people that I'm proud to say I'm associated with!!!!

To answer your question of Why? I just wanted to see if I could shoot good enough to hunt with a long bow! I found out I can and so much more, thanks everyone!

[mdwatts]

Like Biggie, I never did the compound thing.  It just never appealed to me.  Shot a buddy's one time.  Drilled plumb center.  He asked me which pin I used.  I said, "What pins?"  I went through a long firearm phase though.  But, once I picked the longbow back up, it's been all there is for me. "Why?"  It's life itself.  Can't imagine living without it.

[talkingcabbage]

I shot a compound a few times in my youth, but never seriously.  I do still enjoy a gun hunt every now and then, but this trad hunting has really changed me.  I went shotgun season here for the first time ever last weekend.  But I actually hunted, much like I do with my longbow.  Around here, most shotgun hunters get 50 guys to drive through some timber and empty their guns at whatever they find.  That's not hunting to me.  It's actually kind of ridiculous that they can't hunt one animal and take one shot to kill it.

Like I said, last weekend I went shotgun for the first time ever, and I hunted two animals and took two shots.  I now have two deer in my freezer.  If I have to gun hunt, I'd rather have that then have to empty the gun to maybe hit one.

The trad hunting is real hunting to me.  You stalk/track one animal and basically get one shot (if you get two you're lucky).  Also, the people are amazing.  You guys are the most down-to-earth honest people I've met.  You've all got a heart to help the less-experienced and you all really appreciate one another.  That's something I really don't see so much in the compound and gun world.  Like someone said earlier, it's all about the equipment for them.  With us, anyone with a stick and string is invited.

[JEFF B]

yup trad is real good it changed the way i looked at hunting thats for sure and i wouldnot have it any other way.      

[hawgslayer]

 
Shooting my Mathews or Martin or Hoyt or the PSE just wasn't fun any more. I'm not bashing the bows because their isn't anything wrong with any of them. For me it just got BORING. Wasn't fun and there was no more challenge. I started with the recurve 15+yrs ago and fell into the wheelie bow sceen. Went back to the recurve and have taken deer 2 seasons now and I can say I never should have gone to the gadget bows. Bye the way, I sold them all.

[Jake Allen]

It is alot of fun.
Meet some good folks to boot.