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Author Topic: Introduction To Trad Gang  (Read 498 times)

Offline Bryan Bondurant

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Introduction To Trad Gang
« on: June 29, 2009, 01:43:00 AM »
I'm Bryan Bondurant, early forties, grew up in Arkansas, got my first Longbow at 6 years old, A lemonwood self bow made by my grandfather in the twenties or thirties. Spent the best days of my youth with that bow as it has been a lifelong friend. Later I took a side trip into modern archery but quickly got back to my roots, Longbows and wooden arrows. I'm a resident of Alaska, for now located outside in Thailand but not sure for how much longer as I dream about going home to Alaska about everyday. Life is great here for now but Alaska will always be home, like many I have other considerations to deal with besides my personal lifestyle.

  I have been a hunter all my life and have killed, cleaned, cooked, and eaten hundreds of animals, thousands of fish. I have never killed any large game with a bow, only small game and game birds. In the future I plan to spend more time bow hunting than gun hunting. I guess my best hunting season was taking more than 60 limits of Mallards in one Duck Season in the timber back in Arkansas. Most of my Alaska hunting was based on practical issues and not hunting as a sport. My latest kill also out of practicality was a King Cobra which I killed with a machete.

 
  Why did I join the forum? I have been a life long traditional archery enthusiast. I have read this forum off and on for the last few years and got a good impression from my experience reading here. I can make practical and primitive archery tackle but I'm looking to improve my workmanship. I'm homesick for Alaska, I often daydream about my past hunting experiences and growing up in Arkansas. I'm also getting prepared for my next series of hunting trips which will be focused more on sporting aspects using traditional archery than practical survival. I find the forum informative, interesting, a good read, and I hope to learn more by being a participant on Trad Gang.

  Currently I'm a amateur bladesmith and have a small blacksmith shop where I mess around making knives, primitive weaponry and horse tack. My current archery gear is primitive bamboo which I make myself.

Offline BEN

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Re: Introduction To Trad Gang
« Reply #1 on: June 29, 2009, 05:13:00 AM »
Great intro!!  And Welcome to the "gang!!

ben
Ben
M.O.A.B  54# Thunderstick
Ancient Spirits 62# "Thunderhawk"
Browning Wasp 45#

"VEGETARIAN"----Old Indian word for "BAD HUNTER".

Online Tom

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Re: Introduction To Trad Gang
« Reply #2 on: June 29, 2009, 05:41:00 AM »
Welcome and hope you get "home" soon.
The essence of the hunt for me is to enter nature and observe+ return safely occasionally with the gift of a life taken.

Online rastaman

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Re: Introduction To Trad Gang
« Reply #3 on: June 29, 2009, 06:15:00 AM »
Can't wait to see you post some of your stuff!  Welcome aboard....
TGMM Family of the Bow

                                                   :archer:                                               

Randy Keene
"Life is precious and so are you."  Marley Keene

Offline adkmountainken

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Re: Introduction To Trad Gang
« Reply #4 on: June 29, 2009, 06:56:00 AM »
welcome to the fire! i just came back from a cruise last month through Alaska, heres a couple pic's if your home sick bro.
 
 
I go by many names but Daddy is my favorite!
listen to everyone,FOLLOW NO ONE!!
if your lucky enough to spend time in the mountains...then your lucky enough!
What ever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth.

Offline Whip

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Re: Introduction To Trad Gang
« Reply #5 on: June 29, 2009, 07:11:00 AM »
Welcome to the Gang Bryon!  Sure would love to see some pictures of your bows, knives, and gear that you make.
PBS Regular Member
WTA Life Member
In the end, it is not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. Abraham Lincoln.

Offline Lefty

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Re: Introduction To Trad Gang
« Reply #6 on: June 29, 2009, 07:23:00 AM »
Nice to meet ya Bryon!  Any hunting opportunities for you there in Thailand?

Offline Bryan Bondurant

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Re: Introduction To Trad Gang
« Reply #7 on: June 30, 2009, 01:14:00 PM »
Ben, Thanks for the "Welcome Mat" and I like your native vocabulary.

 Tom, You would not believe how bad I have wanted to just get back to Alaska, then I remember waking up in a panic, "My God, The Fire Is Out!" which is no joke in the interior.

  Rastaman, Will get some pictures up but I have no claim to fame as far as what I make. I'm a amateur just a wannabe at best, I do enjoy making things though.  

adkmountainken, I love the Adirondacks, I spent a couple weeks backpacking up there, me and friends hit Star Lake for a weekend in August when I was still in my twenty's. Great pictures of the Southeast, glad you had a great trip.

  Whip, I will be back in the Jungle on Sunday and will try to take the time to get some decent pictures for you. I don't have anything fancy over here but like I was saying, I'm looking to improve my gear and I have access to all kinds of tropical wood too. I will make a heat box or light box or whatever you want to call it this week so I can start laminating soon. Sunday I will be gathering some Clump Bamboo and looking for potential arrow shafts.

 Lefty, My old neighbor who is a big game guide was over in Vietnam 8 years ago to do a tiger survey to see about hunting tiger again there. He was shocked at the low numbers there and the same holds true here. To be brutally honest Thailand has been raped of its wild game and there is no legal hunting here whatsoever. There is just to many people and they have no understating of our type of game management. Its hard for me to take as there is no wild place left over here and you can never be alone even if you try.

 My old friend Martin said it best when we lived together in the P.I. and he had his own private island there, "You go to the deepest darkest place in the jungle, believe you are all alone, decide to take a leak, unzip and ready, only to see a dozen sets of eyes watching you as your own vision adjusts to the light."

  The good news the animals are not extinct but they will never be hunted legally here in our lifetimes, possibly forever. I just read a report that said there was less than fifty tigers left in Laos and it is the least populated and wildest country in the region. This is a big subject so If anyone wants to go deeper into it we can start a whole thread on it.

 There are great opportunities in Asia for sheep and I may get to sheep hunt here if I stay much longer.

Offline Paul Mattson

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Re: Introduction To Trad Gang
« Reply #8 on: June 30, 2009, 01:29:00 PM »
Bryan,
    Welcome, I know what it's like to miss Alaska.  I moved after living in North Pole for 15yrs.  But, I am now adjusted to life outside and go and vist as much as possible.  

When I was stationed in the PI we would get some bows and arrows from the Negreto's(sp).  They where fun to shoot but, couldn't hit dam thing with them.

Offline Bryan Bondurant

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Re: Introduction To Trad Gang
« Reply #9 on: June 30, 2009, 01:42:00 PM »
Here is a link with pictures and a short story of my latest kill.


 http://forums.dfoggknives.com/index.php?showtopic=13264&st=0&gopid=129724&#entry129724

Offline Chris Surtees

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Re: Introduction To Trad Gang
« Reply #10 on: June 30, 2009, 03:06:00 PM »
Welcome, Thailand is a beautiful country. I used to my R&R there when I was stationed in Korea.

Be sure to throw up some pics of your bows, and knives. We all love to see photos here.

Chris

Offline ArkyBob

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Re: Introduction To Trad Gang
« Reply #11 on: June 30, 2009, 09:39:00 PM »
Bryan, what part of Arkansas are you from.  Aside from bowhunting and other hunting habits, I live for duck hunting.  Spent 57 days last year hunting ducks in one part of the state or another.  Welcome to the gang, there's not a better group of people anywhere.  See ya.

BOB
"There are some that can live without wild things, and some that cannot."  -  Aldo Leopold

Offline Gil

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Re: Introduction To Trad Gang
« Reply #12 on: July 01, 2009, 02:11:00 AM »
Welcome here Bryan!!! If ever you make it to the Philippines again, you can contact me and I would be glad to share a drink or two, I have a keen interest in blades too, both modern and primitive ones.
Gil
There's plenty of room for all of God's creatures.Right next to the mashed potatoes.

One can pay back the loan of gold, but one dies forever in debt to those who are kind."

COMPTON TRADITIONAL BOWHUNTERS

Offline Brian Krebs

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Re: Introduction To Trad Gang
« Reply #13 on: July 01, 2009, 02:26:00 AM »
totally out of curiosity and not a demand - but what are you doing in Thailand ? I had orders to go there during the Vietnam 'thing'- but never went...

Good work on the snake; better it gets eaten than bites a child. !
THE VOICES HAVEN'T BOTHERED ME SINCE I STARTED POKING THEM WITH A Q-TIP.

Offline Bryan Bondurant

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Re: Introduction To Trad Gang
« Reply #14 on: July 02, 2009, 11:55:00 AM »
Badger Arrow, I know of a few folks who left the interior of Alaska then moved to the Peninsula of North Michigan not to far from you. That seems to be a good location for Alaskans to retire, beautiful but not as extreme a climate and certainly not as expensive. I'm a big fan of both Michigan and Wisconsin, two great places for Traditional Archery.

Chris, I passed through Korea a few times but never had the chance to check out their archery first hand. I did own a video of them making arrows years ago, not sure what ever happened to it but I learned from it. I will try to get some project pictures of bamboo and gear up this week.

ArkyBob, I was born in Hot Springs and grew up in Southwest Little Rock when Fouche Creek was a was still wild. I have hunted many of the WMAs and the White River Refuge. At one time I had a small camp down on the White River but that was ten years or more ago. I have not Duck hunted timber since 99 but do I ever miss it. Duck hunting has changed, I didn't think it could ever get any fancier but it did. The best hunts I have ever been on were lone hunts where I canoed into the swamp at 10PM to set up my decoys by midnight and catch a few hours sleep before all the boats started coming down the lanes flashing me. You could always hear them talking in the boat, someone would always be saying, "boys, hes in our hole" which gave me a little satisfaction but there was always to much pressure in public hunting ducks in timber. Im not even sure if you can still take non powered boats out all night anymore, do you know anything about that.

 
Gil, Do you make bows are anything? I know of a couple guys there that make knives but not anything about archery in the Philippine Islands. I could pass through heading to Guam sometime and thought about seeing the guys I know there, if your around I would be happy to meet you. There is also the chance you could head this way sometime so we could shoot here or build bows or something. I have a couple project going here but I'm in limbo as the government is struggling and nobody knows what is going to happen next, I could be making move quicker than I expect.

Brian, How I got to Thailand? Long story there but I will try to make it quick. I had always liked Asia and had a long history of dreaming about the place. I got in with a pretty wild group of guys who had been living over here since the Vietnam Era and they are the ones who convinced me to come here and they also taught me how to get by on my own. It took ten years of haggling around but one day I was getting ready to feed close to a hundred sled dogs in Tannana Alaska, they were yapping away and the weather was about to turn serious, huge chunks of ice were floating in the Yukon, and I was drinking a very expensive cheep beer which had been flown in on the mail plane and I just thought, what the heck, time for a change. I told a German friend named Christian who is still there and another friend who owned the dogs I was heading into town, they asked when I would be back, I said not very soon, I'm heading to Thailand for the winter. That was back in November 2002 and I have been here since then.

  What I do over here is try to stay sane in a insane world. What I don't do is worry about freezing to death. I would have already left here many times but I married a local girl and we have a good life. I have always been a drifter so this is the longest I have ever stayed in one place. I have no complaints but there are many questions about whether the government here will survive as it could be overthrown any day of the week, that's part of the intensity of living here.

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