How you got started

[dnovo]

I am now 53 years old and have been shooting since I was 5. We lived on a farm and my brother cut a hickory sapling that I started with at that age. A little while later an uncle gave me a little fiberglass recurve and I went through several of those until at 15 my mom got me a Shakespeare Necedah recurve. I killed a lot of squirrels and groundhogs with that. At 20 years of age I had a compound for about 3 years and gave that up and have been shooting a longbow for about the last 29 years. Imagine going to a 3D shoot with 300 shooters and you and your buddy are the only 2 without a compound. Did this a lot in the early 80's. I now have 17 longbows and 15 recurves hanging on my wall and that is only because I sold three bows last spring to buy a new MOAB and a jacket. Nothing better than a stickbow.

[FerretWYO]

My dad had a bow trad bow in my hand since i could hold one. I had a wheel bow for about six months and went right back to it. I got my first custom bow from herb mealnd when I was 14.

[ron w]

Uncle Herb had a Shakespear recurve, I was 10. Bought a Browning Nomad in 67 or 68 shot whells for a bit still do once in a while, well not in 2 years. Been doing recurves and long bows for 15 years or so. I'm now 57 and try to shoot daily.

[fireball31]

I started out hunting with a recurve because my dad made me.  As soon as I could afford it I bought a compound.  I hunted with that for about 4 yrs before I joined the marine corps.  About a year and a half ago when I finished my four years I was sick of shooting anything that has sights.  I started shooting an old bear my dad had laying around and then I won a great northern longbow.  I just traded that for a HH big five and I'm pretty sure that I'm in love.  

[ksbowman]

Went to visit my sister and her family in 71 when her husband was stationed at Fort Lenard Wood.Her boys were playing with a fiberglass Ben Pearson kids longbow shooting at a cardboard box.They ask uncle Ben to shoot with them.That hooked me.  Ben

[Teacher_of_the_Arcane]

Hi All,

I learned to shoot at Boy Scout camp.   That was before Mr. Allen invented the compound bow .....circa 1960.

[Bowtie]

I bought a Browning recurve in the late 70's. Couldn't hit the broadside of a barn with it. Wasn't the resources available then that there is now to learn how to shoot traditionally. Hung the bow up and starting shooting compounds in 1980.  Three years ago a friend made me a hickory self bow. I was ready for a change and that's all it took.  I now have custom longbows and a recurve.  Learned a lot from reading books, info on the internet and Tradgang forums.  Having a blast!

[JSimon]

I got started in bowhunting pretty late at age 24. When I was in grade school my brother and I had a few of the yellow fiberglass bows that I think my Dad picked up at yard sales. My Dad bowhunted with a compound since before I was born and we would shoot his old arrows out of those recurves in the back yard. I don't remember much from those days but I do remember I couldn't hit anything. I don't remember my Dad giving us much instruction and I had no aiming style. It's funny though that I distinctly remember going to Anderson Archery in Grand Ledge and picking up some all white strings for those little bows. Man was I excited!

I took hunters safety as soon as I could and did a lot of small game hunting with a single shot 20 gage and later deer hunting with a shotgun. Although I was always interested in bowhunting and my Dad bowhunted I don't remember really pressing him to buy me a bow. With school activities, sports schedules, and then college, the only hunting I did was with a gun. During college I bowfished by myself every summer with an old all fiberglass recurve of my Dad's but I never really considered using a recurve for anything else.

After I graduated from college and got settled into my full time job I got the bug to buy a compound. I bought a decked out compound that arrived at my door fully tuned and sighted in. I was drilling the bullseye from 20 yards the first day I shot it, which is pretty standard with any new compound shooter. I wondered why in the hell I waited so long. My second season bowhunting I finally got a shot opportunity at little spike from 5 yards and connected. I'll never forget the feeling I had that day.

About this time my Dad was playing around with some recurves and I was getting a lot more serious about bowfishing and started looking for an old used recurve. I couldn't understand how my Dad was even considering hunting with a recurve when I felt that a compound was a superior bow. I knew no one that hunted with a recurve. Searching the internet and browsing through all of the hunting forums I stumbled upon this site and a couple of other trad archery sites. I was amazed that so many people hunted with trad gear and even more amazed at the success people on here were having. I thought it would be so cool to shoot a deer with a recurve. I ended up buying a cheap recurve "just to play around with". I couldn't believe how light and natural it felt in my hand and the simplicity really appealed to me. I thought that shooting a recurve was going to be so much more difficult than it was. My fourth year hunting with that compound I grazed a buck that was walking by at five yards because I couldn't align my pins and peep sight as he walked through my shooting lane. That was the last straw. I was upset about that shot for a long time and I knew even with my meager ability I would have killed that buck with my recurve at that distance. The following summer I sold the compound and haven't looked back. The next fall, in my first year with the recurve, I shot my biggest buck from the same stand at 15 yards. That was two years ago and I now feel that my recurve is a far superior weapon than a compound for my style of bowhunting.

[LimbLover]

My uncle gave me a compound when I was about 11. Shot that for fun in the yard for a couple of years...NO idea what I was doing. No sights, finger release, etc.

Didn't touch a bow again until I bought my recurve a few months ago. I just decided I wanted to shoot again - needed a stress reliever but I knew I didn't want to shoot a compound. I wanted the pure experience of a recurve.

Had no intentions of hunting, met some friends, joined a league - now I'm scouting out my first hunting spot this weekend. All at 27 as well.

Most of my information has come from hanging out at the range on traditional night with my new friends. I have a couple of mentors who have really helped me out along the way. Now my Dad's into it and we are shooting together for the first time this weekend - stumping.

[ChuckC]

I joined a local club when I was around 20.  Been shooting for number of years already and hunting deer (well. .  I . . called it that) for about four before that.  

One of the club members was a fellow named Mel Johnson, from Peoria way.  Some of you guys probably recall him. .   he shot the worlds record typical whitetail, way back then.  with a stick bow.  I got to hold his world record rack for all of about 1.5 minutes, but wow was that awesome.   Not too awful long after that I hunted with the club up in northern Wisconsin,  September 1977.  Hunted with a fellow named Art Laha who was a guide and had a camp up there.  

One of the fellows at camp during the same time was named Roy Case.  Course Roy was probably in his 80's at the time, but he hunted with us each day.  I'll never forget the time he was late for the bus. .   In the early morning and late evening we hunted on our own, but during the day we put on drives... Art was the driver of the bus and the jump master as well.  He would drive slowly and we would be ready, gear in hand and when he said "jump" out you went.  Course you had to really watch him cause he got a real kick out of yelling "jump"  just as he was approaching a ditch or a tree.

Roy and his son were staying at a neighboring camp and coming over each morning to hunt with us.  They were late one morning and the bus was rolling down the road.  next thing you know Roy bails out of his son's car and starts chasing us down the road, yelling and waving his arms.   Again, he was in his 80's far as I could tell.

He was there every day.  Some of you may know Roy Case.  He did a lot of good things for bow hunting.  He was instrumental in getting a real bow season in Wisconsin, which was the first of its kind in the country. . .  he developed and made several styles of broadheads, the Kiska is the one that was used by the state of Wisconsin to set the broadhead width standard. .  7/8".  Seems nearly all the other states joined in on that one.

Art Laha was a great hunter in his own right but a bit of a rougue too.  Loved seeing the movie of him, hunting in Alaska, his buddies bent under packs of caribou meat and pelt,  and on Art's pack was a ground squirrel skin, neatly stretched.

Hunting was often more of a group thing back then, it seems.  You would get together a camp and have camp fires and comaraderie and still get up in the morning and go out.  I also remember that most guys were not worried at all about huge racks and P & Y records.  There were WAY fewer deer and just seeing some close enough to almost give you a shot was a real rush.

Almost seems different now.
ChuckC

[vermonster13]

AT age four I wanted to be a super hero. I couldn't fly or afford a Batmobile, but I could make a bow with a willow branch and some baling twine. I still had Batman as my favorite so I ran around as the "Dark Archer" (never could get the boxing glove to fly on an arrow)started Shotokan lessons then too. After foiling my first villain I got a good spanking with my bow converted to a switch and had my blossoming career ended. The bow was in my blood though and a Bear Red Bear soon came into my possession and squirrels soon learned to laugh hard at me as I started my small game "hunting" without concern for seasons, though I kept an eye out for the watchful warden (Mom frowned on such forays). This continued until I got my hunter safety card at age 9 and was told I couldn't hunt for deer with a bow until I could draw 45#s and could afford a "hunting bow". AT age 14 my aunt worked for a family owned sporting goods store in town and the older gentleman who owned the store asked me when I was going to buy a compound, I said I didn't want a compound I wanted a recurve or longbow. He told me no one buys those anymore but to follow him. He took me to the back storeroom and handed me a box and told me it was a loan until I could find a bow or afford the one he was loaning me. It was an original Bear Kodiak TD with 50# limbs. I loved that bow and killed a few deer with it until I bought a used Super Kodiak two years later. Sadly the Kodiak TD was lost in the fire that burned the store down so I never did buy it. SO this year will be my 40th with Traditional.

[Gehrke145]

My dad bought me a compound when I was 5, a few years later I got a old bear recurve, shot both compounds and trad bows ever since!

[Ragnarok Forge]

I started by building two recurves with a custom bowyer who was really nice when I was in highschool.  a 43 lb, 58 inch and a 52 lb three piece break down.  I caught the wheelie bug in college and gave them to my best friend. He still hunts with them.  I switched back to trad 3 months ago.  I am shooting a Wes Wallace Royal 55lb at my 30.5 inch draw length.  I am totally pumped for hunting season and have fallen back in love with archery.   I have been shooting hard every day.  I am consistently shooting 4 inch groups at 20 yards.

[Hot Hap]

I got started at 14 in 1958 by a high school friend who is now dead. Thanks Tom. Hap

[unclewhit]

Like many others, I too started out with training wheels. It just got too complicated, with Chuck ----- saying that I needed this or that, and old Randy ----- telling me that I needed more speed and more stuff.  Saxton Pope didnt need more stuff. Howard Hill's long bow had plenty of speed. And Fred Bear... well he was Fred Bear. Nuff said.

[tomyhawk]

 My grandfather cut me a small limb bent it over and tied a piece of bailing twine to it.
Then cut me some horse weed arrows. For points he used bent over bottle caps.
Been shooting ever since that was over 55 years ago.  

[stickbow2442]

I started into archery in 1994. Used my dads old compound bow. Then found myself buying a new coumpound and all the new stuff not long after that. Then in 2003 I sold all my archery stuff, I think because I got tired of it. Then in Oct 2007 I told my wife I was ready to hunt again but for some reason I wanted a traditional bow. I bought the Bear grizzly recurve and on Nov 1st 2007 got my first deer with a traditional bow.
Now I also have a longbow, which I shoot all the time.
When I had the wheel bow I would only practice 6 weeks before season started. But with the traditional bows I shoot year around. I enjoy archery more than ever.

[doeboy]

I was at the Harrisburg hunting show and follwed a guy into the show with 4 recurves under his arms all the way to the Lancaster archery both. I bought a bear bow for 125$ slightly used the guy told me. Shoots great and have been hooked since! now my brother shoots that bow and own a widow. Still have wheels but realy dont ever shoot them!

[Tom]

Like many I started with a bent stick and was always the Indian in neighborhood games. Got a 25# red fiberglass bow in 1959 and really went to town, bullfrogs and rabbits were my first prey. Carried a bow on my trapline instead of a gun, Dad wouldn't allow that.
 Killed my first deer in '65, pure dumb luck, and also the biggest WT to date. Didn't have any mentors to help bloodtrail that bruiser but late in grouse season found the skelton about 75 yds from where I had lost the trail. 10 point with matching drops-still have the rack as a reminder to never give a up until all sign is absolutely exhausted.
 Service in '70, then a few years with no weapons then back to Bear bows.1984, wheels seduced me for 7 years but no sights and fingers, killing came too easy and got bored. Wife suggested using the old Tigercat I had for deer. Had a bear at 8 yds the first time out and after cleaning my drawers I haven't looked back since.Love the simplicity and the efficiency if I do my part. My 27 yr. old daughter just started to shoot with me this summer and I can't tell you how thrilled I am with her company.
 Best to all of you this fall.

[MnFn]

About 1960, I came home from school to find my dad had traded his old home made double ended duck boat for a 57# Raulf recurve with about a dozen cedar arrows, some tipped with bodkins, I believe. I was not too happy about that until he took me and a boyhood friend hunting for whitetails. I was hooked from then on. I think  I was about eight years old. When I turned 12, he bought me a 40# Shakespeare recurve. I still have that bow.