How many older traditional shooters here

[Pat B]

I turned 59 this past July. Don't feel it mentally but sometimes I do physically. I shoot mostly self made selfbows in the 55#@26" range although a friend gave me a 50#@26" boo back/belly R/D this spring that I love to shoot.
  I've been shooting trad for 25 years.

[bullet-slinger]

Originally posted by billy shipp:
I recently had my 61st birthday....still have the 15# Pearson Power Jet I got when I was 8.
I shoot mostly recurves, but do have several longbows.
Most of my bows are around 55#s, but I still have the first TD bow I ever bought....65# TD Redwing Hunter.
Being old is a state of mind, and you're only as old as you let yourself think you are.
I still hunt from loc-on type stands 16-18' high.
My hunting podna is 74 years young and climbs a tree like a cat squirrel.
I break, start, train, and sell 3 or 4 colts every year....sit around on your butt all the time and you will get OLD in a hurry.

Billy, neat!  Wish I still had my first bow.  But I believe it was a tree limb with bailing twine for s string.  I couldn't make my arrows and used to buy them for 25 cents a piece at a local hardware store.  My first manufactured bow was a 35 Lb fiberglass bow.

[bullet-slinger]

Originally posted by straitera:
58 last March. Hunt Hills exclusively both my 82# & 71#. The 71# is 2" longer at 70" & smoother. Old guys (d)rool!

Wow, I envy you.  I can't shoot bows that heavy any more baecuse of elbow problems.  I used to love shooting heavy bows though

[Dick in Seattle]

71 and counting.   Active but with strength problems.   I shoot true traditional longbows and flatbows (straight limbs... no curve, no R/D) that I make.    I try to promote the use of bows in light weights for bunged up folks with bad shoulders and other problems.  Getting old, or getting hurt, doesn't mean you have to stop shooting.   Currently I'm shooting 25 to 32 pounds, mostly 27.   Good days I can draw more, but not for too many shoots.   Bow I took off the form today is looking like it'll be maybe 35#.

[Danny J]

I will be 58 in April. The first time I ever shot a traditional bow, or any bow, was about 5 years ago. I have learned alot and come along ways in this 5 year addiction. Alot of that credit would go to Tradgang and the great people and friends I have met here. I beleive I am addicted to Tradgang as much as i am addicted to my bows. I shoot around 50# at 28" with a 26" draw. For longbows I shoot a Dwyer Dauntless, Roy Hall Cherokee, Treadway Black Forest, Chekmate Crusader, Steve Welte Deathwish and a Mosshorn. For recurves I shoot a SR Swift, Predator Super Classic, Palmer Classic, Jim Brackenbury "The Drifter", 3 60's Kokiaks and a Dale Dye Trails End I just picked up. I prefer how a longbow shoots and feels but I will grab anyone of the above bows on any given nite.

[Mr.Chuck]

Will be 59 in a couple of weeks.   Still shoot longbows and recurves in the high fifties, low sixties.  But I don't push it.  Neighbor made my first bow for me at the age of seven.  Been shooting every since. I have a small collection of recurves and longbows that keep me in shape for the hunt.    

[pine nut]

At 65 I think I'm third in line ...so far.  Pronghorn 52# @28" and Pronghorn 59#@ 27".  Probably need to drop down some. Shot as a boy through college then quit until three years ago.  Went back to my true love...trad archery made hunting fun again!

[Don Stokes]

I'll turn 61 at the peak of the whitetail rut this year, and I'll be hunting them on my birthday in Missouri. This will be my 47th consecutive bowhunting season, well as I can remember.      

My first bow that wasn't home-made came with arrows with rubber suction cups on the end. Started bowhunting for deer in the '60's with a 40# solid fiberglass Bear longbow when seeing a track was a thrill, and actually seeing a deer made the season a success. Killed my first deer, a spike, with a Ben Pearson recurve in the '70's.

Currently shooting both recurves and longbows. This year I'll carry a 50# Super Kodiak, or a 40# Quillian Patriot TD recurve, a 60# Dean Torges Osage backed with hickory (Miss Easy- killed a doe with her last year), or a 50# Quillian longbow. Did most of my hunting over the last couple of decades with a 67# Bamboo Longhunter by Quillian, but had to back off due to shoulder problems. Took a bull elk and a number of deer with it. Used a compound for a few years, but never really liked it.

Looking forward to a good season this year, starting with a mule deer and whitetail hunt in North Dakota with old friends. Three more weeks! I'm as excited this year about hunting as I've ever been. In past years I've hunted in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi (home), Arkansas, Missouri, South Dakota, and Colorado. Oh yeah, and Iowa too.

[svenska]

I'm 67 going on 18 shooting Martin Jaguar 60" 50#@29, Bear 62" 53# @29, Stewart 66" 65@29". Started with PSE compounds about 250 years ago, switch to trad recurves about 10 years ago..never looked back

[mj seratt]

Well, I'm 59 and proud of it.  Have shot recurves
all my life, and my favorite for the last 12 years is a Bob Lee signature, 62inches, 66 pounds, with wood arrows.  
My Wife favors a 60in, 46 pound Bob Lee, and usually outshoots me.
We recently moved a bed to create a nursery for
our new granddaughter, and found 12 bows we had all but forgotten.

Murray

[SlowBowke]

Also a "peak of the rut" (in Indiana) birthday boy.

November 13 (last day of early archery and day before firearms) gives me 57 of em. That will be "Friday the 13th" ,unlucky for some whitetail out there.        

Up to about 50 shots the 55lb Super K weight isnt a problem but left elbow will let me know the next day.            

Right arm can still handle 80, not the left.       :rolleyes:      

Might add that through the years I finally "figgered out" that dead is dead and my 43lb is a tack driver out to 30 yards. After 60 plus whitetail, that is way past my average whitetail shot plus I can shoot it for hours out in the yard.

Most you "younguns" may think that's pushing it BUT....take a look at the average weight of Grayling Bear bows. Animals didn't get any harder to kill over the years.

45lbs at my draw it feels like a target bow and arrow flight is just flat perfect.

With the superb heads we have to choose from from the past and present honed to razor sharpness on higher arrow weights, I'd tackle about ANY four legged critter in the US to 20-25 yards with it if I had no other bow.

Whitetail isn't a problem at all.

The 55lb is an emergency back up in case I win a free elk or moose hunt      

[LKH]

62 come December.  Bought Bear Panda in 1958, then a navy career limited my hunting, but I've been making up for it since I retired.  So far this year 8 days solo for Dall and just finished 9 days for bou.  Head for MT on Friday for deer, elk and antelope.  Shoot mostly Harrison longbows now.

[bear1336]

I will be 63 in 3 months been shooting since I was 7 this will be my 52nd bow season.

[turkey65]

I'm 68 been shooting bows since I was 8 been hunting for 56 years .Currently shooting a Stahl takedown two sets of limbs 57# and recently reduced set 45# also shoot an original Treadway set at 46#. Will hunt a total of one day early season back surgery on Oct 5th ruptured disc hope to get out in late season.

[sweet old bill]

At 68 years young and still shooting...3 days or more a week on a 32 target 3D course and hount every day we have a season open for deer except Sunday, I keep as a family days since now retired...Checkmate firebird 50 at 28 inc and I draw 28 1/2 inch.

[Tom]

58 here and shooting since 8, with a side trip of 8 years with a crutch. Shoot mid fifties as that is all a whitetail around here needs.Shot a 64# widow for awhile but a pass thru can still be accomplished without that much #'s.

[LBOW]

I'm 65 as of june of 09. Still shooting 50+# almost every day. Trad Archery is one of my many great passions in life. It is very good to get out and clear the mind and become the arrow. Archery as helped me through some hard times in all these years.   MIKE

[Bob Miller]

72 this December,have always shot recurves and longbows.  Mostly longbows now in the low #50's. Started at Camp Lejeune,NC in the early sixties.

[RRock]

Might as well join the parade. 62 years old. Uncle gave me my first bow at age 7, Lemonwood long bow can't remember the draw weight but I do remember the afternoon it blewup. Hunted with a compound bow exactly one evening, it's still around here someplace, I think. I shoot either recurves or longbows. Right now the flavor of the day is an RER recurve, 56#@28" with cedars. Still take the old Rocky Mountain recurve down a couple time a year and hunt with it, 65#@28. I carried that bow every year until 2 years ago since the early eighties. I really can't recall the number of deer it has taken. Still look forward to being in the deer woods every year.

[SpikeMaster]

I just turned 50 this year so I guess that puts in the "old" catagory. I hate to say it but there are days I feel more like 60. I've been shooting about 40 years now and hunting almost as long. I'm shooting a 52# Mohawk longbow and shooting better than I ever have. The tough part about hunting at this age is getting my old arthritic knees up in the treestand.