Any of you young guys out there....(35 and younger)

[LimbLover]

I'm 27. I got into shooting because I wanted a stress reliever and didn't see shooting a bow with optic sights, cams that let you hold them back forever, and finger releases as real archery. I still don't. If I miss a shot I like to know that it is me that missed the shot, not a sight being off. I love instinctive shooting.

I've never been a hunter until now either. The idea of stalking up on game with a traditional bow just seemed so natural - honorable. A true challenge.

I hunt on the ground - still or stalk. I'll probably try a stand too but I haven't bought one yet. I like being on the ground.

[Covey]

I feel old I'm 37!! When I put a wood bow in my hand my whole hunting world changed, its difinitely about the journy! I have a 10 year old son and I want him to excperiance the true meaning and romance of traditional bowhunting! theres just somthing special about it!! Jason

[Longbow Jake]

Im sixteen I shot a compound since I was 8  just switched to trad I got the montana longbow 50# 28'' a month ago and I already shoot it better and feel more confident while shooting but for me its the simplicity and longing for a more simple time I always thought I was in the wrong era and I got my first deer last year with a smoke pole really didnt feel much and today two small bucks came in 5 steps from me never presented a shot and I was more exited then than any other moment in my life and I dont ever go off what the other guys do and ill hunt on the ground,stalk,treestand you name it sorry for rambling im just hooked.

[beaver#1]

im a simple kind of man. i cant stand to even sight in my rifle for work.  im 25 and absolutly hate all the hype about all the scent masks, faster lighter crap.  any one can go out and kill things with the stuff they have out now.  it takes a real  hunter  with all skills of hunting to harvest game with out sights, without rangfinders, high fence cages and decoys.  to the elders of our way, thank you for holding to it and teaching our younger genration

[4est trekker]

1) My dad lives by the motto, "If you can make it, why buy it?"  I can remember working with him as a kid in his woodshop and putting a string on any stick I could find that would bend.  Now the sticks are prettier and shoot farther, but I still enjoy showing dad my latest build.  I've never had the desire or need to shoot a compound.  They get a lot of people into the joy of hunting that would otherwise not do it, but there is something indescribable about taking an animal with a bow and arrow made from materials found in the same patch of timber you sight them down in.  A beautiful harvest start to finish.

2) Nope.  I would love to split wood, drive a team, chink my cabin walls, write a real letter, do business face-to-face, and cuddle up with my wife by a fire on a cold winter night...although I write this while I sit in front of the newest MacBook Pro!  Ha ha!  Maybe I could keep my computer and modern medicine!    

3) I mainly hunt from a blind, whether natural brush blinds or my pop-up.  I also enjoy stalking, but am contented just to get close to game when doing so.  Sometimes I just sit and watch them pass and smile knowing I fooled 'em.

Great questions!  I could go on all day.  Thanks for posting this thread.

[Stiks-n-Strings]

34 here, been shooting trad about 5 or 6 years. started bowhunting when I was 10 and always wanted to take a deer with trad gear. got my first the first year out with a lonbow and ain't never looked back Plus I think trad bows look cooler than compounds anyways.
 Don't fit no stereotype most people just think I ain't wired up right anyways so I figure why dissapoint'em and keep'em guessing. LOL
 I hunt anyway I can legally and every chance I get in the woods but prefer a stand or good natural ground blind.
 Kris

[josef2424]

I am 16 and got into archery about three years ago. I started with a starter wheelie bow and then progressed to a Hoyt Vectrix pulling 67#. Last season I shot my first deer with a "bow". It was really fun and all, but it seemed a lot like gun hunting at that point. I could still shoot out to 60 yards with ease, I was still lugging around a hunk of metal through the woods, and I had to make sure I was always sighted in and whatnot. So at the end of that season I ordered a Bear Montana longbow, which I quickly renamed ukasuhi, pulling 50# @ 28". I have let a lot of deer pass this season that I could have easily shot with my hunk of metal, but I find that just carrying a longbow into the woods is better than shooting a deer with a compound. A couple weeks ago I shot at my first deer with Ukasuhi. The arrow bounced off her back and she ripped outta there, but it was some of the most fun I've ever had hunting. I doubt I am going to return to the compound. I did recently get into making selfbows thanks to a lot of help from you people. I should be done with a sinew backed hickory bow by the end of the week, and I hope to be hunting with a selfbow next year. My dad says that if I continue on this progressively traditional track, I should be standing in the middle of the woods with a loin cloth and a club during deer season by the time I'm 40. I just smiled and secretly liked the idea.

[BJP]

Im 25 started out with a compound but never could get the hang of sights i always canted my bow and didnt like all the mechanics. been shooting trad since i was 16 and havent looked back. Dont need technology but a comfortable tree stand and a GPS are nice.

[BowHuntingFool]

Great thread! At 43 I'm too old to answer this so I'll just enjoy the read!    :D   Awesome!  

[stick_string]

quote:Originally posted by BowHuntingFool:
Great thread! At 43 I'm too old to answer this so I'll just enjoy the read!     :D    Awesome!    

[mwmwmb]

well, I fell out of this category a few weeks ago (just turned 36). But i will throw in my $.02.
1. I have hunted with a rifle my hole life. and got into archery fairly recently. after afew harvests with the wheels, I thought that traditional would be more appealing. I can always use rifle season for meat if i have to.

2. nope. I have the free cell phone, dont own an ipod, still listen to and collect vinyl records, and generally like things simple.
3. stands.

[elk ninja]

Giess I am headed towards the "older" end of things... I'll be 33 at the peak of the rut (11/15).  Anyway, I did not grow up in ahunting family, but it has always been in my blood.  Dad hunted when he was younger, still has his old Remington 870, but I have no recolection of this.  As a youngster though, lots of cub and boy scouts, lots of flyfishing, lots of camping, so when I moved to Arizona for the Marines, I hooked up with a friend who showed me some of the ropes of bowhunting.  I had a cheap PSE wheelie bow, he had a nice Hoyt with a wooden handle... my Dad is a hobby woodworker and I have always apprecited wood, so I wanted a bow with a wooden handle, then I stumbled on a copy of Traditional Bowhunter in the bookstore and that was all she wrote.  Bought several used recurves and longbows off **** (in the good old days of **** when it was more of a flea market/ garage sale), and fell in love with the simple beauty of a stickbow.  I definately buck the trend of more/faster/right now type of thinking that predominates my generation (though I think it is progressivly more pervasive as the generations come)... and for me it is stalking that I love, I have a treestand I bought on clearance, but have never in my life used it.

[NEB]

Great thread.

I am 34, and started bow hunting when I was 13 with a compound (and a rifle in the same year).  I did not have parents that hunted, but they supported me in my passions and I am thankful for that.  I would have been easily convinced that trad gear was the way to go, but no one I knew used a trad bow.  

I bought my first trad bow, a Bear Grizzly from Bass Pro Shops, when I was in college.  After years of shooting the latest greatest fast whatever and shooting and winning 3D tournaments, I grew tired of all the crap associated with a compound.  There was always a screw coming lose or a tweak to be done here or there, and I wanted something more simple.

I shoot self bows, longbows, recurves, rifles, handguns, shotguns, and muzzleloaders.  I love all of them.  But I think trad archery is similar to fly fishing, it is not only a sport, but also an art.  I love that about trad bowhunting.

I hunt from the ground mostly, but also like spot/stalk, and treestands.  It depends on the situation.

Neil

[Horner]

I was raised in a gun hunting family.  When I got out of High School and started working I wanted to extend my deer hunting so I bought a crossbow.  I hunted with it for six years and had some great success.  However something was missing.

I had always seen the magazines with traditional bows in them.  I loved the old school look of a traditional bow.

So I got one and have been hunting with a traditional bow ever since.

I have got to say there have been moments when I wish I would have had my old crossbow back.  Every time I get like that,  I just think of the button buck I got with my longbow and how I felt.  It always makes me feel better about what I am trying to do.

So the one reason I would say that brought me to traditional bow hunting is---- THE BOWS THERE BEAUTIFUL!!!
With an added bonus of doing something that is not easy!!!    


ohhh, one more thing.  I am also a tree stand hunter.

[Bush]

I just turned 30.  I have been shooting trad for 6 years, and I never cared about the fastest bow, or the gimmics.  In my opinion the reason why the younger crowd is more likely to favor the fastest bow or the game ears etc etc is that they are much earlier in their archery career simply because of age, and if they don't have a mentor, they get all of their information from Monster Bucks 1-90.  I didn't know anyone else who was in archery, when I started, and I tried a lot of things until I found what I liked.  But you learn pretty quickly that most of the stuff in archery is heavy on marketing and light on design.

[Goke]

I agree. Great Post. Figure I'll answer before I turn 36 in a couple weeks.

1. Why do you pick Trad hunting over Wheel Bows?

The way I see it, I didn't pick trad, it picked me. Every time I am asked this question, I struggle to adequately quantify why. As a result, I've stopped trying and leave it at this -- when I pick up a stick bow it feels right, not only in my hand but also in my head and most important, in my heart. When I pick up a wheel bow it doesn't. End of story.  

I have nothing against Wheel Bows, Wheel Bow hunters or gun hunters for that matter. I have done all of that and some of my best freinds and family hunt with wheels. I don't respect them any less. In fact, there are a few things that, on occassion, I continue to hunt with a gun. For me personally, trad just provides more personal and spiritual satisfaction. It doesn't stop me from trying to convince my non trad friends and family to pick up a stick bow. Not under the guise that it is better, more pure or anything like that but simply because it has brought me alot of personal satisfaction and they may find that as well. If not, its their choice.

2. Young folks are typically sterio-typed into wanting faster/newer gimmics all the time...do you fit that mold?

yes and no. Not really into the better faster gimmics, but will not hesitate to try the new stuff.

3. What style of hunting with a trad bow do you like? (stands/stalk/blind)

Mostly stands and blinds. But also love the spot and stalk for certain things.

[tcw]

I'm pretty new to deer hunting and have yet to kill a deer.  I want my first to be by bow though, so all the deer I could have killed with a gun are still running free...  I'll get them eventually.

31 yrs old.  Brother-in-law gave me a 60's Ben Pearson and I fell in love with it immediately.  Around the same time someone gave me a compound.  I've shot both, and am currently hunting with the wheels, but only until my recurve shooting is more consistent.  I am very excited to hunt with a glorified stick next year.

1) Love the simplicity and greater challenge of the sticks.
2) always loved the simple, pure forms of doing things.
3)only stand hunted so far.  Love it though.

I 2nd the motion that a few on here are overly prejudice to wheeled bow hunters.  It is tiny, fractional difference in a person that makes them choose one over the other.  Lighten up, gents.

I also have to say that this site rules and there is a powerful, dominant urge to help one another along.  I have learned a lot just getting on here and reading/asking questions.  Thanks to all of you.

[Tyler2045]

I chose it because I enjoy it. I like blacksmithing, I like cutting wood with an ax. I like wood fires. I like church, I just wish i had enough time to practice so that I could put down my compound for good.But with school 2 days a week full time job and preaching on Sunday i don't have time to hunt or practice.

[stick_string]

[eman614]

i'm 24 now, and i got my first recurve when i was 6. thats when it all started. all of the men in my family have hunted with trad bows at some point or another. started hunting with a compound when i was 11, because it was the only bow i had with heavy enough draw weight. killed my first deer with it that same year. after that i found the wheels hard to put down. they made it easy. though i never completely put down my recurve. my uncles shoot recurves so whenever i shot with them id shoot mine. then last year i decided that the wheels weren't what i wanted any more. i was looking for something with less certainty. i haven't looked back since.

if anything i'm going in the opposite direction. as far as camo goes i get what ever is cheap. mostly bdu's.i don't use coverscents or scent eliminators much. don't use gps. this year i decided to make my own laminated longbow, and somehow managed to kill a deer with it. now i wan't to make a selfbow and rivercane arrows with stone points, and give that a try. maybe next year.

i like treestands and stalking. most of the hunting i do is stalking. except for my parents place, and that because its wide open and hard to sneek. i use treestands there. i'm not big on ground blinds, but then again i,ve never used one.