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

[varmint101]

1. I don't.  I shoot for a compound company and love archery in general.  I love trad bows for their simplicity in all aspects.  For me, there's nothing like a broken and bloody wooden arrow.  I love it all.  There is nothing wrong with either camp.  There are morons and arrogant 'my bow is the only bow' people in both trad and compound shooters.

2. Fast is neat, but I truely get annoyed at guys dropping arrow weight so they can keep their arrow speed above 300fps.  I believe in a heavy arrow in compounds and trad bows.  Speed be darned.  I also find it funny asking guys asking how fast a trad bow is.  Figures are nice to know in determining certain things, but come on.  Not sure what it matters in the end.  Tune your bow and make the shot.

3.  I prefer in all of my hunting to spot and stalk.  It's the most fun and andrenalin pumping hunting I do.  However most of my bow deer are killed in tree stands.

I am 28.

[the longbowkid]

I am 14, hows that for young?    i was going to buy a compound, but got to shooting dads old browning recurves and i was hooked! a montana longbow later, I was addicted. i might add I won second in the NC state trad championships a couple months later. my journey is off to a great start.

[Hogdgz]

I am 25, and shot compounds for years. The wheels were just way to easey and I harvested alot of deer and hogs with it, and it just wasnt a challenge anymore. i got tired of everyone worrying about speed and only the newest bow was the best. I changed over to trad gear about 3 years ago and havent looked back. I havent harvested near as many animals but the challenge, fellowship, and my love for archery has really grown since then. I love trad gear!!!

[yekrut]

I am 32and I shoot it becasue I guess, well I am traditional in a sense! So why not shoot it, Its fun and not so complicated as a wheel bow, I love all bows, I love all archery! But shooting my recurve is fun and I love  a challenge. I just love to shoot arras!!

[Travisc406]

I like simple! I am 33 I had ever bow built to god and was in and out of traditional for the last 15 years. I don't know yet cause all I have killed is rabbits, but it really makes you feel like you did something when you get it with a tradbow. Compounds these day's are at a point that guys are shooting them like there rifles. You see them at the range the day before opening trying to get them sighted in. Is that archery?

Cons I personally experience is with my limited time I have it makes it hard to dedicate all my time to just trad archery I like to fish as well. Where there is a will there is a way.

[Ray Borbon]

I am just over 35 but whatever.

I chose traditional archery because of the simplicity with the equipment. It's raw, simple, effective and challenging. You can't be good at it unless you put in some effort.

Overall most of the hunting I partake in is by method of ambush or spot and stalk. The large sections of wilderness areas nearby permit this sort of technique..

The speed of the bow is interesting but at 25 yards it is not very relevant in my choice of bows. I seek a comfortable , light, and simple bow which can take abuse and that I am not afraid to scratch up. The last thing I want to be worried about is slipping down some grassy slope and having my bow fail to be in working order afterwards. The fact that I can put my takedown bow in my pack and assemble it once again without tools sums up what I want from my bow when I hunt bears in the mountains for example.

The techno bows just seemed like the typical fads which I have always been disinterested in. It's not the equipment which makes the good hunter. It is the person. I knew that long before getting my first bow.

Simply put - traditional archery is practical and also has the nostalgic appeal.

[saumensch]

I am 25, and i never owned a compound, shot one once and it just didnt feel good, noisy, mechanicly etc...
So i started trad and will stick with it, for its quietness, simplicity and its faster! not the arrow is faster, but i can shoot five till my wheelie friends have sighted in.

I am a bit into those new gadgets, especially when it comes to computers and cameras, but all else i prefer old fashioned, for example wood stoves (never owned a microwave), live music fromm a fiddle and a guitar instead of discobeats etc.  

Havent hunted with the bow yet due to its banned in my country, but riflewise i prefer stalking and stillhuntnig, its more challenging and i love to be part of whats going on, not just watch from above.

[TheFatboy]

I can't believe that some countries ban bowhunting. I'm very happy that it's legal in Denmark.

[stick_string]

Originally posted by saumensch:
Havent hunted with the bow yet due to its banned in my country, but ...

...you should move!!!        


 

[flntknp17]

I will add my reply.  I am 28 and have been trad bowhunting since I was 13.  I guess I never knew any other way.  I have been making bows since I was a small child and was never interested in a compound..........just seemed like too much to go wrong with all the cables and strings and pins.  Plus I was really into flintknapping in high school and primitive archery dovetailed well with that.  

I shot trad bows exclusively until I was about 18 and then I started shooting a lot at a local club (about 90% compound shooters) and thought that competetive shooting looked like fun.  I went to several shoots and was hooked.  The only problem was that there were almost always zero trad shooters there (seems like trad shooters have an almost universal aversion to scoring things and being competetive).  I started shooting a compound for target and still do.  I have won 8 state titles in Iowa since and think that living in both worlds of archery has been very good for me.  I can satiate my competetive juices with the compound and my primal juices with my trad bows.  I still hunt with a trad bow (often a selfbow and stone points) and always will.........maybe I would go back to trad only if there was ever anyone to shoot against.

Hope I don't get flamed for being "multicultural".  A lot of trad folks look down on me for shooting both........but to me its all archery and we need to stick together and not be eliteist.  I think the trad elitism that is sometimes rampant does no good for the sport.  I am a hard core trad guy at heart, but I love gadgets and doodads and target archery too.

Hope this all makes sense.

Matt

[katie]

flntknp17
Well said :^)

[TBone07]

I started shooting compound bows when I was 16 and was pretty good with them. I won tournaments and killed deer, but something wasn't meshing with it all. I started shooting a recurve under the guidance of my seasoned neighbor (he knows his stuff) and have not stopped since. I started shooting them at 18, and I am having way more fun now. I have killed more deer, won more tournaments, and made a lot more friends shooting traditional. The simplicity of the system is what turned me onto it, no pins or mechanical devices to have to worry about, and it puts you closer to the heart of the sport in my opinion, it does not get any better than stick and string. Now I just hope my Black Widow can connect on another nice one this year. Good luck fellas! -Nate

[buckeyebowhunter]

Hey stick_String i like your post and it seems to be the truth. I am eighteen and hunt stictly with my longbow and recurve. This is my third year hunting with traditional equipment. All my buddys hunt with wheelies and its just not my thing. I love trad equipment. I believe the main reasons i am addicted to trad is due to a video of Paul Brunner that i saw when i was young, and a friend of mine that i met a few years ago by the name of Tracy Trickett. Since then he has made me a few bows and i absolutely love them.

[stick_string]

Sweet!!  I really did not know that there were this many of us!!    

[lpcjon2]

Ahhhh.Patience is a virtue young grasshopper.If the younger guys would watch Robin (Errol Flynn) Hood they would want traditional gear.

[Richie Johnston]

I'm 34 and just getting into trad archery after shooting my wheel bow about a year and a half.  I like both styles of archery.  I have not hunted yet with my longbow but I will when I have put my time in with it. I've killed many ground squirrels (common pest in California)at long range with with my wheel bow and cannot expect that kind of accuracy with my longbow.  I'm sure I can expect to kill plenty of rabbits, pigs, or hopefully a deer with my longbow.  As my wheel bow gets less challenging the more I will become a trad-bow hunter.  I am already enjoying my longbow more just shooting targets in the yard. My two older boys are 8 and 5 and they like shooting their recurves and wheel bows. They have killed rabbits with their wheel bows but have not hunted with their recurves yet. That will come with time and practice.  I feel like my compound bow is what sparked my interest in traditional archery. I think I may someday become strictly a traditional shooter but not for a while.

I have not used a tree stand yet but I think nothing could be more fun than walking.

[shakey slim]

a hippie taught me about woods and the respect of all there / we talked long about the killin with firearms and as far as i can tell the modern compound is all but a firearm ////// is only me but i use recurve for hunting

[Over&Under]

Originally posted by stick_string:
Hey Guys/Ladies,
I have some questions for you all and just curious if we think the same:

1. Why do you pick Trad hunting over Wheel Bows?
2. Young folks are typically sterio-typed into wanting faster/newer gimmics all the time...do you fit that mold?
3. What style of hunting with a trad bow do you like? (stands/stalk/blind)

I am 28, and been shooting trad for almost about 5 years.  I shot compounds since I can remember even shot for Martin for a short time.   My father shot a compound at the time so I kinda just followed suit.  He had stickbows when he was a kid, and loved them, and we always talked about switching to trad, but never made the move.  As I got older and saw more guys shooting trad, it got more interested.  

Finally had a friend offer to trade one of my old compounds for one of his longbows, I jumped on it!  Soon after that my Dad made the switch and we both have never looked back since.

  It brought back the joy in archery, and brought on all new challenges, and ways of approaching things.  The feeling of accomplishment and personal achievment keeps me shooting trad, well... and all those beautiful piecies of wood art!  I also like the aspect of function.  The idea of tuning your setup to maxamize penetration and the continued struggle to perfect form is just plain fun!

I would say that I try to be balanced with the new and old.  I like alot of the new gadgets, but in archery the idea is to stay close to what the sport was originally, and compounds seem to have lost sight of that.  Nothing against them really, but like the muzzel loaders of late, they seem to gone a little too far for my taste.

I enjoy all aspect of hunting with a longbow.  I don't hunt stands very often out west here, but have a few times and hope to start using them more often.  Spot and stalk is and will always be my favorite way of hunting.

[wihill]

31 years young here...

Hey Guys/Ladies,
I have some questions for you all and just curious if we think the same:

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

I started using traditional bows last season and have used them exclusively this season with great success.  At one time I had 6 compounds and one recurve - now I've got 6 longbows and one compound.  Priorities and enjoyment of the sport shifted for me.  I enjoy both styles of bows, but my goals for each are very different.  I strive for consistancy and placement with my traditional bows, but my compound is more a function of extreme accuracy - it's a target rig, where to me a .25" variance on target is unacceptable.  Traditional bows let me escape from the maddening world of X's and rings.


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

To me newer and faster is merely an aspect of performance.  I want performance - so I now make my own strings, arrows, and have begun to focus on brands of traditional bows that offer me the performance I want.  There's nothing wrong with tried and true, but if that we'd never have the options we now have availible to us.

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

I'm more of a stand hunter as that's what I've known for ever.  I have been experimenting with blinds and stalking now, and enjoy it even more as I'm on the same level as my game.  However, it's hard to beat the view from up top...

[highpoint forge]

Crap! I'm no longer young? I look and feel/act twenty but I'm now 38. Started shooting recurves right off the bat, with a Bob Lee for xmas 07, which I broke. Quickly bought three BWs and love them.

1.Trad hunting is almost as hard as it gets. Any dbag can get a wheelbow, release, and sights....I hate those things.

2.The harder it is to master the more I want to master it, and this is an old skill. Also, see response #1.

3.Never hunted from a tripod or elevated position. I have a Dark Horse but find it limiting. Usually I stalk.