Why did you choose Trad. Hunting?

[jhg]

Growing up we had a 64 inch Blackhawk longbow hanging around.

Rifle hunting I liked things simple and neat- peep sights. The bare essentials kind of approach.

When I guided elk hunting for an outfitter here in colorado back in the early 90's the clients total disregard for the game really put me off hunting for a long time. I used career and "other interests" as the reason, but really it was disillusionment.

I have a friend who shoots a compound but every time I looked at one of those bows it just left me cold. I needed another high maintainance hobby like a hole in the head.

One day last year I bought a string for that old Blackhawk and with some arrows spent a totally wonderful couple hrs missing everything I aimed at. But when I found myself back in the woods hunting elk 13 hrs a day a few months later it seemed totally natural.

I never had so much joy being in the woods.

Simple, quiet and essential. Go lite. Leave no trace. Ghost through the timber. Melt into the clouds...

Joshua

[Stinger]

Like some of the older generation on this site, it was either archery or gun hunting when I started.  My Dad was the Kansas State archery champion when he was in his early teens (early 40's)so archery was sort of in the blood.  I picked it up when I was about 13 and I'm still working through bad form habits!  I did the compound thing for a number of years but got bored with it and found my way back.

[Jake Fr]

i got started by being shamed in to it is what i thought at the time by my freind the game warden i thought he was trying to embarace me but i shot one fell in love with it now cant thank him enuff i used to think nothing of but the kill but now i think more of enjoying the experance of being out in the woods

[BRITTMAN]

At first i just wanted to learn how to shoot instintively but after (I got in to it) I found I had a great love for the simplisity of the stickbow and the attitude of the people involved in the sport of shooting the stick . Its more of a life style and  mind set for me than shooting compound . Im sure many of you folks agree that the Traditional comunity is more like a family than just a sporting event .

Mike

[ronnyg]

I hunted with a compound from the age of 15. I'm 48 now.  One day my hunting buddy changed to traditional.  I shot his a few times and got hooked.  It's also a lot more fun to just "shoot" with a traditional bow as opposed to a compound

[cacciatore]

Bored of the compound,too easy to kill animals,a short range rifle!This is real archery and challange bowhunting,it request dedication knowledge.With a compound everybody become an istant bowhunter

[Pops]

I started my love of traditional archery in 1957
when I met Fred Bear.

[mcgroundstalker]

It's fun to shoot your bow all year round to get ready for the hunting season. Simple, lightweight, and quick to handle make it like white on rice for still hunting and stalking.

... mike ...

[Uncle Buck]

I have loved stick and string archery since I was a a little kid with rubber tip arrows, and made dozens of tree branch bows in my childhood. I would never consider switchig to a compound. That being said I would have a tuff time with a compound and sights because at the tender age of 55 I can no longer see well enough to use sight pins( or open sights on a rifle). Does anyone else have this "problem"? i tried wearing my bifocals to shoot but that was just exasperating to put it mildly

[Kevin Winkler]

For me It's because I wanted to get back to the basics again.

When I was young I started with a Herters bow then graduated to a Browning recurve.
Soon after that compounds came out and I thought they were the best thing ever!

Years later I meet a gentleman by the name of Tom Holt who was a Trad shooter and we became friends and that rekindled the flame to shoot stickbow again. He moved away several years later and I lost contact with him and none of my other friends shot stickbow, so I felt out of place.
So for many years I shot my compounds and was into shooting indoor and outdoor competitions. I even joined the NFAA and PAA pro division for several years.  

My roots have always been hunting and I really haven't cared about the competition part for many years. For the last few years it just seemed as though something was missing. One of the members of my local archery club bought a used Bob Lee recurve and had been shooting at the club quite a bit, we got to talking and then I realized what was missing? I started shooting stickbow again a little over two years ago and at 55yrs old It has put the fun and challenge back into archery and bowhunting for me.

I shot a nice turkey this past Spring, killed my first archery elk and a whitetail with my longbow this fall. I can honestly say that I am having more fun now than ever and have made friends with some of the nicest people that I have ever been associated with. Trad Gang forum has helped me greatly and I have made some great friends here and through WI Trad archers, PBS and Comptons.

Now I know where I belong and where I will stay.

[mickeys4]

My nephews got into archery 20 odd years ago,hooked on the compound craze.I shot one of their bows and decided it wasn't for me,those things weighed a ton and every other week a new gimmick they just had to buy.I bought an archery magazine and saw an advertisement from a place called Archery Traditions in Atlanta,GA.I called an talked to someone named Dan Quillian,no high pressure just answered all my questions.I purchased a longbow,arrows and the basic accessories.When the bow arrived and I held it in my hand I knew this was for me.Such power from a light stick and string.I still have and hunt with that longbow.When I think of Dan I see him sitting beside that big bear "grinnin like a possum".

[hayslope]

In the sixties, it was just plain 'ol bow & arrow.....archery.  I don't believe I was even aware of the addition of "traditional" to the front of "archery" until way later in the wheel bow days.  There is something about sliding away from the "dark side" and slipping into that old familiar comfort zone that you grew up with.

But what got me into "archery" back then.......well let's just lay "blame" on Papa Bear.  The young are always influenced by their heros (and a hunting father, of course!)

[BAK]

More a matter of it choosing me.  All there was back then.  Never saw any need to "modernize".

[lpcjon2]

My Dad was a big gun hunter and and he bought me a Ben Pearson Jet bow one year I think I was 8yo and that's all I did was shoot.When I got to13yo I had a bear black shadow Wheelie and shot fingers,Did the wheel's for a while and met a guy who shot Trad showed me some Hill videos and lent me his books   and it consumed my imagination. I wanted to be Howard that was it. I chose to go Back and I'm not Leaving!!So you guys are stuck with me...LOL

[duck'n]

Shot recurves as a kid.  Never really graduated to a compound back then.  I remember my buddy making fun of my "bowfishing bow...do you really think you can kill a deer with that?"  Wish I could have got an opportunity back then!  Moved on to an old Bear compound with nothing but a flipper rest and my fingers.  Killed a deer.  Went to college and forgot about bowhunting for a while.  Got back into it and have gone back and forth with the wheels for 4 or 5 years now.  Killed a couple critters but am sick of tinkering...at least with set screws and adjustments.  Anyway, just sold my compound and hopefully will resist the urge to get another.  Funny that the first time out with a longbow (scouting for turkeys day before the opener) I shot a 70lb. sow at around 20 yards then MISSED a chip shot on a mature tom the next morning with my Mathews!

[Pinelander]

About 25 winters ago, I lived in a small Iowa town and was shooting in an indoor "animal target" league. There were about 15 of us in the group. Two fellas were shooting recurves and one was shooting a longbow. One of the shooting stations was setup as a "fun shot". It was a large piece of cardboard with a shooting window cut-out about 2-3 feet from the floor. The "traditional" guys were the only ones NOT complaining about that setup. That is when it all started for me, and I haven't strayed from stickbows since.

[owlbait]

I chased my Dad's arrow in a big field across the street when I was 4 or 5 years old, 50 years ago. His recurve was just cool and there wasn't a lot of other guys shooting bows near us. When I was in high school my Dad bought an Allen Speedster and I got his old recurve. After getting out of the service I shot my first deer with it with my very firsy shot. Then as years went by I went to the other "stuff"./ I got so damn good it wasn't fun anymore, and I wanted a challenge. That was about 20 years ago. Now, I shoot better and enjoy it more. Every shot seems to have more personal involvement then before. I do it for the challenge and the satisfaction that my shot was mine not a machines.

[jsweka]

I use to shoot a lot of 3D at local clubs.  Went to at least 1 shoot a weekend between March and bow season each year.  It got to the point if I didn't place in the top three for fingers class I was ticked off.  Then I got caught up in the quest for speed, went to a release, and it lost it's fun.  Back around 1994 I saw a group of shooters at a local shoot with recurves and longbows.  They looked like they were having a lot more fun than me and it just looked cool.  Had to try it!

I hadn't killed what some would say is a lot of deer with a compound but enough.  So the next step for me was to use traditional equipment.  How you kill something is much more important to me than the size of the kill (a doe with a trad bow is better than a boone & crocket buck with a rifle).

I now also build my own bows and it has turned bowhunting into a year round hobby for me.  Heck, our bow season ended a month ago, and rifle season ended last weekend, but Monday evening after work I was out in the yard shooting.

[vtmtnman]

I started with it when I was 8 and drifted away from it to the wheels.Still like to shoot wheels,but Trad is def for me.

Plus there's always the added bonus of being the only trad guy in the group.    

How do you aim that thing?   :confused:  

Lots and LOTS of practice....  

[Gray Buffalo]

I started at age 10 with a Ben Person lemon wood long bow and soon the rabbits where running scared. Got another all wood longbow  35# at age 13. At age 15 I found there were girls and everything took a back seat to them. I spent 3 years in the Navy and when I got out I got another Ben Person re-curve 50#  @ 28” I shot and hunted with it for 5 years or so and bought a Bear takedown 50# @ 28” in 1971 I fell into the compound group. It was so easy with all the gadgets that I won the state pin site division 5 years later. Went back to the longbow and have been shooting one ever since.