I think many hunters have different paths to trad gear.
I started deer hunting with a compound in 1977.
But unlike much of the sentiment, I have virtually no sense of shame or embarrssment about it.
If not for the compounds becoming popular then, I don't know if my dad and his friends would have gotten into bowhunting so seriously a few years prior.
We didn't choose the compound then for any particular reason other than it was a new weapon gaining in popularity and even companies like Bear Archery were touting their effectiveness.
My first compound was a Bear Polar LTD.
I started with a compound in the 1970's for the same reason most firearms hunters choose a scoped centerfire rifle or a scoped rifled slug gun over a traditional flintlock. It was the thing to do.
I switched to traditional bows for much the same reason Grassman did, I grew bored with practicing with a compound and killing deer with a compound. I never "lost interest", but I admit that it came to the point in my final compound years where I enjoyed my off season scouting and off season habitat improvement work more than the actual hunting season itself.
Although, that was a plus too, because for me now, "deer season" is a 365 day a year season. I start scouting in January and we'll be starting planting saplings, etc, in April once the snow melts.
For me, the only challenge left with the compound was to extend my range. I got to where I felt comfortable shooting out to 50-60 yards.
The irony is, it was that that brought an abrupt end to my compound days. Once proficient at those ranges, I killed my nicest Michigan buck at 47 yards.
While I felt a great sence of accomplishment that my habitat work contributed to such a nice buck, the act of killing it at 47 yards left me with an empty feeling and no sense of accomplishment. My thought was a sarcastic "well, that was fun".
That was the end of the compound for me. I bought my first recurve at a local trad bow shop and quickly thereafter sold or gave away everything compound.
But I didn't get into trad bows for any spiritual reason or that I wanted to be part of some brotherhood of trad shooters.
My reasons were totally my own and pretty simple. My own sense of self accomplishment. I want to master trad bows as much as personally possible and I want to humanely kill deer with trad bows.
That said, I'll go back to my earlier comment. I have no shame over my compound days. I learned a lot shooting a compound and killing a pile of deer with the compound.
It was a time and place in my outdoor life and I look back with only fond memories. It's a lot like how many look back on their youthful indiscretions of their college years or their early 20's. Those memories are nothing you'd repeat now as an older person who knows better, but the memories are still a part of your path and usually seen as good memories.
My .02
Topic: how many people????? (Read 1144 times)
