What brought you to shoot Trad.?

[Ben Maher]

It's a popy pourri of
*going hunting with my dad and him making me a bow in the back yard when i was about 6 yrs old ...
* watching Errol Flynn in Robin Hood
* Reading Lord of the Rings
* seeing pictures of Bob Swinehart in one of Dads  hunting books
* living just down the road from the best archery shop in Australia..the smell of Port Orford Cedar will never leave me ... the pictures sights and stories from that shop hold with me still
And i know that in moments of weakness i ponder that perhaps , at my very best,  that there is just a touch of ol' Mr Hood in my veins ...

[NYStickhunter]

My 13 year old daughter. She got into archery through reading fantasy fiction and took to it playing around in gym class. I bought her a Samick and some arrows and when I shot her bow brought back how much fun this is! It was 15 years since I last used a bow. We have been having a great time stump shooting up in my place in Pennsylvania.

[ChuckC]

It was the ONLY way when I started.
ChuckC

[Mint]

I think it was the Robin Hood movie with Errol Flynn that I watched as a kid. Then in 1984 in a Sports Afield issue there was an article called " The Comeback of the Longbow" I believe. I read that artilce a hundred times and then 6 years later sent a letter to Frank San Marco who was listed asa bowyer in the book. He got back to me about 4 months later and told me he hada six year waiting list. He told me about Traditional Bowhunter Magazine that had just came out and about an add in Bowhunter Magazine for "The Traditoal Bowhunters Bible" by Dan Bertalen and Frank said all the bowyers in the book were top notch. So I called up Dan, got the book and picked up a Scorpion Longbow and have been a fanatic for close to 20 years. It has made my life much better and has led me to have great friends to share my life with.

[buckeye_hunter]

I mostly started shooting traditional bows because they were simpler(no gagets) and looked "cooler" to me.

Simpler(without gagets) made TONS of sense for me because I break things. Some people are fixers and some are breakers.

I am the kind of guy that keeps others guys in business! I can do the small stuff, but beyond that...... well ... have you ever heard of a bull in a china shop? That's me.      

Now, traditional bow hunting means way more than just a bow I can't break so easily. I reaffirmed that when shooting a shotgun the other day. A trad bow is so much less intrusive to the tranquility of the woods when hunting... almost like you and the bow are part of the woods yourself. Also, a bow doesn't leave a bruise on your shoulder!    

I'm sorry--is there another way to shoot??????

[dino]

Originally posted by huntryx:
I'm sorry--is there another way to shoot??????

That's what I was thinking, only way to shoot and only way I've ever shot.

[Desert Hunter]

I started shooting a traditional bow as a kid. Have never owned a compound and enjoy the simplicity and its just plain fun. One note to is the terrain we hunt here in AZ is hard on equipment and I learned this the hard way a few years ago. While helping a friend on an antelope hunt he missed several shots at various distances(compound shooter) and we had to strip everything off his bow and re-sight it in during the hunt. Wasted time and caused lots of frustration. If i fall, roll down a hill, drop (yes it has happened) or ding my bow, I can pick it up and keep shooting and hunting. Also there is no feeling like getting close enough to an animal and be able to cleanly havest him with a stick ans string. There is no other way to archery hunt in my opinion. Now bring on elk season. Good luck to eveyone this fall.

[Pat B]

The simplicity of it!!! I got tired of toting 10# of hardware in to the woods when I went hunting and generally on piece of the contraption or another didn't work or didn't work properly when I needed it. Now all I tote in the woods is a selfbow and a few arrows(maybe a pound total). Nothing to blame but myself if a problem arises.

[joevan125]

I killed 9 deer with my compound 2 yrs ago and all but 1 was less than 15 yds so i decided to try something different. I sure am glad i made the switch, i shoot almost everyday and love holding these wooden bows in my hand.

[Ia Hawkeye]

Well, in 1949 when I first started shooting, there wasn't anything else. Wouldn't have shot anything else anyway as I was completely enamoured with the Indian culture! We (my brothers nd I) ran around the farm in breech cloths! (I was 10.)

[wbyrd]

I found my Dad's old recurves when I bought his house from him. Started researching it, found this website, and now I'm hooked. It's not something I ever even thought about doing. I was all wheelie bows until I started looking at trad stuff... Now I don't even look at wheelie stuff anymore. I still love shooting my wheelie bow but the trad stuff is so much more fun. And it seems like the people involved are just more pleasant...

[seabass]

years ago my uncle had a bear black panther hunter my aunt bought him in 1970 something.he then switched to a compound when they became popular.he was having a garage sale one day and was selling the bear.i was 8 years old then and asked him if i could buy the bear.i only had 8 dollars.in my pocket.he felt sorry for me and sold me the bow for 8 dollars.thats all it took.the rest is history.

[Mitch-In-NJ]

When I started shooting it was about 1969 or 1970.  That's all there was.  When Bear introduced the Whitetail compound I switched.  This was around 1980 or so.  I stopped shooting around 1986 and didn't pick up a bow for almost 20 years.

When I did, it was a new PSE with wheels.  Shot it for a year.  Took me about 1 afternoon to get proficient with it and I took some critters that season.

My nephew took an interest so I bought him a recurve and took him to the Appalachian Bowmen's trad shoot the following April.  Since I had only a compound I was just going to watch him shoot.  Then I stumbled across Leon Stewart's tent.  He let me try one of his bows and I bought it on the spot.

You could say that Leon got me back into traditional gear.

Last year I had tendonitis and couldn't shoot my longbow so I did break out the wheels.  My tendonitis was in my drawing arm but it didn't hurt me when I used a release.  So rather than give up the whole archery season, I regressed to compound shooting.

My injury is healed now and I have no problems shooting my longbow so the compound is back on the hook.

[Buckeye Trad Hunter]

As others have said, I was burned out on the compound thing, basically no challenge, and had even given up hunting altogehter.  Then my uncle who was actually more like my brother talked me into trying a Bear Montana that a mutual friend of ours had.  We went to a 3-D shoot that our trad archery club had and I was hooked.  I ended up buying the Montana and 6 years and 6 bows later4 of which I still have) I'm still hooked and still love it just as much as day one.

[todd smith]

That's all there was...      

That and I've always been obsessed with Native American culture and crafts.

todd

[J-dog]

The Barry Wensel movie that had him shooting the schafer bow at running WTs - that one a couple of those older vids. Not that I wanted to shoot a running deer but the looks and simplicity of the curve. Looked like a better hunting weapon than the wheels - I was right.

J

[Cal bow]

Started with a recurve as a kid. As my brothers transitioned to compounds it always seemed they were spending more time dinking with the things then shooting them. Besides a good looking compound is still an ugly machine.

[RLA]

I walked into the Black Widow shop one day,(just to look). So I thought! Well it's been all down hill from there, in a good way!

[LAR43]

When I started it wasn't called Trad. There was nothing else . . .

Larry