Veteran Traditionalists Being Entertained?

[Bowwild]

I got to thinking a moment ago that some of you fellows who have been shooting traditional for many years are probably getting a kick out of us guys that are returning from a long absence?  We get a recurve or longbow, shoot from the shelf, and use very few accessories. Then we start hunting up bows with better grips and adding arrow rests. I wouldn't blame you if you thought that one of us would eventually reinvent the compound bow?

Sort of like the early muzzleloader crowd going to in-line, then sabots, scopes -- by golly the single shot centerfire is a pretty effective arm.

Of course I'm being light-hearted here and I appreciate the tolerance you are exhibiting as you share your experience and opinions with us.

[Gun]

I've been shooting for almost 5o yrs. and I'm learning along with you "youngsters". I've never been too techincal or knowledgeable about my gear. I just play with my brace height and nock point, then shoot. Liking this heavy carbon arrow loading business though. As long as it involves pure muscle power go for it.

[Mudd]

I don't consider(personal) in-line guns muzzle loaders. They are just a weapon that allows those folks not wanting or understanding what it means to be a "Muzzleloader".

When I hunted with my muzzleloader my mind was taken back to a different time and era.

Folks that choose those types of weapons reminds me of how I feel when a criminal gets off the hook by some legal technicality.

In-lines may be technically muzzleloaders but that's just a technicality.

I do support those that hunt using this method and I'm glad they are hunting, I just wish they put them into a category that reflected more closely what they are hunting with.

Sorry about the rant.........

[yamapup]

I think way too many traditional archers end up looking for Mr.Goodbow. That's the bow that you just can't miss with whether you are paying attention or not, and its prettier than all your buddies bows. In the process, the basic trad bow becomes compromised. There is a better grip,a better core wood or a better string. The bow is too short or too long, too heavy or not heavy enough and the beat goes on.

[Bill Carlsen]

When I look back at guys like HIll, Pearson, Bear and a host of others that we consider the founders of modern bowhunting, I get the feeling that so many of you were not around to see the technical things these guys did and strove for that have given us the weapons we have today. Hill, for example, was very critical about his bow grip, and Fred Bear filed the shelf off  his bow to shoot off  his knuckle. As good as they were they did what they had to do to get the most from their equipment and modified their  equipment to get it to shoot the best it could for themselves. Why should we be any different?

Everyone who puts down technology is really putting down Fred Bear and all his patents and Pearson, as well. Do you think they would sit in silence with the advent of carbon/foam limbs, carbon arrows, stainless steel broadheads? I think not!  It was Fred Bear that developed the screw in broadhead and that would not have happened if  he had not been fooling around with aluminum arrows. Where would that have gone if he had stayed with wood?

As I see it, modern technology is at a stage where the sport and its equipment are being fine tuned by advances in materials, design and manufacturing techniques. When I was a kid no bows that  I know about were being made using CNC machines. And as we get better and better equipment all it really does is give those of us who want to go forward that opportunity.  Those that want to stick to the "old ways" have that right and should bring to the sport whatever suits them. As I age, I am more and more grateful for the advancements in the technology that give us such high performance in the bows and arrows we shoot. It it keeps me is the woods five or ten years longer then I have made the right choices for me.

[vermonster13]

What Bill said.

[hayslope]

I collect old Bear bows and accessories........there is not a year that goes by that I don't find some grand ol' Kodiak....say a fine '59 or '60 that has a few small holes drilled in the riser and limbs.....where someone put a sight...or a slightly larger hole where they put one of those new fangled stabilizers!

Lots of folks fooled around with "technology" back then......when you think about it, they were just trying to become better archers.  The game they hunted deserved it!  Nothing more than archers and bowhunters doing what they do. I doubt that they felt bad about trying something "new".

I remember the first time I bought and started shooting some fiberglass arrows......I figured I found the big "secret"!

And back then.......the word "traditional" was NOT associated with archery or bowhunting! I guess we didn't know any better!!!!!

[kbetts]

Even though I no longer own a compound, I can easily see how most gravitate that way.  I am the lone trad shooter in my circle of friends and every year at this time, I am reminded how many people struggle with a bow.  I can pick up any one of their compounds, regardless of draw length and out shoot them with their own equipment.  Technology allows me to do that.  
If you are a tried and true archery geek, technology only enhances what you could already do without it.  To prove this to myself, I shot a couple groups with carbons the other day and then went and grabbed the woodies.  As long as I did "my" part, the groups were just as tight.

[reddogge]

As an old timer in the sport I confess I've learned a pile of stuff from these pages. I also still learn from shooting with people who know more than I do how to get a bow to perform well and I take their advice.

There always will be what I call "techno wienies" in any sport and I just avoid those conversations.  In the gun collecting hobby we called them "gage monkeys".

[Andy Cooper]

I started shooting trad equipment when I was about 4. It was a lemon wood self bow my Dad made when he was in Boy Scouts. I was hooked when the first arrow was released. I've flirted with the wheelies a couple of times and got very small groups out to 40 yards--but it wasn't the same and it wasn't fun. I had a shoulder injury and a bone spur on the thumb of my bow hand that kept me out for awhile. Now I'm back and am really curious to learn what all I failed to learn while I was just too busy flinging arrows to address the trad technical side.

[Bowwild]

Every time I think I have an aspect figured out, whether it be tuning, bow quietening, etc. I peruse a thread here and find out something I didn't know.  If I didn't participate on this site much of my set-up and knowledge would limited to the early 70's and I wouldn't be having as much fun.

[the elf]

Bill Carlsen---very well said---I agree completely !

[ChuckC]

I happen to think that Fred would be on the highest podium decrying the use of things like bait and quads and many similar things.

He wanted to be a part of the woods and nature, to use his skills to overcome and harvest or kill game on its terms.  

He was for making the tools better, but not making tools to do his job for him.  He didn't even like the compound bow and his company made and sold them.    

Howard wouldn't shoot recurves, prefered the longbow.  

These men shot all the time and got good at it.  They hunted all the time and got good at that too.

Look at the history books.  Fred was supposedly born in 1902.  His first trip to the Little Delta took place in the late 50's.  He was 55 plus years old.  They walked all over the place and carried their gear.  He used a compass and a map and some well worn common sense.

Hayslope.. the use of the word "traditional" was not used back then cause compounds weren't here.  Traditional, in the bowhunting sense refers to the use of something other than a compound bow and does not reflect at all on the techniques in play.

ChuckC