WHO?????

[J-dog]

Thoguht I would start a thread abut the person who really opened you up to trad.
I was into shooting bows from the time I could walk. A man whose daughter babysat me early on later saw me with a simple compound bow - he let me use this recurve he had and I loved it. I might have been 9-10 couldn't really use the bow that great - I still went into the compound thing for a bit. The started watching highnoon bucks video and Paul Brunners videos on instictive shooting - rest is downhill - On the back of the highnoon bucks video I saw the advertisment for Schafer silvertip bows! My Mom made me pay half but I ordered a silvertip. Just like the one I had seen on the video. been lost ever since. Recurve is a much better hunting weapon that the wheelie ever will be.
I wish I knew what kinda recurve that first bow was Mr. Rice let me use? still do not know and neither does he.

Mr Rice also mentored me into the Fire Service! Go figure?  No at 38 I am a Deputy Chief and he has long since retired.

So how did you end up forever lost to trad bows??????????? did someone introduce you or did you just pic it up and start? whats the story.


Should be fun!

J

[PEARL DRUMS]

I read a Roger Rothaar book and never could shake the bug, that was 13 years ago. Ron LaClaire set me up with a Raco long bow by John McCullough and some cedar arrows, away I went with a huge smile. I ended up shooting my first deer that year with a long bow, a buck even! Just try to pry my wooden bows out of my hands, I dare ya'!

[Bowwild]

Wow, that's a tough one. I was in the 2nd or 3rd grade when I made a bow out of a sapling limb and string. Terrorized robins in my neighbors yard until the string broke. I imagine my arrows were also just sticks with grooves for nocks and no fletching -- I can't remember because I was 8 or 9 years old. No one I knew had a bow in those days so I imagine I picked it up from TV.  Were the American Sportsmen shows on by then (1962 or 1963)?  My first real bow was a Pearson Cougar mom bought for dad when I was about 13. He shot one arrow from it - straight up from the front porch of our house in a sub-division -- no idea where the arrow went -- we were both shocked!

I hunted chipmunks and groundhogs with that bow until I was 16. Then, a cross-country teammate invited me on a deer hunt 120 miles from home in Brown County, IN. On opening evening (we skipped opening morning) I killed the 1st live deer (5-pt) I ever saw in my life.  It was a 15-yard whot with a cedar arrow. I was using Bear Razorheads instead of the Deadheads that came with the Pearson "kit".

[Night Wing]

I got to meet and talk to Fred Bear when I was 14 years old. At the time, I didn't realize I was talking to a living legend. That was 46 years ago.

[Sixby]

First was my mom. She took me out when I was about 5 and cut a bow out for me and put it all together and showed me how to shoot it. Then when I was about 9 or so we had a school assembly and Howard Hill did a bunch of trick shots and talked to us about archery. I got a longbow that year and have been an archer every since then. somewhere around 1954 or 55 I guess.

[yekrut]

i just feel a traditional pull, its fun shooting a recurve, to hard for me to hold a sight pin on a compound on my target , Its easier just to look and shoot!!

[straitera]

Born hunt freak!!! Gun accident at 12 nearly cancelled me & we were thereby restricted. Learned to hunt with my aunt's LB & never stopped bowhunting. All these cards fell right into place. I'm no better than anyone hunting with whatever; but, I am much luckier than those folks to hunt with a LB. I figure we're all (tradsters) pretty lucky that way.

[pickaspot]

Dad had an old recurve that he hunted with a little when I was a kid & it fascinated me. Fred Bear's field notes were the last nail in the coffin - could not put the book down.

My friend Bubba Kirby gave me a Bear Kodiak Magnum and I was done  

[**DONOTDELETE**]

There has been a few, Mr. Hill in the Robin hood movie, Mr. Bear with His hunting Videos that where on TV, I have always had a love for the Bow more so the American Indian bows.

[Cherokee Scout]

Seeing stories about Fred Bear and also Jim Dougherty. They lit the fire in me. Had no teachers, mentors etc. Just caddied all summer and saved it all to buy a solid glass bow. Hunted rabbits and birds growing up.

[Ed Q]

Dad's a doctor, and after working on a bunch of gunshot wounds, both intentional and accidental, he didn't want any guns in the house, not even BB guns or pellet guns.  So despite my pleas as a kid, he never let me have one.  Guess he never saw any arrow wounds, though, because he let me have a bow and arrow.  He and I picked out a Bear recurve when I was a young teen from a bow shop.  Don't even remember what kind of Bear bow it was nor do I remember why we chose a recurve instead of a longbow or compound, but I'm pretty sure it was the cheapest one available.  Had lots of fun shooting it for a year or two til it broke, most likely due to my abuse and lack of knowledge on how to properly string it and take care of it.  30 years later I decided to get a longbow - that was just recently.  Don't know why it took me so long to start back up with it again, but am glad I did.

[JAG]

Two men.  Sterling Holbrook and Russ Dickson.

[Eric S]

I saw Rev. Stacey Groscup (hope I spelled that correctly)at a bowhunter festival shooting disk out of the air from horseback then he was shooting aspirin out of the air. It just blew me away.

[nc recurveman]

I grew up in a huntin and trappin family, some folks do the football or baseball thing we hunted.With that said my father and grandfather HATED bowhunting, so being a black sheep I took up wheelie bows. After I felt accomplished I went trad, my grandfather ask me before he pasted "cleve whats next rocks".

[Mudd]

I know I will never remember the names of the presenters but when I was a youngster in grade school our public schools used to have special programs for educational and entertainment purposes. On two different occasions they had archery as the programs.

I was immediately mesmerized and transformed.

I've had it somewhere in my psyche ever since.

God bless,Mudd

[Brently]

When I was a kid I used to make bows out of anything I could bend and put a string on.  My dad told me about Ben Pearson and all the things he shot with a bow and he took me to see a beg bear that Ben Pearson had shot, I just had to have a Pearson bow and for my 8th birthday I got a Ben Pearson fiberglass bow.  That was 46 years ago and I have been missing targets ever since.

I was introduced to archery and bowhunting when I made a promotion and was assigned to a new fire station. There was a couple of hard core bowhunters there who got me started with the wheels. I had a blast and was immediately hooked on bowhunting. A couple other friends I hung out and shot 3D with were into traditional bows. One of them talked me into buying an old Bear recurve. I went to a 30 target 3D shoot with them with a quiver full of arrows, and had to borrow one from one of the other guys to shoot the last target. Every one of the almost dozen arrows I had brought with me were either bent, broken, or lost. That shoot drove it home to me how hard traditional archery is. Learning how to shoot a trad bow well was a tremendous challenge and I was bound to do it. I was about 25 years old then and am still addicted to trad archery/hunting. My next birthday will be my 50th. I truly hope I can keep shooting trad bows right up till the day I pass on to the Great Hunting Grounds.

Bisch

They showed Howard Hill films on the weekends on one of our local TV stations.  I must have really liked it because I had my first bow when I was three or four years old and I have been shooting bows and playing with canoes ever since.  When the neighborhood bulleys played cowboys and I was the Indian, I won because I did not have a gun that went bang or pop, my toy was for real.

[S.C. Hunter]

I was first exposed when my cousin had a ben pearson recurve that his granddaddy gave him. We had a great time shooting that bow. I was about 11-12 yrs old about 35 yrs ago, man that time just flew. It is amazing thinking back on it now.

[59Alaskan]

1.  My cousin introduces me to wheels.

2.  3 years later I met 4runr.  That was about a year ago.  I haven't shot the wheels in 10 months.