Trad Bowhunting is getting some good press

[Lin Rhea]

I just read and article in the latest Arkansas Wildlife magazine. It highlights the resurgence of traditional bowhunting in the last few years. It's an interesting read and I saw Archer's Advantage owner Jerrell Dodson's photo on the front page. I was just in the store yesterday. While in there I met a fellow TG member (ymountainman) buying some feathers. Jerrell is a loyal trad guy.

This is the link to the magazine home page. It's the Jan/Feb 2011 issue.
  web page

[Duker]

Great info ::::: Thanks    

[cyred4d]

Thanks for the link

[hunt it]

Thats's always good to see in the press. Of course it's due in part to fine Trad Gang members like yourself out there representing traditional archery.  

[landman]

I don't know.   We all want good PR and acceptance of these sports, but I kinda hate the idea that bow hunting with trad equipment will become popular, over-hyped and advertised.   Sometimes there can be too much of a good thing.

[1oldbowguy]

Lin, good read.

[$bowhunter$]

Originally posted by landman:
I don't know.   We all want good PR and acceptance of these sports, but I kinda hate the idea that bow hunting with trad equipment will become popular, over-hyped and advertised.   Sometimes there can be too much of a good thing.

i kinda have to agree with this.

[Birdbow]

Landman,
  I see where you're coming from but it seems to me that due to the demands and discipline and patience involved in our sport, only those who are truly 'overcome' by the bug will remain. The majority will fade away after the initial 'romance' passes. It's the way of the world, it seems, with anything difficult or worthwhile.
             Best regards, Todd

[landman]

Birdbow,

You may be right and if that's the case in 10 years or so, if we're still at this game, we might see some good deals on trad bows start showing up.   That would be a positive benefit of a down turn in interest.

Life can be funny and it seems to out guess me most of the time even though I've been around a while.  I like being involved in things like traditional bow hunting and salt water fly fishing because, traditionally, these two sports aren't over run with participants.   But, in the past 5-7 years every "sportsman" out there who can find a sponsor is now an expert salt fisherman with a TV show and a buttload of sponsors.  Their grinning faces show up on the cover of every magazine and they're always out there running and gunning for big fish.   I question if they even love the sport they work so fervently to overblow.

In this endeavor we have a group of oldsters, some gone and some who are still with us, who have set the bar and we honor them with our enthusiasm and our participation in the general customs of this sport and in large part, gentlemanly ethics.  
Others, like some on this site, are the up and coming faces of this sport, and we know who they are.   We basically have one magazine, maybe two and I have never seen a single post on this site that advocates hunting over bait or c'mere "deer" or any posts that advocate trophy hunting.    It seems to me that a member's success on a squirrel is just as applauded as his success on a monster buck.

I would be loathe to see that change and it concerns me to a small degree that the media can wreck more than it creates or preserves.

[maineac]

Those that are already here will stay true to what this site and the sport stands for.  Those that join will be positively influenced, or leave, or asked to leave.  There are lots of members here who don't like the commercialism of compounds and the hunting and hunters who are associated with it.  That is a part of our society.  It is demonstrated everyday in all professional sports.  Self glorification, excessive displays of celebration for doing what a pro is paid for.  It is what the majority of our society has come to expect and mimic.  It shows up in any commercialized endeavor, and obviously has a large enough section of society that expects and demands it.

Those here are a different breed. The tides of fad will flow and we will do what we do, the way we have.  We will be true to the beliefs we hold, and still have them when the tides surge other ways.  I say it is great to have more interest in the sport we love.  I say the more people we can get to enjoy our sport and enter our world the better.

[thunder1]

Nice to see some more trad stuff in print

[Rooselk]

Originally posted by landman:
I don't know.   We all want good PR and acceptance of these sports, but I kinda hate the idea that bow hunting with trad equipment will become popular, over-hyped and advertised.   Sometimes there can be too much of a good thing.

I agree. We saw this very thing happen to fly fishing back in the early 90's following the release of the movie A River Runs Through It. Of course the one thing that may spare traditional bowhunting from that same fate is the fact that our sport isn't about catch-and-release.  :D

[Mojostick]

I have predicted a coming "boom", for lack of a better word, in traditional archery for a couple years.

My reasoning follows my experience.

There's millions of compound shooters out there. Many have been shooting them for years and killing a pile of deer with them. Compound hunting, for good experienced bowhunters is just easy with todays compound gear and gadgets. Draw, hold, put glowing pin on deer, squeeze trigger...dead deer.

But as like me, it gets to the point where there's hardly any challenge left to compounds other than extending range. I got to the point where I was practicing, for hunting, out to 60 yards. The last buck I shot with a compound was 47 yards. It was also my best bow buck. A nice northern Michigan 8pt. But oddly enough, "that feeling" just wasn't there for me. It was more of an "empty/lacking" feeling than one of accomplishment.

I gave up the compound after that season.

I know have several of my hunting buddies, all compound hunters, who are watching the fun I'm having, and that I'm killing deer and are now expressing serious interest in going to traditional bows.

What may be different, as we me, is many new folks to trad probably won't be into "the trad lifestyle", for lack of a better term.

I am not, for example. I'm a bowhunter with 32 seasons under my belt, who happens to now hunt with traditional bows. But I don't want to wear plaid, I like my ASAT wool and I don't prefer to make my own things. I don't care to camp with a bunch of trad-gangers. There's nothing wrong with it, of course, but I'm very serious about my deer hunting and I'm scouting, building blinds, doing habitat work, etc, when others are at trad shoots. All cool, but we have different goals.

I owned a fly fishing store and I'm a huge supporter of supporting local sport shops. And I'm lucky to have a great one nearby, in Traditional Outdoor Supply, in Sand Lake Michigan. If we don't buy things at these shops, they go out of business and only the big box stores survive. So I like buying compared to DIY.

Anyhow, I'd suspect to see a lot of new trad bowhunters nosing around, because there's a ton of compound shooters who are or will become bored with the ease of hunting with a compound in the next decade.

And ultimately, I contend that that is a good thing. Especially when you consider the alternative.

If we consider that hunter numbers are falling all across the country as the baby boomers age and the youth isn't replacing them, having growth in traditional archery is a net plus, no matter how you slice it.

[USN_Sam1385]

I doubt there will be a Trad archery boom. For starters, archery had its climax in the 1970's.  Most hunters now a days are too focused on the final product and not the full experience. The compound bow is just a slower rifle with a 4 month season...

The antler craze has made the 'method' of obtaining the animal much less important to most than the end product (the deer). If you are like me, you enjoy the full experience of deer hunting. From scouting, practicing for the season, hanging stands, sharpening knives and broadheads, prepping gear, washing clothes, and even the sleepless hours of the night before opening morning of bow season.

That doesn't exist for most hunters nowadays. I don't think they truly relish the hunting experience, but rather just want a 'big buck', that they can brag about around the water cooler at work. We can only blame modern media and advertisement for this craze.

A monster buck for many is just another nock in the metaphoric social belt that most Americans focus on today. Nice house check, BMW in the driveway check, trophy wife check, monster buck check. I can't tell you how many times I will hear someone talking about deer hunting and hear the words "Just a doe".

Btw: my house aint fancy and I have a pickup truck, but I'll be darned if my wife isn't a trophy. ;-p

[TWarrows]

Any press for trad. archery is good press. I hope that in the future alot more archers come out and give it a try.

[customcrester]

Good artical and good press for traditional archery!  

[Mojostick]

Sam,

As one who's goal is more mature bucks, I see things a bit differently. And this dovetails with my first post.

I don't see the desire for more mature bucks as a "status symbol". Not in the least. It's a challenge issue. As more hunters realize the ease of killing young deer, especially young bucks, they look for a bigger challange.

For many, between all the hunting knowledge out there, high deer populations, high tech compounds, inline scoped muzzleloaders, etc, for many who've been hunting a long time and killing a lot of deer, killing yet another yearling buck doesn't offer much of a challenge. It's become very easy.

For more and more, it's dawned on them that killing a yearling buck isn't any more difficult than killing a fawn. They're looking for something more challenging. Hunting mature bucks offers that.

Part of that is the ease of "the method", for many. Thats why I suspect more and more guys will seek a higher challenge, in both looking for more mature bucks and "the method".

[landman]

Good observation, Mojostick.

[USN_Sam1385]

Mojo,

That is good that you feel that way. I am surprised that you took my post as being directed toward you. If you look at my post it wasn't implying that EVERYONE who seeks large bucks is doing so for the sole purpose of a status symbol. Rather, my post was implying that many hunters are ONLY concerned with the light at the end of the tunnel (a big buck), and ignore the tunnel (the steps there) altogether. Hence 90% of deer being killed during the first few days of rifle season, by people who won't step more than 3 days in the woods the whole year.

There is nothing wrong with these type of hunters, which many are. However, I doubt many will ever catch onto TRAD archery because their brains don't work that way. Many of the compound bow hunters come from this same mentality, and many don't.


I like shooting large deer just like the next guy, and I was fortunate enough to get a 133" 8 pointer this year. (Large for ME, however I know that is relative. :-p ) However, if I have the anterless tags in my pocket I won't pass up on a doe or yearling (both antlerless). They are delicious and I still have my buck tag.

I guess only time will tell. :-p

[Mojostick]

Sam,

I didn't think it was directed at me. Not at all. Just trying to explain that more and more hunters today see hunting as a form of "recreation" as opposed to older generations from the Great Depression/WWII era that saw hunting only as "purely meat" based.

That's just the reality of todays world. Most hunters today hunt because they "choose" to do so.

That said, of the folks I know who'd be in the camp of "looking for mature bucks", they are by far the most apt to shoot female deer. Oddly enough, in Michigan, it's those most fixated on yearling bucks that object the loudlest to killing female deer.

Anyway, that's not the point of the thread. Not at all.

My point was, expect more and more guys, who've become bored with the ho hum of compounds, to start sniffing around for a bigger challenge. That being traditional archery.

My point is only based on those guys around me. And of those, they seem pretty geeked about looking into trad bows.

Keep in mind, Michigan has 300,000 bowhunters. Of those, if 50,000 choose trad bows in the next decade that'd be a great thing.