Lets see, I have made a self bow, wood arrows and fletched and hafted them, tagged out that year with it,killing my oldest most mature buck and have been trad ever since. I make my own knives, and craft carbon arrows also. I have taken many a compound riser and machined it and made a very good shooting, forgiving bow, with aftermarket recurve limbs. I make my own flemish and endless loop strings. I process my own deer, and waste nothing. I hunt mostly on the ground, in several natural blinds, but also use pop ups, and have had success with ghillies and nothing else between me and deer and turkeys. I could never take a turkey with a compound bow, but since going trad, have been lucky enough to take 13, along with several deer, due largely to the way I have changed my thinking and hunting with trad gear. I think I am a good tracker, have tracked deer badly hit by friends for over 500yds and recovered them with a speck of blood now and then, and mostly learned insticnt as to which way a wounded animal will go, only time spent afield will teach you this. I mostly buy others bows, too many good bowyers out there that are much more profecient than me. I excel at building accurate bolt actions, for hunting or long range target, and have built some beautiful and deadly accurate trad muzzleloaders, that have helped me win local, state and national championships, in other years. I make my own cast bullet/balls, and cast my own bullets for my centerfire pistol ammo, and load all my own centerfire rifle ammo, have never taken a deer with factory rifle ammo, all my home rolled. I have had a few magazine articles publised on the above, hunting, gunsmithing, and trad archery. I was blessed at a young age, to grow up around a old time blacksmith, and a retired Marine armorer, who shared their knowledge, patience, and a cold coke and well done from time to time, with a idiot kid who could not stop asking questions,and was over eager to do everything, and did not listen well enough. I work to pay this forward, by volunteer coaching 4H kids, now that mine are grown. As I type this, I realize how much I have been blessed and had the opportunity to do. As to being a master of trad archery, as a whole, I feel like I am just getting started after doing this off and on for over 35 years, still feel the excitement as I head across the yard to shoot, or thru the woods, still get the nimrod excitment and enthusiasm. I pray that never changes.Thanks for this thread, hope it doesnt sound like I am bragging, just reflecting a lot lately.
Topic: Craftsman, Shooter/Hunter or..........?? (Read 836 times)
