Question for all you "Old Timers"

[BAK]

#45 pound Bear.

[Sean B]

That was a great one Rick!!  I'm one of those whipper snappers....I'm a '68 model!!

[bro-n-arrow]

First bow? Can't remember that far back.Second bow a bear cub,Third bow and the one that I wish I still owned Was a wing thunderbird brought down many a deer with that bow including the one in my avatar.

[Caddo]

47# Staghorn Recurve made in Merrill, Wisconsin.

LD

[Pat B.]

In 1959 or 60 my parents gave me a 66" Bear bow that was marked 40#.. I shot it for some time until about 1966 when I got a Wing "Red Wing" hunter, two of them in fact.. They were 58", one was 43 and the other was 46 at 28".  

More than I can remember right off since then..

I thought I'd contribute to the thread even though I'm not an "old timer"....

[4dogs]

1963,Bear red fox handed to me by Mr Fred his self was my first. Still have it, been through two kids and two grandkids shoot it now. First real huntin bow though was a wonder bow in 1968 paid for with hay bailin money. Seems like alot of years ago in some ways...like yesterday in others.

[Sam McMichael]

It seems that many are still shooting the same bows now that they did way back then. I imagine, Fred Bear, Ben Pearson, or Howard Hill could stroll into many of our camps today and find equipment that they were very familiar with.

[Steve Clandinin]

In 1965 got a Ben Pearson 45# Cougar for my 12th birthday,I've still got it.In 1972 got a New Browning Cobra 50"-58#, still wish I had that one.

[mtnman1945]

My first real store bought bow was a Bear Alaskan.  I think it was 1958.  I had that bow for years and it was sold in a yard sale by accident while I was in military. I sure miss that old bow 46#@28".

[Jack Shanks]

Not sure how I missed this thread before now but I had to read through it from the begining. Great stories!

For me, I had others before but the first bow that I can remember the brand was a solid fiberglass Ben Pearson Jet 35# that I acquired second hand about mid sixties. Could be shot left or right and I chose left as that is the way Fred Bear shot. I'm right handed but no one told me why I should shoot one way or the other and I just figured it was a matter of choice. My first new bow was a AMF Red Wing Hunter 45# also left hand that I purchased in the late sixties or early seventies at the Hunter's Shack in Flint Michigan for $34.I wanted a Bear Super Magnum but they were twice as much. After my stint in the army 1972-74 a friend lent me a right handed Bear Grizzly which I used for a few seasons. I gave my other two bows to my young nephews and they were promptly taken away by their mother after they used the back of the garage for target practice. They should be able to get them back this year when the youngest turns 40 and I then will be able to give them some proper instruction on using them.

[Dave Paradowski]

My first real bow was a Bear Tamerlane. At 32# it was a nice target bow. My first hunting bow I believe was also a Bear. I don't remember the name but it was 48# and all black....Dave

[SELFBOW19953]

About 1962, my grandfather gave me his old lemonwood longbow.  Within a year, it became a 3 piece.  He then gave me his custom recurve built in 1946 or 47.  I played with it hunting small game-rabbits, armadillo, etc, until I went into the Air Force in 1971.  While stationed in Denver, I bought a new Browning Safari ll at the BX.  I never shot that bow until I was assigned to Dover in 1975, after 2 years in Thailand.

[David Mitchell]

WOW!  What a great thread. Ric O'Shay, your post just touched a note in my spirit.  Lots of modern gear guys would never understand the emotions evoked by these posts.  

My first "real" bow was a lemon wood longbow by Indian Archery out of Evansville, Indiana.  Way too strong (50#) for a 12 year old kid but for some reason it's what I wanted and dad and the sales clerk at Beards Sporting Goods in Evansville let me choose that one over the much better suited 35#er.    I never hunted with that one....my first hunting bow came about 1974 and was a Cravotta Bros. Black Hawk recurve, 50@28" and 58" long with the absolutely necessary brush buttons, three pronged silencers and clamp-on Kwikee quiver and slide on camo limb covers that must have slowed the bow down by a ton!  My arrows were POC with Bodkin heads.

I think that while we know so much more these days about setting up equipment, the biology of deer, understand the rut, etc, etc, I'm not sure we have more fun.  There was something magical in those days.