Old Bowhunters Thread....

[joe skipp]

I had too much time on my hands rehabing this shoulder here at home. Thinking about "The Good Ol Days" when bowhunting here was super. Plenty of land and large deer herds. Circa 1969-1975. Recurves and Cedar arrows ruled the woods.

I have an old Kittredge Catalog coming in from Tom Phillips. I just love looking through the pages filled with the latest bows and arrows that highlighted that era.

All you bowhunters out there who were around from the 60's and 70's...let's here about your favorite bow shops, catalogs or hunting gear. We had 3 stores here that sold Bear,Browning and Pearson bows along with Bear and Pearson arrows.

The catalogs that held my attention more than my Math books were Feline, Robin Hood, Anderson Archery, Kittredge...and who can forget those large Herter's catalogs! All filled with eye popping bows, arrows, quivers and accessories.

Let's here how it was in your neck of the woods back in "The Good 'Ol Days"......

[ron w]

Bought a Browning recurve in 1967, Worn out the Herter's Catalog, read about hunts on Catalina Island and Fred Bears trips to Alaska. And at that time you could walk out the door at home and start hunting......Ah' The Good Old Days......

[Shaun]

Who you calling old!?! Oh, just checked my drivers license and I am old.

Used to be archery shops were in garages next to houses - just like motorcycle shops in the 60's. Cabelas "catalog" was two page mimeograph sent if you mailed them a SASE. Loved the Herters wish book. Still have the recurve from the garage shop near Cedarville, OH and the flyrod from Herters.

[centaur]

Those were the days; Doug Kittredge Bow Hut, Herter's, Sears and Montgomery Wards.
Prices were a bit better, too.
 
And, could this be considered longbow blasphemy????!!
 

[Bear Heart]

I wasn't around and one of my regrets is not making to Glenn St Charles's shop in Seattle.

[Ron LaClair]

  Circa 1969-1980. Recurves and Cedar arrows ruled the woods.  

I gotta disagree with your time frame Joe. From 1970  to 1980 compounds and aluminum arrows were just about all you saw...they ruled the woods during that time. There were a few holdouts from the 50's and 60's that clung to their  Stickbows but they were few and far between. The 80's saw the beginning of the resurgence of traditional archery but it was a slow process.

Through most of the 60's I worked part time in an archery shop on weekends and some evenings after my regular job. The racks were full of recurves by Bear, Wing, American Archery, Hoyt, and Wilson Brothers Black Widow. I made custom arrows in the back room, where the pot of ferrel-tite glue never cooled off. The smell of burned feathers and cedar filled the air, and Bowhunting was spoken there...  

[Knawbone]

I was a late bloomer. Started bow hunting in 1975 or 76. I was 16 or 17 yrs old when my Dad took me to the locale bow shop in Ithaca to pick out a bow. I remember all the Bear, Martin, Darton, and other bows they had. We decided on a Martin x-200 with the old fiberglass arrows and Wasp broadheads. I still remember the salesman fitting me to the 45 lb bow and taking my draw length. Dad bought a Martin Hunter and we started Deer hunting that year. I do remember the Herter"s catalogs and I'm sure I must have picked up others at the bow shop. Thanks for sparking my memory banks Joe.

[Gil Verwey]

Joe these are the good old days now. I started bow hunting in 1968.

The deer herds were much smaller than today. Also the seasons and limits were much shorter and smaller. Some states refused to let bowhunters hunt.

We didn't have the quality bowyers we have today or at least the amount of them.

Everything we learned was by hard knocks. There were few bowhunters so you learned as you went. There were many gun hunters. If you went gun hunting there was an orange jacket behind every tree.

We had limited communication so everything was by word of mouth. You had to find someone that new another bowhunter to get in touch with them to discuss archery. We didn't have the internet and sites like this. No email.

If you were lucky enough to find an archery magazine you were overjoyed. We would subscribe to Outdoor Life, Sports Afield and Field and Stream in the hopes one would have some archery article in it.

There weren't any archery shops so you had to find a Gun shop that carried archery supplies and the equipment was very limited. You had to take what they had.

Tree stands were in their infancy. Most were permanents made of wood. You find a great spot, spend a lot of time scouting and building a stand and when you got there, there might  be someone else in it. My first tree stand was a Pearson. You could only put it up as high as you could reach and it had a rope that hung off the front of the stand. I actually shot a nice 8 point out of that stand 7 feet off the ground. Then the Baker came out. It was a death trap. Saftey belts were unheard of. It took a lot of accidents and deaths before they became a fixture readily available.

Yep these are the good old days. I wouldn't go back for anything.

Gil

[Knawbone]

I don't remember any compounds in the 70's Ron, at least not where I lived.

[soap creek]

Joined our local club in 79. Started taking archery a little more serious. Started hunting in 81. You could get permission to hunt from most anyone back then, especially if you were bow hunting. A yr. or two later I acquired a Jack Howard catalog, then ordered his Hunter recurve. I couldn't afford the Game Master, that's what I really wanted. In the early 80s there were very few stick bow guys in our club, that changed a little latter on .A few yrs. latter  I then ordered a brand new Black Widow 3pcs wood handle t/d, paid $219 for it. Ken Beck had taken over the business. Its been a great ride, still using my recurves  and longbows, and I'm still loving it.

[Gil Verwey]

In the 70s there were compound shooters in my area. Once that happened more gun hunters became bowhunters just to get in more deer hunting time. Finding a traditional shooter was rare in the 70s and 80s in my area.

The first one I remember seeing was Ridgid. It was parallel limb short bow about 30" long made from aircraft aluminum.

In my area we had 3 weeks of bow season. back then you didn't get paid vacation like today and if you took a day off you lost a days pay, if your boss took you back for taking off to go hunting. That left 3 Saturdays to hunt deer. Back in those days it seemed to pour every Saturday. I used to use my stand like an umbrella. I would stand under it to try to keep dry.

[woodchucker]

You're bringing back memories here Joe!!!

Back in th 60's and 70's, you could get practicaly anything you wanted out of the back of an "Outdoor Life, Field & Stream, Sports Afield" magazine... I had all of the old catalogs, spent HOURS looking through them! Never was one for "mail order" lol, it was a good 4 mile hike to the Post Office to get a money order and when you got there, they may or may not be open!!!We never really had an "Archery Shop" (that I knew of?) But the local "Department Stores" kept me well stocked as long as I had money!!! "Grant's, Bradley's, Barker's, Caldor's, Ames, Grandway" They're all gone now..... We had a Montgomery Wards up in Poughkeepsie, and the "Monkey Wards" catalog was my wish list!!! At least I had a good shot at getting anything I wanted,that wasn't in the store. They had a "catalog service" counter... You waited on line, placed your order, paid your money, then waited for the Mailman!!!!!

Those were the days!!! Thanks Joe!!!!! It's been a long time since I dug that far back.....

[macbow]

Bought my first recurve 1968 while in school in Ky.
Didn't see  a compound till about 1975.
Bought and used one for about 10 years.  Bought a bamboo hunter longbow and currently hunt with my own BBI or BBO longbows.

[ron w]

Long before Wal-Mart.....Big N, Western Auto, and the local hardware store. I got my first hunting knife at my Uncles Gas Station, it was a Kin-folk and I still have it!

[Hoyt]

I started hunting deer and hogs with recurves in the early 60's in Ft. Stewart, Ga. Most of Ga. had no deer season back then, but Stewart was overpopulated with them and hogs along with a fair population of turkeys...even had wild cows that were legal to shoot if you could ever see one. I would see tracks in the clay roads all the time, but never a cow.

Commercial portable tree stands weren't on the market yet, but you could get a home-made loc on if you knew the right people. Also a pair of pole climbers if you knew somebody working for the power co. or telephone co.
 
I worked in a sheet metal shop for a while back then and we made all kinda portable tree stands..and it's a wonder we didn't kill ourselves using some of the flimsy loc ons we made..also a few climbers after Baker came out. Never did any of us use a safety harness..only a climbing belt or rope with the pole climbers.

You would see a lot of bucks during archery season back in those days, since not many bow hunters in the woods and not many pre season scouting for archery season to spook them.

I shot a lot of Field Rounds and the area I was in American Archery Bows were popular. I do remember lusting after a Jack Howard bow, but not pulling the trigger. Bear bows were everywhere and kinda common. Watching Fred Bear on American Sportsman was kinda like the young kids watching hunting shows of today I guess..except it was something fairly new to regular TV.

I saw my first compound an Allen in early 70's. They weren't legal in Ga. for a few yrs after they came out due to being classified as mechanical.

[Eric Krewson]

Ahhh, Baker suicide treestands.....

[Mike Vines]

Man, you all sure know how to make a guy feel good about himself.  I was saying today that I feel old (I was born in 1972).  I got my first longbow (a red fiberglass dual shelf) in '78, and made the switch in 95 when I got out of the Army.  Shot 2 deer and said "This Sucks", and went right back after giving the whole set up to a friend, and never regretted it one bit.

Back then (for me at least) there was no safe chipmunks, squirrels or woodchucks.  My dad used to take me to the hardware store to get me some kids wood arrows every time I would either break or loose the ones I had.

[ksbowman]

We only had one bow shop around that I knew of KC Archery. The guy that owned it was real independent. The sign on the door said Open when I feel like it and Closed the same. I mainly went to T.G.& Y, K-mart, JC Pennys, Sears and Mongomery Wards to look at bows and buy supplies locally. Kittredge, Anderson and Herters for mail order. Kittredge was my favorite and I bought a couple bows there. Got real lucky one time at a flea market and bought two big stacks of Bow and Arrow magazines from the mid to late 60's and read for ever the great stories Jim Dougherty wrote. Went hunting rabbits down by the Kaw or rats at a local quail farm almost every Saturday. The first deer season I hunted was in 1971 in Kansas.

[joe skipp]

Eric...that treestand is the reason I stayed on the ground hunting. Even though I fear heights, I was convinced to try one. Noisy, cumbersome...and no one told me never to shift my weight to the back of the stand...We both hit the ground one morning, me first. That was my first and last attempt at tree stand hunting.

[Bill Kissner]