How did you get started?

[VictoryHunter]

How did y'all get started with Traditional archery? I have been hunting for four years, three of which have been with traditional equipment. After my first season ended I picked up one of the big name hunting dvd's to pass some time during the off season and in it's special features section was none other than Fred Bear's Badlands Bucks video! Prior to watching that video I didn't even know who Fred Bear was let alone that people still hunted with traditional equipment. Needless to say, from that moment on I was obsessed. I went a bought a Bear Grizzly with all the trimmings, taught myself to shoot, and practiced all summer. I ended up making my first traditional kill that same year, it's the doe in my profile pic. I was just thinking about that today and how much that one little thing changed the way I view hunting, and the outdoors. It changed my life in a profound way. So, now I want to hear y'alls stories!

[Hot Hap]

I got started in 1958 when I was 14 years old. A friend I graduated with had a Bear bow, don't remember the model, that he let me use and that was it. Took me a couple of years to get my own bow. I think it was 1961 when I got my first bow. Started hunting big game in 1966.
I often think of the lad who got me going. He's dead now. Thanks Tom!
Hap

[Nala]

I got started probably in about 1999 or so.  I have always loved bows and archery, but had only had compound bows.  I had only went hunting a few times and sold my bows.  I hadn't had any bows for a couple years and one day I was at the store and saw a TRADITIONAL BOWHUNTER magazine.  I thought it was awesome and devoured every single page.  I bought the next issue and did the same.  I knew I wanted a TRAD bow, a longbow.

I called around looking for prices and availability and such and the guy I was working for at the time saw me and he said he'd like to have one too.  SO now I was looking for a place that had 2 bows in stock.  I eventually came upon GREAT NORTHERN.  After calling and talking to them I found they had a Critter Getter in my weight and a Bushbow in my bosses weight.  After we talked about it a bit I ordered them.  It wasn't long until they arrived and I thought the CG was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen.  We started shooting in the garage every day and it didn't take me long until I realized I was overbowed.  I made the mistake of ordering a longbow in nearly the same weight as I was shooting a year before in my compound.  Great Northern didn't have any others in stock so I had to find something else.

After a bit I was able to find a guy that was a collector/seller of Great Northern bows.  I explained to him what happened and I ended up trading him my Critter Getter for a Ghost in my weight.  The Ghost was a great bow too, really a looker.  I loved the feel of it, the way it shot and the looks.  I kept it for a year or so and since I wasn't hunting with anyone and no one was shooting with me, I got bored and ended up selling it.  I wish I hadn't now, of course isn't that how it always happens?

I'd love to have a Ghost again sometime or at least a bow built like it.  I think it is an awesome bow for hunting especially in closed in quarters.

So, that's how I got into TRAD shooting.  Never looked back.

Nalajr

[sagebrush]

1962 was when I started. No such thing as traditional archery then. It was all traditional. I was only 7. My father and my brother both shot bows. I got a lot of hand me downs. My equipment was pretty cruddy but I had fun. I have been shooting every year since then. I played around with compounds about ten years after they came out but got tired of them after a few years. I have always had a recurve. I find shooting relaxing. Sometimes I have more fun shooting stumps than I do hunting. I stump shoot a lot when hunting. Gary

[Fattony77]

My initial introduction was when a friend & I got drawn for a trad only controlled hunt here in OK. Practiced a little & had fun. But that was about it.

Fast forward to a couple of years later, I had seen Byron Ferguson on Impossible Shots show me what a longbow was capable of, and really enjoyed watching Tred Barta on his show, and he showed me that hunting wasn't always going to result in meat in the freezer. That was cool, cuz I thought I was the only person who didn't kill a monster buck every time I hit the woods. It got me interested in doing things "the hard way." Then, I broke my ankle and had some extra time & money, so I bought a Martin longbow.

Between those guys, and TBM, and of course the thrill of connecting with my target with just a stick and a string, well I've been steadily becoming more and more engulfed in my addiction ever since. I just can't get enough now!

[Rustic]

I shot a compound for several years but lost my passion for it. One day I stopped by my neighbors to shoot the breeze and see how his huntin was going. He had a "Thunderstick" longbow and let me draw it, took me into his man cave and showed me his other recurves and longbows. Needless to say, I was impressed and hooked.

[Wolfshead]

As kids we always made bows out of maple saplings.
when I was around 12ish I bought a green fiberglass 30# Bear bow at our local hardware store and shot that for a long time.
Then HS sports began, soon college, then a career as a teacher and football coach took over my  time for 30+ years.
I stopped coaching and was certified in the NASP program so we could  teach it in our PE classes and interest started again.
I now  shoot only  traditional, never having owned a compound.
In fact my first day hunting will be Tuesday, as deer season here in NY opens on that day October 1st!

[MCNSC]

I had an Indian archery bow as a kid. It was my constant companion. In the late seventies I decider I wanted to bow hunt and went to the only archery shop I knew about. After looking around at all the compounds I asked the owner if he had any recurves. He didn't and told me " bow hunting is hard enough with a compound, you don't want a recurve" he sold me a compound I hundred with them and shot 3d, really enjoyed them but always stayed with the basics, shot fingers and low let off bows, could not shoot the high let off short bows with fingers.
 Then one day I saw a recurve in the newspaper classifieds that was around 1995 bought it and after shooting it on and off for a couple of years I decided. I was shooting it good enough to kill a deer with it. My plan was to kill one deer with a recurve that took me a couple of years to accomplish. But I never looked back and never have hunted with a compound since. Heck I have lost track of time, but it has been around 20 years or so.

[ChiefStingingArrow]

When I was a kid I was looking for a book on Indian lore, Camping, survival, etc. When my eyes fell on a book called "Hunting the Hard Way."

Ever since I read that book I became trad only!!!

[ISP 5353]

My Grandfather bought me a little yellow fiberglass bow when I was about 6 years old.  That triggered my love of archery and hunting grew from that!

Thanks Pap!  I still miss hunting with you every year.

[VictoryHunter]

This is great stuff guys! Everyone thanks for sharing your stories so far. Let's keep em' comin!

[reddogge]

My parents gave me a Ben Pearson lemwood longbow, arrows, back quiver and paper target in 1955 for Christmas after I bugged them to death. I was 11. Many Robin Hood movies were out and also the movie Ivanhoe. I staked the target to the hill across the alley and shot through my yard, through the gate, across the alley into the target. The arrows would fall out of the quiver when you bent over and would rattle loudly when you put them back in, kind of a hollow sound. Probably why I never liked back quivers. After a while the arrows became unmatched, missing feathers, some shorter than others and some were unmatching replacements. Oh what fun in those days.

I've never been without a bow since then.

[GreyGoose]

My Cub Scout Den Mother's husband filled in for her at one meeting, strung a hickory selfbow up, made an arrow from a branch of some sort, and proceeded to ding a paint can. I was hooked.  I knew my folks would never let me hunt with a gun (well, at least not for a couple of years, which was the same as never then!), but figured they couldn't stop me from making and shooting bows and arrows.

No hickory was safe on the farm for the next year or so.  Finally, for my 10th birthday they bought me a red Bear fiberglass recurve kit at the local hardware store.  Honest to goodness, I strung it backwards for a couple of months thinking it was a longbow (I eventually learned to read instructions).

[caligator]

I've been hunting with a compound for the past 25 years. My buddy asked me to a Tradshoot last August and then the Florida State shoot in Feburary. He let me shoot his Treadway and then let me take it home and continue shooting. Well I've been bitten by the trad bug.  Shoot pretty much everyday. Really looking forward to harvesting some game this year, or at least scaring them!!!

[30coupe]

I think I was 7 or 8 when my folks gave me a little lemonwood recurve bow. My grandson still shoots it, though it has taken quite a bit of set over the years. As a freshman in high school shop class, I built a fiberglass/maple laminated recurve bow. I used a piece of walnut my grandfather had cut and cured as the riser. I still have that one and it still shoots pretty well. It has that ugly light green fiberglass that some of the Bear bows had. I had taken the day off from school to help with field work at home (an excused absence back in the 60s) on the day the bow stuff arrived. When I got back the next day, the dark green and black glass had all been scooped up by others, so I was stuck. I think there were 10 or 12 bows made in that class, and to my knowledge mine is the only one that hasn't come apart! One broke the day we test fired them on the football field!

I always wanted a Bear bow. Several of my buddies had them, but I couldn't afford one at the time, so I bought a brand new Herter's Model Perfection 56" 50# recurve with the dark green glass and a dark wood riser (shedua or goncalo alves I think). My eldest son has that one now.

I kind of fell out of bow hunting and hunting altogether for several years due to knee problems. In 2002, I had a total knee replacement. Once I could walk without pain again, I got the itch to get back to bow hunting. I bought a compound at a garage sale, bought some carbon express arrows and a release. I shot it maybe a dozen times and hated it! I took it to my cousin, who had been trad to compound and back to trad. He said, "I know why you aren't comfortable with it. You are used to shooting traditional." He loaned me his Bear Grizzly and I was hooked all over again. I think that was 2005 or 2006. I bought a Mahaska longbow and killed my first deer with it that fall. Several deer and lots of bows later, I still love it. As long as I am able, I will be a traditional bow hunter.

[30coupe]

I think I was 7 or 8 when my folks gave me a little lemonwood recurve bow. My grandson still shoots it, though it has taken quite a bit of set over the years. As a freshman in high school shop class, I built a fiberglass/maple laminated recurve bow. I used a piece of walnut my grandfather had cut and cured as the riser. I still have that one and it still shoots pretty well. It has that ugly light green fiberglass that some of the Bear bows had. I had taken the day off from school to help with field work at home (an excused absence back in the 60s) on the day the bow stuff arrived. When I got back the next day, the dark green and black glass had all been scooped up by others, so I was stuck. I think there were 10 or 12 bows made in that class, and to my knowledge mine is the only one that hasn't come apart! One broke the day we test fired them on the football field!

I always wanted a Bear bow. Several of my buddies had them, but I couldn't afford one at the time, so I bought a brand new Herter's Model Perfection 56" 50# recurve with the dark green glass and a dark wood riser (shedua or goncalo alves I think). My eldest son has that one now.

I kind of fell out of bow hunting and hunting altogether for several years due to knee problems. In 2002, I had a total knee replacement. Once I could walk without pain again, I got the itch to get back to bow hunting. I bought a compound at a garage sale, bought some carbon express arrows and a release. I shot it maybe a dozen times and hated it! I took it to my cousin, who had been trad to compound and back to trad. He said, "I know why you aren't comfortable with it. You are used to shooting traditional." He loaned me his Bear Grizzly and I was hooked all over again. I think that was 2005 or 2006. I bought a Mahaska longbow and killed my first deer with it that fall. Several deer and lots of bows later, I still love it. As long as I am able, I will be a traditional bow hunter.

[Centex]

Five years ago I moved back to Texas and got the itch to hunt again.  Used my rifle to shoot a doe my first year back.  While I enjoyed the meat, I did not enjoy the hunt.  The following year I switched to a compound and had a blast and took a small buck.  I am a gear junky and compounds have too many add-ons and gadgets for my wallet, so I switched to trad thinking I would save money.  Wrong, now my money is in arrows.  I decided to switch to solely trad and have not looked back.  TG has provided me with the opportunity to meet some great mentors like Green and Bisch

[B2]

I had one of the best dads a kid could ask for! He never converted over to a compound like most of his friends, and so when I came along longbows and recurves were all I knew.  I'm only 31 now and have been shooting with a stick and string for about 30 of those years.  I grew up in SE Idaho so my dad and I spent a lot of time chasing elk and mule deer every September.  I'm very fortunate to have a dad like I did and I will always take an opportunity to introduce kids to archery and the outdoors.

[paoliguy]

My Dad was a chaplain in the National Guard. They trained in Grayling MI in the 60's. Part of his job was to work with local churches and do a little PR for the base with the local folks I suppose. Somewhere in there he met people who were employees at Bear Archery and he was hooked. He got me started with a Darton Ranger in the early 70's ( I still have it). I drifted to compounds for a while but it never had the feel of true acrhery to me, I'm back to nothing but trad now. I'm probably too old and contrary to change so guess I'm staying right here!

[Bladepeek]

I got a 45# fiberglass recurve for Christmas in high school. My buddy and I shot nearly every day with no instruction except what we'd seen on various hunting shows (and back then, there weren't many).

After a stint in the Detroit Police Dept, (where my day job and dating didn't leave any time for archery), then 10 years in the Army and another 20 years bouncing back and forth between Germany and the US as an engineer with Motorola, I retired back in Michigan.

I still had that old fiberglass bow, so I got a new string for it. That led to a new recurve and my first Trad buck. 5 years later, here I am with way too many bows and loving it