How did you get started?

[Rob W.]

After many years of hunting and 3D shooting with a compound I developed a very bad case of target panic. I couldn't pick my pin up on a target. I debated shooting without sights but decided if I was going to do that I might as well give trad a go.

That was about 7 years ago and I'm so glad it happened.    

Rob

[VictoryHunter]

[WRV]

I got a red fiberglass recurve for Christmas when I was ten have been hooked ever since.......

[WRV]

I got a red fiberglass recurve for Christmas when I was ten have been hooked ever since.......

[kbetts]

Been shooting bows since I was old enough to cut down and string a sapling.  Around 13 I got my first wheel bow and shot them into my 20's.  I became mystified by trad bows and picked one up and promptly missed a couple of critters and put it back down since I knew I wasn't ready.  About five years ago a local guy mentioned he had an MA II that he could no longer shoot.  After some practice and the constant doubt of my buddies, I carried it to the turkey woods on opening day the same year and arrowed my first bird after less than an hour.  I've been hopelessly hooked ever since.

I have to add that the people I've met since then has just fueled the fire.  I visited Selfbow19953 a week ago and realized I still have a long journey ahead.  You don't find these kind of individuals doing anything else.

[JDunlap]

My brother bought me a red, white, and blue recurve about 40yrs ago -- for my birthday or something. I think it was some sort of Bear with a metal riser and fiberglass limbs -- if anyone remembers those bows, I would be interested in knowing what it was. A few yrs later, at about 12yrs old, he took me hunting at Camp Gruber in Muskogee county. He took me in the woods to a side of a hill by a tree and said, "sit here"! He walked off and found his own place. That was my introduction!

[jrbows]

Started when I was 3 or 4 shooting my dad's discarded 45# grizzly stung backwards after being told if you can string it you can shoot it. 20 years later had recently gotten out of the Army and found the grizzly in an out-building and took it in the back yard shooting at a pepsi can, I didn't know it stacked or I torqued the bow or I was completely shooting the wrong arrow but it was fun and it did work sometimes, about the only thing I had right at the time was how the string was on. I have since lost my mind and have roughly a building full of bows  and no explanation for how this stick-bow thing works but it still does and it's still fun.

[dnovo]

My brother carved out a bow from a hickory sapling and it had baling twine for a string. I was 5 years old and I have been shooting ever since. That was 1962. My uncle gave me a little red fiberglass bow when I was about 8. At 14 my mom bought me a Shakespeare Necedah. Look out squirrels and groundhogs. This was all when it was just archery. I was young and foolish and bought a pse compound in 1977 and sold it in 1980 to start with a Howard Hill longbow.  I have been shooting a longbow since then.  Archery and bow hunting are my life

[LongStick64]

Errol Flynn - Robin Hood watched it every time as a kid. Tried to make my own bow and arrows out of anything I could, used to beg my Mom to buy my arrows and deer targets from the local HW store. I would drool over the recurves in the shop. It lit a fire that never went out.

[Hoyt]

I got an Indian Archery bow for my birthday in 1955..all I remember for sure is it was red and my older brother broke it.

[LB_hntr]

Great thread!!!! Also great stories...love reading this stuff.

I bought a compound at a gun and knife show. 2 weeks later I killed a doe on the second day of deer season. I thought that was way to easy and wanted more of a challenge. So 2 weeks later I had my first trad bow a Martin mamba recurve. Never touched a compound again starting the day the recurve showed up at my door. That was over 20 years ago. Took me 3 years to connect on a deer with trad gear. But that recurve and its mistery, simplicity, and seduction had me hook, line and sinker from the second I shot it.

[woodchucker]

My Grandpa used to make me bows when I was little & I would chase the rabbits around the yard & the small woods beside the house.

My 1st REAL bow, was a solid glass "Red Bear" I got for Christmas back in 1966 or '67..... I made my 1st "Traditional kill" with that bow & a WAY overspined Bear cedar arrow tipped with a Bear razorhead.

My friend  and I were "hunting" one day... He had a BB gun & I had my bow. He shot a squirrel, and it ran and started climbing a tree. I flung an arrow at it & actualy managed to hit it... I pinned him right to the tree!!! I never had much use for BB guns, after that!!!

My Ma took alot of pictures of me & that squirrel. I wish I still had one.....

[Fattony77]

Originally posted by JDunlap:
A few yrs later, at about 12yrs old, he took me hunting at Camp Gruber in Muskogee county. He took me in the woods to a side of a hill by a tree and said, "sit here"! He walked off and found his own place. That was my introduction!

That is one of my favorite places in the world! Seen a lot of cool stuff out there in a short hunting "career." Also the first place I started learning to hunt (with zero guidance, though).

Loving this thread.    

[ChuckC]

As a child growing up in a big city, guns were pretty much out.  But the neighbors kids had fiberglass bows and we used them a bunch.  

My genetic father died before I was 5 and I really never knew him.  Found out later that he used to deer (gun) hunt once in a while.  My step-father never hunted and I had no father-like mentor at all, just my own need and desire to be out in the woods.  Outdoor shows and Fred Bear had a lot to do with opening my eyes.

Been shooting since I was young, but bought myself a real (Damon Howatt Coronado) bow when I was 15 or 16.  I loved that bow.  Been shooting arrows and learning since then.  

Once the family moved down-state, I met up with and became friends with a fella in my high school whose father hunted and fished constantly.  I was "adopted" into that life style and I have used a bow for hunting ever since.

ChuckC

[akdd]

My journey was a gradual one. I rifle hunted for 40+ years and then I shot a compound bow for about three years. Then about 5 years ago I was in Montana visiting and I stopped by Dan Toelke's shop and when I left I had placed an order for a Whip. Have not shot the compound since then.

[CRB]

I started in early-mid 70's, use to watch the Fred Bear show on TV and that got me fired up. Dad had a Bear bow that I started with, cant remember what model. Finally turned old enough to hunt in 1977 and the third evening out shot a three pt. Hooked ever since.

[Easykeeper]

I developed an interest in archery as a kid when I got my first bow as a gift when I was six or seven.  A little solid fiber glass bow like most kids had back in the 60's.  When I got a little older I shoveled walks and mowed lawns to save money for my first "real" bow, a 30# Pearson recuve.  Pretty little bow and probably around 25# at my draw length.  I built a hunting weight recurve using Bingham supplies in High School wood shop, a very popular project back then.  It came in at 45# when I was done but unfortunately it was stolen.

I was not a deer hunter back then even though I was involved in archery as a hobby.  My Dad taught me how to hunt and was my hunting partner from before I could even shoot.  Dad was not a deer hunter since he didn't like venison but he was crazy about hunting ducks and grouse...so that's what I grew up on.  He used to carry me in a back pack when he went grouse hunting and even took me duck hunting when I was really little if the weather wasn't too harsh.  I developed an interest in deer hunting as an adult so I am completely self taught, which probably explains a lot of my early (and present) mistakes...lol.

I have always had some kind of stickbow, I've come to know I'm a recurve guy but I have had several types of longbows and like them too.  I also like compounds and have done a lot of shooting and hunting with them.  Even though I rarely shoot a compound any more I still have one tuned up and hanging on the wall.  I'm almost exclusively traditional these days for both hunting and target shooting.  There is just something about the beauty and simplicity of a nice stickbow that is missing from compounds.  That's been magnified over the last fifteen years or so as I have accumulated some of the premier bows like Blacktails, Silvertips, Dale Dye's...it's a long list.  Comparing any of them to a compound, at least aesthetically, is like comparing a fine single malt scotch to a plastic jug of cheap hooch.  That said, to me it's all archery.  As long as it's vertical, you pulled it back and held it with your own muscles...we are brothers.

[Sean B]

When I was a kid in the early to md 70's, I remember going with my dad to his friends house.  They were all deer hunters.  I remember seeing a recurve hung up in the basement with arrows tucked here and there.  It seemed like back then, guys bow hunted for the extra tag.  I was fascinated by it.  I can also remember looking at the magazines at the time; Bowhunter and Bow and Arrow mags....at that time, there were still a lot of guys who hadn't switched over to a compound yet.

We had archery in my school during Phys Ed.  I thought it was the greatest thing!!  Late 70's dad bought me a Jennings Compound.  My dad didn't bowhunt, but his buddy had the archery shop in town.  He set me up.  About 90, I saw a hunting video "Whitetail Eye to Eye" with Alan Altizer.  In one of his hunts, he killed a buck with a Black Widow.  I thought that was the coolest thing. I knew a friend of mine had a Hoyt Huntmaster TD recurve.  I traded him a Loggy Bayou Hang-on Lite tree stand for it. It was true love!!!!! I shot and hunted with both till the early 2000's then went all trad.   I learned from trial and error.  It was a great ride!!!

[Retnuh Wob]

I grew up in the city, but fortunately we had a cabin in the country that my grandfather built about an hour and a half away. All I wanted to do as kid was go down there, hunt and fish. Slingshot, BB gun, .22, shotgun, rifle was used to chase just about everything that could even remotely considered game. I had a longbow at one point and got to the point that I could hit a tin can at 10-15 yds. every once in a while but never really hunted with it.  A couple of decades later I pick up a compound bow and got fairly accurate with it, but never manage to get out hunting with it.

I've hunted waterfowl most of my adult life. I always wanted to get into deer hunting, but just never seemed to get around to it. A couple of years ago a friend of mine and I horse packed into the Sierras and by blind circumstances a small Mule Deer buck wandered by camp on opening morning and I shot it. That got me all faired up for deer hunting and I broke out my old compound and started practicing so I could would have a longer season to deer hunt.

Whenever i get into something I'm interested in I get pretty intense about it. I started going on line and Goggling every subject I could related to archery hunting deer. I stumbled across some videos put out by Greyarcher, Byron Ferguson, Rick Welch and other who were instinct shooting and hitting what I thought were ridiculously small targets. I was intrigued by that and started shooting an old Indian Seneca recurve bow I had traded for some duck decoys years before. I began buying bows on Craigslist and the Internet and haven't shot a recurve since.

I haven't drawn blood on anything with a bow yet, but I have had the privilege of getting close to some real nice bucks.

[JAG]

Like alot of others I started out with an old bear bow, as a kid.  Didn't hunt much with it, but figured out a homemade bowfishing rig.  Spool was a big tuna can, string was nylon cord, and modified fish arrows.  Didn't kill a lot, but the fish in the farm pond were scared!
Gun hunted for deer  in my youth.  Then the archery bug got back in my blood.  Shot a wheelie for several years.  Had a room full of trophies and ribbons, from 3 D shoots.  Several critters on the pole, but wasn't what I wanted.
A group of us hunted on the Tombigbee River for years.  It was a bow only area.  One day we all met up for dinner, then started roving and stump shooting.  I was the only one in our camp with a wheelie.  They were having so much fun, that I tried it with my bow.  A few ruined arrows later, I knew I couldn't comepte with their sticks!
At the last hunt of that year, a friend suggested I get a stick.  So I was hooked.  
Sterling said he would build me a bow and I could practice and hunt with it the next season.  Well things changed and he couldn't build me a bow.  I sure was disapointed, until he came out of the Teepee with an Osage Selfbow, that belonged to him.  Its name was "Horse".  He put it in my hands and told me to learn!  Everyone says that was the first time to see me without something to say.  Been hooked ever since. Took my first trad deer with it that next season.
Sterling and Russ, another friend, provided me with an Osage stave, and a bunch of advice and mentoring, and I got my first Charcter/Spirit selfbow built.  Now you won't see me without that ole crooked stick and a quiver full of river cane, when I head to the River.
I owe much to these two fellows for guidence and friendship over the years.  They really lit the fire.
Johnny/JAG