Do you remember your first bow?

[degabe]

My first bow was a Native American horse bow made for my Dad when he was a kid. As far as I know the bow is about 80 years old. It has been a wall hanger for the last 40 years because I'm afraid it will break.

[JamesV]

My first bow was made from Moma's shade stick I took from the living room. My first real hunting bow was a Ben Pearson green fiberglass takedown, came apart in the handle. My cousin still has that bow.

[Sam McMichael]

It was a Ben Pearson Gamester at 45# that I got in 1969 or thereabouts. I killed my first deer with it. I still have that little bow and hope some day that my grandson will hunt with it.

[katman]

For me an old bear longbow 52@28 passed down to me by my uncle late 70's, thanks Uncle Ben. After 2 years of practice I hunted deer for the first time in 1980 in Michigan and was fortunate enough to harvest a 120# doe on my second sit with that bow, I watched her fall. Still can visualize that hunt like it was yesterday and see the sun setting over the hill top. I was hooked for life. Passed that bow on to a younger cousin.

[oldbohntr]

I was 6 or 7. My Grandpa, who I idolized bought me a little red wood bow with several arrows, some with broadheads.  Before we visited so he could give it to me, he shot a rabbit in his garden with it. He wasn't a bowhunter, but he was the kind of hero who could pull that off!  Grandma and Mom scolded him and made him put those "dangerous" broadhead arrows away before I could damage something with them! (he did show them to me!)  He fell over dead when I was 10, so this was before 1956! The bow and arrows disappeared then.

I became a broadhead collector in 1976.  I've often wondered since about those broadheads, which have appeared in my dreams as the rarest of the rare!!  In the late 80s, I was living in Michigan and acting as the family caregiver for my Grandma in Ohio.  As we cleaned out her very old home before it was sold, I crawled every inch of that crawl space and attic and searched EVERY millimeter where that old stuff might have been!  
Even digging in the dirt floor of the crawl space hoping it somehow was covered by a service guy or something!

Thanks for the memories!

[Greyswampfox]

A 40# Indian Archery Senaca.  I bought it new at a flea market for  $12 when I was 11.   Still have it as a wall hanger.

[WAC]

An old man by the name of Don Grey mentored my dad as a budding gun smith and maker of fine muzzle loaders. Don's son's where older than me and I inherited much of their outdoor gear. When I was 9yrs old Don gave me a 52" lemon wood long bow that pulled 32lbs. That was in 1969. I shot that bow a million times and terrorized every living thing within walking distance of my home.

[ldhayes]

I love hearing all these stories and reminiscing with everyone. Back when I started (late 60's) I didn't know anyone that hunted with a bow. My Dad had always deer hunted with a shotgun. He took up archery so I could deer hunt. Back then you had to be 14 to hunt deer with a gun in Michigan but you could hunt with a bow at 12. Although my Dad only hunted with a bow for a few years it was because he took the time to learn enough to get me started with a bow at an early age that I've had a lifelong love affair with a stick & string. I sure miss & cherish those early years.

[ksbowman]

First was a Flexsteel, fiberglass limbs and steel riser. It didn't last long, Next was a Pearson Renegade, 46# and my first quarry was rabbits and rats. Really gave those rats hell at the local quail farm. Spent a lot of Saturdays shooting those rascals. Got the Renegade from Doug Kittridge's Bow Hut in the early 70's. Those were the days!

[cahaba]

My first was a Jerry Hill longbow.

[Blueridge]

1962 7 yrs old yellow/white fiberglass bow that I still have. I shot at everything . My first serious bow was 1972 Bear Kodiak Hunter shot it till it broke in 1985.

[Gav]

Yep, I do. It was a Bear "Golden Bear" fiberglass 30# recurve. The limb tip broke and I filed new string grooves but it didn't shoot well any more. Mom threw it away. I caught one on **** to keep around for anyone who wanted to shoot but I have  not strung it up in years as others have taken its place.

[William F. Adams]

Bear Archery Little Bear 20#@24" --- Christmas '76 when I was 10. Sadly, it and the Bear Grizzly I traded for went missing, but I replaced the Little Bear when my son became interested in archery.

Still looking for a 56" 30#@28" Bear Grizzly at a price I can sneak past the finance committee --- probably it'll be the next thing I save up for after I get my 3D printer up and running.

[Hackbow]

Shakespeare solid glass B1 Hunter. My Grandparents gave it to my father sometime in the mid-late '50's and he said he played around with it a bit, but nothing serious.

I'd always admired it and one day asked Dad if I could use it. He gave it to me with the understanding I'd be responsible. After shooting it over and over again, and after killing my first deer with a gun at 14, I decided to hunt deer with that bow at 15. I never killed anything (except for a robin, but that's another story) with that bow. I still have it and am seriously thinking it needs to go hunting again.

[1flyfish]

My first bow was a solid fiberglass kids bow about 20 something pounds.Shot that all my childhood and then moved up to a Bear Minuteman when I started to deer hunt,Great memories,love to do it all over again.

[Danny Rowan]

1960 when I was 10 years old. Green fiberglass Ben Pearson, 45#, killed a bunch of rabbits and such with it, then a couple of years later got a 55# Ben Pearson Ol Ben longbow, killed my first deer with it in 1965.

[Randy Koleno]

My first "real" bow was a Herter's recurve bought at a yard sale around 30 years ago for $20. I broke it while stringing it (step through). I was not happy.

 I replaced it with a ($25) 50lb Kodiak Mag. That bow survived me, being handed down to 2 or 3 brothers, and made it's way back to me earlier this year.

[4dogs]

1961 Bear Red Fox. We lived very close to the Indiana Michigan line. My dad took me to see Mr Bear a few times after that but on this visit Mr Fred handed me my first real bow. I still have it and the stories that little bow could tell. Its still very shootable and is working on training the third generation (my grandkids)

[Bud B.]

First bows - one red fiberglass Bear and a tan Ben Pearson Jet fiberglass. Both set up with moulded black RH handles    :mad:  Around 1971.


First "real" bow was a LH mid 70's Bear Super Grizzly bought with money earned working in the tobacco fields.

[Stixbowdrew]

Ben Pearson bronco