Another question for you "Old Timers"

[hawkeye n pa]

First bow bought at a drug store.  Clothing from Sears or Montgomery Wards, a lot of it made by Ideal.  Boots from JC Penneys.  Arrows from Kmart.  Then found out about Feline Archery, they got a lot of money!

[BigErn]

Originally posted by Jmatt1957:
Only one place for me HERTERS. I would wear ther cataloge out.

I couldn't wait to get a Herters catalog,
 we made and sold fishing jigs,we ordered bucktails
from them.I was tying jigs when i was 10yrs old.We got most of our hunting and fishing stuff from them.
                                Ernie

[R. W. Mackey]

I was 10 years old when I got my first bow, it was 1960, my mom took me to the local hardware store, got a Ben Pearson
Solid glass kit bow.  There was a local Sporting Goods dealer
That handled Bear and Pearson equipment as I got older.
  The best catalogue was the Bow Hut owned by Doug Kittridge in California. I remember looking at it for hours on end, couldn't really afford anything, but he offered everything.
  As the 60's rolled into the 70's there were lots of small shops
Opening up. You could get whatever you wanted or I might add, whatever you could afford. But more than what they sold, they could give you shooting and hunting advice. Some of these guys had actually shot a deer with a bow, imagine that !!!

RW

[Danny Rowan]

first bow was from the local sporting goods, Ben Pearson Ol Ben was my first bow, saved up lawn mowing money for a spell to purchase it,  arrows were too expensive for a young'un so bought dowels from the hardware store and made my own, made my own trade points also, used wild turkey feathers to make my fletch, glued them on with elmers and used thread on each end, cut them down with scissors. Did not have anyone to teach me, but I learned. Killed a bunch of rabbits and small game with that bow and homemade arrows. That was 52 years ago.

[Sean B]

Herters seemed to be "go to" catalog back in the day!

[Stickbow Hunter]

I've been shooting the bow and arrow since 1962...50 yrs....guess I'm an "Oldtimer".....by your definition. Grew up here in Ohio in what used to be a small rural farming community. Our local plumber also ran a small archery shop located out back of his home. Back then there were little shops like that....there were clubs...and even a few indoor ranges. Of course when you associated with other archers/b owhunters some of them made arrows etc. Lot of information was shared that way. It was a great era to grow up in...late 50#s and the 60s. A kid could grab up their bow....out the door...down the street...round the corner and be bowhunting or just shooting their bow and arrow within ten minutes. If a kid tried that now....there would more than likely be problems. This world has changed a lot...even here in the good ole U.S.A. Along the Railroad tracks was "Bunny Heaven"....hunted them for miles along the tracks which were braids. Now you can't even walk on the Railroad tracks or you will be in trouble. Yep....I'm an "Oldtimer"

[Stickbow Hunter]

I've been shooting the bow and arrow since 1962...50 yrs....guess I'm an "Oldtimer".....by your definition. Grew up here in Ohio in what used to be a small rural farming community. Our local plumber also ran a small archery shop located out back of his home. Back then there were little shops like that....there were clubs...and even a few indoor ranges. Of course when you associated with other archers/b owhunters some of them made arrows etc. Lot of information was shared that way. It was a great era to grow up in...late 50#s and the 60s. A kid could grab up their bow....out the door...down the street...round the corner and be bowhunting or just shooting their bow and arrow within ten minutes. If a kid tried that now....there would more than likely be problems. This world has changed a lot...even here in the good ole U.S.A. Along the Railroad tracks was "Bunny Heaven"....hunted them for miles along the tracks which were braids. Now you can't even walk on the Railroad tracks or you will be in trouble. Yep....I'm an "Oldtimer"

[Stickbow Hunter]

Sorry bout the double post....and some of the spelling....if I don't check...this "smart" phone spells something different...lol

[Sean B]

Yep, stickbow hunter, it does!!!  

[Ron Vaughn]

I purchased my first bear recurve bow back in 1958 and began bowhunting the same year as well. The gentleman that helped me get started in archery that year, was a small Bear dealer in the rural community where I lived. He was able to get me all of the equipment that I needed. I remember going on my first big bow hunt in 1959 to the U.P. of Michigan. Because my friend was a Bear dealer, we stopped in Grayling, Michigan, on the way up to pickup some arrows at the Bear factory and got to meet Fred Bear. Didn't realize until some years later, what a big deal that was!

[Straitshot]

I started shooting on a consistent basis in 1968 after getting out of the service. I lived in San Antonio at the time and there was a large archery store there right next to an outdoor range that covered several acres. The name of the store was Gasmann's Archery and it was huge. The show room  had to be at least 100 feet long and 50 feet wide. One of the long walls was entirely filled with bows that hung vertically. They were all arranged by manufacturer. There were Bear, Ben Person, Damon Howatt, Groves, Wing, York, Shakespeare, Darton, Carroll, etc., and then there were used bows of all kinds. On the opposite wall was solid stacks of boxes of arrows. Many of them open to display the arrows and cylinder displays with lose arrow shafts and individual ready made arrows so you could purchase one at a time. In the middle of the room were rows that contained bens of lose field points and broadheads of every kind imaginable. There were also display cases with hunting knives and every kind of quiver made. All kinds of arrow making supplies and every archery accessory one could think of.

It was an amazing store, but I did not remain in San Antonio very long and moved within a couple of years after getting out of the service. The town I was from I moved back to and we had a couple of very nice sporting goods store there that had a fairly good selection of archery  supplies. Not nearly as good as Gasmann's in San Antonio but what they did not have you could mail order. There were a number of great archery magazines with advertisers you could order from and like others have stated there was always Herter's that had everything imaginable including their own line of bows.

I bought my Damon Howatt Super Diablo new from Gasmann's for $100 in 1970.

[Sam McMichael]

I bought my first bow at K-Mart, and got other supplies from hardware and mail order dealers. Also, I got some stuff through a couple of pro shops.

[Keuka]

I started serious shooting in the late sixties and early seventies. It may seen hard to believe but there were a lot of great bow shops back then. Those shops were archery shops rather than large department stores with archery departments like today. Honestly, the old time archery shops were very high quality and the owner operators knew their stuff.

[PeteA]

I've been hunting and shooting since 1976. Grew up on Long Island in NY. I started shooting a Ben Pearson Colt. It was one of  my Uncle Ed's. He was a my archer mentor and Bowhunters who started his archer career in the late 50's. In the 70s there where a couple places in my area that sold archery equipment. All traditional pretty much. Compounds were barely if at all available. Mohawk Archery on Sunrise Highway in Babylon and Hamptons Department Store in West Islip. I ordered my first recurve, a Bear Grizzly in about 1978 from Mohawk and paid about $70. I think it came with a dozen fiberglass arrows. About the early 80s our hunting group made the switch to compounds. I still have the the Colt, the Grizzly and my uncles bow, a 1960s Bear Kodiak Hunter.

[SERGIO VENNERI]

I am 68 and I "resemble all these remarks",Yuuup!

[Ron LaClair]

I got bit by the archery bug in 1942 at the tender age of 6years old. My Mother use to read to me at bedtime and one of those books was Robin Hood. My first bow was a little wooden bow probably hickory that came with three arrows with suction cups on a piece of cardboard. Then my Dad who could make anything made me a bow and I remember shooting cat tails out of it.

When I was nine I got my first "real" bow probably lemonwood from the catalog. That bow was my constant companion when I rode my pony Scout around the woods and fields of the farm.

One day when my folks went into town, while they were in a store I went in to a sporting goods store next door. I bought a single arrow probably made by Pearson that had a broadhead on it for fifty cents. When my Dad saw the arrow he marched me back in the store and chewed out the man for selling that to a 10 year old kid and made him give me my money back.

My next real bow I bought when I was 15 was a Par-X aluminum bow that I got at a second hand store. That bow lasted me until I bought a new 52# Bear Kodiak in 1955 from Van Devorts Sporting Goods store. That was the year I started deer hunting with a bow.

   

[Pine]

In the very early'60s , I wanted a bow so bad that I would pretend with my moms wire coat hangers .
My dad got me one of those green glass bows with the yellow tips and handle in 1962 .
It had a massive 25# draw weight and it was a full year before I could string it myself with the step threw method .
When I would break off a nock I would ride my bike to the little bait and tackle shop in town and the man there had new ones in a little draw on the wall .
By the time I was about 13 years old I got an old Bear Cub 36# @ 28 , that I paid $5 for and talked my dad into going deer hunting .
Got my first "MANs" bow when I was 17 , it was a beautiful 45# Kodiak Magnum .
Still had no descent place to get archery supplies , had to go to the big city to a Kreskies or Sears for that stuff .

[monterey]

Got my first bow in about '54.  It was a scaled down lemonwood flatbow at about 20# and identical to my dad's 60# bow. Mine died in the spokes of my bicycle!

Dad got me a solid glass bow as replacement and that served until my uncle gave me an aluminum bow when I was 16.  That was my all around shooter till '70 when I bought a new Ben Pearson at a Gem department store.  That was and still is the only new bow I've ever bought.  It has been traded around in the family many times and presently is owned by one of my son in laws.  

There are quite a few bows in the basement at this time, all bought second hand or built by myself.

We always made our own cedar arrows although I tried some aluminum and fiberglass for a while.  I played with a compound for a couple years in the 70's and shot cedar out of it too, much to the consternation of the other members of the league I shot in.

[redfish]

When I started shooting there was no one around that really knew anything.  One of the local hardware stores had some archery equipment. I bought my first bow(s) in Houston at Glenn Slade's.  They had their archery stuff on the second floor. I got a brand new Shakespeare Kaibab and an Ocala for $25 each.  That was about a week's take home pay for me then.
Arrows were bought by the "each" when I got enough money.  Didn't know anything about spine or matching weight and length.
A few years later I was stationed at Ft. Knox and bought a Bear Grizzly for $43 at a place in Louisville.

[finkm1]

I'm not an "old timer' but back when I was in high school in the early 80s, me and a buddy would drive about 15 miles south to Anderson Archery in Grand Ledge MI. They had everything. We were compound shooters then, but if I recall they sold recurves also. We would go out there about every other week and listen to Tom Nelsons stories. Every June they would have a big show called " The Bowhunters Clinic". All the big names were there, Fred Bear, Tom Jennings ect. I miss that store.