Is There A Person That Got You Started In Archery?

[Whitetail Addict]

I always had a special bond with my Grandfather. I have a lot of good memories of times spent with him hunting, fishing and trapping, along with all the other things we shared. He's the one that got me into traditional archery somewhere around the age of 5.

My grandfather loved to hunt, but he never bow hunted. In fact, he always thought the whole idea was a little foolish. Why shoot at deer with sticks, when you can shoot them with a rifle?

I was infatuated with the bow and arrow from as far back as I can remember, and my Grandfather did his best to keep me in both. I didn't even realize it at the time, but looking back, he'd spend hours at a time making me bows from branches, cutting shoots, and fletching them with whatever feathers he could come up with.

I don't think he knew anything about making bows, and a lot of the time they were just a cut green branch with string grooves cut into them, and a piece of leather for a grip. They didn't last long before they took so much set that they were next to useless, but he'd make me another, then another.

I have no idea how many arrows he must have made for me, but it had to have been a LOT. I don't remember breaking any, but I do remember spending a lot of time looking for them.

My first kill, a starling, was made with one of those little bows, and my Grandfather's arrows. I shot it out of the lilac bush behind his house.

I guess after a while, he realized that archery wasn't just a passing fad with me, so he took me to a store and bought me a little fiberglass recurve, and some arrows. The starlings and red squirrels were in trouble then.

Kills were few and far between, but I hunted every chance I had, and I started to learn some things about hunting, that have served me well over the years.

A few years later, my Dad went to work for a company that made sporting equipment. They made bows too, and Dad took over the job of keeping me in archery tackle.

For Christmas the first year he worked there, I got a glass backed recurve, some fiberglass arrows with practice points, and a target. I was in the big league then.

I killed my first real game with that recurve, a cottontail rabbit, at nine or ten years old, and I couldn't have been more proud.

I've been bowhunting ever since my Grandfather made me my first bow, and those shoot arrows so many years ago. I'll always be grateful to him for spending what I've realized since, was a lot of time and no small amount of work, to fuel what became a lifelong passion with me.

Now I have two Grandsons of my own. I made them their first little bows from branches, and their first arrows from shoots. They're a little bigger now, so I've got them shooting the little fiberglass recurve that my Grandfather gave me.

They love archery, and I hope that if I keep them in bows and arrows, that love will turn into a lifelong passion like it has with me.

Bob

[bowheadhunter]

My dad and farmer friends with recurves by Bear and plyflex I believe that name of recurve was called of my dads,

[Zbone]

"Is There A Person That Got You Started In Archery?"

Fred Bear videos Saturday morning programing on TV as a kid during the 60's lit the fire and my uncle bought me a 25# Jet Bow for Christmas around 1967...

[Phillip Fields]

I got started on my own.

[Sean B]

Believe it or not, archery in gym class is what really pushed me over the edge. My dad and grandfather got me interested in the outdoors at a very young age. Dad dint bow hunt, be he had friends who did. I remember looking through thier magazines and seeing cool hero pics with thier recurves. I esp loved the bows with limb covers!!  Then in school I got to fling some arrows in gym class. That was it? Dad gave me a fiberglass Stemler recurve when I was about 10.

[Archie]

It was Dad who got us boys into archery.  I didn't take to it as well as a kid, but just about the time Dad passed away, I really started to embrace traditional shooting.  That was in 2007.

I just shot a 3D course yesterday and several times found myself wondering what it would have been like to shoot one with Dad.  I never did.  I loosed a few nice shots during the day and followed several of them up with the thought, "Dad would have been proud of that one."

[Pat B]

Jay Massey for me. Not him personally but from his books. I got "Primitive Archery" and "The Bowyers Craft" from him directly and both signed to me by him.

[BOWMARKS]

Not into archery but into TRADITIONAL ARCHERY        
I had been in a auto accident a couple years earlier and was now stuck in a wheelchair . I had been out of wheely shooting for about 5 years: one day I decided to try to shoot a bow again so we went to the nearest archery shop around. Well the guys there got me a bow I could handle I went out to the range and found I could not draw a compound back without hitting the chair.
Well on the way out I spotted a old gentleman shooting the strangest looking bow I had ever seen I stopped and watched him for a while the started to chat with him he told me about the bow a Saluki horse bow. He offered to let me shoot
I found that this also hit the chair but he spoke right up and old me to "cant" the bow. Well I had never heard of canting the bow. I gave it a try and started my new life in archery :
Well I went home with Lukas Novatnys phone number and ordered the first of several Salukis that I would own.
I will say it has been a lot of fun learning the art of traditional archery and will never forget my new found friend and mentor Mr Frank King      

[monterey]

My dad.

[Michael Arnette]

I got started on my own but had all my help from a great guy named Steve Lamb.

[Whitetail Addict]

Thanks for the responses so far. I'm looking forward to hearing more.

Bob

[M60gunner]

Mostly on my own because I was urban hunting rabbits. That was age 12. Then when I watched the Fred Bear movies a few years later in High School I got hooked. Our library had a copy of Howard Hill book which I read twice. Even tried to make arrows with dowels and pins and feathers from dime store.

[LBR]

My dad helped me with my first (homemade) bow, although he never bow hunted.  Then my uncle loaned me an ancient wheel bow that I shot  until I'd lost all of his arrows...

Got into handguns as a teen, didn't get back into archery at all until my early 20's.  Started shooting wheels with a friend.  Enjoyed it, but never got addicted.

One day that same friend comes over with a couple of fiberglass recurves he'd found at a flea market and it was on.  Neither of us had a clue as to what we were doing, but we were having a blast doing it.  Started making strings shortly after that, thanks to the help of another friend I'd gotten re-acquainted with (we'd gone to school together, but after graduation didn't keep in touch).

Still having a blast.

[bowberry]

Thank you Dad for taking me hunting.I shot my first deer with a gun when I was 11.
During the late 70's and early 80's the compound thing was in full swing.My dad and all my uncles (Dave,Ken,Al and Chip) all had wheel bows.But uncle Paul had a recurve. How light, how simple, beautiful curves and clean lines, how COOL !! I was hooked and he was my hero.

One of my uncles gave me a fiberglass long bow and I started shooting. Shortly after someone gave me a nice recurve.Dad bought me a dozen aluminum arrows and I got seriouse. I shot every spare moment all that year.

The following fall uncle Dave picked me up after school and put me in a pine tree 8 feet up on a limb (before treestands were legal). Just before dark a nice doe came out and all that practice paid off.I was 16 years old.

The next year I got my drivers licence. I also discovered girls and beer (distractions). Then the army, marraige, new mexico, South Carolina, Maine ,back to south Carolina,Maine, children, divorce, child support,work work work, re married,new baby boy, farm life, raising goats.As of last summer I hadn't held a bow or loosed an arrow in over thirty years.

In october my uncle Dave calls me. He's all excited because he bought a cross bow. (in Maine if your over 70 you can use a crossbow during archery season)He starts going on about the expanded archery areas in our state where you can shoot as many does as you want! Dang, I forgot we had that.I have a pretty good average of having a deer(with a gun) in the freezer almost every year, but only one. Thats the law.Imagine having two, or three,four,five.Holy crap I need a bow! Only an idiot would raise goats for meat if instead you could harvest as many deer as you wanted.(goats suck, don't ever get a goat).

 I probably would have gotton a wheel bow but when I went to work the next monday I found a trad archery book.Don thomas I think his name is. He sneakes up behind grizzly bears and pokes them with an arrow( he aint right) Needless to say I was hooked again thirty years later by the beautiful curves and the clean lines, the simple raw power of the stick and the string.

That was 10 months ago. Now I'm shooting wooden arrows out of a selfwood long bow every spare moment of every day. Not to brag, but I'm absolutly deadly under 15 yards and pretty freaking scary out to 25.I can't wait untill opening day!! All thanks to my dad, all my uncles, Don thomas and all the kindred spirits I'm meeting here on trad gang.
Thanks again to all of you and I wish you all the best of luck this coming season.
Scott.

[KyStickbow]

I basically got started in archery on my own. No one in my family bowhunted....or hunted period for that matter. So glad I discovered the world of archery though...I couldnt imagine life without it!

[COMPOUNDLESS IN CONCRETE]

It was my dad, even though he was a rifle hunter and was never interested in archery.  I remember being in the woods with my dad and finding an aluminum arrow and broadhead that a hunter had probably shot at a deer and missed with.  My dad took the broadhead off and I carried that arrow all day hiking.  When we got home, he helped me make a bow out of a tree limb with some twine for a string. It wouldn't fly straight with no tip, so he wrapped a bunch of electrical tape around the end so it would at least fly somewhat straight.  

I got a Ben Pearson fiberglass recurve from a garage sale when I was about 10 or 12, the one that looked like a bar of Irish Spring soap and had no arrow shelf, and played with that for years.  I knew nothing about archery, so I would just buy aluminum arrows from Kmart that had feather fletching.  

I'm only 35, but what I wouldn't give to be that age again for a day...running the woods and river bottom flinging arrows.

[ksbowman]

My two nephews that have both passed away. They were my favorite nephews. I'll always remember those wonderful boys for getting their uncle Ben started in archery.

[TaterHill Archer]

My brother.  He never really shot trad, but he did make a self bow once.  We shot compounds together for years.  I got the trad bug and haven't looked back.

[Sam McMichael]

Sgt. Mel Morrow got me started in 1959 at Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi where my dad was stationed. He ran the base archery range. His son, Mike, and my sister were friends, and he invited her to give archery a try. They let me tag along. I was 10 years old at the time.

[Mjolnir]

My dad. He grew up shooting a wheel bow and switched to traditional when I was a baby. He taught me to shoot on a green fiberglass recurve when I was 5 or 6. Then I switched to a 35lbs bear. We shot several 3d tournaments when I was 8-12. Around my twelfth birthday he ordered a Damon Howatt 50lbs black mamba for me. It came from the factory with my name on the riser. We moved to KY from MA and shortly after we stopped shooting.

Over the intervening 21 years I killed a lot of deer with rifles and missed shooting. I took the black mamba out, bought some arrows and a target a shot. I was still fairly decent. Last year I upgraded to a bob lee take down recurve, 70lbs at 28" and got ready for bow season. I killed my first archery deer with it last year. Dad has started shooting again too. Hopefully we'll both fill tags this year.

Last year I picked up a little green fiberglass bow and taught my then 6 year old daughter to shoot.