Your Trad Hunting Story

[DanielB89]

Just trying to get to know each  other a little more.  Would love to hear about how you got started in traditional archery as well as your favorite hunt or something like that. 

[John146]

My start into traditional bow hunting came about because of some hunts that went wrong early in my bow hunting journey. Those things that went wrong were failures and mishaps with my compound that had all the accessories of peep sights, pins, overdraw, release, etc. 

I was ground hunting public land and having some very close encounters with deer even though I did not know very much about what I was doing. The inability to draw and shoot quickly was why I switched. My first bow was a Martin X200 and in 1994 I got a Bob Lee Longbow and have been shooting that ever since. One thing I really do appreciate seeing is the flight of the arrow that I was not seeing looking through a peep sight. I will see if I can find an article about one of my favorite hunts.

[DanielB89]

My start into traditional bow hunting came about because of some hunts that went wrong early in my bow hunting journey. Those things that went wrong were failures and mishaps with my compound that had all the accessories of peep sights, pins, overdraw, release, etc. 

I was ground hunting public land and having some very close encounters with deer even though I did not know very much about what I was doing. The inability to draw and shoot quickly was why I switched. My first bow was a Martin X200 and in 1994 I got a Bob Lee Longbow and have been shooting that ever since. One thing I really do appreciate seeing is the flight of the arrow that I was not seeing looking through a peep sight. I will see if I can find an article about one of my favorite hunts.

Looking forward to it!!


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[John146]

One of my favorite hunts happened before I actually got to the spot I was headed for. I dropped down into Hurricane Creek on our lease in MS and had just cut over a point in the creek and gotten my feet back in the water when I heard crashing through brush ahead and to the left. All of a sudden, about 75 yards up the creek deer started dropping into the creek headed in my direction.

9 deer total and a big matriarchal doe leading the herd right at me. I squatted in the water as low as I could and with an arrow on the bow, stuck my lower limb in the water, mostly out of necessity to keep me steady. I had my head down peering out from under the bill of my cap. She kept closing the gap and I did not expect this to turn out well at all. At 20 yards she began looking a little more intently at the blob in the creek, at 10 yards she began to slow down and then walked nervously to 3 yards. I was looking at her hoofs at this point and in my peripheral vision all the other hooves coming at me.

It was at this point that she blew and bolted back in the direction she and the others had come. I raised my bow out of the water and put tension on the string hoping she would hesitate. She did just that. She slowed down and began to come to a stop and when she turned to look back broadside the arrow was already on its way. I will never, ever forget watching that orange fletched arrow crossing the 25 yard distance and hitting her right where I was looking. The arrow disappeared into her side and as she and all the others tore out of the creek and back up the bank I watch my arrow fall out the opposite side of her chest.

That all familiar "rush" hit me and I am at this point a useless bowl of jello! I stood there for probably 5 minutes taking in what had just happened. My heart and soul were sailing as I praised God for this encounter - a totally unexpected encounter! I guess that is why it stands out like it does in my mind when I remember my many hunts.

When I found her about 40 yards from the creek bank, I wondered why they came barreling down that bank into the creek. Did a coyote or bobcat scare them??... It didn't matter, what I did know was that my Father in heaven had everything to do with creating me and this deer that lay before me and I suspect He had something to do with them coming toward me as well. God knows I love to hunt, I love to shoot my bow and I LOVE bringing home the bacon (or venison!) And here I was again,  giving Jesus thanks for giving His life for me, this animals life to me and promising again to not waste one bit of this meat!

[Chumster]

Great story and hunt Todd!
I don't have anything close to that but here's my story.

Archery or what little I knew of it started for me back in my college days. You see, I was an avid water fowl hunter and knew absolutely nothing about archery, archery equipment or using it to hunt with at that time.
A friend and frat brother introduced me to and actually sold me my first bow, his Bear Super Kodiak Magnum. He probably even included some arrows in the deal, I don't recall, that would have been early 70's.

Now, I'm actually from Oklahoma and attended a small college in the northeastern part of the state. It was a mecca for those that enjoyed the outdoors, fishing, hunting or whatever. It was also during a time when access to hunting land was as easy as asking a land owner for permission. So, needless to say I had plenty of opportunities and places to hunt.

You ask about favorite hunts or something like that...................great Boeuf campfire conversation!!!

[jbpharmd]

I took to traditional archery because everything else lost its luster. When my father first started hunting I was 8yrs old. We were in a lease with terrible herd management practices so shooting opportunities were few. I started hunting by myself at 12 and didn’t kill my first deer until 19, and I hunted a lot (just wasn’t very smart about it). That first buck meant so much because of the considerable time and effort put into taking it.

Shortly after this I had access to some of the best deer land in the state around St. Francisville and hunted out of state in Texas and Missouri as well. I shot two 130 class deer in one day. After that when I would kill a deer with my rifle I really didn’t get a rush. In fact I just called hunting “getting meat”. I started to look for ways to put the challenge and thus, the thrill back into my hunting. So initially I started strictly hunting from the ground, using open sights, compound bow, and finally I picked up a Samick Sage recurve.

I didn’t know a thing about real archery, but thought I did because of my compound experience. The first year of shooting I was so terrible that I was not confident enough to hunt with it. However, even though I sucked I still shot that thing every day. Then I found this forum and learned that you have to tune arrows to fit your bow! What an eye opener. So after about 18 months of practice I committed to hunting exclusively with my recurve for the whole season. I shot a big fat doe that October and it was by far the most exhilarating experience of my hunting career.  I haven’t picked up my rifle since. I’m sure I will again, but for the last 4 years I have been hooked!


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[Fattony77]

I got into hunting again as an adult after a fishing buddy told me how much I would enjoy it. Needless to say, he was right. As I looked at the regulations for Oklahoma hunting, I saw that the archery season is 3.5 months long (Oct. 1 - Jan. 15), compared to the (now) 16-day gun season. So, I bought a compound at a pawn shop.

Then, I got drawn for a hunt at MCAAP, which is trad only. I found a Hoyt recurve on the big auction site for $60 and started flinging random, Big Box Store arrows. I found it challenging, but fun. However, when I began shooting my compound again, I immediately noticed how much better I was at shooting it (as long as I knew the distance).

Now, by this time I had started watching some hunting shows on TV. One of our family-favorites was a show with a man named Tred Barta. We all greatly enjoyed his antics & adventures, and he was always talking about "Doing it the HARD way. The Barta way..." It appealed to me like nothing else had so far....hunting with homemade equipment. But because of him, and Byron Ferguson's book "Become the Arrow" I started to see that the most rewarding & challenging (and in some ways the most efficient) way to enjoy the woods would be with trad equipment.

I ended up finding out about a gathering called OJAM and fell in love with the "primitive" arts of bow-building, flint knapping and crafting one's own tools, and even more importantly, the people involved in that gathering. Fascinating people, from all walks of life that were genuinely kind & generous. Then I found that the same type of people were also online at a site called "Tradgang." I honestly couldn't begin to imagine going back to an arrow launching machine after feeling the spirit of traditional archery.

I can't say that I've gotten any good at any of the skills that  trad-hunting requires, but I have gotten better.

[Hackbow]

Started shooting a bow in 1977-78, don't really remember. But I do remember my first bowhunting season was '79. I still have the Shakespeare B1 Hunter, solid fiberglass bow Dad handed down to me. Got fairly proficient, but only killed a rabbit and a robin with it. Tried to upgrade to a laminate but closest bow shop was 60 miles away and they only carried compounds. Shop owner laughed at me and told me stickbows would be obsolete soon. I was 15 yrs old and in the shop by myself. Not knowing any better, I bought a compound from him.

Hunted with a wheelie bow for 19 yrs. One winter day on my buddy's farm in NE IN we had decided to skip deer hunting and chase rabbits. We both shot old, ancient compounds (mine was 17 yrs old). I had always shot completely barebow - no sights or release ever. There was 3 ft of snow on the ground and lots of multiflora rose and swamp edge to hunt. We got up 8 or 10 bunnies and managed to skewer 1 apiece - both running.

It hit me later that day that I had never left my self taught style of shooting. I'd also realized over the years that shop owner was an opportunistic liar wanting to line his own pocket with my hard-earned money. After those realizations, my left shoulder aching from trudging through deep snow for several hours while carrying a boat anchor of a bow and the knowledge that trad wasn't dead or dying, I decided to make the switch back to a stick. That was January 1999.

I didn't own a computer and the one on my desk at work was a dummy tube linked to our internal system, so I had no internet access. However, the company had recently installed one online computer for the entire office (~20 people) to use for research and only company business. However, they let us use it for personal reasons outside business hours. I got help using it from one of the college grads, starting searching and found Harry Elburg in Madison, IN was a bowyer. I was in outside sales based out of Indy and Madison was in my sales territory. I called Harry, set up a time to meet, and bought a used longbow from him. Killed the coyote in my TG avatar with that bow.

I'd found Bowsite and the *********** while doing my internet surfing and instantly became active there, spending WAY too much time at the office early in the morning or late at night, LOL. I learned about self bows and became friends with John Scifres which lead me to friendships with Mickey Lotz, Dean Torges and many other trad Keepers of the Fire. My sons grew up in the trad community, we've been to a bunch of different rendezvous', 3D shoots and impromptu gatherings. I've been blessed to go on trad hunts in 9 different states with others I've met through Bowsite and Tradgang.

Don't have a favorite hunt, but will tell you I've come to love the Boeuf hunt, camp & crew as much as any of them. Guess I've learned to view the collective trad experience as more like family than a hobby.