Legends and Pioneers > Fred Asbell

Please feel free to post about Fred

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Terry Green:
Stories about Fred, his Books, Videos and what ever else you would like to talk about.  :campfire:

Mike Bolin:
I met Fred for the first time at the Great Lakes Longbow Invitational. I don't remember the exact year, but it was shortly after Bighorn came out with the Ramhunter longbow. I had been shooting an old Bear recurve some but hadn't committed to shooting traditional yet. I rode up to the shoot with a friend and didn't have a longbow. Just planned to hang out. We stopped by Bighorns' tent and Fred asked me where my bow was. Told him I didn't own a longbow and he said for me to pick one out and go shoot it! I found a lefty on the rack and he gave me a half a dozen arrows, a glove and an arm guard. Then He and Tom Parsons went to the range with me and my friend and I commenced to lose two of the arrows and break three! I tried to pay him for them but he just laughed and asked me if I had fun. I told him I had a blast and he said, "then we're even!"
I always looked him up at Cloverdale and when I started shooting a Widow, he made fun of my plywood bow. Several years later I was shooting the practice range at Cloverdale and caught up with Fred and a couple of other guys. Fred was shooting a Widow! Before I could say anything, he grinned and said "it don't shoot too bad for a plywood bow" and if a Widow would hold up for someone from West Terrible Haute, they must pretty tough!
I am sure that to Fred, I was an acquaintance, but I always considered him to be my friend. Attending Compton and Cloverdale won't be the same for me without hearing "How's things in West Terrible Haute?" I hope he knew that loaning me that bow and arrows and the time that he and Tom Parsons took to help me with the fundamentals that day set me on a path that I am still on today. Thank you Fred!

rastaman:
I had the pleasure of meeting Fred in the early 2000's down in South Georgia.  He along with several Traditional Bowhunters
of Georgia were members of a bowhunting lease called "Paradise" and had plenty of hogs and deer.  We had a rendevous type weekend hog hunting. My first impression of him was he was a mountain of a man who looked like a mountain man.  I still remember he was wearing a Hudson bay type longcoat that was bold red, yellow, and white wide stripes. He was just another one of the guys, but he made a lasting impression on me.   

Wudstix:
I met G. Fred at PBS San Antonio.  Talked to him in the vendor area, and mentioned that I shot a "straight limbed recurve", a reference to statements he made in his writing about the D/R longbows with locator or pistol grips.  He chuckled and said, "you just don't know how much something is going to come back to you after it is in print."  We were at the same table during dinner with the Wensel boys, I was in hog heaven.
 :campfire: :coffee: :archer2: :campfire:

Amberjack:
I last saw Fred in person at one of his shooting clinics in Nixa with Ken Beck and the guys a few years back.
We shot hay bales for two days and it was there that things finally clicked for me and I developed a (fairly) consistent draw and release.  Fred's patient, amiable manner just made the time fly by.
All packed up to leave I shook his hand and thanked him for keeping the trad spirit alive.

Good memories.   :campfire:

AJ

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