As a new member, for those who may not know who I am, traditonal archery has been a way of life for me. I've walked the walk and talked the talk for many years. I've packed a traditional longbow from the Alaska wilderness to the jungles of the Panama Canal. It's recently been brought to my attention that I have been the discussion on Tradgang as well as in other chat rooms, particularly the Howard Hill Longbowmen. Since I am on the subject of Hill, as my friend John Schulz would say, "let's set the record straight." I have the greatest admiration for the Hill Company and everyone who shoots a Hill bow as well as other traditonal bows. I shot one myself for more than 20 years. While shooting the hill bow I have met some outstanding traditional archers. The old kind. Felt hat, plaid shirt, archers that had a love for the sport and the traditonal way. I beleive it was the 70's when the majority of bow companies left traditonal archery and jumped on the band wagon for compound bows. The two companies that held steadfast were Black Widow Archery and Howard Hill Archery. There may have been others but these were the two I remember. I knew many of the Hill people that were involved in the business. John Schulz and all his boys were the ones I knew the best. I never had the opportunity to meet the late, legendary Howard Hill as has been reported in some chat rooms. In the future I hope to learn from other traditonal archers and express my personal opinions as well. I consider myself a right winger and can be very straight forward in my opinions. On the other hand I can be meek and possibly learn from other opinions.
GAry Sentman
WELL i believe you will like this site and welcome to the TRAD GANG
DEAN
welcome aboard!!!! i LOVE your bows and hope to have one in the near future. i believe you will like this site as there are many old fashioned, plaid wearing archers and hunters here.
Gary, I have heard of you for years and nothing but good stuff. Welcome to the gang.
Welcome aboard, Gary! Hope to hear from you often. I love your bows too! And, don't hold back! mr.chuck
Gary' it's great to have you aboard!! i'm sure you will have a lot of positive things to contribute!!
Hi Gary. I have never seen one of your bows but I found a second hand copy of an instrucional video that you made and I like it a lot. Glad you are here. Mike.
Gary....
Welcome to the Gang.
Hi Gary, looking forward to hearing from you.
Welcome Aboard!There are many here who hold your same convictions.
What took you so long to get here? I figured you would have been visiting this site for a long time.
Anyway, Welcome. I had one of your Moosejaws once, but couldn't pull it after having surgery and had to get a lighter bow. Sure liked it though.
Welcome. :campfire: Your knowledge and experience will be a great benefit to this site.
Sir you make one of the finest longbows, I have ever shot. Probably the fastest also. Your articles in Instinctive Archer Mgazine were outstanding. You should consider making a hunting DVD and writing a book.
Welcome to the board! Where's Ferret? He's definitely one of the plaid-wearing traditionalists around here. Lots of other good folks here too! Again, welcome.
Welcome! Glad to see ya here.
Gary, I met you at the Western States Rendezvous in Packwood, WA in 2005 and again at the Moses Lake Shoot this past April. I had always admired your regular features in Instinctive Archery magazine and would also love to read more of your work.
Many folks here may not be aware of your record breaking feat in the mid 1970's of pulling a 176# bow a full 28".
I was shooting with Fred Anderson this past week when he mentioned your name as someone he respected and with whom he would enjoy some stump shooting.
Thanks for being a part of trad archery since people like you make it great.
Gary we have spoke on the phone a few times. My Son (BowSniper)has one your bows and loves it. Welcome to the Gang.......Mark
Welcome to the gang Gary! I shot one of your bows for a good while, still wish I would have kept that one! :campfire: :campfire:
Welcome to the "Family" We Call "TradGang" Gary!! :wavey: Glad to have ya!! :archer:
Glad to meet ya. :campfire:
Good having another old timer in the mix. This is your chance to share some knowledge and experience with us and we certainly appreciate that! I sure hope you'll have some fun on this site, lots of fine people here!
WELCOME!
Welcome Gary. :campfire:
Welcome Gary! I love my Razorback. I want to start saving my pennies so I can buy an Elite next year.
A friend loaned me your (and your Son's) video about your bows, after we had talked about them. Not only was I impressed with a lot of things I learned in it - but I enjoyed it very much. Welcome aboard, Gary.
:wavey:
Welcome aboard. I look forward to reading and learning from your posts.
Hey Gary. I was sitting in those little wooden bleachers in Forksville when you pulled that record weight. I remember that you pulled the arrow off the shelf on the first try and had to let down and do it all over again, before completing that task. A feat and 1/2 as I recall. :notworthy: Clayton Shenk, of the PSAA, was on the stage with you at the time. We were both a lot younger then...of course. ;)
Welcome to the Tradgang; there's some really cool people here. And a lot of us like plaid:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/oldearcher46/GeorgeandOlBuck.jpg)
welcome Gary, really looking forward to your input, stories and anything else bout traditional you can muster up. :campfire:
welcome Gary :0)
"I've packed a traditional longbow from the Alaska wilderness to the jungles of the Panama Canal."
Done that Alaska thing a bit myself but would live to hear about the "Jungles of the Panama Canal" part!
George,
Nice hearing from you. Feels like I ran into an old friend. I see you are still packing a fine looking bow.
One traditonal friend asked me why it took me so long to get on trad gang, my answer must be I did not know there were so many fine traditional archers out there. I want to thank all of you for the warm welcome.
Welcome, Gary! I had the pleasure to talk to you on the phone last year about my "Mountain Bow"...great shooter
Welcome to the campfire!Glad to see you here.
Gil
welcome.. nice to have you here.... :campfire:
Welcome Gary! I have a Sentman Competitor, 58# and love it.
Thank you.
Welcome Gary, I made the Iceman proud yesterday with a turkey and a badger to its credit, but it missed a coyote, must have been the 30 mile an hour crosswind, you forgot to put a windage compensator on it. Good to see you, FERGI
Welcome Gary. Looking forward to your input and stories.
I 2nd the motion on hearing the Panama stories. I lived there in '79 (Ft Clayton) and shot my bow there. We (my buddies and I) used to harass the local fauna, but never did any real serious hunting there.
Mountaindog,
With a name like yours and life is a knife, hope to hear more from you. I have a love for the mountains and I really like knives. I've always felt my most important tool in the mountains was my knife. Thanks for the warm welcome.
Fergi,
When Howard was hunting antelope in Wyoming he shot at a yourg buck antelope on the run and hit the fifth one back in the herd. Cyotees are fast.
Seve H.
I was married to a woman from El Salvador, which I have 2 fine children from. During the 14 years of marriage, I made several trips to central America in the 70s. I always drove the whole distance. Every day was an adventure from army ants, iguanas, and communicating with the native people. I avoided tourist traps and spent most of my time in remote areas through Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and of course El Salvador. I
m lucky they didn't make a lamp shade out of me. I was young, thought I was very tough and took way too many chances. I think I may have had help from up above at times. This kind off behavior tends to make a beleiver out of you. Yes as time goes on I will be glad to tell a few short stories about my adventures in Central America with the long bow and arrows. "Arco de fletches"
Gil,
What's archery like in the Philipinees? When I lived in Alaska many years ago, I had many Philipine friends as they worked in the fishery there. We did not talk much about archery in those days but there were other topics, particularly knives that I found very interesting.
Mountaindog,
I just remembered I bought a video many years ago, I thin it was made by a guy called Mountaindog. I beleive it was filmed in Colorado and he showed how to build shelters, fires, etc. and he was in pursuit of a big buck mule deer. Could this have been you?
Just took off my wool plaid shirt and my felt hat and turned on the computer to my favorite web site. Welcome aboard. :thumbsup:
Welcome from Arizona,Gary. Have seen many articles about you and seen several of your bows. You are an excellent bowyer. Glad to have you on the TradGang and at the :campfire:
Chort
A big welcome from Michigan...
Well what he hell took you so long? :)
Welcome. Tell it exactly how you see it. Don't be shy and don' be a lurker.
Gary, Archery in the Philippines is mostly FITA recurve and compound, which I also enjoy,But I prfer shooting a longbow for the sheer fun.I have always read about you eversince I got a copy of TBM way back in the 90's.I know of only two other guys that shoot trad around here but the Aetas and other natives never stopped using bows and arrows for hunting.I collect different knives from around my country ,actually,they are bolos or more like american machete in size as small knives are of very little practical use here in the field.My wife and I are moving over there in a year or two, hope to get one of your bow.Its nice that you came to know a few Pinoys over there.
Gil
Hi Gary, I've shot with you twice and on both occasions found you to be a likeable hard charging kinda guy. Love your home range in Eugene wish I could get back there more often. Rob
Welcome to TG Gary. We can always use another stud longbow shooter! LOL
I enjoyed meeting you at the Expo West a couple years ago. Are you going to make the Kalamazoo expo?
I will not be at Kalamazoo, I plan on spending my winter around Brookings, ORegon. Hope to meet you along the trail sometime.
Gary, welcome aboard! I would like to shoot your two new bows, the Recon and Strikeforce, sometime.