Trad Gang
Main Boards => PowWow => Topic started by: longbowman on February 07, 2007, 02:46:00 PM
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Reading some of the topics got me thinking (which is seldom and dangerous) about my journey through the bowhunting world around me and thought it would be great to read some of the other "life journeys" from some of you older guys. So if you haven't hunted with a bow since "before compounds" this isn't for you.
I started shooting things with a bow in 1964. I watched the bowhunting world change around me and then come back again. I'm starting to believe there really is never anything new but history just repeating itself. I'm in my mid 50's now and shoot year round still. I've traveled to the west and have taken bull elk, mulies, black bear and many whitetails with both longbows and recurves. My son, who is 29, is a longbow shooter and has become a fine hunter. I currently shoot an 80's vintage Bear T.D. @ 70# and a customer longbow at 80#. I went from ground hunting, before the avent of treestands, to treestand hunting and now hunt 75% from the ground again. I hunt to kill the animal I'm hunting. I don't need to kill to have a good hunt. I like the term "bowhunting" and dislike the term "traditional bowhunting". I've been around long enough to know that the term bowhunter doesn't have anything to do with equipment and shouldn't have but rather the heart of the person hunting. Finally, I'm actually old enough to already know some of the things that Gene Wensel talks about in his book "Come November" as being common sense.
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i know where you are comming from. iam 54 and i have been bowhunting since i was 15 a real long time ago. and i am still bowhunting but not as much as i should. like when it rains i look out the window and say no not to day. and this lasts for about a week or so on and off. and as soon as i get one fine day i am gone. i dont mind if i dont get any thing but i love it when i do as i only hunt for meat. i will be comming over at the end of sept the start of your deer hunting season in virgina. as i am staying with my bro bob walker for about 2-3 weeks this should be a real hoot. as i hate flying. and will be my first big trip. i love getting out and walking in the bush. and i have been knowen to fall asleep while hunting as well to funny to talk about. :biglaugh:
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Wolfman, that is a HUGE trip. Hope you can sleep in planes, I sure can't. My flight back to the US from that area too forever. Hope you have fum with Bro Bob.
I am 52 (tomorrow) and have been shooting arrows for a long time too. I like the fact that, today, the younger crowd has access to a lot more resources than we did. Down side, as I have said before, they often tend to read and see videos and then...oh, shut up Chuck .....anyway....I just like being out there and shooting arrows. It appears to be what I do to relax.
Killing a critter is what I often set out to do but it really doesn't matter so much if I don't. If I get out there, it is often more than enough for me. I sure do like eating those critters though, and usually you need to kill one before you can eat it.
Later
ChuckC
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I'll be 59 in April. Dad, a Navy pilot was stationed at St Louis Naval air station. I lived on Natural Bridge and Lindberg, across the street was Hoyt archery. Worked at jobs when I was 8 and 9 for the neighbors and Earl sold be a little flat bow with a blemish for 75 cents and little cedars for 15 cents. I still have a bear quiver that cost me half buck from him. Patrolled a plumb orchard for a neighbor and manged to take a maurading blue jay as my first in 1958. Move dto KY and hunted there with a little Browning recurve and went to college at UWisc-shot an Indian recurve then. Came home from RVN and asked my dad to send out my Indian, but it had delaminated so I journeyd wwith wheel and cams for a few years. Shot a lot of everyhting with those, but something was missing-it was actually seeing the arrow fly. Got a Brack recurve tha went in my jeep or hummer where I went-it didn't go to gulf war I, however. And when I retired from the USMC got a Meigs longbow. Got several of them now and enjoy the hunt-hello not near as much time cleaning things with the longbow. Go back east every other year or so to hunt whitetails with friends or my cousins. It's the hunt, being outside, feeling things-not seeing or hearing, but feeling things that makes the hunt now. I am a lucky person.
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Longbowman: My experiences pretty much parallel yours, though mine probably started 5-7 years earlier, and the bows I shoot are lighter. I'm a little past 60 now. I even shot a compound for a short while in the 60s. Talk about traditional archery or traditional bowhunting, when I started it was just called archery or bowhunting. Traditional wasn't applied to archery or hunting until well after the compound came along as a way to distinguish the two, I suppose.
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I am 56 and began with a fiberglass static recurve when I was 14 or 15 years old. Went to a longbow and shot them for many years 70-80 pounds. I have been on many hunts and killed deer and pig as well as small game from Texas to Guam. A few years ago I dropped down in weight and switched to a recurve and now shoot 60-72 pound recurves and a couple of three piece t/d longbows. Shoot mainly 60 pounds but have a 72 pound recurve that I use almost daily to help keep my strength up. Spent 21 years in the Navy which put a damper on my hunting and shooting for a while. But have been back at it solid since 1993. Never did see the urge to go to a compound. And yes a bowhunter is a bowhunter.
Danny
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i'm only 44, but stated shooting a homemade stick when i was about 6 or 7, years later i got a bear fiberglass recurve, then an indian fiberglass longbow(about 40#). by then i was about 12. that would have been about 1974. if there were compounds around, i did not know about them.when about 16 some of my buddies got compounds, which did not intrest me at all. work got in the way by the time i graduated high school, and did not really hunt again untill about 1992. went to the pawn shop, bought an old bear compound, and a bear recurve. tinkered with the compound for a couple of days and decided i hated it because i did not know how to tune it. archery shop owners were no help because it was outdated, and of course i needed the newest model that they naturally had in stock. picked up the bear kodiak magnum, which before looked doubtfull,shot it a few times and fell in love. never wanted a compound, or even shot one since then. maybe i'm not "old" enough, but i feel like i am !
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I'm 49, started shooting one of those fiberglass straight bows when I was 5, thanks to my dad, who loved archery, got a Blackhawk Mosquito 20-25# at age 10. Then at 14 years of age, I thought I was big time, Got a brand new Kodiak Hunter $60.00 in 1971 I still have that bow and still shoot it. That bow is 40#. still have aluminum arrows from Feline Archery before the shafts were camo,with Hilbre BH that was really big time. Shot a compound for about a year. went back to recurve. about ten years ago I stopped using a gun, I hunt every thing with my bow no matter what season. I'm now up to 16 recurves, don't know if I'm an oldtimer sure fills like it. Like GB says I'm much to young to fill this damm old. God Bless
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It all started back in 1952 when my brother and I got BB guns for Christmas. Tin cans became old hat after 6 months or so and one day we shot the windows out of grandpa’s smoke shed which caused our guns to take on a new look about haft way down the barrel. :knothead: The next year we talked dad into bow and arrows and the rest is history. Been there ever since except when traveling with Uncle Sam’s Navy
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Almost 59 here. Maken Osage bows and hand made woodies. Wife is 48:)
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I was given my first longbow in 1968,for my 11th birthday.I started in on the local rabbit population then an there,havn't stopped yet either.I've hunted 4 of the seven deer spiecies in NZ,as well as wild cattle,pig,goats,chamios,wallaby,an a few other things.Spent 5 years in Australia and hunted every chance I got over there as well.
I saw the very begining of compounds in NZ,but held out for about 15 years.
I took the plunge in the mid 80's when I bought my 1st compound,but it didn't last long and I ended up back were I'd begun,with yet another longbow,,,,along with quite a few recurves.
Today I only know 3 other stickbow shooters an I don't get to meet up with them very often.
There is a hard core of stickbow hunters in NZ, but most of us have very little to do with the club/target scene so you'd go a longtime before bumping into any of us.
Personaly,I Hunt and target shoot with a local club about 50/50.
I turn 50 in August this year and have a three day hunt for Red deer planned,just like I do every birthday.
Hunting,targets,just shooting as much as I can,it's a very good life.
Cheers.
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I'm 65 started in the early fifties with a York hickory longbow, my dad being a machinist made his own equipment including arrow fletchers, broadheads, feather burner,etc, Got my first recurve a Bear Polar in 1957 and now shoot a Stahl takedown and a Mike Treadway longbow. I've killed alot of critters through the years and this year I'll probably make my last elk hunt in Colorado. The most enjoyment besides the hunts has been the fun introducing my son and later my grandsons to bowhunting. Being there when they killed their first deer is a feeling that goes beyond anything that I could have ever imagined. The pleasure of spending so many years in the great outdoors will be in my soul past this lifetime and carry into the next.
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I am 55 for a couple more days; and I started bowhunting when my brother got the roy rogers pistols and holsters; and I got a bow set with an indian headdress with all the feathers of a great chief; on a trip to the upper penninsula of Michigan in about 1956.
I connected on a sparrow and had to give it a burial in the back yard; and the bow was taken away.
I made another out of a branch from a bush in the yard; and arrows from the same bush.
When I got a little older; I started borrowing the longbow my father got in school- in the early 1930s; a 40 pound Indian Archery longbow ( still have it in the wood case).
I bought a Ben Pearson recurve in the early 60's'; and got my limit of squirrels with it- on a regular basis.
I had a pretty good idea in my head what a good shot looked like; but a couple things happened that really influenced the rest of my life into bowhunting.
One was when I was out with my uncle; bird hunting with shotguns. I stopped; and a bush asked me to keep moving. It was a bowhunter hidden on a deer trail. I had it happen again a few minutes later; and there was something about being in the woods when it was pretty empty- as gun season for deer... was a big deal in Michigan.
Then I saw Fred Bear shoot a thimbleberry leaf - while on a bear hunt; and then shoot a bear.
I just saw artistry in the shots; I saw a man in nature; connected in the flash and flight of the arrow: to this great part of nature we know as a grizzly bear. I have yet to get it out of my mind.
I am no artist; I was always picked last for any team sport; and yet; with a bow and arrow I could do something right; and pure; and free.
I did come back from my Air Force time- to find my pearson bow was gone. I hunted one season with my dads old longbow; and there was something in it that I just could not let go of.
The bow was old; and bent-probably about 30 pounds by then. So I bought the only bow I could find; a Bear whitetail hunter; a compound bow- with wheels and pulleys. After doing some 3d shooting and taking a couple deer and bears; I found the money for a Bear take-down recurve.
I hunted with that until it was stolen; and then shot a kodiak recurve until about 5 years ago- when I tried longbows again.
Now I am shooting a bamboo limbed longbow 'longbow hunter'; that was glued up after it broke on a dry fire ( fast flight string versus big nock).
I cannot see shooting anything but traditional bows.
When I moved to this area of Idaho; I rolled down the mountain- while riding back in elk hunting on a horse; and ended up with a broken shoulder blade.
I could not pull my bow back even an inch. I shot a deer that year by taping my bow to my foot and using my leg and my drawing arm; I shot a small muledeer buck while sitting on the porch to my cabin.
-- Where there is a will: there is a way--
(provided there is also duct tape)
I just love shooting my bow so much that I cannot see not ever being a bowhunter.
I have bowhunted for big game with a bow only; since 1981; when I shot my last deer with a gun. I remember how stupod I felt to have a gun with me instead of a bow- with a buck in front of me at 19 yards.
Since then I have been out every season; spring bear for 20 plus years in addition to fall hunts; and still get excited when I see a doe.
I practiced today with a herd of elk watching me; and although I have done my share of missing with a bow in my life; I will always walk in the woods with my bow: while chasing elk; and deer; and bears; and antelope; and ...dreams.
:campfire:
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NO sense in spelling 'stupid' correctly.
I know we double nickle guys can't be the "old timers"!!! CAN WE????
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Brian...don't sell yourself short...you're pretty old. ;)
I'm 61 and started official bowhunting in 1965..my first year chasing whitetails. I've been shooting bows of one sort or another since the mid 50's. I had a four year affair with wheeled devices from 1976 to 1980 but never got rid of my recurve bows. Since then I've been back to my stickbows. My passion is to watch arrows fly...usually at stumps.
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Like my twin bro Danny, I started at 14 or so with fiberglass recurve. Then in 1976 when I got out of USAF I bought a T/D recurve and hunted and took deer and squirel in Michigan and Texas till 1980 and then work took over and had a lapse till 94 when I bought my first longbow. Loved it and hunted with them till this year when I went back to a curve. Still not sure if I will stay curve or go back to longbow. I love both. I am 56 now.
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I started shooting bows around age ten when I got a small fiberglass recurve for christmas and shot my first rabbit with it about three weeks later (much to the suprise of my dad). I got a c-c-c compound, what I refer to as mechanical arrow launchers, sometime in the late seventies and finally hung it up completely about five years ago.
I shoot both recurve and longbow and my favorite is my BBO that I made two years ago. Now I'm addicted to the basement shop and bow forms, slats, bamboo, urac, dowels, bamboo and river cane arrows, feather grinders, belt sanders, bandsaws,..........I'll turn 51 next month.
Hi, my name is Dennis and I'm a bow-a-holic.
:archer:
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I will be 51 in a couple of months, God willing). I started archery and bowhunting in 1969. My first bow was a Pearson Model 304 Take Down Longbow 45#@28. It was just called "Archery" then. Times have changed and some things come back around again. We gone from Cedar and Fiberglass "MicroFlites" and Aluminum to Carbons. I always loved Cedar! Nothing like the smell of a broken arrow! :D What I think about most is not about the animals taken, but my hunting friends and family along the way. I thank God I still have my health and can climb mountains, our age groups keeps getting smaller. :archer: I believe one of the major benefits today, is bowhunter education. Back then all you had to do was buy the archery stamp. Good Lord.. experience is a hard teacher. And I think the best way to keep young people in archery and bowhunting is the foundation of being taught right, from the start.
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I have been shooting a bow for as long as I can remember.....
Back around 1966-67 I had a Bear "Red Bear" solid fiberglass bow and 4 cedar arrows tipped with Bear Razorheads in a backquiver.(this was a pretty good "hunting set-up" for a 6-7 year old kid)
My friend and I decided to meet at daybreak one morning to go "hunting".He brought his new BB-gun and I brought my bow and arrows. We still-hunted along a familiar trail for a ways and we saw a squirrel.We quietly slipped "into range" and my friend took aim,and fired.....the squirrel jumped as he was hit,and ran to the nearest tree and started climbing.....stopping for a second about 3 feet off the ground.....I drew my bow,my index finger touched the corner of my mouth,and the Razorhead was on it's way.....THUMP!!!!! I hit the squirrel perfectly between the shoulders and pinned it to the tree!!!!!
I never had much use for BB-guns after that..... :archer:
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I'm 57 and started shooting a bow when I was about 10 or 11. That was when my Grandfather, who was from the back woods of Canada, taught me how to make a bow out of Ash saplings to hunt rabbits. I got serious about it in 1975 when a friend wanted to hunt deer. I decided not to kill a deer with a gun unless I could get one with a bow first. I bought a 60's model Bear recurve at a yard sale for $12 and started practicing. It became a passion when I realized that it was the hardest thing I've ever tried to do. I've taken 129 deer with that same bow. My first deer was a little spike but to me it was the trophy of a lifetime. It got me started "hunting" deer year round with a camera, binoculars, and bow. I still read anything and everything I can find on Whitetails. I've taken at least two a year every year since, and some years I've taken as many as 8, 10, 12, in a season, (every one of which was eaten). I tried the compound thing but it just didn't sit well with me. ( The first year I hunted with a compound, I missed more deer than I did the entire 12 years before that with a recurve!)It has become an obsession with me. I'm not interested in being able to shoot deer from 60 yards...I live to get closer and closer without them knowing I'm there. Most of the shots I take can be measured in feet rather then yards. I hunt in all weather, the worse the better, because I know that deer are not expecting me to be out there when the weather is bad and because it eliminates a lot of places I have to look for deer. ( My ex-partner wouldn't hunt when it was raining because he didn't want to get his $500 bow wet, or when it was windy because he couldn't hear the deer coming!) It took him 20 years to get his first deer with a bow! I haven't missed an opening day for 31 years now and will continue bow hunting as long as I am able. I own several bows now but always grab my Bear Grizzly when deer season rolls around. I'd love to have a nice hand made custom bow some day, but until then, the grizzly is my "Big Medicine" bow. Bow hunting is a religious experience for me. It keeps me centered, relieves stress, and reminds me that I am just a small player in the grand drama of the universe. Now I have the honor of teaching my cousin's 11 year old son what I have learned about the sport and I think he is becoming as obsessed as I am. I love it!
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I'm 60...pre-compound. I remember when everybody shot recurves, wood or aluminum, nobody had a computor, few people had a TV(in my part of the country), not every rural home had electricity, we were on a "party line" telephone, we listened to the radio of an evening to things like "The Shadow" or Aurther Godfrey's "Talent Scouts", we didn't lock our doors or worry about anything being stolen, and you knew all your neighbors, your Government trusted you.....WHEW!! TIMES HAVE SURE CHANGED!
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56 years young and got my first bow in 1961. Used to love to hang out with some local guys who shot indoors at a barn during the winter (had an old wood stove to warm up the place and light was really bad but it was fun!!). Seen all kinds of bows come and go but the thing that really strikes me each fall is the # of deer we have now. Back in my teens I hunted almost every afternoon in the fall and winter and farmed in the summers and don't remember even seeing a deer. Now look at what we have :readit:
Joe
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Greetings All You Old Arrow Flingers -- I shot my first deer with a bow at age 14, which was 51 years ago. Doing the math, that makes me 65. I shoot a 68# Black Widow recurve, but may drop back to 62# after my next trip to Africa this coming June. Hunting has always been a passion and bowhunting an obsession. As I get older, I spend more and more time looking for what I call geriatric hunts. When the days of running around big mountains and across muskegs and tundra aren't as much fun or doable as they were a few years back, hunting from a good blind or easy stalks become much more attractive. I don't care how old you are, if you keep hunting long enough, you will know what I mean.
I'm heading to Texas in two days to hunt hogs and javelina at 4 different ranches over the course of 18 days. It is South Africa again in June and I have hunts booked for Australia and Argentina and well as some here in the States. I plan is to spend as much of my kid's inheritance as possible before being confined to a rocking chair.
Cheers from Alaska
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I will be 59 come August and I have been shooting a bow as long as I can remember and I can still recall buying the little wooden bows that came in a package with three rubber stopper tipped arrows. :D Growing up on the outskirts of Dallas, Texas us kids had plenty of Osage trees to cut limbs from and make bows. I suspect I was about 10 or12 years old when I started making them and they were very crude but would flat out fling an arra. My folks bought me a 50# Ben Pearson solid fiberglass bow when I was about 14 and I still have this bow. We didn't have big game around those parts, but many squirrels, rabbits, ‘possums, ‘coons and more were taken with this bow and my varied arsenal of arrows. I saved just about every nickel I could earn on arrows and there was no such thing as having them matched in weights, lengths, or even materials. Fiberglass arrows were the cat’s meow back then and I managed to get my hands on a couple of them. I learned quickly not to take shots that had a high probability of a lost arrow because they were just too precious. Heck, I can even recall losing one of my favorites where I should have been able to find it easily. Despite great efforts to locate it time and time again I never found it. :(
I finally managed to buy a super-duper Ben Pearson recurve when I was 16. It was a 50# wooden riser with the green and black fiberglass. A neighborhood kid stole it and broke it. His mother replaced it with another one just like it but by this time I was fixing to graduate from high school and join the Army. No archery for me in Viet Nam but when I got out in April of 1970 I picked up the bows again after moving to Georgia. I had never taken any big game with a bow and I found Georgia had whitetails for the offering. It took me a few years but I managed my first deer, a little 5 point buck with the old Ben Pearson recurve shootin an aluminum arrow tipped with a Bear Razorhead. Inspired with taking this trophy I bought a 55# Browning Explorer I recurve. Unfortunately, before I could hunt with it a burglar stole it AND my old Ben Pearson along with a few guns I had. :thumbsup:
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Kids, kids, I'm surrounded by kids! AND I love it!!! :campfire: :campfire:
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Burnie,seems when you get old you are always surrounded by something. Now I'm waiting for good luck. Just as long as I can still fling arrows I will be a happy camper!
Chort
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Ya got that right, Chort! :thumbsup:
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I will be 52 this fall and this will be my 33 rd deer season. I grew up in a non hunting family and picked up a recurve off a table at a rummage sale when I was 18. I went to the local sport shop and got some arrows and saw an archery magazine. I had no idea you could hunt with archery gear. Not having any one to teach me to shoot properly or how to hunt meant a very steep learning curve. It took me five years to kill my first whitetail. Oh you should have seen some of my misses! Switched to a compound in 82 went back to recurves in 85 . Started shooting longbows in the mid 90's. I've yet to kill an elk but I've succeeded on whitetail deer, caribou , turkeys and hopefully this fall a moose. I love going home and just shooting off the deck at a ragged old 3d deer. Friends have made me self bows and I hope to bless them with memories soon.
i remember every deer or turkey or caribou i've killed with simple gear and forgotten all those with wheels. I have never hunted with a gun and I dream about Africa , Canada and the mountains out West...... wait did i just hear a bugle? Grab the bows lets go..............
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Been shooting bows since my grampa built my first bow in 1949. I didn't shoot much during my teen years and my early twenties. (had other things on my mind!) Got back into shooting and bowhunting in 1964.
I'm 68 now and am still passionate about archery !!
Tried compounds in the early 70's but soon went back to recurves which I still shoot today. I shot a longbow for 2 years, but always liked curves better.
Glad to hear there are other old geezers here!
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I started with a Bear Kodiak Hunter 48lb (wish I still had it) Things seemed simpler then. What's a compound? Frank
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Hey, I "resemble" that remark about being so old you were on a party line!!! Heck, I'm STILL on a party line and I still have a rotary phone in one room! Honestly, this turned out beter than I had hoped. It's great knowing you're not the only one using your bow for a cane!
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I've been receiving ARRP letters for some time now so that makes me...old enough? Grew up with a solid fibre-glass Bear Cub, then a Kodiak Magnum. Lord, what a graceful looking bow!
My father had me smell a broken POC once; he said, "Take a good sniff now, these shan't be around forever." I never knew something could smell so good.
Micro-Flites, GameGetters, XX78 2216's, and then two Browning compounds. I actually was pretty good with a compound and a stationary target. But I never killed a deer with those machines; I'd switch back to instinctive every single shot and miss.
We were never that successful; getting a deer was a lifetime achievement. 1st one at 16, and others were to follow sporadically. But I had the best of times with the 'Ol Man and I learned patience and vigilance and what frostbite was. It was cold back in the 60's!
My brother and I are teaching my nephew archery and this has re-kindled a burning passion. I am finding out every day new things about old ways. I love shooting my Shakespeare X-26 ~ my father won it in a raffle from the annual Necedah Bowhunter Tournaments.
With a bit of luck, hard work, and a Hunter's Moon, maybe I'll get a chance at counting coup this fall. But for now, just getting back out there with that simple string-driven thing is plenty good enough. This bowhunting business is a blessed magic. Good luck to everyone out there!
:thumbsup:
Tim
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I started with a lemonwood longbow at about age 10, didn't get a hunting weight bow until I was 19, a solid fiberglass Ben Pearson 45# recurve. A couple of years later got a Darton 47# recurve, then a 65# Bingham recurve, still got it. Have never owned a pully bow. I've been shooting longbows for the past 20+ years. I'm 65 next Thursday, and still shooting my 60 to 65# longbows, and recurves. I hope I still got a few more years of watching the arrows fly, Lord willing.
John.
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Hello, I am 51 yrs. old and can remember the day(my 11th b-day)when Dad put a used Ben Pearson recurve in my hands. Something happened in my brain that I could never explain....but you all know the feeling.
I can remember Shatner killing that bear on "American Sportsman"...I remember going to my backyard and shooting 'arrow after arrow' into a hay bale..I remember getting a Bear catalogue in the mail and looking at the pics long after lights out....the only thing I wanted to do back then was to kill a deer with my recurve and sit with my family at supper and enjoy a fine venison meal.
Thanks Dad, everything came true.
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This sucks. I’m 65 and it looks like I’m one of the old men
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I'm 57 don't think that can be right until a mirror gets in front of me, then then holy smoke what happened!
My first bow was a fiberglass longbow a neighbor kid gave me in rural Minnesota was a big deal for this farm kid.I had a pheasant get up in front of me and I took a few feathers off, my eyes got as big as saucers, I can still see that arrow just miss. Still happens today!
In those days hunting trapping, fishing was my life (umm) still is imagine that.
I really did not get into archery until the early 70's when I met this fella who talked me into archery, I traded a 30-30 for a bear Kodiak I think a bear something anyway, on my first ever outing I had a nice 8 pointer come right under the oak tree I was standing in no stand wern't invented yet maybe but I had never heard of one. Anyway I remember seeing every detail of that deer with my heart pounding,the gloss of his eye the wiskers on his chin his shiny nose. I drew back and let go the arrow sailed right over his back! He moved off a few feet and began to eat I could hear him munching but had no shot cause of branches.Like they say the rest is history, I live to hunt with the bow the experiences the good Lord has given me keep me young inside.
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Lets see...I'll be 55 in August, started bowhuntng when I was 16. List of bows...started with a 45# Bear Cub, went to a 51# Browning Nomad and killed my first deer. Used Sweetland Forgewoods with Bear Razorheads, St Charles quiver, Tiger STripe Camo.
Went through many Acme Cedars, Pearson Deadheads all stuffed in my Herters backquiver. Gradutated to a 55# Kittredge 1 pc recurve and Kittredge T/D. Took many deer with the one piece and my first Caribou with the T/D in '79. Next bow was an Archery 2000 SST, designed by Larry Bamford and Phil Grable. First Antelope fell to this bow and XX75's tipped with 2 blade Zwickeys.
Next came a Bill Steward Multi-Cam T/D Recurve. I treasured this bow, took an antelope and Mule deer, then retired it. Followed this with a Rocky Miller Predator T/D, Howard Gamemaster Jet, Jack Kempf Stealth, Ron Maulding Tamarack longbow. Used an original Catquiver from Rancho Safari, I modified it, still have it.
Shot forgewoods until they disappeared. Miss those Gordon Glashafts and Browning Microflites.
Shot and lost a number of Herters Ram MX Broadheads that were mounted on Tomato Red MJ Log cedar arrows...I could go on forever but will end it here....I think I came full circle...I still shoot a Kempf STealth and Groves Spitfire...Dougherty Naturals...Zwickeys...and replaced cedar with ash.
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Im almost 52 , my first bow was ben pearson 15# recurve it came with 3 arrows I think, they were very precious because They didnt have extra arrows at the store. Later shot Bear and Wing...bowhunted till I had kids, put the bow down for awhile when my son was 9 started back with the archery and bowhunting on my Uncles farm.Then later work as Manuf. rep in archery industry sold compounds and Traditional bows as well. When I was kid I write all the bows companies and order catologs . My dad and I would look at them Bear , Browning, American Archery,Howard Hill, Ben pearson ...After watching Howard Hill shoot trick shots at my elementary shool in the 5th grade I was hooked...I played sports all the way through high school , but really got into basketball ...there was Player at LSU that was pretty dang good maybe you have heard of him Pistol Pete Maravich...I would sell ice cream sandwhiches to make money to buy archery gear and watch the best basketball player at Show Time LSU Basketball games ...Pistol Pete...he was the best basketball player I ever watched play in college way ahead of his time...I sold alot most games anyway...purchase my first really nice Bear bow it was used but 1959 ER was it a bute...it shot lights out Just like Pistol Pete ...I name the bow Lights out!!!Archery and bowhunting is like my basketball now, I love them both...I cried when Pete Maravich died ...Basketball has changed, Bowhunting has too,but I will always remember how I bought that special bow, :) with little help from a free flowing long-haired basketball player with floppy socks #23 worked his magic on the hardwood:) ...old timer not really...thanks , marco#78... :wavey: