Maybe I'm just in a philosophical mood, but the Hoyt thread got me thinking a little;
How do define traditional equipment? Is it the bow, the arrow, the accessories, the attitude, or something more?
Lets hear it...
The bow...Van
Not really sure. Not sure if I care either. Personally I was just looking for a challenge because my compound bow became like shooting with a rifle. It just 'feels better' shooting my recurves and my vortex and I enjoy being able to see progress in my shooting. People can label away, but I don't look down on anyone shooting a compound, recurve with sights, shooting with an elevated rest, or using guided missiles for arrows. I just choose not to at the moment, although I am shooting carbon, aluminum or composite arrows because of the durability. Someday I may shoot wood. Who knows?
Here we go again!!! :biglaugh:
in these days the only thing traditional is in Your mind. Everyone has a different way to see it. Selfbows, wood arrows, stone points & the different kinds of string material. In these days there are some that think wheelie bows are traditional archery gear, same with the center fire firearms or may I say in-line smokepoles... Using a computer, cell phones & blackberries...NOT traditional by any means 20 years ago, but wait another 20 and it will be...
I feel it's all in the head of the person... I like my shrew hybrid long bow & wood'n arrows with a big old 160 grn snuffer.. is this traditional, to some NOPE...to Me YES ....
As Van said....."The Bow"
When you draw the bow,you draw the full weight of the bow, un-assisted.
When you hold the bow at full draw,You hold the entire weight of the bow at full draw, un-assisted.
I hear lots of compound shooters "bragging" that they can hold thier bow at full draw for 2-3 minutes. When I ask them to draw and hold my 53# longbow.....Most can't even hold it 2-3 SECONDS!!!!! :archer:
To me it is any bow without wheels.The term didn't even exist untill the resurgence of recurve and longbow interest after a long dominance by compounds.It was invented to seperate the two.
Now though many of the archery aids and equipment that was invented long before compounds is deemed, unworthy, by a group trying to be more "traditional".
Its using hunting bows and arrows and strategy with a mindset that puts challenge and simplicity and gamesmanship above self-servitude and gadgetry. In a nutshell, its the K.I.S.S. concept applied to bowhunting.
I think its the person behind the equipment.
Once again....
What I quickly discovered when I re-entered the current Trad world is about the time you think you are really Trad because you are hunting in buckskins and leather with a top end custom recurve and woodies, there's some guy hunting buck naked with an original plains indian stick bow and hand knapped flints who considers you a clothes wearing hi-tech pantywaist. :D
So being I figure the only person I have to satisfy in this regard is myself. As my signature says, I'm as Trad as I wanna be. :thumbsup:
Roughly 60% of my archery time is spent shooting/hunting with one of my recurves. The remaining 40% of my archery time I shoot one of a couple compounds I have set up for barebow/fingers, or one of a couple I have that are shot sights/release. Doesn't make me any less Trad when I'm using a recurve, and I'm rather pleased that I can shoot well in three entirely different archery styles.
So once again for the record; as far as I'm concerned, Trad is one string with no wheels, eccentrics, etc. (no, I don't think Oneida bows are Trad, before someone brings them up). IMO it's irrelevant what the riser/limbs are made of as long as the bow is a single stringed recurve, longbow, or permutation thereof, drawn & released by hand (or thumb ring).
What about sights? Back in the 60's-70's, most of us used some form of simple pin sight on our recurves. I still have original Bear recurve sights in my cache. That was a basic part of Trad then, so it must be now, too.
As for arrows & fletchings; carbon, alums, woodies, feathers or vanes, it's all good as far as I'm concerned.
Broadheads; from a purely practical standpoint it's aximomatic that cut on contacts work best with the relatively low KE of Trad, but if you shoot replacable blades and have enough buck to make em' work, more power to ya...
Without Wheels, after that to each his own.
Enough said
NO COMPOUNDS . The end.
I think no cams or wheels creating let off is a traditional bow to me (just my opinion).
I also do think it is in some way an attitude as well.
I hunt this way because I wanted a simpler way to hunt.
Not too many people can understand how nice it is to grab a couple arrows, your bow and sit next to a tree without a million gadgets to worry about losing or organizing.
I have Ferret to thank for encouraging me to get back to bare basics. This last season was the best I ever had for more reasons than I can count, but the biggest one is many of the guys I have met here.
That is just my 2 cents.
-Charlie
QuoteOriginally posted by Van/TX:
The bow...Van
Yep!
Went to my last 'trad' shoot, a couple of years ago and couldn't turn in a score 'cause all I had were carbon arrows.
And mine were GT 55/75 w/ 125 gr. tips and I shoot split finger.
Someone had beat some of the locals with light carbons and three under and 'aiming', so they didn't like 'em.
But I wasn't 'trad' enough. Last competition I ever wasted gas on!
In my mind, I'm trad. Got carbon in my longbow, why not my arrows?
Anyone can play with words and most of it is done out of context. The word itself applies to so many things it has become irrelevant. And the argument of what is and what isn't, has also become irrelevant. About the only thing I'm sure if is I don't shoot no stinkin' wheel bows 8^).
If I have to define it, you won't understand :biglaugh:
Speaking in general terms and not in terms of a tournament definition or classification:
I like the definition found in The "Bow'n Dictionary of Traditional Archery Terms"
-(traditional archery / 1) Simply "bows and arrows" (see tradition). 2) Usually refers to the use, creation, or study of simple traditional bows (and possibly traditional arrows). Often associated with instinctive shooting and bowhunting, and the wearing of traditional clothing . See also primitive archery. More importantly, traditional archery involves the passing down of archery skills, crafts, history, and values (traditions) to family and friends, and the use of archery as non-competitive recreation and fellowship.)
It is my tradition to call the equipment "tackle", and the tackle was all the equipment used in the traditional archery defined above. I'll also note that what was tradition for one person, one family, or one region, may not have been tradition for another. An example is the sight pins. I grew up as a third generation bow hunter who was taught by both my dad and grandfather. I saw sights in target archery, but these sights on a hunting longbow or recurve was a rare thing in my circles. I recently took possession of my dad's '61 Kodiak Magnum that has been in storage since the mid '60s. This bow is in new condition and still has one of those rare homemade pin sights that grandfather installed only because of his failing eyes. I have the '61 Bear Archery Catalog that goes w/ this bow. In this catalog there are over two dozen pictures of bows and bows in action. None have sights. There are only two sights offered for sale in the entire catalog and both are target aperture sights. One is the Muller available w/ the Victor prism, and the other is the Hoyt w/ Prism lense. Both sights are/were far too bulky for hunting.
The traditional archery that defines me today is based on this family archery tradition which cannot be changed by another's definition. Same as mine cannot change your definition. The satisfaction you receive from your own personal archery experience is defined in your own individual terms. It need not fit into some rigid PC cookie cutter term or class just to satisfy others. This forum may cover many in broad brush terms, but such broad brush terms do not necessarily define each of us as individuals.
This is a big reason why I've stuck w/ stickbow hunting all these years, as it empowers you to find your own style and to walk your own path.
Daddy Bear
No Wheels....No Headaches....Life is GOOD... ;)
David
Some of us like driving the latest model car with everything on it and some of us like driving 57 Chevy's
No compounds!!
Eric
Have to agree with Van.
The only one(s) that need to define it are those that run a competition. In that case, for their competition, that definition is valid. At another shoot, perhaps a different definition is used. It's valid there. If you agree with it, shoot there, if you don't agree, shoot elsewhere. The big thing is, keep shooting, keep having fun, and don't let technology rule you. The reason to shoot trad is for the challenge and to improve YOUR skill. IMO, we should not be shooting trad in order to meet the criteria required to join some club.
Bows without training wheels, accessories that predate training wheel bows, including those broadheads with moving parts, sights and releases.
I dont call it traditional. I call it superior. I can do things with the recurve and longbow that that are impossible with a compound. Even if that compound has sights.
If I am losing the "tradition" by using carbon arrows (which I dont), or by having a bow that has fiberglass, carbon, or foam, in it, or by using a GPS while I hunt or any such things than I guess I am not traditional, but at least I am having fun and improving my chances of taking game.
It easier to hunt with traditional gear. It does however take patience to become proficient with it. But once that proficiency is earned it is the better way of hunting. I started for the challenge then found out it was less challenging to take game. Enter, small game hunting. Extremely challenging. Great fun. Next to impossible with a wheelie. Areial shooting, archery golf, upland bird hunting, stump shooting: all impossible with a wheelie. This is my opinion, but it is also my life.
Sunday dinner!
I choose to use a stick and a string and arrow.
why muddy it up with a label.
Does it make it any better because the label it like a piece of clothing, that wears out and we throw it away !
Carl
I would have to make you feel what I feel when walking the high ground for you to understand what traditional means to me.
What Van said !
Got me thinking though. If a guy shoots compound,(I don't) no sights, no release, no stabilizer, no range finder, etc., etc. Isn't he somewhat traditional ? On the other hand, if a stick bow shooter shoots with release, sights,etc., etc. he is still trad but is he anymore so then the unaided compound shooter?
Just pondering.
Just asking
QuoteOriginally posted by loco_cacahuate:
Some of us like driving the latest model car with everything on it and some of us like driving 57 Chevy's
Or 66 Skylarks and shoot old bear Kodiak recurves...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/Rugerfan/ResizeofDSC00887.jpg)
See all that shiney stuff on the Buick...that's called chrome...
:bigsmyl:
"traditional" is a word. We chose that word because there is no other word that we decided suits us. "traditional" means something to me, but it may not mean that to you.
It is my opinion that the only thing that we can agree on is that the phrase "traditional archery" means that wheels are not included. Everything else is a modifyer.
Some people see a blue car, others might see a big fast, awesome, shiny, loud (obnoxious ?), racy, gas guzzling, pollution spouting, oil leaking, wonderful, comfortable, chick loving, memorable, dark blue car.... with dice hanging.
The difference is up to you, but they are both still cars. By the way... maroon Buicks are nice too !
ChuckC
Who give s D**= if you enjoy it and it works for you and is legal hey its all good.
Traditional equals the bow and arrow. Metal handled center shot fully adjustable bows or laser straight NASA space composite arrows... Well this is in the eye of the shooter. These things would fail my "personal" traditional test; but of course thats just for me. I started into trad archery because I wanted challenge. If I am not good enough the get it done; then I need to be better.
Shoot what ever works for you because we are still all brothers that pull the string. My personal trad test doesn't amount to a d**n thing and shouldn't to anyone else.
JDS III
I like the Sunday Dinner!
"Traditional"? "Doing more with less."
QuoteGot me thinking though. If a guy shoots compound,(I don't) no sights, no release, no stabilizer, no range finder, etc., etc. Isn't he somewhat traditional ? On the other hand, if a stick bow shooter shoots with release, sights,etc., etc. he is still trad but is he anymore so then the unaided compound shooter?
No to both questions.
What Van said!
Steve
Ok, I'll ask. Why is 'traditional' limited to just the bow?
JL, thats a sweet car.
Because that's the rule.
Trad is just a label to define bows without wheels. Nothing more. Thats it. The end.Doesn't matter if you have carbon or high tech glues, as long as there are no wheels. They should have just called it "wheelless" archery and there would be no discussion.
Nice car!
what van said...or you could say...if its got wheels cables or letoff then its not "trad" or a bow for that matter
Do what you like...like what you do.
its all personal, or philosophical, or ethical, or.............traditional
Its about I feel as a person when I think of what kind of person Fred Bear was; and how I feel as a person after watching the Wensels.
Its about how I feel about myself when I walked in the wild.
And how I hopefully will feel: on my last walk in the wild...
I always enjoy listening to Tevye talk and sing about "TRADITION!" in "Fiddler on the Roof." :goldtooth:
Gregory Bowen said it best:
More importantly, traditional archery involves the passing down of archery skills, crafts, history, and values (traditions) to family and friends, and the use of archery as non-competitive recreation and fellowship."
(In twenty years, the compound shooters will be having the same discussion about the evolution of "traditional" wheels and cams. My "stickbows" make good use of traditional fiberglass, epoxy, dacron and nylon, as well as wood, after all.)
No wheels or cams....no wait...no carbon or aluminum arrows....no wait.......no fiberglass or carbon limbs.....no no hang on......no laminated bows.......no no....no modern string material....no thats not it.....no steel broadheads.......no arrow shelf.....no plastic nocks?????
Heck, I dunno???? I got friends that shoot all that stuff
The word tradition comes from the Latin traditionem, acc. of traditio which means "a giving up, delivering up, surrendering"
In my opinion it is synonymous with simple or without all the gadgets to make it EASY!
So as you well see, there really is no definition that is adequate for everyone. I'm heading for the woods, and that is traditional 8^).
/ MI_Bowhunter runs screaming while thread history repeats itself. :readit:
The problem I face with using 'traditional' equipment is that it isn't traditional at all to me.
I see tradition as something that has been passed down directly to me. Something that's been in my family or directly used by the society I live in.
The bow and arrow hasn't been.
I don't call it traditional anyway, for this very reason.
In 50 years, a father may pass the art of archery down to his child using a compound bow. To me that's tradition.
Alot of this confusion would disappear if people stated a relation to place and time concerning "Traditional Archery". Like it or not archery is evolving all over the world like everything else.I was once befriended by this 10 year old boy as I organized my fishing tackle on the island of Roatan. Before long we had built abow and arrow from bamboo and cane fletched with chicken feathers.Watching that kid run up and down the beach shooting and chasing that arrow for hours made me realize that I had just handed down a tradition that I value. That tradition was part tackle and part feeling.
Would we call this sport Traditional Bowhunting if "Traditional Bowhunter Magazine" never existed?........uummmhhhh
It's the bow. Nothing else.
Something old something new, something borrowed something blue.
QuoteOriginally posted by Roger Norris II:
It's the bow. Nothing else.
When will compound bows become traditional?
Traditional= BC (before compound)
What is Traditional.....well.....whatever isn't contemporary!! :D Yeah, I know....wiseguy!!
I shoot wood arrows, and have gone to turkey feathers, and self-nocks. I got some goose feathers from my brother after last years goose season. I'll be using them on my next batch of arrows. However, I'm still using a steel broadhead. My best buddy and I have been trying to get to a knap-in and learn to knap stone points for a couple of years. Seems one or the other of us is tied up at the wrong time. One of these days.
For more than twenty years I shot a Bear Kodiak Magnum. All glass and sass!! I really enjoyed shooting it, and was really bummed out when it got damaged and I had to retire it. Now I'm shooting a Tomahawk reflex-deflex longbow. Same weight and same draw as the Kodiak, only ten inches longer. I've got a lot more wood in this bow, but still have glass and resin. One day I might actually have a genuine laminated horn Mongol horsebow, or a reproduction of one of the oldest selfbows that go back a thousand years. At that point, I might be Truly Trad, or I might have gone past Trad to Retro-Trad.
The older I get, the more I enjoy the elegance of simplicity. :campfire:
It's the bow but along with that comes the mind set of a time past and less poisened by modern day, when you could leave your doors unlocked ,when your harvest ment food for your family! you judged not,and were not judged! when you respected the game you sought and felt balence with nature! a step back to a better way, a cleaner way! this all I believe is what we seek when we pick up the stick and string! just my 2 cents! Jim
Doing more with less.
QuoteOriginally posted by jimmerc:
It's the bow but along with that comes the mind set of a time past and less poisened by modern day, when you could leave your doors unlocked ,when your harvest ment food for your family! you judged not,and were not judged! when you respected the game you sought and felt balence with nature! a step back to a better way, a cleaner way! this all I believe is what we seek when we pick up the stick and string! just my 2 cents! Jim
So it's basically a romantic percpetion of the past?
Realizing just what the heck you found so magical about flinging hardware store woods out of the old mans lemonwood at a peatmoss bag out back behind the garage. Saving a whole years worth of icecream money to buy that Bear 76'er at the local department store. 30 years later, still magical, still saving ice cream money for another bow ...Thats my story and I'm stickin to it!
"traditional" is just a name we give to the equipment we use in order to distinguish it from compound bows. All the rest is a matter of personal taste. How deeply (or not) you want to immerse yourself is up to you.
ChuckC
As you can see, traditional becomes philosophical when discussed in depth. The whole context gets out of whack and we forget we are looking for a genre specific definition. The good thing is it all applies in one way or another.
It's a tradition to put up a Christmas tree after Thanksgiving. It's a tradition to shoot-in our rifles on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. It's a tradition to sharpen broadheads the night before opening day of archery season.
And, if you think about it, it is traditional for some folks to use compound bows ever year, so the word has many contexts. It was meant, from the start, to differentiate stickbows from other types...compounds, crossbows, etc. Yet we drift into this abyss of ethereal goo everytime some mentions the word traditional in reference to archery equipment.
I mostly refer to my equipment as, "aesthetically pleasing, period specific, eclectic ephemera." Well....actually I refer to them as stick bows. :p :rolleyes:
QuoteOriginally posted by Ia Hawkeye:
What Van said !
Got me thinking though. If a guy shoots compound,(I don't) no sights, no release, no stabilizer, no range finder, etc., etc. Isn't he somewhat traditional ? On the other hand, if a stick bow shooter shoots with release, sights,etc., etc. he is still trad but is he anymore so then the unaided compound shooter?
Just pondering.
Just asking
Traditional, Yes!.. Primitive? No!
Traditional to me means NON-Commercial. It doesnt matter if it's Bows, or Fishing gear or your holiday decorations or folk music. If you can satisfy all your needs by walking in a big box and getting everything in one trip odds are it you aren't being traditional. If you have to interact with individuals, craftsmen, make something yourself, use creativity or patience or learn something from someone wiser than you it's probably more traditional. Anytime something is subjected to to a focus group, marketing or advertising agency, or cost benefit analysis for mass production purposes, a bit of its soul will get sucked out in the process and thus making it less traditional. Compound bows and all the gadgets that come with them by definition fall into this category. I enjoyed purchasing my osage self bow because I got to meet the nice fellow who built it and talk with him about it and admire the workmanship. This fosters a respect for the tradition and art. It humanizes it, makes it unique, sacred. You don't get this experience in the check out line of Cabelas. Just my 2 cents.
Everything else is modern, this style go's back, way back.
(http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w27/kingwouldbe/ishi2.jpg)
Some day I'd like to get to this level.
Sure, you have to start with the bow, but how many threads have you read where guys are still trying to set up their bows worried about speeed, sigts, or releases. Certainly their right, but it is a little like trying to put a V-8 on a "buck Board".
It is the bow, but much, much, more. In fact, you can't take the mindset, or spirit out of the equation.
To me, and this is just my opinion, it is the willingness to accept a piece of equipment, this is harder to masters, accepting it's difficulty, becoming a better, more skilled hunter.
Not because this basic bow is less a efficient, but because it requires more practice, and woodsmanship in order to become consistantly successful. It is also the willingness to accept the fact that success may mean the hunt, rather than a kill.
It is finding the pleasure in the pursuit, rather than what may be laying at the end of a short blood trail, even though that too is what we seek.
It is the enjoyment of witnessing the birth of a new day , and the somber feeling of watching that day as it retires into our memory forever.
That is what it means to me. If you idea is different, I respect you, as we see, and seek what we want, need, according to our souls.
My hope to you is that you find it, where ever, and when ever you seek it, regardless of the form it may take.
Nuff Said.
What one considers traditional is a matter of personal opinion. Kinda depends on how far back a person wants to go.
Traditional.....A mind set!!! Do you hunt with a bow made of more than one type of wood? Do you hunt with anything other than wooden arrows? Are your tips stone or metal? Do you use a climbing/lockon treestand? Do you hunt from a popup blind? Do you wear scent loc type clothing? Let's see, we could add few more things. Traditional? We all like to think we are to some extent...But look at just how TRADITIOAL each of us maybe!
Longarrow you just made my point. If one is to be more accurate about the time when hunting with a bow became a sport, rather than a means of supporting one's life, then you would start in the 1920's or the 30's when the movement to obtaining a special season came into being.
That stuff about stone points and wooden arrows have run it's course. We are not talking stone age, and we are not talking elite attitudes here. What we are talking about is the personal thought, and spirit. Yes, my bow has several woods, and has a synthetic string. It is also a heck of a lot closer to what "Fred Flintstone" might have used than the latest "Hoyt" with wheels. Let's not become our own worste ememies, as we so often do.
It's in your heart.bowdoc
Thank you "bowdoc", brevity is the soul of wit, and you have said it all. When I started they called it bow hunting.
Well I might just as well throw my two cents worth in here too I guess.
When I started I was 9 or 10 and they were having archery as one of the contests at the school summer sports meets.
We were the corinthians and we didn't have anyone in the archery event...so I decided to take one for the team.
They had 25# fiberglass recurves and arrows of all different kinds.
We got 5 practice shots first and then the competition started. So I picked my 3 arrows (it think they were all different lengths etc..ever bin there). So I shot one arrow and it jumped up and curled to the right and drop about 5 inches.
The next one kinda went sidways but straighter, the next not to shabby.
I tried to remember which ones did what. Now I was a baseball pitcher so curves and drop balls and sliders well it's what I did.
So it starts and I think we shot at 15 yards and then at 10 yards...three each.
Well be darned if I didn't win and beat a kid that actually had his own bow.
I was hooked, but I knew you needed a real bow with the right arrows..didn't know what to do about that but I thought that would be a good start.
So I talked to my dad and he was a big rifle guy so forget it. So I had some money and I bought a red fiberglass bow and some different arrows to try (I think they were fiberglass too).
I practiced and found the right ones and bought 4 or 5 of them.
Well I practiced and practiced...not even a nock point or glove (nobody to teach me...still there actually).
Just shot off a fiberglass shelf. Got pretty good too. Shot some small game..gophers and ground hogs and some blue grouse.
When I got to be 13 I bought a bow that had a wooden handle and fiberglass limbs. I got my first rabbit with it. by the end of the summer I got a real bow.
My dad sprung for a wood fiberglass recurve bow for me - 40 pounds..I was moving up.
He took me hunting that fall and hunting with a bow back then was called primitive weapons I think.
I didn't shoot anything and dad got skunked so I thought I did ok. I actually got some grouse though. Dad started teaching me about the bush and about animals habits etc. He wasn't a very talkative guy. He was my step father and I don't know if he really even liked kids but he was kind...just didn't say toooo much.
So primitive to me I guess was just using the bare neccessities and lots of practice. To have fair chase as the biggest part of the experience.
So what is fair chase anyways...hmmmmm. Is it using every piece of technological advantage we can muster up to go out and try to outwit our quarry...dunno...or is it like many have written. To pursue our game on their level. To spend enough time in the field learning their habits (not using electronic gadgets to do our scouting for us like many of the cameras do now).
Now I'm not trying to ruffle any feathers here and maybe it's just a sign of the times. People are so busy chasing the dream that they just don't have the time cause they are spending so much of theirs, working to pay off the massive debts now to pay for all the technology that they need that advantage to give them a chance to get their quarry in the limited time they have to hunt now...dunno.
What I do know though is that the more time you spend in the woods learning about your quarry the more respect you will have for them.
They have it pretty tough out there. Coyotes trying to make a living...enduring the harsh cold and lack of food and being shot at 70 plus yards (with any kind of weapon)I don't think is fair chase. Fair chase is just that..fair for you and them. Deer trying to stay alive. Coming out in the complete darkness just to escape the hordes of wannabee hunters that are after the prize on their heads, but limited with time to actually spend in the bush (thats' me too so don't get me wrong here). I would love to spend more time out there, but my time is limited too. What I don't worry about though is my success rate. I judge my success by what time I get to SPEND IN THE WOODS, not by what I bring back from them...maybe I'm wierd.
I just know if they had guns...we would all be in serious trouble and maybe that would be fair chase.
Jer Bear
With only one exception, who cares? The only time a definition is needed is when there is a regulation to meet in order to shoot. Then the definition is set by the body in charge.
Traditional?
My Dad was taught to shoot by his Dad with long bow.
Dad had a hard time accepting the new fangled recurve.
My Dad taught me to shoot with a recurve.
I never did take to them compounds.
I am teaching my Grand children to shoot a recurve (the same one dad gave me).
That, to me, is Tradition you can hold in your hand.
Maybe my Grand kids will teach their Grand kids on a compound, I'll just be happy that they pass on the Tradition. :pray:
"Define Traditional"
Why?
This is one of those questions, that makes ya go,"Huuuuummmmm!"
Be true to your heart and beliefs!
Being an Old man everything I thought was Traditional has been thrown out of the category by people that wernt even running around with a load in their diapers at the time I started shooting. Ive always assumed that Trad meant before the compound came out. It was a time when if you put sights or a small stabilizer on your bow nobody looked at it like it was of another planet. You never heard you cant shoot with that setup at a fun "non scoring" shoot...PR
Jeff........Perfect!! just what first came to mind when I read this.
"Define Traditional"...Why?". Well, why not? Is this a threatening term in and of itself? Hardly. What logical reason is there NOT to discuss and try to establish concensus for a common term used for decades? Personal agendas aside, what are we (collectively speaking) afraid of?
I agree with those who say it's the bow. If the style pre-dates the compound and you hold the full weight of the bow when drawn, its traditional enough for me. No need to worry about sights, stabilizers, arrow materials etc. Just ask some of the old timers. They saw a lot of really innovative stuff before most of us were born - and I was born a while back. There is also much truth & wisdom in the statements that most "traditional" archers stress the importance of integrity, ethics,and good fellowship in bow hunting and target competitions over high competitive scores and record book kills. In short, I'm an older guy and I like the older ways. And I like archers who also like the older ways.
The bow around here, here's some tradition for proof, he's four
(http://clubs.bowhunting.net/itba/temp/DGR1.jpg)
(http://clubs.bowhunting.net/itba/temp/DGR2.jpg)
See my avatar, that's me at about the same age with Dad's Herter's recurve.
hmmm I am a non-tradtional recurve archery. My goal is the hit the spot I am aiming at, consistantly first shot or 144th shot. I guess I would call me a modern recurve shooter.
is that different than traditional?
rsuty
Both the crossbow of ancient days and the compound are very different (I think all will agree?) from just a stick and string.
I think a researcher who was not an archer would define the stick and string as "conventional" archery and the others as related branches of archery.
My interest is in bows I could make with only stone tools (though I make them with a band saw and various other power tools), wooden arrows and natural feathers.
This isn't to say this approach is best or better. I just like it better. Not traditional, just nostalgic. I happen to like the smell of burnt feathers in small doses. I'm just a nostalgic old guy.
I think "traditional" was a poor choice of words from its first application to archery.
Next time it isn't raining, I'll go out and shoot my new ash "long bow." I also have a 60-year-old tractor I regularly use. I just like some things from the past!
Jim
(http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d72/Reparrow/ashfulldraw.jpg)
This conventional bow is what I am nostalgic about.
;)